Islands represent less than 1% of Lihou Reef's 8,000 km2 but are essential for a healthy reef ecosystem. Just as we plough and fertilise farmland, nesting turtles turn the sand to lay eggs and seabirds deposit phosphate-rich droppings. The islands vegetation and seabirds cannot exist without one another. These harsh sand cay environments are first colonised by a few species of bird allowing the first shoots of green to appear. Once established, over many years, trees begin to grow and later, seeds of plants like Pisonia are dispersed by birds to other islands so the process can begin all over again. Unfortunately, it is not just the plants that have found the tiny islands we've been visiting... With only a small proportion of the tiny land area providing habitat for nesting seabirds and turtles, island communities are poised on an ecological knife-edge. There is already very little scope for resilience to climate change. Plastic is a by product of the fossil fuel-dependent lifestyle and every time we drink water from a plastic bottle we could be affecting the wildlife on these remote islands. Less