Welcome to GIN - the primary information source about islands worldwide

Home

About GIN

About GLISPA

Achievements

About GID

Functions

Green Islands

Case Studies

Links Directory

News Desk

Calendar

Events diary

Marketplace

With support from


	REGIONAL LINKS DIRECTORY

	Welcome to the GIN regional links directory. The regional directory is categorised under nine major geographic regions. Each region contains a list of websites specifically relating to the chosen region. All websites listed here have been individually chosen based on their quality of content and appropriateness to the specific region they represent. All links contained within this directory are regularly checked to ensure they are currently available and do not lead to broken or missing links. If you do happen to come across a broken link please let us know - email our webmaster describing the offending link and we promise to attend to it at our earliest opportunity.


	ANTARCTIC Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses & Petrels Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre Antarctic Heritage Trust Antarctic Krill Conservation Project Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility Antarctic Ocean Alliance Antarctic Protected Areas Database Antarctic Research Centre Antarctic Research Trust Antarctic Tasmania Antarctic Treaty Secretariat Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund Antarctica New Zealand Australian Antarctic Division Belgian Polar Platform Biota Australis Terrestris BirdLife Global Seabird Programme British Antarctic Survey Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Committee for Environmental Protection Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction Cool Antarctica Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs Environmental Reserarch & Assessment Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea Gateway Antarctica Institut Polaire Francais Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies International Antarctic Institute International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators International Polar Foundation Italian Antarctic Research Programme New Zealand Antarctic Society Norwegian Polar Institute Oceanites SCAR Antarctic Digital Database SCAR Marine Biodiversity Information Network Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Scott Polar Research Institute South African National Antarctic Programme South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute South Georgia Heritage Trust Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Southern Seabird Solutions Trust Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises The 50 South Trust The Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Report The Foundation for Antarctic Research The Joint Australian Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica The Polar Earth Observing Network UK Antarctic Heritage Trust United States Antarctic Resource Center

	ARCTIC The Arctic is an ocean more or less surrounded by land - just the opposite of the Antarctic, which is a huge land mass surrounded by water. The Arctic region generally refers to a rather large land area round the North Pole but the ocean is nearly five times as large as the Mediterranean and is covered with drifting ice which is sometimes 30m thick. Between Greenland and the Canadian mainland is Baffin Island, together with many smaller islands.

	BALTIC An inland sea of northern Europe, the Baltic is nearly 1,600km in length. It lies between Sweden on the west, Finland and the former USSR on the east, and Poland and Germany on the south. It has three main gulfs - the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. Navigation in the Baltic has never been easy. The Danish channels and many of the harbours are too shallow for larger ships and wide areas are regularly frozen over for two months of the winter.

	CARIBBEAN The Caribbean Sea is bounded by the West Indies, the east coast of Central America and the north coast of South America. It is nearly 2,400km long and from 650 to 1,100km wide. The many islands surrounding the Caribbean are really the peaks of mountains submerged beneath the sea. After the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, this sea became one of the busiest waterways in the world, lying on the main route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

	INDIAN OCEAN This is the third largest ocean in the world - after the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - and covers an area of 73,555,715sq km. The Indian Ocean is bordered by Africa on the west, India on the north and Australia on the east, but to the south there is open sea as far as the Antarctic. The southern half of the Indian Ocean has no large islands except Madagascar. Those in the northern half include Sri Lanka and Socotra besides many smaller ones.

	MEDITERRANEAN The Mediterranean Sea is almost landlocked, being joined with the open Atlantic Ocean only by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. It lies between Europe and Africa and is more than 3,220km long. The north side of the Mediterranean is broken up by the Adriatic and Aegean seas as well as by the peninsulas of Italy and Greece. Most of the islands are in the northern part of the sea. In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened, thus making the Mediterranean the shortest sea route between Europe and the East.

	NORTH ATLANTIC The northern half of the world's second largest ocean is rich in islands, varied coastline and tributary seas. On the west are the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay. To the east are the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. As well as purely oceanic islands there are those which rise from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, including the Azores. Other islands such as The Canaries and Madeira rise from Africa's continental margins.

	PACIFIC The Pacific is the largest and deepest of all the oceans with an area of 165 million square kilometres, an area greater than that of all the world's lands put together. At its greatest width the Pacific measures 17,220km. It extends from the Bering Straits of the Arctic Circle, to Cape Adare, Antarctica, a distance of 15,450km. There are very few islands in the eastern Pacific. Its northern and western borders are fringed with chains of islands including The Aleutians, The Kurils and the Ryukus. The Inner Pacific islands are divided into three main groups - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

	SOUTHEAST ASIA Southeast Asia is the name for the peninsular area of the Asian continent that lies between India and China, and stretches south along a chain of islands towards Australia. The countries of mainland Southeast Asia are Malaysia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand and Singapore. Further south lies insular (island) Southeast Asia. This is made up of thousands of islands containing the countries of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and East Timor.