East Rennell is the southern portion of

Rennell Island Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the nation state of Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of that is about long and wide. It is th ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

which is designated a UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. Rennell is the largest

raised coral atoll A raised coral atoll or uplifted coral atoll is an atoll that has been lifted high enough above sea level by tectonic forces to protect it from scouring by storms and enable soils and diverse – often endemic – species of flora and fauna to de ...

in the world and the area in East Rennell surrounding Lake Tegano contains many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species. In 2013, the

World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance ...

added East Rennell to the

List of World Heritage in Danger The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through the World Heritage Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention,Full title: ''Conv ...

because of the threat of logging activities to the site's outstanding universal value.

Site

Rennell is situated in the Western Pacific and is the southernmost of the

, being some . It is the largest uplifted coral

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

in the world, occupying . It is mostly clad in dense forest and in the centre of the south end of the island is Lake Tegano (also known as Te Nggano), which was at one time the atoll's

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

; the surface of the lake is at sea level and the water is brackish. It is surrounded by cliffs and contains a number of small limestone islands. East Rennell, designated as a World Heritage Site in 1998, is at the southern end of the island; the site includes Lake Tegano, the land surrounding it, and the marine areas stretching for three nautical miles from the island. The site is unspoiled, prone to damage by

cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

s, and is "considered to be a true natural laboratory for scientific study."

History

The island has about 800 inhabitants living in four villages around Lake Tegano. They are subsistence farmers and fishermen, relying on the forests and waters to provide them with all their basic needs. A management plan for the site was completed in 2007 in conjunction with the islanders which recognises their rights to continue their traditional cultural practices and way of life. These are thought not to be detrimental to the site, the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

stating that "customary ownership can be more conducive to conservation than if the land was under the control of a distant government office".

Flora and fauna

The island is covered with dense forest which provides habitat for the many bird species. It is logging in the west end of the island, outside the site area, which is threatening the bird population of the whole island by depleting the areas of the forest they need. As a result, in 2013, UNESCO added East Rennell to its

. Fifty species of bird have been recorded on the island, twenty-one of these being endemic. The site has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of several of these bird species, including silver-capped fruit doves, yellow-bibbed lories, Rennell parrots, green pygmy parrots,

cardinal myzomela The cardinal myzomela (''Myzomela cardinalis'') is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is named for the scarlet color of the male. It is found in American Samoa, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, as ...

Rennell gerygone The Rennell gerygone (''Gerygone citrina'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found on Rennell Island. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the fan-tailed gerygone (''Gerygone flavolateralis''), but was split as a dist ...

Rennell fantail The Rennell fantail (''Rhipidura rennelliana'') is a species of bird in the family Rhipiduridae. It is endemic to Rennell Island (Solomon Islands). Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Description The plumag ...

Melanesian flycatcher The Melanesian flycatcher (''Myiagra caledonica'') is a species of bird in the monarch-flycatcher family Monarchidae. The species is found on islands in Melanesia. Taxonomy and systematics It is closely related to the Vanikoro flycatcher. Alte ...

Rennell shrikebill The Rennell shrikebill (''Clytorhynchus hamlini'') is a songbird species in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The binomial comm ...

s, bare-eyed and Rennell white-eyes, and

Rennell starling The Rennell starling (''Aplonis insularis'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is endemic to Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands. The plumage of the Rennell starling is blackish with a green-blue gloss. It has a yellow-ora ...

s. One reptile of note is Crocker's sea snake, an endemic species found in Lake Tegano and nowhere else in the world. There are 11 species of bat (one endemic), 27 species of land snail (seven endemics) and close to 730 insect species, many of which are endemic present in the region. Over 300 species of diatoms and algae, a few of them endemic, form its rich flora.

Gallery

File:East Rennell-112635.jpg File:East Rennell-112637.jpg File:East Rennell-112639.jpg File:East Rennell-112641.jpg File:East Rennell-112647.jpg

References

{{Reflist, 30em Geography of the Solomon Islands World Heritage Sites in the Solomon Islands Rennell and Bellona Islands World Heritage Sites in Danger Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands