Which island paradise would you save?
Wildlife experts nominate the unique, biodiverse places they love above all others
The islands between Australia and Asia are some of the most biologically rich habitats on Earth, teeming with beautiful and bizarre creatures.
Continental drift has pushed landmasses together and pulled them apart, allowing animals first to spread – and then to develop in isolation. In some cases, even individual islands are divided by high mountains, allowing separate ecosystems to evolve over millions of years.
In one example of this remarkable development, seen in the Nat Geo WILD series Paradise Islands, the volcano bird of Papua New Guinea lays its eggs in warm ash and leaves them there to incubate. In another, tree kangaroos climb – somewhat clumsily – in search of fruit.
Now, however, the seclusion that has served these species so well is their greatest enemy, according to Dr Nisha Owen, who runs ZSL’S EDGE of Existence programme. “These species have literally nowhere else to go,” she said during a debate hosted by Nat Geo WILD and The Week. “They can’t move to another forest. They can’t move to another island.”
The flora and fauna of the paradise islands are under threat from a booming human population that destroys habitats and introduces invasive species such as rats, which kill animals and eat plants, upsetting the delicate local balance.
The felling of primary rainforest to make way for palm oil plantations is another threat. “We cut down some of the most diverse, beautiful rainforests in the world and we plant a monoculture which is palm oil,” said wildlife photographer Craig Jones. In the plantations, “nothing really lives – not even bugs in the ground”.
Author, explorer and filmmaker Benedict Allen agreed, recalling his first visit to Papua New Guinea in the early 1980s: “When I went there by helicopter, this was paradise,” he said. “It was glorious – the mists in the mornings, the gibbons calling out. And now that has been clear-felled.”
But we can make a difference, Jones insisted. “You can live palm oil free,” he said, and we can learn to manage invasive species such as rats, cats, goats and pigs in delicate ecosystems.