"Newly Found Species on World's Large Islands Already at Risk"

"GLAND, Switzerland -- At least 1,060 new species were discovered on the island of New Guinea from 1998 to 2008, but unsustainable logging and plantation agriculture are putting many of these creatures at risk, finds a new study by the global conservation organization WWF.

On another of the world's large islands, Madagascar off Africa's southeast coast, WWF has produced a separate report documenting the 615 new species that scientists discovered during the decade from 1999 to 2010.

New Guinea is the largest tropical island on Earth and is divided between the countries of Papua New Guinea in the east and Indonesia in the west. Here, the third largest rainforest in the world shelters about eight percent of the world's 250,000 species. More than two-thirds of them are unique to New Guinea and found nowhere else on Earth."

Environment News Service had the story June 27, 2011.