Wildlife Sanctuary: Luxury Hotel Plans

Aldabra is a small ring of islands isolated in the middle of the Indian Ocean where wildlife that doesn't survive elsewhere on the planet flourishes.

Aldabra is actually the world's largest raised coral atoll, which makes all it contributes to the world that much more unique and precious.

This fragile ecosystem is now threatened with plans to build a hotel on Aldabra by the Seychelles government.



Above: Aerial view of Aldabra, the world's largest raised coral atoll.

The reason animals and plants flourish here is because humans have not interfered with it. Now that a luxury hotel is planned, the atoll's incredible ability to provide for wildlife may be in serious jeopardy.

Click HERE to learn more about this disturbing possiblity and what is being done about it.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"VICTORIA (Reuters) - Isolated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the world's largest raised coral atoll, Aldabra, is the land that time forgot.

Thousands of giant tortoises, exterminated across most of the world, roam the inhospitable terrain.

Huge robber crabs -- the world's largest terrestrial arthropods -- measuring up to 3 ft in length, scour the beaches, climbing up coconut palms and ripping open coconut shells with their massive pincers.

White throated rails, the last surviving flightless bird of the Indian Ocean -- a region famous for the now extinct dodo -- wander amid the dense scrub.

Hawksbill and green turtles come in their thousands to breed on the shores of the atoll. In decline almost everywhere else, the numbers returning to Aldabra are rising each year.

Accommodating 200 plant species onshore and waters teeming in sharks, ray, groupers and other exotic fish, Aldabra, along with the Galapagos islands, is one of the world's greatest surviving natural treasures.

"Aldabra is a very special place because it is virtually untouched by the modern world," says Guy Esperon, warden of Aldabra.

"Its remoteness from the rest of the world has ensured the survival and protection of all of the species on Aldabra," he adds.

But conservationists say this fragile ecosystem is now under threat with plans to build a hotel on Aldabra by the Seychelles government, which administers the atoll."