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Colombia reignites territorial dispute with Nicaragua over islands
BOGOTA , Colombia, 19 October 2026 (LAR) – On a visit to the San Andres and Providencia archipelago, Colombia’s northernmost territory, President Abelardo de la Espriella reignited a decades-long dispute with Nicaragua. Reaffirming Colombian sovereignty over the islands and their territorial waters, the far-right leader dismissed a 2012 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that expanded Nicaragua’s maritime boundary, pledging to redraw the nautical map. Though de la Espriella pledged dialogue with Managua, he also threatened to use force if needed to “defend the sovereignty” of Colombia, ratcheting up diplomatic tensions between the two nations. |
Expedition fails to find fresh clues in hunt for Amelia Earhart’s plane
LONDON, UK, 19 October 2026 (CNN) - A recent expedition to remote Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has come up empty. Researchers said they found “no conclusive evidence” that the famed aviator landed her Lockheed 10E Electra aircraft on or near the small atoll south of the original pit stop of her ill-fated flight nearly 90 years ago. |
African island fights offshore gambling network linked to UK family
LONDON, UK, 19 October 2026 (Guardian) - The island of Anjouan, rising out of the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is a corner of the Earth that few people have heard of, let alone laid eyes on. Known as Nzwani in the local language, this tiny volcanic island – one of a collection that make up the Union of Comoros – counts ylang-ylang oil and vanilla among its chief exports. Yet Anjouan has stumbled into a role at the heart of a much more dangerous but highly lucrative industry: underground online gambling. The African island has become notorious for selling licences to rogue casinos, many operating illegally. |
Tap water no longer drinkable in Longyearbyen in Svalbard
LONDON, UK, 19 October 2026 (Guardian) - Residents of a remote town in Norway that is in one of the fastest-warming places in the world have been told they must no longer drink tap water due to heavy metal contamination that scientists have linked to the thawing permafrost. Longyearbyen, in the archipelago of Svalbard, gets its main drinking water supply from a 2.5km long dammed lake called Isdammen, or “ice pond”. Higher temperatures as a result of the climate crisis have thawed permafrost, leading to newly exposed bedrock leaching metals into the pond. |
Syros amphibians face extinction as Greek island’s wetlands vanish
LONDON, UK, 19 October 2026 (Bioengineer) - On the Greek island of Syros, the amphibians and reptiles that once thrived in its wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. The Balkan Water Frog and the Balkan Terrapin, both recorded on Syros in the nineteenth century, have now vanished entirely. The European Green Toad survives at only a single known breeding site, and the status of the Grass Snake remains uncertain. |
Tasmania’s gains against kelp-grazing sea urchins threatened
HOBART, Australia, 19 October 2026 (Mongabay) - The long-spined sea urchin is an invasive species in the waters around Tasmania, Australia, and it’s been munching away the state’s kelp forests. A state program offers financial incentives to support a commercial fishery for the urchins and their highly valuable roe, with the aim of reducing urchin numbers in targeted areas so that kelp can rebound. Researchers say the program has been effective in helping to recover some of the state’s kelp forests. Now, however, they warn that progress is threatened by a shift to short-term funding cycles that undermine stability for harvesters and put kelp recovery on wobbly ground. |
Rival groups claim independent leadership of Norfolk Island
CANBERRA, Australia, 17 October 2026 (Politico) - On Feb. 7, a group of Norfolk Island residents sent a letter to Territories Minister Kristy McBain seeking “clarification and reassurance” over a bizarre situation in the external Australian territory. The group claimed Norfolk Island resident Leah Honeywood had been appearing at forums in the Pacific and representing herself as the leader of an island that has been under Canberra’s control since 1914. |
New research reveals more about volcanic origins of Lord Howe Island
PORT MACQUARIE, Australia, 18 October 2026 (ABC) - Two chains of mainly submerged volcanoes run along Australia's east coast, with Lord Howe one of the only remnant volcanoes above the sea. The chains were formed as the Australian tectonic plate has moved over a deep Earth hotspot for millions of years. A new research paper suggests the chains formed from a single hotspot, and that the upwelling of hot rock, known as the mantle plume, split in two. |
Beyond GDP - Sustainable economic growth in island economies
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, 17 October 2026 (KPMG) - Small island economies are navigating a period of heightened global uncertainty. Slowing growth, demographic shifts and increasing exposure to economic and environmental shocks are placing added strain on these economies. Against this backdrop, KPMG Islands Group has launched a new report, Beyond GDP – Sustainable Economic Growth in Island Economies, which provides timely insight into how island jurisdictions can respond, highlighting both the risks and the significant opportunities ahead. |
Indonesian women cash in on mangrove restoration
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 17 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Wisye Sahambangung, a fisher and mangrove conservationist from Sarawet, a village in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, has gone from receiving government assistance for low-income families to leading a women’s group restoring mangroves and creating livelihood opportunities. In 2022, she helped establish Rhizopora, which now collects mangrove propagules, supplies seedlings, monitors coastal areas, and supports restoration projects. |
Indonesia’s neighbours fed up with acrid haze
SINGAPORE, 16 October 2026 (Guardian) - Singapore is threatening to prosecute companies responsible for some of the worst fires in years in neighbouring Indonesia, as the region grows increasingly frustrated with a persistent, acrid haze that could result in diplomatic relations fraying. |
Island fossil identified as new dinosaur species
LONDON, UK, 14 October 2026 (BBC) - A new species of dinosaur - a long-clawed predator the size of a large tiger - has been identified from a fossil found on the Isle of Wight more than 100 years ago. |
'Onion cartel' in Philippines fined $28m for price shock
LONDON, UK, 16 October 2026 (BBC) - Filipino authorities say they have fined six companies 1.76 billion pesos ($27.9m; £21m) for forming an "onion cartel" that caused the price of the vegetable to skyrocket. In 2022 the price of onions, a staple of Philippine kitchens, surged to a record 800 pesos per 1kg, surpassing the country's daily minimum wage and overtaking the price of meat. The crisis put pressure on then newly-elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who had promised to bring down surging food prices. |
VW, Ford and Tesla batteries linked to destructive deforestation
SULAWESI, Indonesia, 16 October 2026 (Guardian) - Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla are among the electric carmakers whose batteries may contain nickel mined in indigenous woodlands plagued by deforestation, an analysis has found, highlighting the struggle to make vehicles that are free from environmental destruction. Corporate disclosures and trade flows from the last two years show mines in the battery supply chains of automotive giants are linked to the loss of trees in Sulawesi, a wildlife hotspot in Indonesia that houses the world’s largest nickel deposits. The metal is widely used in cathodes in car batteries because it boosts energy density and increases range. |
The islands keeping Germany safe
BONN, Germany, 16 October 2026 (DW) - Rising sea levels are threatening a way of life for hundreds of millions of island dwellers across the world. Tropical islands might be some of the first that come to mind, but it’s a problem that’s made its way to Europe, too. Germany, for example, is currently wrestling with questions of how to preserve its beloved islands in the North Sea whose cultures and traditions date back centuries. Not to mention their proud history of adapting to turbulent waters. |
Sister Islands cat cull to continue without shooting
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, 16 October 2026 (CC) - The culling of feral cats that threaten rare seabirds in the Sister Islands will continue, according to the Department of Environment, though trapped cats will no longer be shot. |
Seagrass meadows may offer a more nutritious catch than reefs
BRIDGEND, Wales, 16 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Researchers surveyed 40 sites along the East African coastline from Kenya to Mozambique, studying seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. They found that when it comes to benefits for coastal communities, seagrasses bring something important to the plate. In a paper they write that while reefs support “greater fish biomass, abundance, and richness overall,” fish communities living in seagrass meadows may provide a richer mix of nutrients when seen from the perspective of human sustenance. |
Belize looks to the deep sea to complete ocean protection pledge
BELMOPAN, Belize, 15 October 2026 (Mongabay) - In 2021, Belize made a series of time-bound marine conservation commitments as part of a landmark debt-for-nature deal known as the Belize Blue Bond. To complete milestone 6 of the deal, out of eight milestones in total, Belize is finalizing a national marine spatial plan that proposes three new marine protected areas in its deep offshore waters. |
Mauritius reels from worst riots in decades after woman shot by police
LONDON, UK, 14 October 2026 (BBC) - Police in Mauritius imposed an overnight curfew overnight to quell the worst riots to break out on the Indian Ocean island in decades. Protests over water shortages and the high cost of living that started a week ago erupted into violence on Friday when a woman was shot and wounded by police at a roadblock. |
Indonesia douses its skies with dry ice
LONDON, UK, 15 October 2026 (BBC) - As toxic smog continues to billow from wildfires in Indonesia's forests and peatlands, authorities are looking at an experimental way to disperse the haze. On Thursday, aircraft were deployed to scatter pellets of dry ice - solid carbon dioxide - in the air above South Sumatra province, one of the regions worst hit by the haze. |
How a tiny Caribbean island shrugged off Trump's AI rebrand
LONDON, UK, 14 October 2026 (Politico) - Anguilla, a Caribbean island just 16 miles long, has had to reassure its inhabitants that Donald Trump’s attempts to rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” will not tank its economy. Anguilla owns the .ai domain name, and since the AI boom began, a significant chunk of the island’s revenues have come from people registering for .ai websites. |
How rewilding could help Atoll Islands keep pace with rising seas
NEW YORK, US, 14 October 2026 (ICN) - A recently publised paper shows that restoring atoll ecosystems reinforces their growth. Seabirds ferry nutrients from the open ocean and deposit them on the atolls as guano that nurtures land plants, marine life and coral growth. This provides more material for reef building, as parrotfish and other reef feeders turn dead coral into sand to maintain beaches, while native plants with extensive root networks stabilize sediments. |
World's oldest shipwreck found off Kekova Island in Turkey
LONDON, UK, 14 October 2026 (BBC) - The world's oldest shipwreck has been discovered off the coast of Turkey, archaeologists say. They have dated it to between 4,400 and 4,700 years old, which is the Early Bronze Age, and is around the same time that the Great Pyramid was being built. The ship's wooden structure has not survived, but the ceramic storage pots it was carrying were lying on the sea floor and, remarkably, some still contain traces of what they held inside. |
Ascension Island: How a planting project created a lush cloud forest
BARCELONA, Spain, 15 October 2026 (Phys.org) - Ascension is one of the few places on Earth, if not the only one, that has undergone the reverse process in such a deliberate and documented way. It has gone from being a volcanic island inhabited by half a dozen species of dwarf ferns to a lush, highly humid rainforest, all thanks to a deliberate, human-driven process. |
Badenoch: Farage’s Chagos-Falklands offer to Trump is humiliating
LONDON, UK, 13 October 2026 (Telegraph) - Kemi Badenoch has criticised Nigel Farage over his “humiliating” comments about giving Donald Trump the Chagos Islands in return for silence about the Falklands. Mr Farage had told a podcast he would offer the US president the archipelago as part of a “trade”, if Mr Trump agreed to “stop talking about the Falkland Islands”. In a rebuke to the Reform UK leader, Mrs Badenoch said: “Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating. |
Two rare pregnancies spark hope for Sumatran rhinos
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 14 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Two near-extinct Sumatran rhinos are pregnant at a sanctuary in Indonesia, offering a rare boost for a species that numbers only a few dozen in the wild. The pregnancies are the latest result of a decades-long captive-breeding effort aimed at helping the solitary animals reproduce as their wild populations become increasingly isolated. But the expected births also underscore the challenges of managing a small captive population with limited genetic diversity: the pregnant females are related, as are the two sires. |
Pacific leads global push on ocean acidification
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 14 October 2026 (RNZ) - As the world’s ocean acidification community gathers in Wellington, Pacific governments, scientists and finance institutions lay out how the region is turning science into climate action ahead of COP3. |
The island where locals say data centres are taking their water
BATAM ISLAND, Indonesia, 12 October 2026 (BBC) - "Water! Water!" the crowd shouted as it stormed a compound with data centres, armed with empty plastic bottles and jerry cans. There were about 300 of them, all residents on the Indonesian island of Batam, and they were furious that the taps at home had run dry, while the data centres in the new Nongsa Digital Park seemed to have enough water to protect their machines from overheating. |
The Pacific Islands are changing
NEWCASTLE, Australia, 13 October 2026 (Conversation) - On Lakina, a small, uninhabited islet in the Pacific nation of Tuvalu, a lone church stands among the coconut palms and pandanus trees. Built in the early 20th century using timber brought from Kanton Island in what is now Kiribati, the church carries generations of community history and connection to place. As Tuvalu, a nation of 9,646, invests in protecting its islands from rising sea levels, while creating opportunities for people to migrate to Australia, Lakina raises an important question: what happens to cultural heritage when the people that gave it meaning move away? |
Taiwan’s tea revival blends ancient terraces with new technology
SHENKENG, Taiwan, 13 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Taiwan’s Shenkeng region was once a major tea-producing center, but industrialization and urbanization hollowed out the industry by the 1970s, allowing abandoned tea terraces to return to forest. A government-backed effort is now restoring tea production and its cultural heritage, using the region’s historic stone terraces alongside drip irrigation, soil sensors, and more resilient tea varieties. |
UK asks Interpol to reject Argentina’s requests for arrests
PORT STANLEY, Falkland Islands, 13 October 2026 (Guardian) - Britain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina’s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in a large oil project off the Falkland Islands. With tensions over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory reaching levels not seen since the war with Argentina in 1982, UK officials have sought urgent assurances from the international organisation. A letter has been sent to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon arguing that “red notice” requests from Argentina for the arrest of such individuals, including British nationals, should be seen as politically motivated. |
Offshore wind emerges as an option to diversify energy for SIDS
MADRID, Spain, 12 October 2026 (RE) - Offshore wind could play an increasingly important role in strengthening energy security across SIDS, particularly where limited land availability constrains the expansion of renewable generation. A new report by the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), launched at Pre-COP31 in Fiji, examines the potential role of offshore wind across the group of 39 island and coastal developing countries in the Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions. |
El Nino sets temperature record in key Pacific zone
PARIS, France, 12 October 2026 (AFP) - The Copernicus Climate Change Service said sea surface temperatures in a tell-tale El Nino monitoring region of the Pacific, known as Nino3.4, had reached an "all-time high" of 29.70C last month. |
Lone male stoat captured on Orkney island after seven-month hunt
LONDON, UK, 10 October 2026 (BBC) - A lone stoat has been caught after a seven-month hunt by trappers in Orkney. The creature, which is not native to the islands and consider invasive, was first spotted on Rousay in May. It was captured on Friday and removed from the island by the Orkney Native Wildlife Project (ONWP), which has also caught thousands of stoats on the Orkney mainland as part of a £15m eradication scheme set up in 2019. |
Indonesia accused of 'gross negligence' in wildfires lawsuit
BANGKOK, Thailand, 8 October 2026 (Guardian) - The Indonesian government has been accused of “gross negligence” in a class action lawsuit over its handling of wildfires that have cloaked large parts of South-east Asia in a toxic haze, shuttered schools and caused a spike in respiratory illnesses. |
Sardinian village where more women reach 100
ROME, Italy, 8 October 2026 (Guardian) - The secret to longevity is being a woman – specifically, a woman in one part of Sardinia. At least, that is the conclusion of a study on centenarians in a tiny mountain village on the Italian island. Sardinia became known as a haven for longevity, especially for long-lived men, in 1999 when a cluster of remote villages nestled in the slopes of its central and eastern provinces were classified among the world’s five “blue zones” – geographic areas with high concentrations of centenarians. |
Expedition hopes to find Amelia Earhart's plane on remote island
LONDON, UK, 10 October 2026 (BBC) - A team of researchers are on their way to a remote island to inspect what they think could be the plane wreckage of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. The group, from the US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and Purdue University, are expected to arrive at Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific Ocean by Monday in the hopes of solving the mystery of her disappearance. The American pioneer vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, spawning decades of speculation on her fate. |
The dispute dividing communities in one Tobago resort
ROCKY POINT, Tobago, 10 October 2026 (Guardian) - Plans for a 200-room project on an unspoiled beach have pitted developers against the conservationists fighting for smaller-scale schemes to protect the island’s habitat. |
Scientists discover 180,000 giant tortoises on one Seychelles island
LONDON, UK, 8 October 2026 (Guardian) - A population of giant tortoises lives on an island in Seychelles called Aldabra Atoll. The most recent survey, led by Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) and the University of Exeter, revealed there were approximately 180,000 tortoises living on the island. This is the highest figure ever recorded for the species and far exceeds the human population of Seychelles. |
Cop31 host urges wealthy countries to spend ‘much more’ on climate
NADI, Fiji, 9 October 2026 (Guardian) - Wealthy countries should spend far more on dealing with the climate crisis than the 5% of GDP promised by Nato members for defence because “the climate issue is the security issue”, the host of the next UN summit has said. But, in comments that are likely to prove contentious, the Cop31 president-designate, Murat Kurum, hedged on whether countries should try to repeat a previous agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels” – the primary cause of the climate crisis – when they meet in Turkey next month. |
Resurrecting a reef oasis
BUNDABERG, Australia, 10 October 2026 (ABC) - For thousands of years the tiny island at the southernmost tip of the Great Barrier Reef was alive with cacophonous birdsong. But within a decade of guano miners arriving in force with their picks and shovels in the 1860s, Lady Elliot Island was silent, denuded of all foliage and bereft of the seabirds that once lived there. It remained a barren wasteland for more than 100 years before one family decided to revive it and started planting trees. |
China's Next 'Gray Zone' Target:
NEW YORK, US, 9 October 2026 (WSJ) - China’s campaign to expand its reach in the Pacific has a new target: a chain of tiny Philippine islands that would be critical to any U.S. defense of Taiwan. The Batanes Islands sit just south of Taiwan on a channel the Chinese would likely need to control for an attack on the island. Beijing has promised to take self-ruled Taiwan by force, if necessary. |
Bluegrass Wildlife: Living on an island
EDGEWOOD, US, 11 October 2026 (KCPSJ) - Stuck on West Sister island in Lake Erie, with only a cockroach-infested, dilapidated lighthouse for shelter, I wondered what the future held. Islands have inherently limited resources, and any potential lifelines depend on distance from the mainland. You cannot get around the limitations of an island. These characteristics are true whether we are talking about an island in the Great Lakes or a tropical paradise near the equator, and the consequences of not understanding them can be catastrophic. What I didn’t realize at the time, however, was how islands can scale up, creating even more important implications. |
Knitting circles provide a sense of community in the Faroe Islands
NEW YORK, US, 9 October 2026 (People) - A lesser-known feature of the Faroe Islands is that men outnumber women in a gap that continues to widen. Despite this statistic, the women of the Faroe Islands explain why there’s no place like home, in large part due to the communities forged in their knitting circles. |
DNA reveals surprising connection between Hawaii and Easter Island
NEW YORK, US, 10 October 2026 (AOL) - Hawai'i and Rapa Nui, the island also known as Easter Island, are two of the farthest-flung places Polynesian voyagers ever settled. Yet their people are each other’s closest genetic relatives among the remote island populations in a new study of Polynesian DNA. The same history left a second mark. Each new island was settled by a small group of people, and any genetic variants those few settlers happened to carry could become more common in the generations after them. Some of those variants are tied to disease. |
Outcry in Trinidad and Tobago after passing of police bill
LONDON, UK, 6 October 2026 (Guardian) - Journalists in Trinidad and Tobago have called for an urgent amendment to a sweeping new bill that increases police powers of search and seizure, which they argue threatens the country’s much-vaunted freedom of the press. The government says the special operations bill 2026, passed on 24 September, is designed to tackle alarmingly high crime and murder rates in the Caribbean nation. |
Pacific's new climate fund gets $15 million boost
NADI, Fiji, 7 October 2026 (Reuters) - Nations including Fiji and Ireland said on Wednesday they were donating about $15 million to a fund to finance climate resilience and adaptation projects in Pacific islands, but pledges remain far below the fund's target. Pacific islands face acute risks from rising seas and volatile weather but say they struggle to access money from global funds. |
Lundy island on cusp of closure as it runs out of water
LUNDY ISLAND, UK, 7 October 2026 (BBC) - Famed for its puffins, the picture-perfect island of Lundy attracts birdwatchers from all over. But the island is on the cusp of being evacuated as water levels drop to the lowest levels ever, forcing residents to take drastic measures to ensure supplies do not run out. |
Gentoo penguins on Deception Island
LONDON, UK, 7 October 2026 (BBC) - Lopsided whale oil tanks sank into the dark sand. Ancient wooden boats slowly decayed in the brutal Antarctic weather. Deception Island's whaling and sealing industries had long since been abandoned when Romain Barats arrived. The island he saw was one where the tables had turned: animals now ruled. Barats, a wildlife photographer, captured the island's post-industrial atmosphere in a haunting series of photographs, one of which depicts three gentoo penguins almost look like sentinels standing beside the ruins. |
Science, Indigenous knowledge team up to restore Canada's kelp
VANCOUVER ISLAND, Canada, 6 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Emily Fulton spends a lot of time in a small boat cruising the waters of Clayoquot Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. As the marine program manager for the nonprofit Redd Fish Restoration Society, she regularly checks on a newly created kelp nursery growing within the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. |
Underwater explorers question viability of deep-sea mining gold rush
MELBOURNE, Australia, 7 October 2026 (ABC) - Few people on Earth have seen a polymetallic nodule 4 kilometres under the ocean, but Rob McCallum is one of them. "They are anywhere between the size of a potato or a baseball and they are black," he said. Mr McCallum is a divemaster and founder of EYOS Expeditions, a firm that specialises in deep-sea diving operations. But Mr McCallum, and other undersea experts like him, question the viability of the industry, fearing the only winners will be early investors and the companies selling the machinery needed to mine the ocean floor. |
French Polynesia proposes independence process at UN
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 7 October 2026 (RNZ) - President Moetai Brotherson says French Polynesia's future cannot remain solely a French domestic matter. Brotherson has addressed the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, or C-24, which was established in 1961 by the UN General Assembly as its subsidiary body devoted to the issue of decolonisation. He said the French territory proposes what he called a simple programme of work. This includes a comprehensive programme of information and education on the options available; a UN visiting mission to hear the people directly; and an agreed pathway towards a democratic act of self-determination, "ultimately allowing the Ma'ohi people to express their choice freely through a referendum - no predetermined outcome, no unilateral imposition". |
World's largest penguin colony suffers enormous population crash
LONDON, UK, 7 October 2026 (Guardian) - The world’s largest penguin colony has declined by two-thirds since 2011, most likely because of the climate crisis, a study has revealed. Scientists said the rapid demise of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica, increased the risk of a wider ecosystem collapse. |
Indonesia's two rhino species are close to extinction
SYDNEY, Australia, 5 October 2026 (Conversation) - According to the latest State of the Rhino report, the future of the elusive Javan rhino and the small, hairy Sumatran rhino is now especially precarious. Distribution is a major reason why. There are roughly 50 surviving Javan rhinos. All live in a single protected area, Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java. Due to nearby converging tectonic plates, it is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. One natural disaster could well exterminate the Javan rhino population. In contrast, the several dozen remaining Sumatran rhinos are scattered into many subpopulations, across two islands. This means the chance of a wild individual rhino encountering another of their kind is remote or even impossible. With no prospect of finding a compatible mate, isolated survivors are destined to be the end of their genetic line. |
Falklands celebrates Peat Cutting Day
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, 6 October 2026 (MercoPress) - Monday 5th October has been a public holiday in the Falkland Islands. This is because the first Monday in October every year has been declared Peat Cutting Day, which is a way of celebrating a long standing tradition and recalling the primary fuel that for decades kept Islanders and their homes warm. |
Science, Innovation and Investment at pre-COP31 in Fiji
SUVA, Fiji, 6 October 2026 (SPREP) - The Pacific Island way of life is buoyed by the ocean. This lifeblood that courses through the blue lungs to gift the world oxygen, is also the foundation of Pacific culture and traditions, its food source, as well as the pathway that carried Pacific people throughout history as they journeyed from Pacific island to island. |
Transition away from fossil fuels not open for renegotiation
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu, 6 October 2026 (Guardian) - Pacific island leaders have urged a promised global transition away from fossil fuels must not be left open to renegotiation as they gather in tiny Tuvalu in a bid to build momentum before a major climate summit. |
SBMA maintains exploration of deep-sea minerals continues
RAROTONGA, Cook Islands, 6 October 2026 (RNZ) - Commercial deep-sea mining in the Cook Islands and other pro-mining Pacific countries could begin as early as 2027, an Australian-based think tank predicts. However, the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) maintains that exploration will continue until 2032. |
People with albinism living in terror in Madagascar
TOLIARA, Madagascar, 1 October 2026 (Guardian) - The country is struggling to address a rise in attacks, with a record 13 people – mostly children – killed this year for body parts, which some believe can bring good fortune. |
The people evacuated to the UK from Tristan da Cunha in 1961
LONDON, UK, 5 October 2026 (BBC) - "Just over a year ago, they'd never seen traffic or a road or a house higher than a cottage," said Tim Brinton in a BBC new report in 1963. He was talking about the residents of Tristan da Cunha, the world's most remote inhabited island. In the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, roughly halfway between Cape Town in South Africa and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the tiny British outpost is more than 1,500 miles from any other populated land, and is only accessible by a seven-day boat journey. |
Channel Islands National Park braces for El Niño
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 5 October 2026 (SFGATE) - El Niño is strengthening over the Pacific Ocean, raising the odds of a wetter-than-usual winter in Southern California. At Channel Islands National Park, that could mean a season of welcome rain - but also a difficult test for an ecosystem still recovering from one of the largest wildfires in the islands’ history. The stakes are particularly high on Santa Rosa Island, where a May fire burned 18,379 acres, roughly one-third of the island. The blaze devastated much of a rare grove of Torrey pines, with a postfire assessment estimating that 60% to 80% of the mature trees died. |
Empty classrooms on remote Greek island signal a crisis across Europe
KALAMOS, Greece, 5 October 2026 (AP) - Chryssa Ntalaka’s classroom has become an object lesson in subtraction. The sole teacher in the last school on the idyllic Greek island of Kalamos has a shorter list of students every fall. This year, just two. On Sept. 23, the sixth graders sat at Ntalaka’s table beneath the whiteboard, in front of rows of unused desks and benches. When they head to middle school on Greece’s mainland next year, her school will be mothballed. Toys and picture books still sit on shelves in the nearby kindergarten since it was shuttered three years ago. |
The fight to protect Indonesia's orangutans as El Nino fuels fires
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 5 October 2026 (Mongabay) - In Indonesia, fires are burning in rainforests that contain 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations of Bornean orangutan. Without urgent action, thousands more orangutans could be killed, injured or displaced, warns the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, a network of primatologists, field researchers and conservation experts. Actions must include long-term measures, including community-led efforts, beyond emergency firefighting to tackle the fires, say experts. |
Hunters reportedly kill hundreds of migratory birds in Malta
VALLETTA, Malta, 5 October 2026 (BirdLife) - Last month a multi-day thunderstorm over the Mediterranean Sea struck Malta, stranding hundreds of passing migratory birds. Hunters in the country then shot hundreds of those birds, including protected species, shows evidence gathered by the conservation NGO BirdLife Malta. |
Fijian climate activist sends message ahead of UN talks in Pacific
YASAWA ISLANDS, Fiji, 3 October 2026 (Guardian) - From her wooden veranda in Fiji’s remote Yasawa islands, climate activist Lavenia Naivalu remembers when the reefs were once so healthy, her grandfather would walk to the shoreline and return with fish. But life there has changed. |
'The truth is Cuba has already fallen'
NEW YORK, US, 2 October 2026 (El Pais) - Sandro Castro, Fidel's influencer grandson who runs several Havana nightclubs, was asked a question on Instagram a few days ago that was seen by his more than 165,000 followers. “When will change come to Cuba?” The young Castro posted a photo of himself with a Cuban flag draped over his back while gazing at Havana’s cracked skyline from afar: “Cuba is already changing, or haven’t you noticed?” he replied. Certainly, the country that existed in January is not the same nine months later: most people still watch life slip away amid shortages and long power outages, but a new private class is taking on roles that used to belong to the state - supplying pharmacies, importing and distributing diesel, and ensuring food sales. |
Java holds some of the planet’s greatest ancient treasures
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, 2 October 2026 (CNN) - In the frenetic, action-packed metropolis of Jakarta, a democratically elected president oversees Indonesia’s government. But just a few hours east, a sultan still holds court. Yogyakarta is a rare thing, a sultan’s kingdom inside of a country that is otherwise a republic. In the local Javanese language, the letter Y is pronounced like a hard J, with the city’s name shortened to “Jogja.” Here in Jogja, a city whose backbone was built along an ancient cosmological axis, the present always exists door-to-door with the past. |
Island hosts inter-island environment summit
GUERNSEY, Channel Islands, 3 October 2026 (BBC) - Environmental experts, conservation groups and businesses from across the British Isles and France have gathered in Guernsey for the 26th Inter-Island Environment Meeting. The annual event, co-ordinated by the Guernsey Nature Commission, brings together delegates to share ideas and develop joint projects aimed at protecting the natural environment. |
The Price of a Narrow Metric: Why Vulnerability Must Count
VICTORIA, Seychelles, 1 October 2026 (IPS) - From a distance, an island nation can appear to possess everything: pristine waters, a thriving tourism industry and a strong cultural identity. Its income figures may suggest prosperity. Yet those figures can conceal the permanent costs of remoteness, dependence on imported food and fuel, expensive transport and infrastructure, and an economy exposed to forces far beyond its shores. A pandemic, a cyclone or a sudden interruption in tourism can undo years of progress with frightening speed. |
Restoring native forests and improving biodiversity in Samoa
GLAND, Switzerland, 2 October 2026 (IUCN) - Samoa Conservation Society (SCS) is supporting the restoration and preservation of Community Conservation Areas (CCAs) and protected areas through forest management and support network activities. Through a Kiwa Initiative-backed local project, SCS is strengthening the resilience of local ecosystems and empowering communities to drive grassroots conservation action. |
The wealthy Cuban Americans ready and waiting for Havana to fall
LONDON, UK, 2 October 2026 (BBC) - At the lavish home of one of Miami's top plastic surgeons, overlooking the Biscayne Bay, some of the wealthiest Cuban-American families in Florida have gathered. They are there to thrash out their vision of Cuba's future at the fourth meeting of the newly created Cuban-American National Chamber of Commerce (CANCC). |
Pacific Islands get their climate moment with pre-COP meeting
CANBERRA, Australia, 2 October 2026 (Reuters) - Australia's efforts to put Pacific island nations at the centre of global climate diplomacy are falling short of ambitions, with few leaders from outside the region planning to attend a gathering in Tuvalu and Fiji next week. Australia and its Pacific island partners sought to turn the pre-COP conference - a forerunner to the UN's flagship COP31 event - into a headline-grabbing moment when some of the world's most recognisable leaders would visit a tiny atoll threatened by rising seas and extreme weather. |
Plankton bloom turns Thai island waters a bright, smelly green
KO LAN, Thailand, 2 October 2026 (Reuters) - The sea off Thailand's popular tourist island of Ko Lan turned a bright, pungent green this week as heavy rains and floods helped spark a plankton bloom that kept some swimmers on shore. Dense patches of green could be seen stretching along parts of the coast, with jet skis floating in discoloured waters around the island in the northern part of the Gulf of Thailand, while other stretches of the shoreline were unaffected. |
Indonesia's rubber growers draw on traditional ways to fight back
PENUKAL ABAB LEMATANG ILIR, Indonesia, 2 October 2026 (Mongabay) - In South Sumatra province, rubber tree growers in the Tempirai customary zone say they use fire only after the end of the dry season, after they have planted food crops, and that fires began to afflict this area of South Sumatra province after the oil palm industry began operating in the peatland. That may reflect the relative resilience of oil palm trees to wildfires compared with rubber trees, which are much more vulnerable to incineration. |
Birdsong tells only part of a forest's story
SHEFFIELD, UK, 2 October 2026 (Conversation) - Birds calling back and forth in the morning is one of the defining sounds of tropical forests. We’re likely to assume more types of birds we hear or see indicate a healthy forest. But counting species isn’t the only way to measure a forest’s health. Evolutionary biology asks another question that matters just as much: How closely related are the bird species that live together there? In a study of 422 bird species across 1,410 sites on seven islands in Borneo and the Wallacea region, my team and I found that densely forested areas do not necessarily harbour a greater diversity of bird species. |
Beyond Treaties: How investment disputes trap Pacific nations
SUVA, Fiji, 2 October 2026 (PINA) - Across the vast expanse of the Blue Pacific, island states are managing approximately 30 percent of the world’s oceans and seas within their exclusive economic zones (EEZs), making the region a continent of “Big Ocean States.” What lies in the depths of these waters are substantial deposits of rare earth elements and precious minerals. These deep-sea minerals have become the centre of regional to international debate, driven by the increasing demand for energy, military expansion, and digital and commercial technologies. Corporations have now entered a race to secure access to Pacific earth minerals. |
Knitters flock to Shetland's wool week
LERWICK, UK, 30 September 2026 (BBC) - Almost 1,000 people have gathered in Shetland for the island's annual celebration of wool, knitting and textiles. The week-long event is marking its 17th year and features classes, workshops, talks, tours and social activities. Shetland Wool Week draws enthusiasts from around the world, including the US and Japan. |
Excavations on tiny Scottish island shed light on spread of Christianity
LONDON, UK, 1 October 2026 (Guardian) - To the residents of the Scottish island of Lismore, population 190, history is never very far away. This quiet place, documentary evidence records, was home to a monastic settlement in the sixth century AD, when missionaries from Ireland were first moving into northern Britain to spread Christianity. But apart from a few fragments of an early carved cross, there was almost nothing to see from this period of history. |
UN urges more US action on Marshall Islands nuclear legacy
GENEVA, Switzerland, 1 October 2026 (Reuters) - The United States needs to take additional steps to remedy the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands by providing healthcare and releasing secret archives, according to a UN report presented to its human rights body on Thursday. |
The island where time doesn't exist and the sun never sets
NEW YORK. US, 1 October 2026 (Hola) - In a world driven by schedules, deadlines, and constant productivity, there is a remote Arctic island where time quite literally loses its meaning. Located just one hour from Tromso, Sommaroy, which translates to “Summer Island,” is home to a small community of around 300 residents who made a symbolic yet powerful statement: they hung their watches on the bridge that connects them to the mainland. |
Indonesia’s new peatland agency faces questions
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 1 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Indonesia plans to create a new agency to restore and manage peatlands prone to burning, in a repeat of a measure it took in response to the severe fire season of 2015. The new agency will replace an older one that shuttered at the end of 2024, raising questions about why its predecessor was allowed to die off and what the new body will do differently. The previous agency’s restoration efforts helped reduce fire hotspots, but damaged infrastructure and continued land conversion have limited lasting ecological recovery. |
India's isolated island tribes need autonomy to survive rising threats
MONTREAL, Canada, 1 October 2026 (Mongabay) - Isolated and contacted Indigenous tribes in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands face threats from illegal fishing, mega-development projects and misinformed government welfare policies that undermine their self-sufficiency, says Manish Chandi, a former research scholar who has spent decades working with tribal communities in the region. |
World's oceans absorbed record heat last year
LONDON, UK, 30 September 2026 (Guardian) - A record-breaking 23 zettajoules of heat was sunk into the world’s seas last year, leaving ocean waters hotter, higher and less hospitable, a report has found. The explosive addition of thermal energy, which was almost 40 times greater than all the energy humanity used that year, comes amid far-reaching changes to the deep water bodies fundamental to life on Earth. Sea levels have risen by about 3.8mm per year since 1999, and at a faster rate of 4.2mm per year between 2012 and 2025, according to the 10th edition of the Copernicus ocean state report. It found the global ocean has become 17% more acidic in the last 40 years. |
New penguin species found on the Kerguelen Islands
NEW YORK, US, 28 September 2026 (People Inc) - Researchers discovered a new gentoo penguin species living on the Kerguelen Islands in the Indian Ocean. This is the first new penguin species identified in over 100 years, with the last being the northern rockhopper penguin in 1921. There are four different species of gentoo penguins, which all have genetic differences, but Pygoscelis kerguelensis was previously unknown to scientists |
Japan's Shikoku Pilgrimage route
WASHINGTON, US, 29 September 2026 (SM) - I had just arrived at Konsen-ji, the third temple on Japan’s Shikoku Pilgrimage route, when a young Japanese girl presented me with two origami cranes. These tiny gifts, I would later learn, symbolized wishes for a safe and smooth journey along the 750-mile circuit connecting 88 Buddhist temples, as well as other sacred sites, on Shikoku, the smallest and least populated of Japan’s four main islands. |
Rising sea temperatures putting pressure Zanzibar's seaweed farmers
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, 30 September 2026 (IPS) - Fatuma Makame learned to farm seaweed in the shallow water where her parents worked. These days, she grows it farther from shore. In the shallows, warmer water has left the crop more vulnerable to poor growth and disease. Conditions can be better farther out, but working there requires a boat, equipment, and the skills to handle deeper water. Makame joined Mwani Zanzibar Mamas - a cooperative union that obtained a boat and farming gear. She has since reported larger, more reliable harvests. |
Scientists expected these Galápagos sea turtles to wander
QUITO, Ecuador, 28 September 2026 (SD) - Yellow-morph green sea turtles in the Galápagos surprised scientists by staying remarkably close to home instead of making the long journeys typically associated with sea turtles. Satellite tracking showed that none left the marine reserve during the study, revealing just how important the islands’ coastal habitats may be to their survival. |
Pacific calls for a strong, implementable global plastics treaty
SUVA, Fiji, 30 September 2026 (PINA) - Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) are calling for continued progress towards an ambitious, effective and implementable international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, as Heads of Delegation meet in Bangkok this week for the second informal in-person meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC). |
‘Overwhelmed’ by British tourists, the Canary Islands are fighting back
LONDON, UK, 25 September 2026 (inews) - Thousands of demonstrators are expected to fill the streets of Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday, as part of major protests against overtourism. The demonstrators, who will march in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria, are demanding action from the island’s authorities to relieve the strain on roads, airports and other infrastructure which they say are being overrun by millions of tourists from Britain, Germany and other North European countries every year. |
Family steps up for Chatham Islands shipping service
FEILDING, New Zealand, 25 September 2026 (FW) - The highly anticipated new vessel set to service the Chatham Islands is proving to be very much a family affair between its Kiwi and Italian partners. Auckland-based McCallum Brothers partnered with Italian shipping family Nova Marine Carriers to design and finance the replacement vessel for the aging Southern Tiare that has come to the end of its 40-year service life. |
The treasured 'eternal snow' on Papua is about to disappear forever
LONDON, UK, 25 September 2026 (BBC) - The mountains of Papua are not far from the equator, but they've been topped with "eternal snow" for centuries. The peaks in this Indonesian region on the world's second-largest island, just north of Australia, have offered scientists countless insights into the Earth's climate history. They're also the epicentre of the spiritual universe for many Papuans - a Mecca or a Vatican, as one activist puts it. But now, nearly all the snow is gone. |
Meet the women transforming Zanzibar’s seaweed industry
WASHINGTON, US, 26 September 2026 (Nat.Geog) - On Zanzibar’s east coast, a community of women harvests seaweed with the tides, preserving generations of knowledge while helping to shape a more sustainable future. For generations, Zanzibar’s communities have understood the restorative qualities of seaweed, long before it became a sought-after ingredient in skincare. After harvesting, the crop is carefully cleaned and processed, traditional knowledge paired with scientific expertise to shape it into a range of soaps and skincare products. |
World leaders approve new declaration to tackle rising sea levels
NEW YORK, US, 24 September 2026 (UN) - Sea level rise is among the most visible consequences of global warming, but for some countries, it is an imminent existential threat. World leaders approved a new declaration on Thursday while debating the best ways to strengthen international cooperation and support vulnerable low-lying nations most at risk. |
The endangered native ponies of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides
LONDON, UK, 28 September 2026 (Guardian) - Fewer than 400 Eriskay ponies remain. One of the rarest native breeds in the world, their plight is unique because the community living on their tiny Hebridean island are fighting for them. The ponies wander the village and townsfolk care for them together. |
Civilians pay the price for West Papua conflict
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 25 September 2026 (RNZ) - More than 125,000 people are reported to have been displaced in West Papua as armed conflict escalates, but the real number is likely much higher. A recent report from the Human Rights Monitor said military operations and armed violence have been particularly intense in the central highlands of Indonesian-ruled Papua region this year. |
Singapore's plan to merge several islands could wipe out coral reefs
SINGAPORE, 28 September 2026 (Mongabay) - Singapore’s prime minister recently announced plans to merge several islands into a new “western island” to support “a new generation of industries.” The mega-project could bury up to 60% of Singapore’s remaining reefs, many of which are “mother” reefs and of regional ecological significance, conservationists say. The reefs are traditional fishing grounds for the Indigenous Orang Laut, who say the project would restrict their access to an area of cultural significance. |
Review urged of Channel Islands' relationship
LONDON, UK, 29 September 2026 (BBC) - People in Guernsey, Alderney and Sark are being urged to have their say on the future of the islands after a review found some long-standing arrangements may no longer meet modern needs. |
Putin is testing NATO on Norway's remote Arctic islands
BARENTSBURG, Norway, 28 September 2026 (Politico) - For the best part of a century, the biggest threat to the residents of Svalbard was polar bears. Increasingly, it now comes from Russia. Fears are growing that Moscow could use the sprawling Arctic archipelago - a part of Norway with an unusual legal status - to test NATO militarily amid growing uncertainty over the U.S. commitment to European defense. |
Sri Lanka's disappearing snake charmers
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 28 September 2026 (Mongabay) - In Sri Lanka, the traditional snake charming culture is fast fading as changing livelihoods, modern entertainment and attitudes toward wildlife reshape the island’s nomadic community, the Ahikuntika tribe. During the act of snake charming, cobras do not respond to the music itself, but to the movement of the charmer and instrument, which they perceive as a potential threat, herpetologists say. |
Messina Strait Bridge would kill tens of thousands of migratory birds
CAMBRIDGE, UK, 25 September 2026 (BirdLife) - The Italian government is about to approve a suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, a 3-kilometre stretch of sea separating Sicily from mainland Italy, and one of the most important bird migration bottlenecks in the African-Eurasian Flyway. |
Scientists track reef recovery across Pacific Islands
SAN DIEGO, US, 21 September 2026 (Fox) - From Hawaii to Howland and Baker Islands, through American Samoa and the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, NOAA scientists spent months diving at protected coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean to monitor fish, coral reef and ocean conditions. They dove 1,006 times, conducted 440 fish surveys, took hundreds of ocean water samples, photomosaic surveys, temperatures readings, coral surveys and much more during the effort to survey Pacific island reef conditions. |
Faroe Islands kill 15 times more whales than demand requires
LONDON, UK, 21 September 2026 (OM) - Marine conservationists have launched a report exposing the scale of animal cruelty, neglect and waste behind whale and dolphin hunts in the Faroe Islands – arguing that the annual kill count vastly exceeds what domestic consumption actually requires. |
Little Cayman narrows UNESCO World Heritage bid to marine parks
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, 22 September 2026 (CC) - Little Cayman has narrowed its bid to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site to include only its marine environment, rather than the entire island. The original recommendation to include the entire island had been met with opposition from local landowners, who argued UNESCO oversight may influence the development plan process and lead to new restrictions. They had pressed for the application to be restricted to the island’s marine parks. |
The clock is ticking on this tiny Australian island
SYDNEY, Australia, 23 September 2026 (SBS) - Yessie Mosby paces down the beach near his home on Masig, a teardrop-shaped island in the Torres Strait. Less than three metres above sea level, Masig's sandy shores are slowly being eaten away by rising tides. Areas once safely inland, such as burial sites, playgrounds, roads and family gardens, are receding before its residents' eyes. |
From French outpost to Euro-Canadian corridor?
PARIS, France, 21 September 2026 (Conversation) - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not need to cross the Atlantic to meet Emmanuel Macron on French soil over the weekend. Instead, he joined the French president in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, just 25 kilometres off Newfoundland. The visit brought together a contentious shared history, Canada’s rapprochement with Europe and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon’s search for new development opportunities. |
Key moments in Trump's push to control Greenland
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 22 September 2026 (Reuters) - The United States, Denmark and Greenland have entered into an agreement for the US to boost its military presence on the island, while prohibiting US adversaries from building their own bases there, President Donald Trump said on Friday. Following is a timeline of the rising geopolitical tensions around Greenland and Trump’s wish to control the semi-autonomous Arctic island of 57,000 people, which has been under Danish rule for centuries. |
Outcry over plan to merge cluster of Asian islands into one
MELBOURNE, Australia, 23 September 2026 (YN) - Just over 3,000km north of Australia, scientists are warning against plans to merge a cluster of tropical islands into one. The idea has been floated in Singapore, which has some of the world's most expensive real estate. Between 47 and 56 per cent of Singapore has been designated as green space, and the government claims more land must be created for a giant industrial hub for power generation and manufacturing. |
Tourism has the potential to reverse coral decline at Bali hotspot
BANGKOK, Thailand, 22 September 2026 (Mongabay) - A new study in Bali found that coral reefs continue to decline at one of the island’s major tourism hubs at Sanur, despite multiple efforts to rehabilitate them. Reef restoration initiatives often take place without first addressing the underlying drivers of coral decline such as sediment runoff and wastewater discharge, the study found. |
New Galapagos Atlas charts the islands’ biodiversity
PUERTO AYORA, Galapagos, 23 September 2026 (Mongabay) - A new atlas of biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands highlights the unique evolutionary and ecological diversity of life in the famed archipelago that helped Charles Darwin develop the theory of natural selection. |
US to build two military bases in Greenland under new deal
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 22 September 2026 (BBC) - The US, Denmark and Greenland have signed a defence deal that allows Washington to build two new military bases in the Arctic territory, while reaffirming Copenhagen's sovereignty over it. |
As fires spread in Indonesia, Bornean orangutans flee forest
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 23 September 2026 (Mongabay) - Fires are spreading across Bornean orangutan habitat in West Kalimantan, including Gunung Palung National Park and the Mendawak Biodiversity Corridor. Conservationists said losing forest in the national park would be devastating for its large orangutan population and long-running research program. |
Jamaica hails King’s decision to refer slavery reparations petition
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2026 (Guardian) - King Charles has referred a landmark slavery reparations petition from Jamaica to a high-level UK appeals court for legal advice, Jamaica’s culture minister announced in parliament on Tuesday. Referring to the move as a “really big deal”, Olivia Grange told Jamaica’s MPs the monarch had confirmed that their legal questions have been passed on to the London-based privy council – the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries. |
UK to review Chagos Islands deal over lack of US support
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2026 (BBC) - The UK is reviewing its deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the defence secretary has said. Wes Streeting confirmed the deal was being looked at again after US President Donald Trump called it "terrible" at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The original agreement would see the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base there, prized for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. |
When a country goes underwater: Island States fight for their future
NEW YORK, US, 22 September 2026 (UN) - Rising sea levels and ever-more-powerful storms are eroding shorelines, submerging land and threatening to evict millions of people from their homes worldwide. Yet, for the people of some low-lying small island States, what is at stake is more than just their houses. Their countries face the possibility of substantial losses of land territory and even complete submergence, which could render them uninhabitable. Where will they go? What will happen to their nationalities? Their culture? |
The tiny Arctic island where travellers have found refuge since 1897
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2026 (BBC) - For centuries, this tiny Norwegian island sheltered fishermen from violent seas. Now one woman is using tourism to revive it – and offer travellers refuge from modern life. For generations, Støtt was a refuge. Fishing boats blown off course in the Norwegian Sea could shelter here, while a trading post on Innerstøtt, the largest of Støtt's three inhabited islands, supplied fishermen heading north to the rich Arctic cod grounds of Lofoten. |
Planned US tech hub in Philippines hit over environmental concerns
MANILA, Philippines, 23 September 2026 (Mongabay) - The Philippines is a key location for the U.S. led Pax Silica initiative, a global pact to establish a semiconductor and AI supply chain not reliant on China. Pax Silica, and a related national initiative called the Luzon Economic Corridor, have been met with opposition from civil society and Indigenous groups. |
Logging still threatens Bornean forest once envisioned as peace park
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 23 September 2026 (Mongabay) - A conservation park that Indigenous communities from the Malaysian state of Sarawak believed they could co-manage and self-govern has been transformed into a timber concession and stripped of critical tree cover, according to a recently published report. |
Meet the Philippines' islanders reclaiming their heritage
WASHINGTON, US, 24 September 2026 (Nat.Geog) - In the central Philippines, the Visayan Islands’ tropical beaches are a backdrop for deeply rooted communities who are working to preserve locals’ unique way of life - inviting visitors to share in complex culinary traditions and heritage crafts, and explore the reclaimed relics of the sugar trade. |
These remote Scottish islands make too much clean power, now what?
ATLANTA, US, 24 September 2026 (CNN) - The Orkney Islands often generate 100% of their electricity needs from powerful winds and some of Europe’s strongest tides. But their success has created a new problem: what to do with too much power. Ahead of Global Perspectives in Doha, CNN explores how these islands have become a living lab for a carbon-free future. |
Argentina again threatens sovereignty of Falklands at UN
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2026 (Guardian) - Argentinian president Javier Milei has condemned the UN as he warned that Argentina would take “matters into our own hands” in its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. |
Naoero tells UN it will withdraw from ICC
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 24 September 2026 (RNZ) - David Adeang, president of Naoero (formerly Nauru), used a United Nations gathering of world leaders to announce his country's voluntary withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and criticise the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for delays on agreeing on rules for deep sea mining. |
Antigua and Barbuda partners with Octopus Energy
LONDON, UK, 24 September 2026 (OE) - Octopus Energy and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda are joining forces to explore ways of making energy cheaper, cleaner and more secure for the people of Antigua and Barbuda. Announced at the Global Citizen NOW: Impact Session during New York Climate Week, the partnership will look at how solar, batteries, EVs and smarter, flexible demand can work together to reduce the country’s reliance on expensive imported fossil fuels, lower energy costs and strengthen the resilience of the national electricity grid. |
Nato welcomes Greenland deal
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 18 September 2026 (BBC) - The US and Denmark have announced a deal on Greenland's security, resolving a diplomatic dispute sparked by President Donald Trump's threats to seize it by force. Nato said the deal would help stabilise the region, as Trump said Denmark would grant the US "permanent control over security, and all other needs" in the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic. |
The slow, muddy work of saving ancient bogs
DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, 12 September 2026 (BBC) - High up on a Manx hillside, Sarah Hickey effortlessly pushes a metre-long metal rod into the wet ground until it disappears almost to her hands. "This is pretty deep here," she says, reading the markings on the probe. Beneath her boots is peat, built up over thousands of years and consisting of partially decayed plants and organic matter. Hickey is the island's peatland officer and part of an uplands team of just three, who, between them, manage about 8,000 hectares of the island's hills. |
UAE joins Pacific Islands Forum as strategic partner
ABU DHABI, UAE, 19 September 2026 (The National) - The UAE has been formally recognised as a strategic partner of the Pacific Islands Forum, joining 12 other global powers in a landmark step for the country's Pacific engagement. The UAE's new status is expected to open further opportunities for trade, investment and business partnerships, as well as an exchange of knowledge in areas including the energy transition, digital transformation and connectivity. |
Tapanuli orangutans face mining, landslides, and fire threats
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 18 September 2026 (Mongabay) - In late 2025, extreme rainfall associated with Cyclone Senyar wiped out swaths of North Sumatra’s Batang Toru ecosystem, home to the largest known population of Tapanuli orangutans. Nearly a year later, there are is still no coordinated recovery strategy for the critically endangered ape, and its habitat faces multiple threats. |
Niue-based trust has been named a finalist in Earthshot Prize
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 21 September 2026 (RNZ) - The Niue Ocean Wide Trust has been announced as one of the finalists in the Earthshot Prize. The trust sells Ocean Conservation Commitments to individuals, companies and governments, building a 32 million dollar endowment to fund permanent protection of the Pacific Ocean for future generations. |
Coastal flooding could save atoll islands from rising seas
PLYMOUTH, UK, 16 September 2026 (Conversation) - Communities living on coral atoll islands, which rarely rise more than four metres above the surface of the sea, face a strange paradox. On the one hand, these islands are among the most sensitive to the effects of climate change, with sea-level rise and potentially increasing storminess expected to make coastal flooding events more frequent and intense. On the other hand, when waves overwash such islands during extreme weather events, new sediment from their surrounding coral reefs is typically deposited on the island, increasing its elevation. |
Tonnes of fishing gear and plastic washing up on Seychelles beaches
OXFORD, UK, 17 September 2026 (Conversation) - Vast quantities of plastic and fishing gear are washing up along the shores of the Seychelles, destroying fragile ecosystems and causing significant economic problems. Aldabra Atoll, a Unesco world heritage site in this archipelago nation of 115 islands, is estimated to have accumulated more than 500 tonnes of plastic on its shores alone. Most of this plastic debris continues to pile up along its beaches today. It was estimated that removing it would cost approximately £3.46 million and would require 18,000 hours of labour. |
Nat Geog studies Tokelau's lagoons, reefs, and open ocean
SUVA, Fiji, 19 September 2026 (PINA) - National Geographic Pristine Seas begins an expedition this week in Tokelau. At the invitation of Tokelau’s government and in partnership with its Ministry of Climate, Ocean & Resilience, the team of scientists and filmmakers will study the nation’s marine ecosystems to identify vital areas for protection. Surveying biodiversity in reef, mid-ocean, and deepwater sites, researchers will provide data to support Tokelau’s ongoing conservation efforts, including the development of a future National Ocean Policy and marine spatial plan. |
Pacific SIDS need stronger social protection to build resilience
SUVA, Fiji, 18 September 2026 (PINA) - Pacific island countries need to expand social protection systems to reduce poverty, strengthen resilience to climate and economic shocks and improve social cohesion, according to a new UN policy brief. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) says significant gaps in social protection coverage leave people in several Pacific SIDS highly vulnerable to shocks, including climate-related disasters and volatility in food, fuel and energy prices. |
Millions without power as Cuba hit by latest major blackout
LONDON, UK, 19 September 2026 (BBC) - Millions in Cuba were left without power on Friday as the country was plunged into yet another major blackout. The country's entire electricity grid suffered "total disconnection" that triggered a nationwide outage, Cuba's energy ministry said. Power was restored to some priority areas by late evening, including those near hospitals and water pumping stations in the capital Havana, grid operator UNE said. |
How being a tax haven has changed Jersey
ST HELIER, Jersey, 21 September 2026 (Guardian) - On a late Friday afternoon on the Channel Island of Jersey, tourists and locals are flocking to St Helier’s waterfront where the town’s sprawling beach has emerged at low tide. In one direction, they face the calm waters of St Aubin’s Bay, ringed by a seaside promenade and punctuated with a tidal island hosting the 16th century Elizabeth Castle. Back on shore, however, it is all business. Gleaming glass buildings hosting global accountancy firms and and international banks hint at the £4bn offshore finance industry dominating this nine-by-five-mile island’s economy. |
The black robin wins NZ bird of the year
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 21 September 2026 (Guardian) - The black robin, once the world’s rarest bird before an extraordinary conservation project brought it back from brink of extinction, has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, after record voter turnout. The tiny bird is found only in the Chatham Islands, 800km east of mainland New Zealand. Called kakaruia in Maori and karure in Morirori – the language indigenous to the Chathams – the birds are also fondly known as the “goth” of New Zealand’s bird world, for its striking black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak. |
In the 1950s, whaling ended around these remote Scottish islands
BRISTOL, UK, 21 September 2026 (DW) - When a wildlife expedition visited former whaling grounds in the Scottish Hebrides, they spotted what may be one of the largest minke whale gatherings on record in the region. Experts estimate they saw up to 30 individuals feeding off the Isle of Eigg, Scotland. |
How Indonesia's fire haze affects millions
LONDON, UK, 21 September 2026 (Guardian) - Intensified by this year’s super El Niño, fires in Borneo and Sumatra are emitting toxic air for swathes of the population in Indonesia and its neighbours. The fires are sometimes lit illegally as a cheap way to clear land for plantations of oil palm, of which Indonesia is the world’s largest producer. |
How freediving helps Indonesia's Bajau preserve traditions
POTO TANO, Indonesia, 21 September 2026 (Mongabay) - The Bajau people of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have traditionally harvested the sea through freediving. A recent ban on compressor-assisted diving in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province has made traditional freediving skills more valuable than ever. On Sumbawa, one of the province’s largest islands, traditional fishers and a local NGO are working together to preserve Bajau diving techniques and to manage local marine and fisheries resources in harmony with traditional management practices. |
Isle of Barra Distillers expands into the US and Japan
GLASGOW, UK, 21 September 2026 (Herald) - From one of Scotland's most remote islands to shelves across Europe, North America and Asia, Isle of Barra Distillers has spent the past few years steadily building an international presence for its island-made spirits. That growth has gathered pace. The business reported a 24% increase in production volumes during 2025, alongside revenue growth of 13.5%, despite challenging conditions across much of the spirits sector. It also doubled its workforce from six to 12 people, launched new products and continued work towards a planned £12 million distillery development at Eoligarry, which is expected to open in 2027. |
Last remaining stoat evades hunt on Scottish island
LONDON, UK, 20 September 2026 (Telegraph) - A solitary stoat sighted on a remote Scottish island is still at large despite a £150,000 effort to remove the invasive predator. Rousay, a small, hilly island with a population of about 230, was thought to be clear of the non-native mammal until a male stoat was caught on camera in April. Attempts to catch it with detection dogs, artificial-intelligence cameras and more than 200 traps have so far failed, raising fears for the safety of several species of birds’ nesting sites, including curlews, lapwings and oystercatchers. Stoats also pose a threat to the Orkney vole, which is unique to the collection of 70 islands and the main food source for the rare hen harrier and short-eared owls, |
Singing lemurs use opera technique, study finds
LONDON, UK, 21 September 2026 (BBC) - A species of lemur known for its song appears to use a similar technique to opera singers, researchers have found. Scientists from the University of Warwick, the University of Turin and the indri lemurs' home nation Madagascar have spent a number of years watching the species. They have produced a new study which finds the lemurs open their mouths wider to reach higher notes - similar to a trained soprano. |
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