The Îles du Salut are a small archipelago in French Guiana, about 14 kilometres off Kourou on the Atlantic coast. The name refers to three islands: Île Royale, Île Saint-Joseph and Île du Diable, or Devil’s Island. Seen from the mainland, their green slopes and palms can suggest a tropical escape. Their history is much harder: from the nineteenth century onward, the French state used the islands as part of its colonial penal system, sending prisoners into an isolated Atlantic environment. Today visitors encounter both a protected natural setting and the physical remains of that history.
The French Ministry of Culture’s heritage register treats the islands as one connected historic landscape. Its 2012 protection covers buildings and improvements associated with the colonial penal colonies, Amerindian remains and the ground itself, subject to listed exceptions. The record identifies the public space agency CNES as owner, while certain parcels on Île Royale are assigned to the Conservatoire du littoral and the environment ministry. This administrative arrangement reflects the site’s unusual present-day setting: heritage conservation, coastal protection, ecological management and the nearby spaceport all meet here.