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This study provides a preliminary review of the economic value of the ecosystem goods and services of the Chagos Islands, central Indian Ocean, in the period immediately prior to the designation of the Chagos marine reserve in April 2010. The goods and services valued include inshore and offshore fisheries, shoreline protection, scientific value, the islands’ possible role in supporting southwest Indian Ocean fisheries and in southwest Indian Ocean reef recovery and its value as a unique and unspoiled ecosystem. The goods and services identified were largely intangible, with few associated directly with a market. Both the nature of the subject, particularly the significance of its non-use values and the uniqueness of the site, as well as incomplete data, presented valuation challenges. In order to accommodate these characteristics, estimates of annual economic flow were provided in addition to economic values. The study estimated possible annual economic flows of several hundred million pounds, with an economic value in excess of £1 billion (£10⁹), with the benefits accruing both regionally in the southwest Indian Ocean and globally.

Eliza Gettel’s paper on the displacement of the Delians in the second century BCE does an excellent job of examining an ancient case study of displacement through the lens of contemporary conceptions of displacement and asylum. In this paper, I try, as a modern historian of asylum, to reflect on the applicability of modern classifications to a case study over 2000 years old. First, I discuss the compatibility of the ancient with the modern. Subsequently, I engage much more deliberately with the arguments Gettel presents in her paper. Finally, I introduce a contemporary case study involving the displacement of people from the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean that I argue shares some similarities with that of the Delians, with both cases highlighting the often-neglected agency of the displaced.

This study compiled a wide range of modern and historic geospatial datasets to examine ecological and geomorphic change at Diego Garcia Atoll across a 38-year period (1967–2005). This remarkable collection of spatially referenced information offered an opportunity to advance our understanding of the nature and extent of environmental change that has taken place with the construction of the military airbase at Diego Garcia. Changes assessed included movements of the lagoon rim shorelines, changes in the terrestrial vegetation on the lagoon rim and amendments to the bathymetry of the lagoon basin through dredging activities. Data compiled included detailed shoreline and vegetation maps produced as part of the H.M.S. Vidal Indian Ocean Expedition (1967), three Ikonos satellite images acquired in 2005 that collectively covered the complete Atoll area, a ground truthing field dataset collected in the northern section of the lagoon for the purpose of seafloor mapping (2005), observational evidence of shoreline erosion including photographs and descriptions of seawater inundations and bathymetric soundings from five independent surveys of the lagoon floor (1967, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1997). Results indicated that much of the change along the lagoon rim is associated with the expansion of the inner lagoon shoreline as a result of the construction of the military airbase, with an estimated increase in land area of 3.01 km2 in this portion of the atoll rim. Comparisons of 69 rim width transects measured from 1967 and 2005 indicated that shorelines are both eroding (26 transects) and accreting (43 transects). Within a total vegetated area of 24 km2, there was a notable transition from Cocos Woodland to Broadleaf Woodland for a land area of 5.6 km2. From the hydrographic surveys, it was estimated that approximately 0.55 km3 of carbonate sediment material has been removed from the northwest quadrant of the lagoon, particularly in the vicinity of the Main Passage. As no previous record of benthic character exists, a complete benthic habitat map of the atoll was derived through classification of the three IKONOS satellite images. Management implications arising from this overall appraisal of geomorphic and ecological change at Diego Garcia included the need for ongoing monitoring of shoreline change at a representative set of sites around the atoll rim, monitoring of the water flow regime through the northern channels between the open ocean and the lagoon basin and an ongoing mapping campaign to record periodic changes in the character of the benthic surface ecology.

The Chagos Islanders have faced various legal barriers in their campaign for the right of return to the Chagos Archipelago. Here, Laura Jeffery presents one more twist in this long winding road, namely how the courts regard WikiLeaks evidence revealing how British politicians hatched plans to turn these islands into a nature reserve, thus effectively maintaining the status quo of the existing no‐return policy.

In the wake of the designation of two new 'marine protected areas' adjacent to the coastal waters of the South Orkney Islands (British Antarctic Territory) and the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), this commentary considers some of the geographical, legal and political implications of these unilateral declarations — taking into account competing claims of jurisdiction by Mauritius and the Maldives; human rights claims of the Chagos islanders; strategic interests of the United States in the Indian Ocean; and shared legislative competences of the European Union in the field of marine fisheries. The two case studies also raise questions of global arms control, diplomatic efforts at 'greening' imperialism, and contemporary state practice with regard to the 'sacred trust of civilisation' for dependent territories, as spelled out in the United Nations Charter.

Tor Sellström profiles the independent island states and the European dependencies in the African part of the Indian Ocean, their contemporary social, political and economic challenges, the wider international context and their relations with, in particular, Africa and the African Union.

This article analyses political questions pertaining to the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory). In particular, it highlights the interrelatedness of various public policy issues that the extant academic literature has treated as distinct: (i) the US military presence on Diego Garcia; (ii) UK efforts to protect the natural environment of the Chagos Islands; and (iii) the human rights of the exiled Chagossians, the indigenous people of the Chagos Archipelago. The concept of a trilemma is used to illustrate the unhelpful way in which the interrelatedness of these issues currently is portrayed by the relevant political actors. The article concludes with recommendations for how the trade-offs between military security, environmental and human rights objectives could be made less stark in the interests of all concerned.

The Chagos islanders were forcibly uprooted from the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean between 1965 and 1973. This is the first book to compare the experiences of displaced Chagos islanders in Mauritius with the experiences of those Chagossians who have moved to the UK since 2002. It thus provides a unique ethnographic comparative study of forced displacement and onward migration within the living memory of one community. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Mauritius and Crawley (West Sussex), the six chapters explore Chagossians’ challenging lives in Mauritius, the mobilisation of the community, reformulations of the homeland, the politics of culture in exile, onward migration to Crawley, and attempts to make a home in successive locations. Jeffery illuminates how displaced people romanticise their homeland through an exploration of changing representations of the Chagos Archipelago in song lyrics. Offering further ethnographic insights into the politics of culture, she shows how Chagossians in exile engage with contrasting conceptions of culture ranging from expectations of continuity and authenticity to enactments of change, loss and revival. The book will appeal particularly to social scientists specialising in the fields of migration studies, the anthropology of displacement, political and legal anthropology, African studies, Indian Ocean studies, and the anthropology of Britain, as well as to readers interested in the Chagossian case study.