Tropical islands biodiversity crisis

Excerpt

This Special Issue of Biodiversity and Conservation has its inception in a 3-day Conference—“Biodiversity Crisis on Tropical Islands”—organized by the Department of Biology, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and held at the University campus from 11th to 13th June 2007 as part of the 20th Anniversary of the founding of this relatively new University on Borneo Island. With generous university funding, the conference organisers were able to invite several distinguished keynote speakers to deliver plenary addresses on biodiversity issues related to islands in the tropics. These and other presentations, plus additional invited keynote contributions, resulted in a series of manuscripts which are more than a record of the Conference proceedings. Biodiversity depletion is considered to be, or should be, of crucial importance in the wider sphere of human affairs and in this context the invitation to contribute papers was further extended to other biodiversity researchers, including several keynote invitees, who, due to other commitments, were unable to participate in the Conference itself. …