UNESCO’s long standing concern with island biodiversity is rooted in two complementary international initiatives for the conservation of biological diversity (the Convention for the Protection of the World’s Natural and Cultural Heritage and the World Network of Biosphere Reserves), studies on marine living resources within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and a range of activities within the Coastal Regions and Small Islands (CSI ) platform and its predecessors (such as the UNESCO Division of Marine Sciences).