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Habitat degradation and fragmentation have heightened the importance of understanding human tolerance towards wildlife, as the fate of wildlife in multi-use landscapes depends on people's capacity for coexistence. We applied the wildlife tolerance model to examine drivers of tolerance towards Asian elephants Elephas maximus in rural Bangladesh, interviewing local people in 17 villages. We used structural equation modelling to identify causal pathways in which elephant-related exposure, positive and negative interactions, costs and benefits (tangible and intangible) contributed to tolerance. Contrary to expectations, monetary costs were non-significant in shaping tolerance despite major impacts on livelihoods. Instead, intangible costs and intangible benefits were significant factors determining tolerance. Furthermore, reducing people's exposure to elephants would not necessarily affect tolerance, nor would increasing positive interactions. We discuss how the socio-economic and bio-cultural dynamics of local communities can explain these results, and demonstrate how our model can be used to incorporate such complexities into conservation decision-making. For instance, compensation schemes aim to recompense monetary losses and direct damages, to improve tolerance, whereas our results suggest a more effective approach would be to enhance resilience to non-monetary costs and improve perceived benefits. We conclude that future studies should pay increased attention to intangible costs and consider the less direct drivers of tolerance. Through repeated testing of universal models such as that presented here, broad trends may emerge that will facilitate the application of policies across contexts and landscapes.

Environmental and social problems triggered by rapid palm oil expansion in the tropics have spurred the proliferation of sustainability certification systems such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). While the RSPO aims to improve the impact of oil palm production on people and environments, its effect on local development, environmental quality, and, especially, potential trade-offs between these outcomes remain unclear. Here, we evaluate whether RSPO certification of large-scale industrial concessions has promoted village development and supported environmental quality in Indonesia, the top global palm oil producer. Using a panel dataset with observations from 11 000 villages in Kalimantan and Sumatra from 2003 to 2014, we apply rigorous quasi-experimental methods to quantify the RSPO’s impacts on village development and environmental outcomes. In the short-run, RSPO contributed to environmental conservation, but had limited development outcomes. On average, relative to villages with non-certified concessions, RSPO certification reduced deforestation and protected primary forests in Sumatra and lowered the incidence of village-reported land pollution in Kalimantan. RSPO certification also increased the number of private educational facilities in Kalimantan, but had no statistically significant impacts on other development indicators. However, the trade-offs and complementarities between conservation and development vary by slope, a proxy for ecosystem fragility and oil palm profitability. On gentler slopes, we generally find complementarities between conservation and development outcomes. In Kalimantan, certification increased the number of private educational facilities and reduced deforestation and the incidence of land pollution on slopes < 2°. In Sumatra, certification retained more primary forests, decreased deforestation and the incidence of water pollution on slopes < 1°, along with a decrease in population density. Higher slopes in both locations were associated with environment and development trade-offs. We highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO and emphasized how the outcomes of certification depend on the communities’ bargaining power and the profitability of the land for oil palm production. Thus, we provide insights into understanding these mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO, which is a prerequisite for improving the design of certification systems and their impacts on the ground.

When deciding how to conserve biodiversity, practitioners navigate diverse missions, sometimes conflicting approaches, and uncertain trade‐offs. These choices are based not only on evidence, funders’ priorities, stakeholders’ interests, and policies, but also on practitioners’ personal experiences, backgrounds, and values. Calls for greater reflexivity—an individual or group's ability to examine themselves in relation to their actions and interactions with others—have appeared in the conservation science literature. But what role does reflexivity play in conservation practice? We explored how self‐reflection can shape how individuals and groups conserve nature. To provide examples of reflexivity in conservation practice, we conducted a year‐long series of workshop discussions and online exchanges. During these, we examined cases from the peer‐reviewed and gray literature, our own experiences, and conversations with 10 experts. Reflexivity among practitioners spanned individual and collective levels and informal and formal settings. Reflexivity also encompassed diverse themes, including practitioners’ values, emotional struggles, social identities, training, cultural backgrounds, and experiences of success and failure. Reflexive processes also have limitations, dangers, and costs. Informal and institutionalized reflexivity requires allocation of limited time and resources, can be hard to put into practice, and alone cannot solve conservation challenges. Yet, when intentionally undertaken, reflexive processes might be integrated into adaptive management cycles at multiple points, helping conservation practitioners better reach their goals. Reflexivity could also play a more transformative role in conservation by motivating practitioners to reevaluate their goals and methods entirely. Reflexivity might help the conservation movement imagine and thus work toward a better world for wildlife, people, and the conservation sector itself.

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThis case study demonstrates a new method to compute continuous permeability and estimate reservoir rock type from logs in a complex, heterogeneous, Middle Eastern carbonate reservoir. The 795 ft conventionally cored interval consists of interbedded limestones and dolomites with anhydrite cement and features a wide variety of textures. In some intervals the depositional textures are preserved, in others they are highly altered by diagenesis. Vugs are developed in several intervals. Computation of permeability from porosity alone yields scatter of a factor of 700.Rock typing using only conventional logs was unsatisfactory due to the poor permeability estimation. The effect of geological complexity on the log based prediction is overcome by including pore size distribution data from a combination of NMR and borehole electrical image logs. This data is sufficient to partition the porosity according the pore size, compute permeability and assess the rock types, independently of mineralogy, facies, and other variables. The results are validated by comparison to core derived properties and formation tester mobilities. Incorporation of the pore size information into the log based interpretation reduces the scatter in computed permeability to a factor of less than 10. The assumptions and principles of the log analysis method were validated in the lab through extensive characterization of the pore system over a range of scales. Data from a variety of methods including MICP, lab NMR, BET surface area, thin section analysis, continuous vuggy porosity analysis from the core slab, minpermeametry and other advanced research methods are included.A key result of this study is that a relatively simple method for log derived permeability and rock type analysis in carbonates, first developed in high porosity limestones, can be successfully applied in this lower porosity (10 -20 p.u.) carbonate. This gives us confidence to project that the method could be applicable to many other carbonates worldwide.