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Gaining insights into local people’s views, values and preferences for different conservation management options are increasingly gaining importance among conservationists and decision-makers. This can be achieved through the assessment and understanding of conservation attitudes and perceptions of rural communities including demographic characteristics predicting the attitudes to design and implement conservation policies in a more socially acceptable manner. In this study, we developed and validated user-friendly indices to measure attitudes towards the African elephant, a flagship species and its conservation in Trans Mara District. An iterative item reliability analysis was executed on household data from a random sample of 367 respondents using Cronbach’s Alpha in SPSS. Results yielded two indices; (i) Elephant Attitude Index (EAI); and (ii) Maasai Mara National Reserve Attitude Index (MAI). The EAI had a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.73 while the MAI had a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.77. Data analysis revealed that (i) location of residence; (ii) age of respondent; (iii) number of income sources; (iv) gender of the respondent; and (v) benefit reception were the main determinants of EAI and MAI in TM. Our attitude indices can assist conservation practitioners and decision-makers to prioritise resources, on the assumption that high-scoring individuals are more likely to participate in conservation initiatives. We encourage making available different sources of income for residents and working towards improving the involvement of younger people and women in conservation activities in TM.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species was increasingly used during the 1980s to assess the conservation status of species for policy and planning purposes. This use stimulated the development of a new set of quantitative criteria for listing species in the categories of threat: critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. These criteria, which were intended to be applicable to all species except microorganisms, were part of a broader system for classifying threatened species and were fully implemented by IUCN in 2000. The system and the criteria have been widely used by conservation practitioners and scientists and now underpin one indicator being used to assess the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 biodiversity target. We describe the process and the technical background to the IUCN Red List system. The criteria refer to fundamental biological processes underlying population decline and extinction. But given major differences between species, the threatening processes affecting them, and the paucity of knowledge relating to most species, the IUCN system had to be both broad and flexible to be applicable to the majority of described species. The system was designed to measure the symptoms of extinction risk, and uses 5 independent criteria relating to aspects of population loss and decline of range size. A species is assigned to a threat category if it meets the quantitative threshold for at least one criterion. The criteria and the accompanying rules and guidelines used by IUCN are intended to increase the consistency, transparency, and validity of its categorization system, but it necessitates some compromises that affect the applicability of the system and the species lists that result. In particular, choices were made over the assessment of uncertainty, poorly known species, depleted species, population decline, restricted ranges, and rarity; all of these affect the way red lists should be viewed and used. Processes related to priority setting and the development of national red lists need to take account of some assumptions in the formulation of the criteria. /// La Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la UICN (Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza) fue muy utilizada durante la década de 1980 para evaluar el estatus de conservación de especies para fines políticos y de planificación. Este uso estimuló el desarrollo de un conjunto nuevo de criterios cuantitativos para enlistar especies en las categorías de amenaza: en peligro crítico, en peligro y vulnerable. Estos criterios, que se pretendía fueran aplicables a todas las especies excepto microorganismos, eran parte de un sistema general para clasificar especies amenazadas y fueron implementadas completamente por la UICN en 2000. El sistema y los criterios han sido ampliamente utilizados por practicantes y científicos de la conservación y actualmente apuntalan un indicador utilizado para evaluar el objetivo al 2010 de la Convención de Diversidad Biológica. Describimos el proceso y el respaldo técnico del sistema de la Lista Roja de la IUCN. Los criterios se refieren a los procesos biológicos fundamentales que subyacen en la declinación y extinción de una población. Pero, debido a diferencias mayores entre especies, los procesos de amenaza que los afectan y la escasez de conocimiento sobre la mayoría de las especies, el sistema de la UICN tenía que ser amplio y flexible para ser aplicable a la mayoría de las especies descritas. El sistema fue diseñado para medir los síntomas del riesgo de extinción, y utiliza cinco criterios independientes que relacionan aspectos de la pérdida poblacional y la declinación del rango de distribución. Una especie es asignada a una categoría de amenaza si cumple el umbral cuantitativo por lo menos para un criterio. Los criterios, las reglas acompañantes y las directrices utilizadas por la UICN tienen la intención de incrementar la consistencia, transparencia y validez de su sistema de clasificación, pero requiere algunos compromisos que afectan la aplicabilidad del sistema y las listas de especies que resultan. En particular, se hicieron selecciones por encima de la evaluación de incertidumbre, especies poco conocidas, especies disminuidas, declinación poblacional, rangos restringidos y rareza; todas estas afectan la forma en que las listas rojas deberían ser vistas y usadas. Los procesos relacionados con la definición de prioridades y el desarrollo de las listas rojas nacionales necesitan considerar algunos de los supuestos en la formulación de los criterios.

Increasing the coverage of effectively managed protected areas (PAs) is a key focus of the 2020 Aichi biodiversity targets. PA management has received considerable attention, often based on the widely held, but rarely examined, assumption that positive conservation outcomes will result from increased PA management inputs. To shed light on this assumption, we integrated data on PA management factors with 2006–2011 avoided forest degradation and deforestation across the Peruvian Amazon, using a counterfactual approach, combined with interviews and ranking exercises. We show that while increasing PA management input to Amazonian PAs tended to reduce likelihoods of forest degradation and deforestation, the associations were weak. Key challenges facing PAs ranked by PA managers included wider law enforcement, corruption and land title issues, rather than local management factors. We therefore encourage the post‐2020 conservation targets to adopt holistic approaches beyond PA management, incorporating political, institutional and governance contexts across scales.

This study determines whether the establishment of tropical protected areas (PAs) has led to a reduction in deforestation within their boundaries or whether deforestation has been displaced to adjacent unprotected areas: a process termed neighbourhood leakage. Sumatra, Indonesia. We processed and analysed 98 corresponding LANDSAT satellite images with a c. 800 m² resolution to map deforestation from 1990 to 2000 across 440,000 km² on the main island of Sumatra and the smaller island of Siberut. We compared deforestation rates across three categories of land: (1) within PAs; (2) in adjacent unprotected land lying with 10 km of PA boundaries; and (3) within the wider unprotected landscape. We used the statistical method of propensity score matching to predict the deforestation that would have been observed had there been no PAs and to control for the generally remote locations in which Sumatran PAs were established. During the period 1990-2000 deforestation rates were found to be lower inside PAs than in adjacent unprotected areas or in the wider landscape. Deforestation rates were also found to be lower in adjacent unprotected areas than in the wider landscape. Sumatran PAs have lower deforestation rates than unprotected areas. Furthermore, a reduction in deforestation rates inside Sumatran PAs has promoted protection, rather than deforestation, in adjacent unprotected land lying within 10 km of PA boundaries. Despite this positive evaluation, deforestation and logging have not halted within the boundaries of Sumatran PAs. Therefore the long-term viability of Sumatran forests remains open to question.

  Funding: The study (13) of the geographic distribution of tiger populations and the costs of protecting source sites was supported by a grant (GEF MSP grant TF093667) from the World Bank acting as implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). While the scale of the challenge is enormous, we submit that the complexity of effective implementation is not: commitments should shift to focus on protecting tigers at spatially well-defined priority sites, supported by proven best practices of law enforcement, wildlife management, and scientific monitoring. If Russia is excluded from the analysis, 74% of the world's remaining tigers live in less than 4.5% of current tiger range. [...]protecting source sites offers the most pragmatic and efficient opportunity to conserve most of the world's remaining wild tigers.

All eight pangolin species are threatened with extinction, largely through demand for their products including scales, meat and body parts. The demand for pangolin scales has gained attention from many conservation groups due to the large volumes involved in illegal trade. Market demand in China is one of the major drivers for international illegal trade according to confiscation reports, and many conservation interventions have been attempted to reduce this demand. The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) community plays a key role in regulating legal trade and combating illegal trade in pangolin scales. However, this community has been largely overlooked by previous conservation interventions directed at the pangolin scale trade. There has also been little research into the involvement of the TCM community in pangolin scale trade in China. To fill these knowledge gaps, we interviewed TCM doctors from 41 hospitals, shop owners/assistants from 90 TCM shops, two TCM wholesalers, and 2,168 members of the general public in Henan and Hainan provinces, China. Respondents' knowledge of and attitudes towards the pangolin scale trade were investigated using semi‐structured and structured questionnaires, with a total of 2,301 respondents. Our results show that TCM practitioners generally have poor awareness of the illegal nature of their behaviours and pangolin scale products involved. Awareness is particularly poor among participants at the end of the trade chain (i.e. end sellers). The public also generally lacked understanding of pangolin products in markets. Results also show that 20 (71%) of 28 doctors believed that the use of pangolin scales in at least some, if not all, treatments could be substituted by other ingredients. These findings suggest that raising awareness of the legality of pangolin scale products and petitioning TCM communities to use alternative substitutes for these products could constitute feasible and effective pangolin conservation interventions. This study provides the first insights into the knowledge of and attitudes towards the pangolin scale trade from the perspective of TCM practitioners, and suggests that collaborating with the TCM community is necessary to combat this illegal trade. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. 摘要 目前现存的八种穿山甲都面临灭绝的威胁, 威胁主要源于对穿山甲制品的需求, 包括甲片制品, 肉制品和其他。由于涉及数量众多的非法贸易, 穿山甲甲片的市场需求已引起许多保护组织的关注。根据海关查获报告, 中国的市场需求是国际非法贸易的主要驱动力之一。对此, 各方已经尝试采取多种保护措施来减少中国对甲片的需求。 中医群体在管理穿山甲甲片合法贸易和打击非法贸易方面能够发挥关键作用。但是, 很多针对穿山甲的保护行动在很大程度上忽视了这个群体。关于中医群体参与中国穿山甲甲片贸易的研究也很少。 为了填补这些知识空白, 我们采访了来自中国河南和海南两省41家医院的医生, 90家中医商店的店主/助理, 两名中药批发商以及2,168名公众, 共计2,301名受访者。我们用半结构化访谈和结构问卷了解受访者对穿山甲甲片贸易的认知和态度。 我们的结果表明, 中医从业人员对自身行为和穿山甲甲片制品的非法性质普遍了解不足。贸易链末端参与者（即终端销售）的法律意识尤其薄弱。公众也通常对市场上销售的穿山甲制品缺乏足够的了解。 结果还显示, 在28位医生中, 有20位（71％）认为在至少某些（如果不是全部）治疗中使用的穿山甲甲片可以用其他成分代替。 这些调查结果表明, 提高贸易参与者对甲片制品合法性的认识以及鼓励中医群体使用替代品应是可行且有效的穿山甲保护措施。 这项研究展示了中医群体对穿山甲甲片贸易的认知和态度, 并强调了与中医界合作对有效打击穿山甲非法贸易的重要性。 A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Improving human capital through quality education remains a global and national priority, particularly for developing countries. Academic performance is the standard indicator of a successful acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes for improving human capital. However, recent data, particularly in wildlife areas shows that pupils often perform poorly on academic tests in low‐income countries. This study aims to determine the impact of elephants on academic performance in Trans Mara District, Kenya. We use data from 137 schools and 749 pupils who wrote the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education between 2010 and 2014, and 15 key informants. We used descriptive statistics to analyze and interpret our data. Results show that locating a school outside the elephant range positively contributed to higher mean scores compared to ethnicity, pupil–teacher ratio and gender. Whereas day facilities only strongly contributed to lower scores compared to examination entry, age of the pupil, and ethnicity. The study places elephants on both ends of the villain‐scapegoat continuum since their presence alone does not make a major contribution to poor academic performance in the Trans Mara District. We recommend providing cheaper and accessible transport to pupils, expanding both day and boarding facilities, establishing additional schools closer to pupils within elephant range to reduce the distances to school. These initiatives must be linked to the conservation of elephants as a suit of direct incentives for coexisting with elephants.

Tolerance may lessen when wildlife adversely impacts people. Models from psychology can help elucidate how people make judgments, why they act accordingly, and whether beliefs and norms influence support for policy and intervention. Working in a globally important region for tigers, we estimated hunting prevalence for this endangered species and three sympatric taxa using methods for asking sensitive questions. We also investigated the relative strength of ethnicity and social‐psychological predictors in influencing intention to hunt. Men's behavioral intention and perceptions differed by species: proconservation values were most prevalent for tiger, weakest for wild boar. Perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictor of hunting‐intention; affect and injunctive norms were also important. The prominence of affect in determining intention suggests increasing environmental knowledge is unlikely to curb hunting. However, existing norms could be leveraged to incentivize behaviorchange. Integrating behavior‐change models into conservation science is crucial where strategies require changes in people's actions.

State-controlled protected areas (PAs) have dominated conservation strategies globally, yet their performance relative to other governance regimes is rarely assessed comprehensively. Furthermore, performance indicators of forest PAs are typically restricted to deforestation, although the extent of forest degradation is greater. We address these shortfalls through an empirical impact evaluation of state PAs, Indigenous Territories (ITs), and civil society and private Conservation Concessions (CCs) on deforestation and degradation throughout the Peruvian Amazon. We integrated remote-sensing data with environmental and socio-economic datasets, and used propensity-score matching to assess: (i) how deforestation and degradation varied across governance regimes between 2006–2011; (ii) their proximate drivers; and (iii) whether state PAs, CCs and ITs avoided deforestation and degradation compared with logging and mining concessions, and the unprotected landscape. CCs, state PAs, and ITs all avoided deforestation and degradation compared to analogous areas in the unprotected landscape. CCs and ITs were on average more effective in this respect than state PAs, showing that local governance can be equally or more effective than centralized state regimes. However, there were no consistent differences between conservation governance regimes when matched to logging and mining concessions. Future impact assessments would therefore benefit from further disentangling governance regimes across unprotected land.

Conflicts between protected-area managers and local people are common, but the drivers of conflict are rarely analyzed. This limits opportunities to identify strategies that reduce conflict and the magnitude of resulting threats to conservation. Integrated conservation and development (ICD) was adopted at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, to reduce conflict during gazettement of the national park, but the success of this approach remains contested. We retrieved documents of conflict written by park staff and local people from 1986 through 2000 (before, during, and after gazettement). We extracted data on 48 incidences of violent conflict and categorized them by gazettement period, area, instigator, and type to undertake a historical analysis of the triggers of violent conflict at Bwindi. Before and during gazettement, local villagers instigated most of the conflict incidents when law-enforcement efforts sought to halt commercial activities within Bwindi. No conflict arose from the arrest of villagers collecting subsistence resources during these periods. After gazettement, prohibitions on commercial activities continued to drive conflict even though villagers collecting subsistence resources were arrested more frequently than before gazettement, and local attitudes toward the park had improved following receipt of ICD benefits. Law-enforcement efforts targeted commercial activities to reduce this threat to Bwindi's mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringel), although the activities remained important income sources for people in villages near Bwindi. Losing commercial income following gazettement therefore appeared to be their primary motivation for instigating conflict with park rangers. Prohibitions on subsistence resource use triggered conflict less often. Our use of typologies for a multivariate conflict analysis demonstrates that by identifying differences between effects of conservation as drivers of conflict, conflict analysis can enable a more strategic deployment of conflict-resolution measures that could further conservation efforts. At Bwindi targeting ICD toward individuals who lost benefits from commercial activities may strengthen the role of ICD in conflict resolution and conservation. Los conflictos entre administradores de áreas protegidas y habitantes locales son comunes, pero los factores que los ocasionan son analizados raramente. Esto limita las oportunidades para identificar estrategias que reduzcan el conflicto y la magnitud de las amenazas a la conservación resultantes. La conservación y desarrollo integrados (CDI) fue adoptada en el Bosque Impenetrable Bwindi, Uganda, para reducir conflictos por el decreto de parque nacional, pero el éxito de este método ha sido impugnado. Recopilamos documentos del conflicto escritos por personal del parque y por habitantes locales entre 1986 y 2000 (antes, durante y después del decreto). Extrajimos datos de 48 incidentes de conflicto violento y los clasificamos por período, área, instigador y tipo para realizar un análisis histórico de los detonadores de conflictos violentos en Bwindi. Antes y durante el decreto, los habitantes locales instigaron la mayoría de los conflictos violentos cuando esfuerzos por hacer que se cumpliera la ley buscaban detener actividades comerciales en Bwindi. Durante esos períodos ningún conflicto se originó por el arresto de habitantes que recolectaban recursos de subsistencia. Después del decreto, la prohibición de actividades comerciales siguió detonando conflictos aun cuando habitantes recolectores de recursos de subsistencia fueron arrestados más frecuentemente que antes del decreto, y las actitudes locales hacia el parque habían mejorado después de recibir los beneficios de CDL Los esfuerzos para hacer que se cumpliera la ley fueron enfocados en las actividades comerciales para reducir esta amenaza para los gorilas (Gorilla beringei beringei) de Bwindi, aunque las actividades seguían siendo una fuente de ingreso importante para los habitantes de poblados cercanos a Bwindi. Por lo tanto, la pérdida de ingresos comerciales después del decreto aparentemente fue la motivación primaria para la instigación de conflictos con personal del parque. La prohibición del uso de recursos de subsistencia fue un detonador de conflictos menos frecuente. Nuestro uso de tipologías para el análisis multivariado de conflictos demuestra que mediante la identificación de diferencias entre efectos de la conservación como detonadores de conflictos, el análisis de conflictos puede facilitar un despliegue más estratégico de medidas de resolución de conflictos que pudieran promover esfuerzos de conservación. En Bwindi, enfocarla CDI hacia individuos que perdieron beneficios de las actividades comerciales puede reforzar el papel de la CDI en la resolución de conflictos y la conservación.