Unique Island Life

Islands and their surrounding waters cover one-sixth of the world’s surface and provide habitat for more than half of the Earth's diversity of marine plants and animals. From Indonesia’s Komodo dragon to the island fox of California’s Channel Islands to the Galapagos Islands’ flightless cormorant, an extraordinary and sometimes bizarre collection of species are found on islands around the world. In fact, islands support an astonishingly high ratio of endemic species — plants and animals found no place else on Earth.

Unique Island Culture

Islands and their coastal areas are also a critical source of food, jobs and income for millions of people–more than 500 million people live on more than 100,000 islands around the globe. Many traditional and unique island cultures have flourished and been maintained because of limited outside influences. Protecting islands’ natural resources and culture is vital for islanders and island communities, as is finding economic stability. Island conservation must go hand-in hand with sustainable economic development to find a balance where both humans and habitat thrive.

Unique Island Threats

The very attributes that make islands havens of species diversity also make them extremely susceptible to species extinction. They contain more endangered, rare and threatened species than anywhere else in the world. Islands act as the "canaries in the coal mine" for many major global threats, demonstrating the impacts of climate change and invasive species far before they are visible on larger land masses. Their unique ecological limits make islands' responses to habitat destruction and unsustainable development quickly apparent.

Island Conservation at the Nature Conservancy: Committing Resources

The Nature Conservancy has worked on island conservation for decades; one-third of our country programs are island nations, and many states are working to preserve their unique islands. In recent years, we have engaged in partnerships with many island leaders to create a global framework for island conservation.

The Conference of Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-8) meeting in Brazil in March 2006 was a giant step forward in this effort, generating significant new commitments to conserving islands around the world:

• The Global Island Partnership (pdf) continued to build momentum, and participants adopted a Program of Work (pdf) to provide a framework for achieving island land and water management.
• The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International have pledged $6 million in matching funds to support marine protected areas in islands across Micronesia.
• Island leaders from Micronesia to Grenada committed to protecting 20% to 30% of their land and nearshore marine areas by 2020.

Fungia coral.
Photo credit: © Nancy Sefton

Help protect and preserve Indonesia's coral reefs today by donating to Rescue A Reef®

A fishing village, Derawan Island, Indonesia
Photo credit: © Mark Godfrey/TNC

Where We Work:

• The Grenadines,  Lesser Antilles
• Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
• Falls Island, Cobscook Bay, Maine
• Explore other island projects

Send free coral reef ecards to your friends and family from The Nature Conservancy's Great Places Network - join Great Places Network today and get exclusive member benefits!
Photo © Daniel and Robbie Wisdom

View Videos of some of The Nature Conservancy's island projects.

Explore islands that we are working to protect.

Press Releases:
•  The Nature Conservancy pledges $3 million to protect islands.
• Island leaders commit to conservation.