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Picking Up The Pieces: Botanical Conservation on Degraded Oceanic Islands

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Conservation Biology

Abstract

Historical debates about environmental degradation on oceanic islands acted as crucibles for the evolution of modern conservation thought (Grove 1995). These largely colonial debates recognized the link between forest loss and watershed decline and the possibility that habitat loss can result in species loss. Currently, oceanic islands are manifesting very high levels of extinction that demand urgent and innovative approaches to conservation. The paradigms established for continental areas, based primarily on the establishment of protected areas, are not sufficient to ensure the survival of the highly modified biotas and ecologies of many oceanic islands. On such islands the habitats prior to human colonization are largely destroyed, the original ecological processes lost or diverted, and the populations of endemic taxa severely reduced and fragmented. To salvage endemic species and their ecologies, habitat conservation needs to be matched with intensive species management and habitat restoration.

“Tropical islands can provide a preview of the environmental situation that is unlikely to become more prevalent on the world’s continents in the future. These islands typically have high population densities, exhibit highly fragmented landscapes, and have already experienced significant extinction events.”

(McNeely et al. 1995)

Most of the research about species extinction has been conducted on islands because islands are controlled environments and scientists can get drinks with little umbrellas in them there.

(O’Rourke 1994

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Maunder, M., Culham, A., Hankamer, C. (1998). Picking Up The Pieces: Botanical Conservation on Degraded Oceanic Islands. In: Fiedler, P.L., Kareiva, P.M. (eds) Conservation Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6051-7_13

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