7 Jun 2011

Biodiversity study of Vanuatu's Santo island released

3:30 pm on 7 June 2011

The results of a broad study of the biodiversity of the Vanuatu island of Santo have been made available to the Vanuatu authorities.

The study involved more than 150 researcher from about 25 countries who spent several month in 2006 on Santo to examine the island's reefs, forests and rivers.

The project was led by Philippe Bouchet of the Natural History Museum in Paris, a French university professor, Herve Le Guyader, and Olivier Pascal of pro-Natura International.

The team catalogued thousands of species and is believed to have found more than a thousand new ones.

The findings are contained in an illustrated 500-page book called the Natural History of Santo.