Chatham Islands Territory
Chatham Islands exemplify island biogeography: 840km isolation created 47 endemic plants and 18 endemic birds, but limits 620 residents to fishing dependency.
The Chatham Islands are a living laboratory of island biogeography—the ecological theory that predicts species diversity based on island size and isolation distance. Sitting 840 km east of mainland New Zealand with no land between them and Chile, the islands have produced 47 endemic plant species, 18 endemic bird species, and 20% unique insect fauna from complete reproductive isolation. This same isolation that generated black robins and the world's tallest daisy has shaped a human economy equally constrained by distance.
Approximately 620 residents sustain themselves primarily through fishing, with 70% of the workforce tied to harvesting blue cod and crayfish from some of the world's richest fishing grounds. The economy exhibits classic island syndrome: hyperdependence on a single sector, population decline (down 7.7% between 2018 and 2023), and persistent need for government subsidy dating to World War II. Shipping from Napier and Timaru remains the economic lifeline.
Yet isolation now generates conservation value. In February 2025, the Department of Conservation announced a $202 million pest eradication project—targeting islands 15 times larger than any previously cleared in New Zealand—to protect kākāpō and endemic species. The Chathams demonstrate a pattern common to isolated systems: the same geography that creates unique species also creates fragility, and the same remoteness that limits economic options now positions the islands as sanctuaries for species that cannot survive mainland predation.