Excerpt and Photo Credit from earth.org
Islands are more than just ecological laboratories; they are socio-cultural hubs that host over a quarter of the world’s human languages. To be effective, conservation must shift toward a “place-based” approach that respects the unique, inseparable bond between insular communities and the environments they steward.
In ecology, islands have long been considered as perfect natural laboratories due to their distinctive features. Among them: their geographical isolation, their replicability, and, most interestingly, their disproportionate level of biodiversity. Indeed, whilst representing only 5.3% of Earth’s land area, islands host around 20% of its terrestrial species.
But beyond their ecological features, islands are also socio-cultural laboratories, hosting 27% of human languages and a huge diversity of culture and practices.