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The shark and ray (Elasmobranchii) trade is a commercially valuable industry that has negative consequences for wild populations. An estimated 100 million sharks are caught each year to supply the demand for cultural cuisines, traditions and practices, including shark fin soup and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Despite the establishment of frameworks and regulations by international trade and conservation bodies as well as national legislations, elasmobranch populations continue to decline. While their conservation becomes an ever more pressing concern, a major obstacle that hampers regulation is the mislabelling and/or misidentification of dried products or carcasses that have had fins removed. Here we use DNA barcoding to identify the species of origin for a variety of shark and ray products readily available to consumers in Singapore, a major importer of these goods. We amplified a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene from shark fin, cartilage and meat, as well as ray gill plates and meat for DNA sequencing. Our analysis of 207 DNA barcodes yielded 28 positively identified elasmobranch species, eight of which are listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and 12 are listed as Endangered or Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This information will be useful to regulatory bodies in controlling trade and establishing new or revisiting previous conservation status listings.

High levels of species richness and endemism make Myanmar a regional priority for conservation. However, decades of economic and political sanctions have resulted in low conservation investment to effectively tackle threats to biodiversity. Recent sweeping political reforms have placed Myanmar on the fast track to economic development-the expectation is increased economic investments focused on the exploitation of the country's rich, and relatively intact, natural resources. Within a context of weak regulatory capacity and inadequate environmental safeguards, rapid economic development is likely to have far-reaching negative implications for already threatened biodiversity and natural-resource-dependent human communities. Climate change will further exacerbate prevailing threats given Myanmar's high exposure and vulnerability. The aim of this review is to examine the implications of increased economic growth and a changing climate within the larger context of biodiversity conservation in Myanmar. We summarize conservation challenges, assess direct climatological impacts on biodiversity and conclude with recommendations for long-term adaptation approaches for biodiversity conservation.

Hunting is a threat to wildlife within the Hkakaborazi National Park in north Myanmar. We used questionnaire surveys to obtain data on variables such as commonly targeted species, prices of traded wildlife, reasons for hunting and the relative importance of livelihood sources. We examine (a) the significance of hunting and trade for livelihoods and explore (b) the impacts of hunting on targeted species. Ninety per cent of trade records (n = 803) was constituted by seven species commonly targeted by hunters (serow, red goral, muntjac, bear, Assamese macaque, black musk deer and takin). Commercially valuable species previously targeted by hunters (tiger, otter, pangolin) appear to be completely absent from current harvest records and potentially in decline. Although farming is the predominant occupation, hunting (driven by trade) represents a significantly higher source of income than other livelihood activities. Management recommendations include increased investment in enforcement, education and outreach, small livestock development, improved crop productivity, demarcation of no-take areas for wildlife and biological monitoring of targeted species.

The Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary, North Myanmar and three contiguous protected areas, comprise some of the largest expanses of natural forest remaining in the region. Demand for wildlife products has resulted in unsustainable exploitation of commercially valuable species resulting in local extirpation of vulnerable species. Camera trap, track and sign, and questionnaire-based surveys were used to examine (a) wildlife species targeted by hunters, (b) the importance of wild meat for household consumption, and (c) the significance of hunting as a livelihood activity for resident villages. Certain commercially valuable species highly preferred by hunters were either completely absent from hunt records (tiger, musk deer and otter) or infrequently obtained during actual hunts (bear, pangolin). Species obtained by hunters were commonly occurring species such as muntjacs with low commercial value and not highly preferred by hunters. Fifty eight percent of respondents (n = 84) indicated trade, 27% listed subsistence use and 14% listed human-wildlife conflict as the main reason for hunting (n = 84). Average amount of wild meat consumed per month is not significantly higher during the hunting season compared to the planting season (paired t-test, P > 0.05). Throughout the year, the average amount of fish consumed per month was higher than livestock or wild meat (Friedman test, P < 0.0001). Hunting is driven largely by trade and wild meat, while not a critical source of food for a large number of families could potentially be an important, indirect source of access to food for hunting families. Findings and trends from this study are potentially useful in helping design effective conservation strategies to address globally prevalent problems of declining wildlife populations and dependent human communities. The study provides recommendations to reduce illegal hunting and protect vulnerable species by strengthening park management through enforcement, increasing the opportunity costs of poaching, establishing no-take zones and research to determine the economic significance of hunting for livelihoods.

Garnering support from local people is critical for maintaining ecologically viable and functional protected areas. However, empirical data illustrating local people’s awareness of the importance of nature’s services is limited; hence possibly impeding effective ecosystem (environmental)-services based conservation efforts. Using data from five protected forests in four developing Southeast Asian countries, we provide evidence that local people living near parks value a wide range of environmental services, including cultural, provisioning, and regulating services, provided by the forests. Local people with longer residency valued environmental services more. Educated as well as poor people valued forest ecosystem services more. Conservation education has some influence on people’s environmental awareness. For conservation endeavors to be successful, large-scale transmigration programs should be avoided and local people must be provided with alternative sustenance opportunities and basic education in addition to environmental outreach to reduce their reliance on protected forests and to enhance conservation support.

When you take a look at anything close-by, your brain computes the position of the object you see by solving a lanky triangle — namely the one formed with the object and your two eyes as its vertices. The brain may call other clues also into service while figuring out positions, especially when the lanky triangles prove far too lanky to afford trigonometric solutions with reasonable accuracy. These non-trigonometric alternatives can run into occasional pitfalls, though. Yet even the trigonometric highway isn’t always foolproof, either. We shall see in what follows that the resulting consequences can be as instructive as they are amusing.

Some time earlier1 we treated our readers to an exoteric narrative of special relativity’s kinematics in which we shunned the use of mathematical formulas. However, the simple and concise account presented then has left quite a few questions open, and we now present the promised sequel to supply the requisite answers.