This article discusses the Mauritian offshore islet and nature reserve Ile aux Aigrettes as an example of how the tension between isolation and connectivity of small islands plays out in the context of nature conservation. Combining approaches from island studies, anthropology, and geography, and based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, the article enquires into how ‘pristine’ nature on Ile aux Aigrettes is produced. It shows how the selective mobility of humans, animals, and plants is part and parcel in producing a seemingly isolated island, e.g. in the case of visiting scientists, species translocation, and invasive species. This shows how the production of the isolated ‘pristine’ island is dependent on global connections and flows. Isolation and connectivity of islands, I argue here, depend on each other, and are significantly co-constituted by nonhuman mobilities. Nature conservation on Ile aux Aigrettes will be looked at as a reference towards an ideal past or a utopian future, protected as signifiers for a world in socio-ecological balance.

中文翻译：

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纠缠（非）人类的孤立与联系：毛里求斯艾格勒艾格勒特岛上的岛屿自然保护

本文讨论了毛里求斯的近海小岛和自然保护区艾勒奥·艾格瑞特（Ile aux Aigrettes），以此作为在自然保护的背景下小岛的隔离和连通性之间的紧张关系如何发挥作用的一个例子。结合岛屿研究，人类学和地理学的方法，并基于人种学的田野调查和访谈，本文探究了如何在艾格勒阿格勒特岛上产生“原始的”自然。它显示了人类，动物和植物的选择性迁移是如何产生一个看似孤立的岛屿的重要组成部分，例如在访问科学家，物种易位和入侵物种的情况下。这表明孤立的“原始”岛屿的生产如何依赖于全球联系和流量。我在这里认为，岛屿的隔离和连通性是相互依赖的，并且是由非人类活动共同构成的。艾格·奥格勒特岛上的自然保护将被视为对理想的过去或乌托邦式未来的参考，被保护为社会生态平衡世界的象征。