The largest raised coral atoll in the world, 86 km by 15, with the southern 37,000 hectares of it listed by UNESCO in 1998. In the middle sits Lake Tegano, which used to be the lagoon before the whole atoll lifted out of the sea; the lake surface is still at sea level and the water is brackish. What lives here lives nowhere else: 21 of its 50 bird species are endemic, one of the 11 bats, 7 of the 27 land snails, and Crocker’s sea snake exists only in that lake. Close to 730 insect species. About 800 people live in four villages around the water, farming and fishing for everything they need. It went onto the World Heritage in Danger list in 2013 because of logging, and it is still there.
Rennell Island, Solomon Islands
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