Islands represent merely 3% of the global land area yet are home to disproportionate levels of the world's biodiversity with many unique species existing only on a single or related group of islands. However, island species are also among some of the most threatened. Their high levels of endemism and generally small population sizes make them particularly vulnerable to human and natural disturbance events and as such they have exponentially greater extinction rates compared to the mainland. Continued loss of this biodiversity is of global importance. Many species have critical ecosystem roles and island societies depend largely on local biodiversity - whether terrestrial, freshwater or marine - for their livelihoods as well as their social and cultural significance.
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