Tropical Islands Biodiversity Crisis

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This work assesses the issues facing biodiversity maintenance on tropical islands, and the impacts of biodiversity loss. These are one of the most threatened reservoirs of Earth's biodiversity and so merit special attention. The emphasis is on the Indo-West Pacific region, which includes many small islands where the biodiversity is under threat as a result of not only climate change and habitat destruction, but invasions by organisms previously absent from an island. The contributions are by distinguished biodiversity scientists from inside and outside the region, and cover topics ranging from the state of conservation action in South-East Asia, the role of parks, and the status and threat to endemics, to impacts of oil and gas exploration and forest fragmentation. Issues needing still to be addressed, especially in relation to implications of biodiversity loss or change for the maintenance of ecosystem processes, are highlighted. The range of organisms considered include amphibians and reptiles, crustaceans, fish, insects, mammals, and plants. The experiences, conclusions, recommendations, and case studies reported here can be read with profit by all involved in the conservation of the vulnerable biotas and ecosystems of islands. The book has 21 chapters, and is based on a conference "Biodiversity Crisis on Tropical Islands" held in the University of Brunei Darussalam in 2007, supplemented by invited keynote contributions. Reprinted from Biodiversity and Conservation 19:2 (2010).