The opening of a new national park in Uganda is significant and welcome evidence of the resuscitation of the country's commitment to conservation. The author, an FFPS Council member, who has a long and active association with Uganda, attended the ceremonial opening of Lake Mburo National Park last July. He tells the story behind the achievement and makes a plea for international support to enable Uganda to sustain its efforts to reverse the trend towards environmental degradation.

For religious, medicinal and decorative purposes, the Nepalese use more parts of the rhino than any other people in the world, but only a very few rhinos have recently been killed there. Moreover, since 1976 the rhino population has been growing by about eight per cent a year and when the author visited Nepal in 1982 there were approximately 375, which provides an exception to the commonly held belief that government officials in Third World countries are unable to protect rhinos in the wild. The author, who is a geographer, explores the fascinating background to a successful conservation story.

Since 1969, when Romulus Whitaker first established the Madras Snake Park, snake conservation in India has progressed a great deal and the Park has played a significant role in this achievement. His wife, Zai, who edits the tri-yearly Snake Park newsletter Hamadryad, was invited to describe the Park's development into an effective conservation force.

The author found many changes when he returned to Azraq after an absence of 14 years. Although the concept of a major Desert National Park had been abandoned, two reserves, embracing semi-desert and wetland, had been created. The Shaumari Reserve is having some success in breeding desert species for re-establishment in the wild, notably the oryx. The Wetland Reserve, however, is in danger; its wildfowl populations appear to be declining and the central marsh may be shrinking. Remedial action is essential if the wetland is to retain its importance, both as a reserve for birds and as a tourist attraction.

It became clear in 1979 that commercial poaching was drastically reducing the numbers of rhino in Luangwa Valley and the Zambian Government, through its National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the World Wildlife Fund, responded by setting up Save the Rhino Trust (SRT). Neither past nor present numbers and distribution of these animals were sufficiently known to provide a baseline for monitoring the effects of the poaching and the author carried out research on behalf of NPWS and SRT during 1981–82 to assess the status of the rhinos in the Luangwa Valley; FFPS was among the financial supporters of the work. Here he describes the problems that the task presented and the development of a technique that will provide a way of assessing the effectiveness of future anti-poaching operations. The study's findings that 72 per cent of rhinos that die in Luangwa do so from poachers' bullets led to a recommendation for a change in patrol policy; this was adopted by SRT in 1983 and its success is being monitored.

The future of the St Vincent parrot is seriously threatened. It is still captured for the pet trade, its forest habitat is being destroyed and the remnant populations are subject to natural catastrophes. In 1979 Mt Soufrière, the island's active volcano, erupted and many parrots died from the effects of toxic gases. In 1980 Hurrican Allen damaged forest in the east of the island. In 1982 the ICBP, concerned about the effect of these incidents on an already precarious parrot population, promoted an expedition from the University of East Anglia to investigate and FFPS was among those that helped finance it.