The Canaries: an important biogeographical meeting place

We were delighted on two counts to be able to act as the conveners of the third biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society (IBS) in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife in January 2007. First, the conference facilities generously provided for our use by the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife made an excellent venue for the free-flowing discussion with colleagues old and new that is the hallmark of a good academic meeting, while the symposia and poster presentations alike were of a uniformly high standard. In short, it was acknowledged by those attending to be a thoroughly successful meeting, which showed biogeography to be a dynamic and exciting discipline and demonstrated that the still recent initiative of launching the IBS in 2000 was long overdue. Second, holding the meeting in the Canary Islands provided an opportunity to bring the archipelago to the attention of the biogeographical community, hopefully generating wider interest in the biogeography, ecology, evolution and conservation of the wonderful diversity of ecosystems and species found within the archipelago. This brief introduction is divided into two parts. First, we provide a brief comment focused on the content of this Special Issue, and second, we provide a short overview of the special biogeographical setting of the Canary Islands, emphasizing the pressures on the natural environment today and some of the measures in place for the conservation of nature within the archipelago.