Why Iona in the Inner Hebrides is the ultimate modern pilgrimage
| | WASHINGTON, US, 24 March 2026 (Nat.Geog) - People seeking a spiritual escape often instinctively make for far-flung places: to the ashrams of India, the ayahuasca retreats of the Amazon or the mossy gardens of the Balinese hills. But the British Isles also has its own deep history of spiritual retreats; of early Christian saints who withdrew to windswept places along the Atlantic shore. Foremost among them was Iona, a rocky, near-treeless landmass in the Inner Hebrides that served as a first foothold of Christianity in early medieval Britain. |
Tonga PM welcomes US deal to explore deep-sea minerals
| | NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga, 24 March 2026 (Guardian) - The recently elected leader of Tonga, Lord Fakafanua, has described a deal to partner with the US on deep-sea mineral exploration as an “exciting development” amid concern in the small Pacific nation over the practice of seabed mining and the potential environmental impact. |
At sea with the Antarctic's krill supertrawlers
| | LONDON, UK, 24 March 2026 (Guardian) - I am in the waters off Coronation Island in the South Orkney Islands, a glaciated 25-mile finger of jagged mountain slopes a day’s sail from the Antarctic peninsula. It is as isolated as a place can be. Yet Sea Shepherd contends that it is the site of one of the most inaccessible and environmentally ruinous industrial workplaces on Earth. |
Chile's endemic seals gain protection with new marine park
| | LONDON, UK, 23 March 2026 (Guardian) - Sixty years after the discovery of a small colony of 20 endemic fur seals, previously thought to be extinct, was confirmed on Robinson Crusoe Island, one of the Juan Fernández archipelagos’ three islands - named after Daniel Defoe’s fictionalised tale of the real-life sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned there from 1704 to 1709 - a landmark agreement extends ‘no take’ zone around the wildlife-rich archipelago. |
The ocean's enforcement gap
| | SAN FRANCISCO, US, 23 March 2026 (Mongabay) - Governments have designated vast marine protected areas and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030, enforcement often lags behind these commitments. Research shows that the ecological benefits of marine protected areas depend less on their size than on whether rules are visible, monitored, and enforced. New tools - such as satellite imagery, vessel-tracking systems, and data analytics - are making it easier and cheaper to detect illegal fishing and focus enforcement efforts. As monitoring improves, the future of ocean conservation may depend less on creating new protected areas than on ensuring existing rules are consistently applied. |
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SIDS |
 | | 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States 27-30 May 2024, Antigua and Barbuda |
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NAF |
| | North Atlantic Forum bi-annual international conference 17-21 June, 2024, Connemara, Ireland, |
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IWRA |
| | 1st Islands Water Congress 4-6 Sept, 2024, Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
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ANATOMY OF ISLANDS |
| | 12th Anatomy of Islands symposium 26-28 Sept, 2024, Jelsa, Hvar Island, Croatia |
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CIS |
| | Critical Island Studies 4th international conference 3-4 Oct, 2024, Manila, Philippines |
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CBD |
| | COP16 21 Oct-1 Nov, 2024, Cali, Colombia |
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UNFCCC |
| | COP29 11-22 November, 2024, Baku, Azerbaijan |
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ISLAND DYNAMICS |
| | DARKNESS II conference, 20-23 January 2025, Nuuk, Greenland |
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JICAS |
| | Islands And Island Studies conference 3-7 June, 2025, Jersey, Channel Islands |
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UNITED NATIONS |
| | UN Ocean Conference 9-13 June, 2025, Nice, France |
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UPEI |
| | 3rd international conference on SIS and SNIJs 16-20 June, 2025, Charlottetown, PEI |
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SICRI |
| | Island Studies International Conference 25-28 June, 2026, Tacloban City, Leyte Islands, Philippines |
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ISISA |
| | 20th Islands of the World Conference 7-11 July 2026, Shinan County, Jeollanam-do, South Korea |
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