Wild

There is a widespread belief that koala conservation measures should be focused on ending forestry operations in native forests and that plantations should be the alternative source for timber. While advocates for conservation continue to promote this strategic approach, they overlook the fact that hardwood plantations also provide important habitats. Ongoing operations in both natural and planted forests continue to threaten the viability of the koala species, and populations in one of the koala’s core habitats in northern New South Wales (NSW) continue to decline. To improve conservation outcomes for this species in the wild, the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) has been proposed. While the process of establishing this park continues, ongoing forestry operations exert continuous pressure on koalas and their habitat within the proposed area of the park. This paper investigates how community stakeholders are collaborating with scientists to identify areas of high koala habitat value within the hardwood eucalypt plantations inside the proposed GKNP that are currently excluded from conservation and will be subject to ongoing timber extraction. Investigations of Tuckers Nob State Forest, which is inside the proposal area, confirmed the presence of both koalas and original forest inside the plantations which were excluded from conservation by the state government. Original trees and remnants were identified using historical aerial photography, which were orthorectified and matched against current NSW government imagery (SIX Maps); composite mosaics of photographic sheets and closeups (Quantum GIS) were imported into Google Earth Pro. Koala drone surveys, habitat ground-truthing, and on-ground scat and koala surveys of 120 ha involving various community stakeholders were conducted in December 2024 and revealed 25 koalas records, necessitating the reclassification of this area from plantation to prime koala habitat. Here, as in many other plantations in NSW, the findings of this study indicate significant numbers of original trees that are part of highly diverse nutrient-rich sites attractive to koalas. This leads to the conclusion that the exclusion of specific areas of the proposed park from conservation to allow for ongoing logging is inconsistent with recognized koala protection strategies. Hence, koala protection strategies need to consider the integrity of the reserve system in its entirety, and the whole area of the GKNP should be accorded the requisite status of a World Heritage Site.

Nannorrhops ritchieana (Mazri) forests are found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Oman. These forests are ecologically and economically important to local communities and exhibit complex spatial distributions. This research examines the distribution of Mazri forests and their responses to varying phosphorus levels across different climatic zones. We collected data from 508 plots in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, gathering 500 g of soil from each plot for phosphorus analysis, along with measurements of abundance and various traits. A distribution map was constructed to assess the impact of phosphorus levels on Mazri forest distribution and traits across climatic zones. Using a PCA biplot, we visualized the abundance and density and studied the effects of different climatic and environmental factors. Our findings suggest that phosphorus levels do not significantly influence the distribution of Mazri forests, which vary across different climatic regions. Forests are stable in the eastern wet mountain zone (EWMZ) and northern dry mountain zone (NDMZ), although without a significant pattern. A weak positive correlation was observed in the western dry mountain zone (WDMZ). In contrast, the Sulaiman piedmont zone (SPMZ) presented minor variations in abundance, indicating that phosphorus, in conjunction with other edaphic and climatic factors, affects Mazri forest distribution and abundance. Further research is needed to investigate the combined effects of various soil nutrients and climatic factors on the distribution, abundance, and functional traits of Mazri forests across different regions.

The critically endangered African wild ass is found in low population densities and there may be as few as 600 individuals in the Danakil Desert of Ethiopia and Eritrea. An understanding of suitable habitats is important for prioritizing the conservation and management of the African wild ass. In this study, we recorded presence locations of the African wild ass and independently prepared environmental covariates to identify suitable habitats using the maximum entropy (Maxent) model. Model performances were high, with the area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.927 and 0.950 for wet and dry seasons, respectively. The predicted moderately suitable habitat area extent was greater during the wet season (15,223 km²) than during the dry season (6052 km²). Precipitation, temperature, and distance from water sources were vital variables for the wet season, while distance from water sources and distance from the settlements were important determinant covariates for the dry season. This information prioritizes where protected areas should be established for African wild ass conservation and also indicates potential new undocumented locations to guide surveys in the Danakil Desert of the Afar Region, Ethiopia.