LAST CHANCE

Given the need to act fast to protect wildlife and plants, we asked our debate panellists which single nation, region or island they would choose to preserve in pristine beauty if they could only choose one.

New Guinea – Benedict Allen’s choice, New Guinea, is the largest tropical island on the planet and significantly larger than Spain. “It’s because it’s so inaccessible that so much has survived,” he says. Swamps and jagged mountain ridges divide the island into separated pockets – and that even affects the human population. The island has an astonishing 850 separate languages, says Allen.

Sulawesi – Wildlife filmmaker and naturalist Adrian Cale – who has worked for the BBC, ITV and National Geographic – says Sulawesi is an “extraordinary place”. Because it was joined to Australia for a period of time, though short in geological terms, it is “one of the few places on earth that has a combination of Australian fauna and Asian fauna”, says Cale. Spectral tarsiers with “little faces like Nosferatu” come out from hollow trees at night to feed.

Sumatra – This Indonesian island is “the only place on Earth where four of the rarest animals live”, says Craig Jones – the Sumatran tiger, rhino, elephant and orangutan. “I’ve been to many places,” he says, “but orangutans hold something dear to me.” There are about 12,000 in the wild – and a “handful of tigers”, he adds.

Brazil – Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-lucas does not choose an island to protect: instead he opts to preserve the entire Brazilian rainforest because it “harbours an incredible diversity of wildlife”, from jaguars to anteaters. The forest has often been called the “lungs of the Earth because it does so much for our atmosphere”, he says.

Cuba – Nisha Owen’s choice is perhaps surprising: Cuba. But she says the island’s lack of economic development under Fidel Castro kept ecosystems intact there – so much so that the island is known as “the accidental Eden”. She adds: “There’s still a lot to discover there.”

Three of these five choices feature in the Nat Geo WILD series Paradise Islands. The weird and wonderful animals of these islands can be seen in the remarkable second episode, Creatures of the Moon, airing this Sunday at 6pm.