Cocos Island is a unique and exceptional insular territory. These attributes are determined by a series of conditions related to its geological origin, geographical location and its oceanic island character, which provide a diversity of natural environments with an exceptional flora and fauna of both marine and land species.

Cocos Island emerged as an oceanic island after a volcanic event in the underwater mountains that developed over the Cocos Tectonic Plate in the eastern tropical Pacific ocean. It is the only territory that emerged from this undersea mountain range, and, as such, is an important area for study and for monitoring the geological phenomena and the tectonics of its plates.

Oceanic islands are unique and scarce. Upon emerging in the middle of the ocean, there was no life on Cocos Island. Because it was so far from the mainland, the colonization by continental organisms was slow and uneven. It is possible to observe that some groups of organisms that developed on the island were well represented, others less so and still others were totally absent, which began a deficient and unharmonious biota, although exceptional in relation to the continental biota.

A special characteristic of oceanic islands is the presence of endemic plants and animals, that is to say, of organisms that are found only in that part of the world. These endemisms are the product of evolution in isolated areas due to an absence of external genetic derivation, especially from the continent.

Another distinctive characteristic of oceanic islands, such as Cocos Island, is that the ecological and evolutionary processes take place in simple ecosystems (with few organisms), which makes their study easier and more accessible to researchers.

Cocos Island offers two other outstanding characteristics from a biological and ecological point of view. The first refers to the existence of a great diversity of insular environments, marine and land, relative to its size, which has developed a special and unique biota despite the limited numerical diversity.

The second characteristic refers to the geographic isolation of the island. As the only emergent point of the undersea Cocos mountain range in this sector of the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is a point of convergence for migratory marine species that arrive from the open sea to the waters surrounding the island to complete various stages of their life cycles (particularly feeding and reproduction). This converts the area into a key location in the region for the maintenance of reserves of marine resources, and a very important area for the study of the behavior, reproduction and population dynamics of the marine species. The geographic isolation also is a condition that permits the processes of natural selection and evolution on land.

The second characteristic refers to the geographic isolation of the island. As the only emergent point of the undersea Cocos mountain range in this sector of the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is a point of convergence for migratory marine species that arrive from the open sea to the waters surrounding the island to complete various stages of their life cycles (particularly feeding and reproduction). This converts the area into a key location in the region for the maintenance of reserves of marine resources, and a very important area for the study of the behavior, reproduction and population dynamics of the marine species. The geographic isolation also is a condition that permits the processes of natural selection and evolution on land.

Cocos Island is located in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean in a strategic geographical position that is unique and exceptional in relation to the climactic and oceanographic phenomena that conditions the regional environment and that of the island.

Climatically, this island is located at a point that is affecteded by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ZCIT) in its north-south-north migratory oscillation. This fact converted it into the only oceanic island in the eastern tropical Pacific with a very high yearly rainfall. This constitutes an exceptional characteristic in the regional context.

Also, because of its geographic location, the island is influenced by a complex system of marine currents that expose it to the reception of an unusual number of organisms from the American continent, as well as to organisms of Indo-Pacific origin, that is to say, from the central and western Pacific and from the western Indian Ocean. Because of this, its fauna and flora (biota) are a very particular mix of biological elements from diverse origins, with an endemic component that developed on the island as a consequence of its isolation.

Finally, due to its geographic location, Cocos Island is an ideal place to study and monitor the climactic and oceanographic phenomena of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, and of global phenomena such as the southern oscillation of El Niño (ENOS).

One can conclude that Cocos Island is a veritable living laboratory, with a scientific importance that surpasses the limits of national and regional interest and which enters into the sphere of international interest for all humanity.