22 May 2014 Tiny though some may be, islands play a huge role in sustaining life on the planet making up less than 5 per cent of Earths landmass, they are home to 20 per cent of all bird, reptile and plant species and protecting their fragile ecosystems from ill-considered development, polluted waters and invasive species is the main focus of this years International Day for Biodiversity.

While islands and their surrounding near-shore marine areas face immense challenges, especially those triggered by a rapidly warming planet, the head of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is convinced there are bright spots; that the innovation, experience and knowledge of islands and the communities that thrive among them can contribute significantly to the conservation and sustainable use of Earths biodiversity and natural resources.

Thats the big agenda this year, said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the Conventions Executive Secretary, in an interview with the UN News Centre. On the International Day and throughout 2014, the CBD Secretariat will aim to boost overall support for islands party to the Convention and States parties that have island territories to make better use of existing solutions, enhance partnerships and mobilize more global attention to the threats islands face.

Along these lines, the UN will be convening the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States from 1 to 4 September in Apia, Samoa, to focus worldwide attention on the sustainable development of this unique group of countries.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias (left), Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, speaks at special event on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May), on the theme "Water and Biodiversity". UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz

We plan to keep up the momentum generated by the [spotlight cast on] islands and oceans at the 2012 Rio+20 conference, said Mr. Dias, referring to the culmination of a series of landmark UN meetings on sustainable development. Rio+20 was preceded in 2002 by the Johannesburg World Summit, which itself was preceded by the historic 1992 Earth Summit, where nations agreed on what have become known as the Rio conventions: the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC); the Convention on Desertification; and the CBD itself.

Sunset in Havana. UN Photo/Milton Grant

Noting the inextricable link between the fate of island biodiversity and islands themselves, under pressure as they are from many of the same threats, he said: Islands are isolated and they have precious biodiversity that is unique to them; if we lose this biodiversityit its gone forever, he said, explaining why it is so vitally important to keep the issue at the top of the development agenda.

[They] are fragile ecosystems, facing threats from desertification, as well as unsustainable fishing, forestry and agriculture. Increasingly, with the onset of climate change, they are also being threatened by sea-level rise and ocean acidification, he added.

Major drivers of biodiversity loss are invasive alien species both animals and plants that colonize an island, out-compete the native fauna and flora and destroy them. For a species to become invasive it must arrive, survive and thrive, according to the CBD.

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INTERVIEW: Bright spots can help islands navigate towards sustainable future, says UN biodiversity chief