Politics of the Collectivity of Saint Martin Politics of the Collectivity of Saint Martin Saint Martin was a French commune for many years and formed part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas "région" and "département" of France and is therefore in the European Union. In 2003, the population of the French part of the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity (COM) of France. On 9 February 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint Barthélemy. The new status took effect once the local assembly
Biodiversity of New Caledonia least the mid-Miocene, and possibly from the Oligocene, and that isolation has preserved its relict biota, fostering the evolution of wide ranges of endemic species. New Caledonia lies on the southernmost edge of the tropical zone, near the Tropic of Capricorn. It is part of the Melanesia subregion. It includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, the Chesterfield Islands in the Coral Sea, and a few remote islets. The archipelago is about east of Australia and 1500 km, 1800 km and 1200 km from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and