Trouble in paradise: Lord Howe Island divided over plan to exterminate rats

Lord Howe Island, 600km east of the Australian mainland, is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. Photograph: R. Ian Lloyd/Masterfile/Corbis

 Described by the UN as “an area of spectacular and scenic landscapes”, Lord Howe Island is nothing if not dramatic. Formed from an inferno of underwater volcanoes more than six million years ago, the 10km long crescent-shaped island sits in a bath of turquoise water, exactly where the warm East Australian Current meets the icy waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Read more.