Chagos Archipelago
Encyclopedia
The Chagos Archipelago (icon or ˈ; formerly Bassas de Chagas and later also Oil Islands, known as Foalhavahi in Dhivehi
Dhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...
, as Phehandweep in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and other North Indian languages, and as Paeikaana Theevukal in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
), is a group of seven atoll
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
s comprising more than 60 individual tropical island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
; situated some 500 kilometres (310.7 mi) due south of the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
archipelago. This chain of islands are the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge
Chagos-Laccadive Ridge
The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge , also known as Chagos-Laccadive Plateau, is a prominent volcanic ridge and oceanic plateau extending between the Northern and the Central Indian Ocean....
a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. The Chagos also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Maldives and the Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep , formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala...
. The islands and their surrounding waters are also a vast oceanic Environment Preservation and Protection Zone (EPPZ) (Fisheries Conservation and Management Zone (FCMZ) of 544000 square kilometres (210,039.6 sq mi)), an area twice the size of the UK's land surface.
Officially part of the British Indian Ocean Territory
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
, the Chagos were home to the Chagossians for more than a century and a half until the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
evicted them in the early 1970s in order to allow the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to build a military base on Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
, the largest of the Chagos Islands. Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia is inhabited, and only by military and civilian contracted personnel.
The Chagos group is a combination of different coralline
Coralline
Coralline means "resembling coral" and may refer to:* Coralline algae, whose fronds are covered with calcareous deposits.* Coralline rock, formed by the death of layers of coralline algae.* Sclerosponges, sometimes called "coralline sponges"....
structures topping a submarine ridge running southwards across the centre of the Indian Ocean, formed by volcanoes above the Réunion hotspot
Réunion hotspot
The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and the southern part of the Mascarene Plateau are volcanic traces of the Réunion hotspot....
. Unlike in the Maldives there is not a clearly discernible pattern of arrayed atolls, which makes the whole archipelago look somewhat chaotic. Most of the coralline structures of the Chagos are submerged reefs.
The Chagos contain the world’s largest coral atoll
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
(The Great Chagos Bank). It also has one of the healthiest reef systems in the cleanest waters in the world, supporting half the total area of good quality reefs in the Indian Ocean. As a result, the ecosystems of the Chagos have so far proven resilient to climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and environmental disruptions.
The British government's Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
recently established the The Chagos Archipelago as the world's largest marine reserve
Marine reserve
For the United States Marine Corps Reserve see: Marine Forces ReserveA marine reserve is an area of the sea which has legal protection against fishing or development. This is to be distinguished from a marine park, but there is some overlap in usage...
, larger than the country of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
or the state of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The protection of the marine reserve will be guaranteed for the next five years thanks to the financement of the Bertarelli
Ernesto Bertarelli
Ernesto Bertarelli is a Swiss-Italian billionaire and entrepreneur.Together with his extended family, Bertarelli was ranked 81st in the 2011 annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people compiled and published by Forbes magazine, The family's wealth was estimated at US$10.0...
Foundation. On December 3, 2010, Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
released a document revealing that the marine reserve was established primarily in order to legally block any attempts by the Chagossians to return to their homeland.
Biology
The biodiversityBiodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
of the Chagos archipelago and its surrounding waters is one of the main reasons it is so special. But this incredible diversity is under threat as at least 60 species that call Chagos home are already on the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
of Threatened Species.
Coral
The reefs host 220 species of coral including the endemic brain coral
Brain coral
Brain coral is a common name given to corals in the family Faviidae so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain...
Ctenella chagius. The coral cover is dense and healthy even in deep water on the steep outer reef slopes. Thick stands of branching staghorn coral
Staghorn coral
The Staghorn coral is a branching coral with cylindrical branches ranging from a few centimetres to over two metres in length and height. It occurs in back reef and fore reef environments from 0 to 30 m depth. The upper limit is defined by wave forces, and the lower limit is controlled by...
(Acropora sp) protect the low lying islands from wave erosion. Despite the loss of much of the coral in a bleaching event in 1998 the recovery in the Chagos has been remarkable and overall coral cover increases year on year.
Fish
The reefs are also home to at least 784 species of fish that stay near to the shores of the islands including the endemic Chagos clownfish
Clownfish
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Twenty-eight species are recognized, one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones...
(Amphiprion chagosensis) and many of the larger wrasse
Wrasse
The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 82 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes....
and grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
that have already been lost from over-fishing in other reefs in the region.
As well as the healthy communities of reef fish there are significant populations of pelagic fish such as manta ray
Manta ray
The manta ray is the largest species of the rays. The largest known specimen was more than across, with a weight of about . It ranges throughout waters of the world, typically around coral reefs...
s (Manta birostris), sharks and tuna
Tuna
Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...
. Shark numbers have dramatically declined as a result of illegal fishing boats that seek to remove their fins and also as accidental by-catch in the two tuna fisheries that operate seasonally in the Chagos.
Birds
Seventeen species of breeding seabirds can be found nesting in huge colonies on many of the islands in the archipelago, and 10 of the islands have received formal designation as Important Bird Areas, by Birdlife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
. This means that Chagos has the most diverse breeding seabird community within this tropical region. Of particular interest are the large colonies of sooty terns (Sterna fuscata), brown and lesser noddies (Anous stolidus and Anous tenuirostris) wedge-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) and red-footed boobies (Sula sula).
Turtles
The remote islands make perfect undisturbed nursery sites for nests of green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles. The populations of both species in Chagos are of global significance given the "Critically Endangered
Critically Endangered
Critically Endangered is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species. Critically Endangered means that a species' numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations....
" status of hawksbills and the "Endangered" status of green turtles on the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
. Chagos turtles were heavily exploited during the previous two centuries, but they and their habitats are now well protected by the administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
and are recovering well.
Crabs
The coconut crab
Coconut crab
The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit of terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in today's atmosphere at a weight of up to...
(Birgus latro) is the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
, reaching over one metre in leg span and 3.5-4 kilos in weight. As a juvenile it behaves like a hermit crab and uses empty coconut shells as protection but as an adult this giant crab climbs trees and can crack through a coconut with its massive claws. Despite its wide global distribution, it is rare in most of the areas it is found. It is primarily threatened by over-collection for food, but also as ornaments for sale to tourists and as bait for fish traps. Demand for coconut crabs as souvenirs is strong, and other threats include habitat destruction and predation from introduced species such as rats. The coconut crabs on Chagos constitute one of the most undisturbed populations in the world. An important part of their biology is the long distances their young can travel as larvae. This means the Chagos coconut crabs are a vital source for replenishing other over-exploited
Overexploitation
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Sustained overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource...
populations in the Indian Ocean region.
Insects
A total of 113 species of insect have been recorded from the Chagos Islands.
Plants
The Chagos Islands have been colonised by plants since there was sufficient soil to support them – probably less than 4,000 years. Seeds and spores arrived on the emerging islands by wind and sea, or from passing sea birds. The native flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of the Chagos Islands is thought to comprise forty-one species of flowering plants and four fern
Fern
A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...
s as well as a wide variety of moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es, liverworts
Marchantiophyta
The Marchantiophyta are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information....
, fungi and cyanobacteria.
Today, the status of the Chagos Islands’ native flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
depends very much on past exploitation of particular islands. About 280 species of flowering plants and ferns have now been recorded on the islands, but this increase reflects the introduction of non-native plants by humans, either accidentally or deliberately. Because some of these non-native species have become invasive and pose a threat to the native ecosystems, plans are being developed to control them. On some islands, native forests were felled to plant coconut palms for the production of copra oil. Other islands remain unspoiled and support a wide range of habitats, including unique Pisonia
Pisonia
Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso . Certain species in this genus are known as Catchbirdtrees because their sticky seeds reportedly trap small birds...
forests and large clumps of the gigantic fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica
Barringtonia asiatica
Barringtonia asiatica is a species of Barringtonia native to mangrove habitats on the tropical coasts and islands of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean from Zanzibar east to Taiwan, the Philippines, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia...
). Unspoiled islands provide us with the biological information that we need in order to re-establish the native plant communities on heavily altered islands. These efforts will ultimately help to improve the biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
of the Chagos Islands.
Geography
The entire land area of the islands is a mere 63.17 km², with the largest island, Diego GarciaDiego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
, having an area of 27.20 km². The total area, including lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s within atoll
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
s, however, is more than 15,000 km², of which 12,642 km² are accounted by the Great Chagos Bank
Great Chagos Bank
The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about South of the Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of . The Atoll is administered by the UK through the BIOT.-Islands:...
, the second largest atoll structure of the world (after the completely submerged Saya de Malha Bank
Saya de Malha Bank
The Saya de Malha Bank is the largest submerged bank in the World, part of the vast undersea Mascarene Plateau...
). The shelf
Shelf
Shelf may refer to:* Shelf , a flat horizontal surface used for diplay and storage* Shelf , a user interface feature in the NeXTSTEP operating system* Shelf, West Yorkshire, a village in England...
area is 20,607 km², and the Exclusive Economic Zone
Exclusive Economic Zone
Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...
, which borders the corresponding zone of the Maldive Islands in the north, has an area of 636,600 km² (including territorial waters
Territorial waters
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
).
The largest individual islands are Diego García
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
(27.20 km²), Eagle (Great Chagos Bank, 2.45 km²), Île Pierre (Peros Banhos, 1.50 km²), Eastern Egmont (Egmont Islands, 1.50 km²), Île du Coin (Peros Banhos, 1.28 km²) and Île Boddam (Salomon Islands, 1.08 km²).
The number of atolls in the Chagos Islands is given as four or five in most sources, plus two island groups and two single islands, mainly because it is not recognized that the Great Chagos Bank
Great Chagos Bank
The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about South of the Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of . The Atoll is administered by the UK through the BIOT.-Islands:...
is a huge atoll structure (including those two island groups and two single islands), and because it is not recognisd that Blenheim Reef
Blenheim Reef
Blenheim Reef is a partly submerged atoll structure in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean]]. It includes the coral reef of Baxio Predassa in its southeastern rim, plus another completely submerged part. It is located in the northeastern part of the Chagos Archipelago...
has islets or cays above or just reaching the high water mark.
In addition to the seven atolls with dry land reaching at least the high water mark, there are nine reefs and banks
Bank (topography)
A bank, sometimes referred to as a fishing bank, is an area on the continental shelf which is shallow compared to its surrounding area, such as a shoal or the top of an underwater hill. Somewhat like continental slopes, ocean banks slopes can upwell as tidal and other flows intercept them,...
, most of which can be considered permanently submerged atoll structures. They are listed in the table from north to south:
| | Atoll/Reef/Bank (alternate name) | | type | | Area (km²) | | number of islands | | Location Geographic coordinate system A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represent vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position... |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | Total | |||||||
| 0 | unnamed bank | submerged bank | – | 3 | – | 04°25′S 72°36′E | ||
| 1 | Colvocoresses Reef Colvocoresses Reef Colvocoresses Reef is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Northeast of the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. It is located 15 km east of Speakers Bank and 28 km northeast of Blenheim Reef. The reef measures 8 km north-south, and is 1 to 2 km wide, with a total area of about 10 km². Breakers... |
submerged atoll | – | 10 | – | 04°54′S 72°37′E | ||
| 2 | Speakers Bank Speakers Bank Speakers Bank is a large coral atoll structure in the Northwestern part of the Chagos Archipelago. It is the northernmost feature of the archipelago, located at , 22 km Northwest of Blenheim Reef and is 44 km Northeast-Southwest, and 24 km wide. The total area is 582 2, mostly water.... |
unvegetated atoll | >0 | 582 | 1) | 04°55′S 72°20′E | ||
| 3 | Blenheim Reef Blenheim Reef Blenheim Reef is a partly submerged atoll structure in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean]]. It includes the coral reef of Baxio Predassa in its southeastern rim, plus another completely submerged part. It is located in the northeastern part of the Chagos Archipelago... (Baixo Predassa) |
unvegetated atoll | 0.02 | 37 | 4 | 05°12′S 72°28′E | ||
| 4 | Benares Shoals Benares Shoals Benares Shoals, or Benares Shoal, is a submerged coral reef, an isolated patch located at , just 6 km WNW of Île Pierre, the closest island of Peros Banhos atoll in the northern Chagos Archipelago. It measures about 3 km east-west, with a width of about 700 meters, and an area of 2 km²... |
submerged reef | – | 2 | 05°15′S 71°40′E | |||
| 5 | Peros Banhos Peros Banhos Peros Banhos, Pedro dos Banhos or Baixo de Pero dos Banhos in old maps, is a formerly inhabited atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory.... |
atoll | 13 | 503 | 32 | 05°20′S 71°51′E | ||
| 6 | Salomon Islands Salomon Islands The Salomon Islands or Salomon Atoll is a small atoll of the Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory.-Description:It is located in the Northeast of the Chagos Archipelago, between Blenheim Reef and Peros Banhos... |
atoll | 5 | 36 | 11 | 05°22′S 72°13′E | ||
| 7 | Victory Bank Victory Bank Victory Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Northern Chagos Archipelago at . It is located 17 km NNW of Nelson Island, the only island on the Northern rim of the Great Chagos Bank. Île Boddam, of the Salomon Islands lies 17 km to the North.... |
submerged atoll | – | 21 | – | 05°32′S 72°14′E | ||
| 8a | Nelsons Island Nelsons Island Nelson Island or Nelsons Island is the northernmost and the easternmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The nearest neighbour is Île Boddam in the Salomon Islands.Nelson Island occupies the... |
parts of mega-atoll Great Chagos Bank Great Chagos Bank The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about South of the Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of . The Atoll is administered by the UK through the BIOT.-Islands:... |
0.81 | 12642 | 1 | 05°40′53"S 72°18′39"E | ||
| 8b | Three Brothers Three Brothers (islands) The Three Brothers are a group of three small coral islands 20 km East of Eagle Islands along the central western rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago.-Islands:... (Trois Frères) |
0.37 | 3 | 06°09′S 71°31′E | ||||
| 8c | Eagle Islands Eagle Islands Eagle Islands is a group of two islands in the Chagos Archipelago. They are located on the central-western rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure.-Islands:... |
2.63 | 2 | 06°12′S 71°19′E | ||||
| 8d | Danger Island Danger Island Danger Island is the westernmost and the southernmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago.-Description:... |
0.66 | 1 | 06°23′00"S 71°14′20"E | ||||
| 9 | Egmont Islands Egmont Islands The Egmont Islands or Egmont Atoll, also known as Six Iles, is an uninhabited atoll under British rule. They are one of the few emerged coral atolls that make up the Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory.... |
atoll | 4 | 29 | 7 | 6°40′S 71°21′E | ||
| 10 | Cauvin Bank Cauvin Bank Cauvin Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southern Part Chagos Archipelago at , just about 7 km South of the Southeastern corner of the rim of the Great Chagos Bank. It is roughly circular in shape, with a diameter of 4 km, and an area of about 12 km². There are least depths between... |
submerged atoll | – | 12 | – | 06°46′S 72°22′E | ||
| 11 | Owen Bank Owen Bank Owen Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. The reported location is 06°47'S, 070°14'E to 06°48'S, 070°15'E, thus the bank is the westernmost feature of the Chagos group... |
submerged bank | – | 4 | – | 06°48′S 70°14′E | ||
| 12 | Pitt Bank Pitt Bank Pitt Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago. It is almost 56 km long Northwest to Southeast, with a width between 20 and 30 km. It stretches from 06°48'S to 07°16'S and 071°06'E to 071°36'E... |
submerged atoll | – | 1317 | – | 07°04′S 72°31′E | ||
| 13 | Diego Garcia Diego Garcia Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude.... |
atoll | 30 | 174 | 42) | 07°19′S 72°25′E | ||
| 14 | Ganges Bank Ganges Bank Ganges Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago. It is about 7 by 5 km in size, yielding an area of about 30 km².The closest land is the Egmont Atoll located 87 km to the NNE.-External links:*... |
submerged atoll | – | 30 | – | 07°23′S 70°58′E | ||
| 15 | Wight Bank Wight Bank Wight Bank is a small, wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. It is located 6 km to the SE off the southeastern tip of Pitt Bank at... |
3 | 07°25′S 71°31′E | |||||
| 16 | Centurion Bank Centurion Bank Centurion Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago. It is about almost 10 km long northwest-southeast, and more than 3 km wide. The reef area is about 25 km².... |
25 | 07°39′S 70°50′E | |||||
| Chagos Archipelago | Archipelago | 63.17 | 15427 | 64 | 04°54' to 07°39'S 70°14' to 72°37' E |
|||
| 1) a number of drying sand cays | ||||||||
| 2) main island and three islets at the northern end | ||||||||
The deep oceanic waters around the Chagos Islands, out to the 200 nautical mile limit, include an exceptional diversity of undersea geological features (such as 6000m deep trenches, oceanic ridges, and sea mounts). These areas almost certainly harbour many undiscovered and specially adapted species. Although the deepwater habitats surrounding the islands have not been explored or mapped in any detail, work elsewhere in the world has shown that high physical diversity of the sea floor is closely linked to a high diversity of species.
Resources
The main natural resourcesNatural Resources
Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...
of the area are coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
s, and fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and the licensing of commercial fishing
Fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....
provides an annual income of about two million dollars for the British Indian Ocean Territory
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
authorities.
All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
, where joint UK-US military facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and the US. There are currently no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. All the water, food and other essentials of daily life are shipped to the island. An independent feasibility study led to the conclusion that resettlement would be "costly and precarious". Another feasibility study, commissioned by organisations supporting resettlement, found that resettlement would be possible at a cost to the British taxpayer of £25 million. If the Chagossians return, they plan to re-establish copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
production and fishing, and to begin the commercial development of the islands for tourism.
Skipjack (Euthynnus pelamis) and yellowfin tuna
Yellowfin tuna
The yellowfin tuna is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from its Hawaiian name ahi although the name ahi in Hawaiian also refers to the closely related bigeye tuna. The species name, albacares can lead to...
(Thunnus albacares) are fished for about two months of the year as their year-long migratory route takes them through Chagos waters. While the remoteness of the Chagos offers some protection from extractive activities, legal and illegal fishing have had an impact. There is considerable poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
of turtles and other marine life. Sharks, which play a vital role in balancing the food web of tropical reefs, have suffered sharp declines from illegal fishing for their fins and as bycatch
Bycatch
The term “bycatch” is usually used for fish caught unintentionally in a fishery while intending to catch other fish. It may however also indicate untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting...
in legal fisheries. Sea cucumber
Sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea.They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. There are a number of holothurian species and genera, many of which are targeted...
s, which cleanse sand, are poached to feed Asian markets.
Climate
The Chagos Archipelago has a TropicalTropical climate
A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above...
oceanic climate
Oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
; hot and humid but moderated by trade winds.
Climate is characterised by plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures, showers and light breezes.
December through February is considered the rainy season (summer monsoon); typical weather conditions include light west-northwesterly winds and warmer temperatures with more rainfall. June to September is considered the drier season (winter), characterised by moderate south-easterly winds, slightly cooler temperatures and less rainfall. The annual mean rainfall is 2600 mm (100 inches), varying from 105 mm (4 inches) during August to 350 mm (14 inches) during January.
History
Early history
According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, local traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea and got stranded in one of the islands of the Chagos. Eventually they were rescued and brought back home. However, these islands were judged to be too far away from the MaldivesMaldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
to be settled permanently by Maldivians. Thus for many centuries the Chagos were ignored by their northern neighbours. In Maldivian lore the whole group is known as Fōlhavahi or Hollhavai (the latter name in the Southern Maldives Adduan
Addu Atoll
Addu City is a city in Maldives consisting of the inhabited islands of the southernmost atoll of the archipelago....
dialect of Dhivehi
Dhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...
). There are no separate names for the different atolls of the Chagos in the Maldivian oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
.
16th to 19th century
Portuguese explorersPortuguese discoveries
Portuguese discoveries is the name given to the intensive maritime exploration by the Portuguese during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European overseas exploration, discovering and mapping the coasts of Africa, Asia and Brazil, in what become known as the...
were the first Europeans to discover the archipelago. Although Portuguese navigator Pedro de Mascarenhas
Pedro Mascarenhas
Pedro Mascarenhas was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512...
(1470–June 23, 1555) is credited with having discovered the islands during his voyage of 1512–13, there is little corroborative evidence for this; cartographic analysis points to 1532 or later. Portuguese
Portugal in the Age of Discovery
During the history of Portugal between 1415 and 1578, Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, colonized selected areas of Africa, and sent the first direct European maritime...
seafarers named the group as Bassas de Chagas, (wounds) referring to the Holy Wounds
Holy Wounds
The Five Holy Wounds or Five Sacred Wounds refer to what are believed to be the five piercing wounds that was suffered during the crucifixion of Jesus....
of the crucifixion of Jesus
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
. They named as well some of the atolls, like Diego Garcia and Peros Banhos
Peros Banhos
Peros Banhos, Pedro dos Banhos or Baixo de Pero dos Banhos in old maps, is a formerly inhabited atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory....
Atoll, which was named Pedro dos Banhos in 1513 by Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
. But they never made these islands part of the Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
, for they judged this lonely and isolated group to be economically and politically uninteresting.
The earliest and most interesting description of the Chagos, before coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
trees grew widely on the islands, was written by Manoel Rangel, a castaway from the Portuguese ship Conceição which ran aground on the Peros Banhos reefs in 1556.
The French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
were the first to lay a claim on the Chagos after they settled Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
and Ile de France (later renamed Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
).
On 27 April 1786 the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia were claimed for Britain. However, the territory was ceded to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by treaty only after Napoleon's defeat, in 1814. On 31 August 1903 the Chagos Archipelago was administratively separated from the Seychelles and attached to Mauritius.
Between 1793, when the first successful colony was founded on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, until 1973, coconut plantations were established on many of the atolls and isolated islands of the archipelago. Initially the workers were slaves, but after 1840 they were freemen, many of whom were descended from those earlier slaves. They formed an inter-island culture called "Ilois" (a French Creole word meaning Islanders).
20th century
In November 1965, the UK purchased the entire Chagos Archipelago from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million pounds to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the uninhabited British territory from which the U.S. would conduct its military activities in the region. On 30 December 1966, the U.S. and the UK executed an Agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permit the U.S. to use any island of the BIOT for defense purposes for 50 years (through December 2016), followed by a 20 year optional extension (to 2036) to which both parties must agree by December 2014. As of 2010, only the atoll of Diego Garcia has been transformed into a military facility.In April 1966 the British Government bought the entire assets and real property of the Seychellois Chagos Agalega Company, which owned all the islands of the BIOT, for £600,000 and administered them as a government enterprise while awaiting U.S. funding of its proposed facilities, with an interim objective of paying for the administrative expenses of the new territory. However, the plantations, both under their previous private ownership and under government administration, proved consistently unprofitable due to the introduction of new oils and lubricants in the international marketplace, and the establishment of vast coconut plantations in the East Indies and the Philippines.
In March 1971, Seabee
Seabee
Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
U.S. Naval construction battalions arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the Communications Station and an airfield. To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the UK and the U.S. for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year. The plantation workers and their families were relocated to the plantations on Peros Bahnos and Solomon atolls in the northwest of the archipelago; those who requested were transported to the Seychelles or Mauritius. In 1972, the UK decided to close all the remaining plantations throughout the Chagos, and deported the Ilois to their ancestral homes on either the Seychelles or Mauritius. The then-independent Mauritian government refused to accept the islanders without payment, and in 1973, the UK gave the Mauritian government an additional ₤650,000 to resettle the islanders. However despite this islanders often found themselves in woefully inadequate housing and living conditions.
The islanders were known as the Ilois
Ilois
The Chagossians are an ethnic group who were the indigenous inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory. The Chagossians resided in the islands of Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, and had settled in other parts of the Chagos Archipelago, like Egmont...
(one French Creole word for "islanders") and they numbered about 1,000. They were of mixed African and Malay descent and lived very simple, spartan lives in their isolated archipelago. Few remains of their culture have been left, although their dialect (Chagossian Creole
Chagossian Creole
Chagossian Creole is a French-based Creole spoken by the 3,000 or so Chagossians, the former inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago. It is currently spoken mainly in Mauritius and the Seychelles. There is also a small minority community speaking the language in the United Kingdom....
) is still spoken by some descendants in Mauritius and the UK.
Between 1967 and 1973, the entire population was involuntarily removed from the islands and relocated to Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and the Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
to make way for a joint United States-United Kingdom military base on Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
.
Currently, the only human structures on the islands are located in the joint defence and naval support facility on Diego Garcia. Other uninhabited islands, especially in the Salomon group, are common stopping points for long-distance yachtsmen
Cruising (maritime)
Cruising by boat is a lifestyle that involves living for extended time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to trips of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages.- History :...
traveling from Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
to the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
or the coast of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, although a permit is required to visit the outer islands.
Politics
Diego Garcia is currently the only inhabited island in the Chagos, all of which comprise the British Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
, usually abbreviated as “BIOT”. It is an Overseas territory of the United Kingdom, and the Government of the BIOT consists of Commissioner
Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory
The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory is the head of government in the United Kingdom's overseas territory of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The Commissioner is appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office...
appointed by the Queen. The Commissioner is assisted by an Administrator and small staff, and is based in London and resident in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
. This administration is represented in the Territory by the Officer commanding British Forces on Diego Garcia, the "Brit Rep". Laws and regulations are promulgated by the Commissioner and enforced in the BIOT by Brit Rep.
There are no civilian residents or administrators, and the UK represents the Territory internationally. A local government as normally envisioned does not exist.
There are two transnational political issues which affect the BIOT, through the British government.
First, the island nation of Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (which is co-terminus with the BIOT), including Diego Garcia. A subsidiary issue is the Mauritian opposition to the 1 April 2010 UK Government’s declaration that the BIOT is a Marine Protected Area with fishing and extractive industry (including oil and gas exploration) prohibited.
Second, the issue of compensation and repatriation of the former inhabitants of several of the archipelago's atolls, exiled since 1973, continues in litigation and as of this writing (23 August 2010) has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
by a group of former residents.
As these issues affect the BIOT as a political entity, they are more appropriately and completely addressed in the Wikipedia articles British Indian Ocean Territory
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
and Depopulation of Diego Garcia
Depopulation of Diego Garcia
The Diego Garcia depopulation controversy pertains to the expulsion of the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia and the other islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory by the United Kingdom, beginning in 1968 and concluding on 27 April 1973 with the evacuation of Peros Banhos...
.
WikiLeaks CableGate disclosure (2010)
According to Wikileaks CableGate documents, in a calculated move the UK proposed in 2009 that the BIOT become a "marine reserve" with the aim of preventing the former inhabitants from returning to their lands. The summary of the diplomatic cable is as follows :
HMG would like to establish a “marine park” or “reserve” providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on May 12. The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park -- the world’s largest -- would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT’s former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.
Past
Successive UK governments, both Labour and Conservative, have supported environmental conservation of the Chagos and have resisted attempts to allow the exiled Chagossians to return. They have committed to treat the whole area as a World Heritage siteWorld Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. In 2003, the UK government established an Environment (Protection and Preservation) Zone under Article 75 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This zone extends 200 nautical miles from the islands. On eastern Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
, the largest island of the Chagos and the site of a UK–US military facility, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
has designated the very large lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
and the eastern arm of the atoll and seaward reefs as a “wetland of international importance” under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
).
Present
On 1 April 2010 Britain issued a declaration that the Chagos Islands had been legally constituted into the world's largest nature reserve with an area of a quarter of a million square miles.This followed an effort led by The Chagos Environment Network, a collaboration of nine leading conservation and scientific organisations seeking to protect the rich biodiversity of the Chagos Islands and its surrounding waters. It currently urges the UK Government to declare the Chagos archipelago and waters, out to its 200 miles (321.9 km) Environmental Preservation and Protection Zone, a full no-take marine reserve in which extractive activities such as fishing would be prohibited. The Chagos Environment Network cites several reasons for supporting a protected area:
Wildlife : The Chagos no-take marine reserve would maintain the pure and unpolluted waters of Chagos, providing a safe refuge for its rich marine life, including many threatened species, such as turtles and sharks. Seabirds and nesting turtles too will benefit from the additional conservation measures that a protected area will bring. Both groups are recovering from severe depredations of the past in a way that is not possible in most places.
Fisheries : World fish stocks have declined catastrophically because of destructive and unsustainable fisheries practices. The Indian Ocean has been badly affected in this regard, given its heavily populated rim of countries. A large ‘no-take’ protected area would assist fish population recovery, potentially increasing fish numbers over a much wider area. The protected area would also provide a temporary refuge for migratory species, such as tuna, from exploitation.
People : In the long-term, a Chagos no-take marine reserve would contribute to a richer ocean and would benefit people living in and around that ocean, such as the coastal countries of East Africa and elsewhere. In regards to the displaced Chagossian people, whatever the outcome of legal challenges brought by Chagossian groups against the UK government, the Chagos Environment Network believes that the Chagos need conservation now and that this will be beneficial to everyone under all future legal scenarios. The Chagos Environment Network urged that the Chagos Islands and their surrounding waters be designated as a no-take marine reserve "without prejudice” to the outcome of the legal process. This designation would mean that the Chagos Islands and their resources would remain healthy no matter what the future holds, but that conservation arrangements could be modified if necessary in the light of a change in circumstances.
Science : The Chagos is one of the few marine locations in the world where there are almost no ongoing, direct human impacts over almost all of its areas. The marine reserve can serve as a reference site for global scientific research to aid in our understanding of such things as climate change, tropical marine ecosystems and the impacts of commercial fisheries.
Deep ocean : The deep oceanic waters around the Chagos Islands, out to the 200 nautical mile limit, include an exceptional diversity of undersea geological features (such as 6000m deep trenches, oceanic ridges and sea mounts). These areas almost certainly harbour many undiscovered and specially adapted species.
UK international commitments : The creation of the Chagos Protected Area would be an important contribution by the UK to at least seven international environmental conventions. It would also contribute to the UK’s global commitments, such as halting the decline of biodiversity by 2010, establishing marine protection networks by 2012, and restoring depleted fish stocks to sustainable levels by 2015.
The UK government had opened a three-month public consultation
Public consultation
Public consultation, or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought. Its main goals are in improving the efficiency, transparency and public involvement in large-scale projects or laws and policies...
which ended after the 5th of March 2010 about conservation management of the Chagos Islands and its surrounding waters.
Language
The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking Ilois creole, a FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Creole
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
which has not been properly researched from the linguistic point of view.
The island names are a striking combination of Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Creole
Ilois
The Chagossians are an ethnic group who were the indigenous inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory. The Chagossians resided in the islands of Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, and had settled in other parts of the Chagos Archipelago, like Egmont...
names.
See also
- List of islands in Chagos Archipelago
- Depopulation of Diego GarciaDepopulation of Diego GarciaThe Diego Garcia depopulation controversy pertains to the expulsion of the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia and the other islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory by the United Kingdom, beginning in 1968 and concluding on 27 April 1973 with the evacuation of Peros Banhos...
- India–United Kingdom relationsIndia–United Kingdom relationsIndian–British relations are foreign relations between India and the United Kingdom. India has a high commission in London and two consulates-general in Birmingham and Edinburgh. The United Kingdom has a high commission in New Delhi and three deputy high commissions in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata....
- List of island countries and territories in the Indian Ocean
- British Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryThe British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
- Robert MoresbyRobert MoresbyRobert Moresby was a distinguished captain of the British Royal Navy. He was also an excellent hydrographer, maritime surveyor and draughtsman....
Sources
Chapter 1: Stealing a Nation, pp. 19–60- Padma Rao, Der Edikt der Königin, in: Der Spiegel, 5 December 2005, pp. 152–4.
- Xavier Romero-FriasXavier Romero-FriasXavier Romero-Frias , is a Spanish writer and scholar. He lived in the Maldives over a 13-year period. His present residence is in Bangkok, Thailand.-Works:...
, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84-7254-801-5 - David Vine, Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia. Princeton University Press 2009, ISBN 9780691138695
- Washington Post, 04/02/2010
External links
- Stealing a Nation, a Special Report by John Pilger
- The Chagos Environment Network. The Network is a collaboration of nine leading conservation and scientific organisations seeking to protect the rich biodiversity of the Chagos Islands and its surrounding waters.
- The Chagos Conservation Trust. The Trust is a non political organisation whose aims are to promote conservation, scientific and historical research, and to advance education concerning the archipelago.
- Let Them Return - The Chagos People's Homeland Campaign
- Site shows "Flag of the Chagossians" at end of page
- 5 minute film about Chagos Islanders campaign to return
- Indian Ocean Pilot (Portable Document FormatPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - Diego Garcia timeline posted at the History Commons about removal of Chagos Islanders
- Chagos Conservation Management Plan (Portable Document FormatPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean (Portable Document FormatPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - The US military presence on the Chagos Archipelago
- Article about the real history and life of the Chagossians
- Chagos: A Documentary Film
- Stealing Diego Garcia by John PilgerJohn PilgerJohn Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
- The UK Chagos Support Association
- Texas University E Indian Ocean map
- CIA Factbook - British Indian Ocean Territory
- Stealing a Nation (TV documentary, 2004), a Special Report by John Pilger
- A Return from Exile in Sight? The Chagossians and their Struggle, from the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights (Portable Document FormatPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - News Exiles lose appeal over benefits, BBC 02/11/07
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040102894.html?hpid=artslot, Washington Post 4/02/10
