Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo ( Espiritu Santo of Spanish, "Holy Spirit " ), sometimes called just Santo, is 3677 km ² with the largest island in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. The island forms with the island of Malo and at the same time some pretty little islands the Sanma Province of Vanuatu.

It owes its name to the Santo navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós, who on his arrival on the island of the New Hebrides, mistakenly was to have landed in Terra Australis Incognita 1606. He named the island La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo therefore.

The highest point is Mount Tabwemasana ( 1,879 m) in the mountainous, hard to reach the western part of the island. Luganville located in the southeast of Santo, Vanuatu 's second largest city.

The economy of the island consists mainly of the cultivation of coffee and cocoa, as well as fishing and increasingly tourism, especially the diving tourism.

With the Vatthe Conservation Area there are on Espiritu Santo in 1994 the first national park of Vanuatu. He opens up to nearly 23 sq km area in the north of the island mainly rain forest and was established to protect biodiversity. Among the species found in Espirito Santo, one of the Baker - pigeon, which is classified by the IUCN as endangered, and the Santa Cruz dove, which is considered as endangered.