This work assesses the issues facing biodiversity maintenance on
tropical islands, and the impacts of biodiversity loss. 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 contributors are 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 conclusions and case studies have lessons for all involved in the
conservation of the biotas and ecosystems of islands. Previously
published in Biodiversity and Conservation 19:2 2010