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Wildlife Conservation in the Line Islands, Republic of Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Roger Perry
Roger Perry
Affiliation:
Trapalanda, Bradfield St George, Suffolk IP30 OAY, United Kingdom; formerly of UNESCO and the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galápagos Islands.
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Extract

Important colonies of seabirds occur on all eight islands comprising the Line group of the Republic of Kiribati, the former Gilbert Islands. The greatest density and diversity is reached on Christmas Island, the principal island of the group, with 18 regularly nesting species. Climatic factors and the extent of human activities in the past, however, have led to widely differing conditions prevailing on the different islands. Christmas (which came to prominence as a post-war atomic testing-base), Fanning, and Washington, Islands have permanent settlements; the five southern Line Islands are totally uninhabited.

Wildlife generally is threatened by introduced animals, especially cats, and additionally on inhabited islands by environmental changes and the direct impact of human disturbance. A Wildlife Conservation Unit, set up in 1977, administers five reserves on Christmas Island and is responsible for the islands of Malden, Starbuck, and Vostok, which are wildlife sanctuaries. Wildlife laws give protection to the Green Turtle and to 31 resident and regularly-occurring migratory species of birds. Naturalist-orientated tours to the Line Islands constitute a key development project which provides some optimism for the future.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , Winter 1980 , pp. 311 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1980

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