Deforestation is an alarming issue that is prolific throughout world forests. Endemic fauna, flora, and wildlife habitat loss are serious concerns for world heritage. That is why Goal 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promotes the conserved use of these natural resources. Sabah, Malaysia is fortunate to have \"Orang Hutan\" literally \"Jungle People\" in the Sepilok Forest area. The government had designated the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre as their safeguard. Indeed, this is the world\'s first Rehabilitation Centre for Orangutans. However, the wildlife conservation of Orangutans needs to be translated into economic values. This study aims to determine the economic valuation of wildlife conservation through visitors\' Willingness to Pay (WTP) via applying the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). A total of 143 questionnaires were distributed randomly to international and local visitors. The Logistic Regression was used to estimate the Mean WTP. Results showed that several significant sociodemographic variables influence the respondents\' WTP. Nevertheless, most respondents were willing to pay a maximum of MYR16.73, while the mean was MYR7.27 only. In 2017, the estimated annual economic value of the Rehabilitation Centre was MYR9, 697 074.96 compared to the estimated conservation value of MYR96, 970 749.60. The findings of this study demonstrate the possible beneficial role of economic valuation in assisting not just Orangutan conservation but threatened species conservation elsewhere. The study has assisted the Centre\'s management in determining the appropriate entrance fees for the future, as they have not been revised in over a decade. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1174-1186. © 2022 SETAC.

To counteract the negative effects of forest fragmentation on wildlife, it is crucial to maintain functional ecological networks. We identified the ecological networks for 2 mammals with very different degrees of forest specialization, the European badger Meles meles and the Roe deer Capreolus capreolus, by differentiating 4 agroforestry elements as either nodes or connectivity elements, and by defining the distance that provides the functional connectivity between fragments. Species occurrence data were collected in a wide agroecosystem in northern Italy. To test the role of hedgerows, traditional poplar cultivations, short rotation coppices, and reforestations as ecological network elements for the 2 species we applied the method of simulated species perceptions of the landscape (SSPL), comparing the ability of different SSPLs to explain the observed species distribution. All analyses were repeated considering different scenarios of species movement ability through the matrix. Model outputs seem to show that the specialist and highly mobile Roe deer has the same movement ability throughout the matrix (2 km) as the European badger, a smaller, but generalist species. The ecological network identified for the European badger was widespread throughout the area and was composed of woodlands, poplar cultivations and hedgerows as nodes and short rotation coppices as connectivity elements. Conversely, the ecological network of the Roe deer was mostly limited to the main forest areas and was composed of woodlands, poplar cultivations and reforestations as nodes and short rotation coppices and hedgerows as connectivity elements. The degree of forest specialization strongly affects both species perception of habitat and movement ability throughout the matrix, regardless of species size. This has important implications for species conservation.

Domestic cats have a cosmopolitan distribution, commonly residing in urban, suburban and peri-urban environments that are also critical for biodiversity conservation. This study describes the impact of a desexed, free-roaming cat on the behavior of a threatened coastal seabird, the Australian Fairy Tern, Sternula nereis nereis, in Mandurah, south-western Australia. Wildlife cameras and direct observations of cat incursions into the tern colony at night, decapitated carcasses of adult terns, dead, injured or missing tern chicks, and cat tracks and scats around the colony provided strong evidence of cat predation, which led to an initial change in nesting behavior and, ultimately, colony abandonment and the reproductive failure of 111 nests. The death of six breeding terns from the population was a considerable loss for this threatened species and had the potential to limit population growth. This study highlights the significant negative impacts of free-roaming cats on wildlife and the need for monitoring and controlling cats at sites managed for species conservation. It also provides strong evidence against the practice of trap-neuter-release programs and demonstrates that desexed cats can continue to negatively impact wildlife post-release directly through predation, but also indirectly through fundamental changes in prey behavior and a reduction in parental care.

Trade of bushmeat and other wildlife for human consumption presents a unique set of challenges to policy-makers who are confronted with multiple trade-offs between conservation, food security, food safety, culture and tradition. In the face of these complex issues, risk assessments supported by quantitative information would facilitate evidence-based decision making. We propose a conceptual model for disease transmission risk analysis, inclusive of these multiple other facets. To quantify several processes included in this conceptual model we conducted questionnaire surveys with wildlife consumers and vendors in semi-urban centers in Lao People\'s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR, Laos) and direct observations of consumer behaviors. Direct observation of market stalls indicated an estimated average of 10 kg bushmeat biomass per stall per hour. The socio-demographic data suggested that consumption of bushmeat in urban areas was not for subsistence but rather driven by dietary preference and tradition. Consumer behavioral observations indicated that each animal receives an average of 7 contacts per hour. We provide other key parameters to estimate the risk of disease transmission from bushmeat consumption and illustrate their use in assessing the total public health and socio-economic impact of bushmeat consumption. Pursuing integrative approaches to the study of bushmeat consumption is essential to develop effective and balanced policies that support conservation, public health, and rural development goals.

Medicinal herb collection has historical and cultural roots in many rural communities in developing countries. Areas where herb collection occurs may overlap with biodiversity hotspots and crucial habitat of endangered and threatened species. However, impacts of such practices on wildlife are unknown and possibly underestimated, perhaps due to the elusive nature of such activities. We examined this phenomenon in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, a protected area in the South-Central China biodiversity hotspot that also supports a community of Tibetan, Qiang and Han people who use herb collection as a supplementary source of livelihood. We adopted a participatory approach in which we engaged local people in outlining spatial and temporal dynamics of medicinal herb collection practices. We found that the overall spatial extent of herb collection increased in the past two decades. We then overlaid herb collection maps with localities of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) feces collected over two time points in the reserve. Using a Bayesian parameter estimation, we found evidence for declined giant panda occurrence in the areas most recently impacted by emerging medicinal herb collection. Our methodology demonstrates the potential power of integrating participatory approaches with quantitative methods for processes like herb collection that may be difficult to examine empirically. We discuss future directions for improving explanatory power and addressing uncertainty in this type of mixed-method, interdisciplinary research. This work has implications for future attempts to understand whether and how prevalent but subtle human activities may affect wildlife conservation.