"This just shows why issues of vital environmental importance shouldn't be handed over.
Its uniqueness and historic and environmental importance would make a federal commitment "not unlikely," he said.
The central question was how to balance the archipelago's environmental importance with its original inhabitants' right to go home.
As well as their environmental importance, sharks are a valuable resource for the fishing and tourism industries".
Biologists decry our fixation on "charismatic megafaune", pointing out that for every cuddly polar bear there are 10 insects of equal environmental importance and concern.
For three decades, she has tried to bring public awareness to the environmental importance of supporting small farmers and the joy of eating well-prepared and fresh meals that are simple.
China has long understood the plateau's environmental importance and vulnerability, with some 40% of the world's fresh water locked into the frozen Himalayan glaciers and feeding seven major rivers that run through China, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
All Arctic terrains are sensitive to human-induced thermal disturbance, especially by vehicular traffic or oil-pipeline operations, and the preservation of the original soil climate is of great environmental importance.
Meanwhile, says Lynne Zeitlin Hale of the Nature Conservancy, an American charity, the sea's environmental importance is better understood: for instance, in regulating the climate, recycling oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide.
"The environmental importance is an added bonus," says Platel.
Water is a substance of great environmental importance.
