A d a m H e n s o n , D a v i d W i l l i a m s , J e f D u p a i n , H e l e n G i c h o h i and P h i l i p M u r u t h i Abstract The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has developed and applied a landscape-scale conservation planning methodology in eight priority conservation landscapes in Africa, areas we call African Heartlands. The foundation of the African Heartland Program is a landscape-scale planning process that has been developed and applied as part of the overall Heartland Conservation Process. This process helps AWF and its partners develop intervention strategies that address critical threats to the ecological viability of these landscapes, and to specific biodiversity conservation targets, whilst also working to improve the livelihoods of local people. In applying this participatory planning process to eight conservation landscapes in Africa we have begun to document and learn about the benefits and limitations of planning and implementation at the landscapescale with stakeholders. We draw out lessons on the challenges and successes from our experience. Central to this are the merits of balancing a systematic science-based and pragmatic approach to landscape-scale conservation planning while addressing the needs and aspirations of local people. This approach could be particularly useful for other large-scale conservation planning efforts in developing countries where conservation objectives and human livelihoods are inextricably linked.

Cyrtodactylus phnomchiensissp. nov. is described from Phnom Chi, an isolated mountain in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia. The new species is recognized by having a unique combination of morphological characters, including snout-vent length 76.1–80.7 mm; paravertebral tubercles 31–36; ventral scales 45–54; enlarged femoral scales 0–8, without pores; enlarged precloacal scales 7–10, bearing pores 4–5 in males, pits 1–7 in females; the posterior border of nuchal loop unbroken and pointed, bordered anteriorly and posteriorly by a broad yellow or yellowish white band; and yellow spots on top of head. The new species also represents a divergent mitochondrial DNA lineage within the C. irregularis complex that is closely related to C. ziegleri, but the phylogenetic relationships among the new species and two divergent mitochondrial subclades within C. ziegleri are not resolved based on available sequence data. Cyrtodactylus phnomchiensissp. nov. is the only member of the C. irregularis complex known to occur west of the Mekong River. The new species may be endemic to Phnom Chi, and likely faces imminent conservation threats.