The significance of oceanic islands as natural laboratories and their contribution to the knowledge of biological, ecological and evolutionary processes has been widely recognized since the time of Darwin. Nevertheless, there are also natural and human induced “islands”  in the mainland with endemic species, that resemble oceanic islands in several ecological aspects. Regardless of their origin, historically, islands are subjected to similar stressors that threatens the maintenance of their unique biodiversity and conservation relevance. The accidental or intentional introduction of exotic species, diseases, harvesting and hunting of insular species, changes in the nature of biotic interactions and more recently, climate change, are some factors driving some insular species to extinction. This symposium would gather island ecologists from across the neo- and paleotropics to reveal the intrinsic and external factors, including humans, threatening biodiversity and function in islands of different origins. For this, the symposium would include studies in oceanic islands (e.g., Hawaii, Galapagos, Cozumel, Seychelles, Balearic, etc.), natural vegetation patches in the mainland (e.g., The Petenes, river and lake archipelagos), as well as human induced “islands” caused by habitat fragmentation. The participants from multicultural origin and nationalities, would discuss different conservation approaches and paradoxes to propose novel management techniques for the conservation of natural and anthropogenic islands in the face of global change.