Abstract
The current issue of TCS includes nine papers. There are three Opinion Articles, one Review Article, four Research Articles and one Short Communication.
These papers address conservation issues ranging from the actual existence of the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in India to the retreat of public policies for biodiversity protection in Brazil, the involvement of local communities in sustainable exploitation of crocodiles in central Amazonia, and the influence of human-induced factors in assessing control strategies of large herbivore populations in Africa.
Four research articles report new information on manatee conservation in Cameroon; map the habitat and current distribution of white-tailed deer, red brocket deer and collared peccary in northeastern Mexico; and identify priority mammals for biodiversity conservation in Brazil. A fourth paper provides a technical evaluation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for estimating the surface area of sampling strips when monitoring large-sized species (e.g. ungulates).
The last paper provides new surveys of large mammals using camera traps in the Sikre River in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras.
The conservation landscapes portrayed in this issue clearly indicate that tropical conservation requires multiple approaches. These include not only various techniques and technologies to map current habitat and population distributions of tropical plants and animals, but also assessments of the viability of natural protected areas under different human pressures. Also discussed are the impacts of changing public policies detrimental to biodiversity, ways to promote and monitor sustainable use of tropical resources, and how specific groups of species can be used to promote biodiversity conservation.
The papers in this issue also illustrate the important contributions of local and non-local tropical scientists who employ multiple scientific, technical and social principles to track the web of human-based factors impacting the persistence of tropical organisms.