Islands / Islas (CEMEX Nature Series)

Simply and aptly entitled, Islands celebrates our planet's more than 460,000 islands which have long inspired human imagination. From islands as large as New Guinea to small, unnamed offshore rock stacks, they feature not only forested tropical paradises and coral atolls, but also offer majestic, desolate, and windswept mountains. While they make up only five percent of the land on our planet, islands are home to an estimated 20 percent of all birds, reptiles and plants, and an extraordinary concentration of endemic species. Their isolation and the absence of competition have enabled founding species to evolve in diverse and astonishing ways, many on just a single island. On a global scale, conservation has compelling reasons to focus on our earth's islands. In our modern age, islands have seen the highest numbers of extinctions. Today, they are home to almost 40 percent of all known critically endangered animals. Invasive species, habitat loss, and climate change are major threats to native island species from Arctic and Sub-Antarctic islands, where climate change is melting sea ice and glaciers, to the islands of Melanesia, Wallacea, and Sundaland, where the sea level is rising rapidly. Although there are many threats to native island species, Islands elegantly underscores how islands enjoy numerous examples of significant conservation successes.