A subset X of a finite lattice L is CD-independent if the meet of any two incomparable elements of X equals 0. In 2009, Czédli, Hartmann and Schmidt proved that any two maximal CD-independent subsets of a finite distributive lattice have the same number of elements. In this paper, we prove that if L is a finite meet-distributive lattice, then the size of every CDindependent subset of L is at most the number of atoms of L plus the length of L. If, in addition, there is no three-element antichain of meet-irreducible elements, then we give a recursive description of maximal CD-independent subsets. Finally, to give an application of CD-independent subsets, we give a new approach to count islands on a rectangular board.Date: July 9, 2013 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 06C10; secondary 05A05 and 05B25 .