The internationalization of conservation activities in the form of organizations is essentially a post-World War I development. The first international initiatives were taken in North America during the first decade of the 20th century, and in 1910 other attempts were made in Europe; but it was not before 1922 that the first truly international conservation organization, the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), was created. After World War II, ecology evolved rapidly as a discipline and this development led to international cooperation in conservation. U.N. organizations such as FAO and UNESCO became established. In 1948 the latter took the initiative in the creation of IUCN. ICBP founded the International Waterfowl Research Bureau (IWRB), another important organization, and IUCN took the initiative to form in 1961 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a fund-raising and public relations organization.

This paper makes a series of broad recommendations concerning the understanding of damage and recovery of tundra vegetation. It deals primarily with arctic vegetation and with principles rather than specific recommendations or instructions for restoration. Actual procedures for restoration or revegetation, although practised, are still in their experimental stages.

Despite this lack of established methods in tundra vegetation restoration, much can be done to help offset some of the worst effects of the present surge of economic development that is occurring in certain sectors of the Arctic. First, a rational assessment of types and extent of damage that is likely to accrue from different kinds and degrees of impact should be attempted, based on existing experience and theory. This should be accompanied by similar assessments of degrees and rates of recovery.

Tropical New World cloud-forest may best be described as the area of persistent cloud contact with tropical mountain vegetation. Cloud-forest exists in at least five life-zones, being characterized, generally speaking, by having high precipitation and humidity, dripping moisture, continuous cloud or mist cover, absence of frost, and trees laden with mosses and epiphytes.

The isolation of nature reserves by encroaching civilization may provide significant changes in the structure and composition of protected animal communities. Recent models from applied island biogeographic theory provide a means of predicting the possible effects of isolation in the large-mammal community in the Mkomazi Game Reserve of northern Tanzania. A decrease in the number of large-mammal species inhabiting this preserve is predicted by all the models.

The dynamic interdependence of the large-mammal communities of East African reserves is vital to their survival and yet is especially vulnerable to disruption from surrounding human activities. Knowledge of the effects of increasing isolation on the complex community interactions among the component ecosystems in East African reserves, will enhance conservationists' ability to minimize extirpation pressures in this region.

Whilst the quality of the built-up environment of inner cities has received and is receiving considerable attention from politicians, architects, planners, and sociologists, the quality of the green environment has been and is being widely ignored.

The need for a quasi-natural environment is generally alien to urban thinking, where the emphasis has been, and still is, concentrated on the creation of highly artificial, formal and over-managed landscapes.

It is argued that the assumption that people only require a good social and physical environment is wrong, and that it is not sufficient just to supply houses, employment, transport, and shops purveying food and other prerequisites of life. Although to some extent this is appreciated in new towns, it has not penetrated the thinking in established urban areas.

The problem of environmental pollution of estuaries is viewed in the wider perspective, including the role of mixing, as a process common to estuaries and other systems and regulated by spatial variations. Increasing mobilization of heavy-metals and other pollutants to the estuarine environment, imparting hazards to Man in the long run, is a cause for concern and provides the reasons and bases for environmental monitoring. Already total lessons have been learnt from catastrophic outbreaks of mercury poisoning in Japan.

The basis of the physico-social pattern in Ethiopia, indicated above, may be summarized as:

(a) The main features of the country are formed by volcanic activity;

(b) There exist a lot of fragmented highlands with a great range of altitude, climate, and vegetation;

(c) The content of organic matter in the soils is very low on the eroded lands, greatly limiting their ability to retain water;

(d) There exist a wide variety of cultural patterns and numerous spoken languages;

(e) There are very severe erosion hazards and continuous deforestation activities;

(f) There is a custom of uncontrolled grazing, and livestock are not limited according to the carrying capacity of the land;

(g) There are constraints in the distribution and quality of water that is available for domestic supplies, livestock, and crops;

(h) From ancient times there has been no substantial improvement in farming tools and implements;

(i) There is little government investment in development work in general;

(j) The importance of a conservation programme for a wide range of natural resources is not felt/realized by the government;

(k) There is no emphasis on erosion control and forestry management—even by the regional development projects of the minimum and maximum package projects financed by the World Bank and other bilateral international cooperations;

(l) There are big constraints in matters of education and agricultural extension services; and

(m) The mountainous terrain and deep gorges have made communication difficult and expensive.

As a result of the above, the overall development network does not at present provide an adequate access to support a productive and continuous agriculture.

Whilst major new industrial development sometimes poses a threat to scenic values and ecologically important habitats, it is also evident that industry has contributed significantly to the present-day biological resources of the British Isles. In particular, several former mineral-extraction sites have been maintained and developed specifically for the security and management of wildlife, and now constitute important habitats for the protection and survival of less-common members of the British flora. Several locations have even been successfully defended on biological grounds against proposals to reutilize them for disposing of industrial wastes and domestic refuse.