Center for Marine Conservation, US

One threat to parrot arises from their attractiveness as "talking" companions to humans, leading to a high demand for trade that involves hundreds of thousands of birds annually on a global basis, and gives parrots a high monetary value. There is an urgent need to change the attitudes of both the many millions who keep parrots, and those who make billions of dollars in trading them.

The family Cracidae is made up of 50 species of guans, curassows and chachalacas - large gregarious game birds, many of which have striking colours. They are important as seed dispersers, biological indicators of the environment, a major protein source for indigenous people, and for ecotourism. Nearly half the species in the family are threatened and several have been pushed to near extinction by wide-spread destruction of tropical forets and over-harvesting.

The black and the white rhinoceros have become flagship species for international conservation. They are significant not only for the continuation of a major evolutionary heritage, but also as symbols for the protection of African savannahs. The battle for the survival of these species has been marked by some notable successes and sadly, many failures, and the situation is still critical.

Sharks and their relatives, the rays and chimaeras, are the diverse group of cartilaginous fishes that have evolved over 400 million years. Historically considered of low economic value to large-scale fisheries, today many of these fishes have become the target of directed commercial and recreational fisheries around the world, and they are increasingly taken in the by-catch of fisheries targeting other species.