Islands, especially small ones, are commonly studied as microcosms of natural and social processes. In this article, La Digue island (10 km2) in the Seychelles archipelago was treated as such. An attempt was made to analyse the significance of the natural environment for the features of spatial development under conditions of intense globalisation. For this purpose, functional micro-regions were determined, along with their genesis and evolution. Spatial dynamics and individual features of space are presented as