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Collapsing wildlife populations near 'points of no return'
LONDON, UK, 10 October 2024 (Guardian) - Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest average declines in recorded wildlife populations, with a 95% fall, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London’s biennial Living Planet report. |
Iceland's famous music venues swallowed by tourism
LONDON, UK, 9 October 2024 (Guardian) - Before Iceland’s tourist boom, pulling in budget airlines and visitors from across the world – more than 1.7 million in 2022 alone – it was a thriving music scene that gave the world Bjork, Sigur Rós and Ólafur Arnalds, who attracted much of the outside interest in the previously isolated Nordic country. |
EU backsliding could threaten global progress on saving nature.
LONDON, UK, 9 October 2024 (Guardian) - When diplomats struck a deal to save nature in 2022, pledging to halt biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, Europe was seen as a credible leader in fraught negotiations. The EU cajoled others into stepping up their game as it championed a target to protect 30% of the land and sea by 2030. But two years later, as delegates meet in wildlife-rich Columbia for Cop 16 – the international summit to save nature – Europe’s own enthusiasm for saving species appears to be endangered. |
Is it the end for the ship that helped us understand life on Earth?
LONDON, UK, 9 October 2024 (Guardian) - In the early summer of this year, a ship set sail around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. But this wasn’t any ordinary ship. For almost 40 years the Joides Resolution drilled into the ocean floor to collect samples and data that helped scientists to study Earth’s history and structure. |
Sumba's sandalwood ponies
LONDON, UK, 8 October 2024 (Guardian) - On the parched plains of Sumba, a remote island in Indonesia’s eastern archipelago, a breed of hardy ponies plays a vital role in the lives of the local people. Known as sandalwood ponies, these small, resilient horses are more than just working animals – they are cultural symbols, markers of status, and increasingly, a draw for tourists eager to experience the island’s untouched landscapes and traditions. |
Arrival of African Tulip Beetles in Tonga
TONGATAPU, Tonga, 9 October 2024 (SPREP) - Recently, 210 African tulip beetles arrived in Tonga to help control the invasive African tulip tree. This tree is recognised as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive alien species and ranks among the top 30 terrestrial invasive plants. Initially introduced to many Pacific islands as an ornamental plant, this fast-growing evergreen tree now poses a significant threat to island biodiversity. It infests rainforests, outcompetes native vegetation, and negatively impacts agricultural production. |
Why Fiji's new anti-corruption commissioner was arrested first day
MELBOURNE, Australia, 9 October 2024 (ABC) - Even by Fijian standards of high political drama, the arrest of the country's new anti-corruption commissioner on her first day in the job was extraordinary. The government announced Barbara Malimali's appointment as head of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) in early September. By the next morning, she was being questioned by investigators after being detained on the direction of her own acting deputy commissioner, Francis Puleiwai. |
Tiny parasitic wasp helps save one of world's rarest birds
LONDON, UK, 8 October 2024 (Guardian) - A tiny parasitic wasp has given a lifeline to one of the world’s rarest bird species by killing off an invasive insect that was threatening its survival. The Wilkins’ bunting lives on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha group; the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago. It eats the fruit of the Phylica arborea, the island’s only native tree. |
Almost half the population in Balearic Islands now not born there
LONDON, UK, 7 October 2024 (Express) - Over the past two and a half decades, a surge in immigration, combined with a declining birth rate amongst Balearic Islands residents has drastically reshaped the region’s identity, as now almost half of the archipelago’s population were not born there. |
Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
ARBUS, Italy, 7 October 2024 (AFP) - The sheep huddle together, bleeding from the nose, aborting lambs or suffocating on saliva as they succumb to bluetongue, a virus sweeping through flocks on the Italian island of Sardinia. Some 20,000 sheep have died so far this year on the island, which is home to nearly half Italy's flock and plays an important role in the production of famed Italian cheeses such as Pecorino. |
Norway poised to move forward with deep-sea mining licensing plans
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 7 October 2024 (Mongabay) - Norway’s government has stated that it intends to begin issuing licenses in 2025 with a view to starting seabed mineral exploitation in 2030. One entity criticizing Norway’s plans is the country’s own environment agency, which argued that there’s a lack of knowledge to safely pursue deep-sea mining while protecting the marine environment. |
SIF questions hotel project design on Assumption Island
VICTORIA, Seychelles, 7 October 2024 (SNA) - The Seychelles Island Foundation (SIF) is not against a hotel development on Assumption Island as it will bring many benefits for the island and the Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage site next to it, but is questioning whether the current project is suitable for the island, given its fragility. |
A trip to the Farallones, to see birds on the edge
BERKELEY, US, 8 October 2024 (BNI) - The cacophonous alarm cries of western gulls rang out as a crane lifted a boat full of visitors onto the windswept Farallon Islands, a bustling avian metropolis normally off-limits to all but a few scientists and government employees. |
Channel Islands: Gold Standard on the Gold Coast
LONDON, UK, 8 October 2024 (Oceanographic) - The Channel Islands is one of those United States National Parks that often gets overlooked. The Edges of Earth expedition team travels to the remote location to meet the people who have dedicated their lives to protecting this region. |
UK seeks to move migrants held on Diego Garcia
DIEGO GARCIA, BIOT, 8 October 2024 (BBC) - The UK has offered dozens of stranded migrants, held for years in a camp on a secretive UK-US military island in the Indian Ocean, a temporary move to Romania. After six months, they could be moved to the UK. Others in the group are being offered financial incentives to go to Sri Lanka where they say they face persecution. |
Can mariculture regenerate the economy of Prince of Wales Island?
CORK, Ireland, 7 October 2024 (FS) - Oyster and kelp farming are offering fresh opportunities for the scattered inhabitants of Prince of Wales Island, and those at the sharp end of the industry believe that mariculture could help to secure a sustainable economic future for Southeast Alaska. |
Pitcairn Island adopts inaugural invasive species strategy
PITCAIRN ISLAND, 7 October 2024 (SPREP) - The Island Council of Pitcairn has formally adopted the first Territorial Invasive Species Strategy and Action Plan (TISSAP) for the Island on 25 September 2024 which paves way for the protection of the unique biodiversity and ecosystems of the Pitcairn islands, as well as of local crops critical for the community’s food security. |
Indian financial aid opens 'new chapter' with Maldives
LONDON, UK, 7 October 2024 (BBC) - India has agreed to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to the Maldives to help strengthen its struggling economy. The support includes a $400m currency swap deal and an additional 30bn rupees ($357m; £273m) in another swap agreement which will allow companies to do business in local currencies rather than in US dollars. |
Australia to protect 52% of its oceans, more than any other country
LONDON, UK, 7 October 2024 (Guardian) - The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has declared Australia will soon protect more ocean than any other country after the government finalises a more than 300,000 square kilometre expansion of a sub-Antarctic marine park. Speaking ahead of what was billed as a global nature positive summit starting in Sydney on Tuesday, Plibersek confirmed the Heard and McDonald Island Marine Park about 4,000 km south-west of Perth would quadruple in size. |
Aquafarm on Big Island raising tasty abalone
KAUAI, Hawaii, 7 October 2024 (KN) - Big Island Abalone was founded in 1988 and has been owned by KOWA since 2018. Now, it annually produces 100 tons of the delicacy, making it one of the largest commercial operations in the United States. Owners of the aquafarm spend thousands of dollars every month for access to the deepwater pipe that pumps clean, cold and deep ocean water to the facility. This water is used to fill the many tanks that house the abalone. |
'Thugs' disrupt Jakarta climate march
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 7 October 2024 (Mongabay) - A recent climate march in Jakarta was forcibly disbanded by an unidentified group of people, which highlights the growing challenges to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Indonesia. |
Unholy row over plan to open island supermarket on Sundays
LONDON, UK, 6 October 2024 (BBC) - A Scottish island community is divided over a supermarket's plans to open on a Sunday. The Tesco branch on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides has started holding consultations with staff and residents about opening seven days a week. The island, which has a population of about 20,000, has a long tradition of observing the Sabbath day, meaning that some shops - including both supermarkets - currently keep their doors closed on a Sunday. Over 700 people have now signed an online petition against the proposed change. |
Maldives president in Delhi to seek aid and reboot ties
LONDON, UK, 6 October 2024 (BBC) - The Maldivian president who begins a five-day visit to India on Sunday, is expected to seek a bailout worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Maldives is staring at a debt default as its foreign exchange reserves have dropped to $440m (£334m), just enough for one-and-a-half months of imports. |
Celebrating 15 years of successful terrestrial restoration in Seychelles
VICTORIA, Seychelles, 6 October 2024 (SNA) - The mountains on Praslin, Seychelles' second most populated island, have been left with many scars after forest fires and erosion over the years and one nature conservation organsation has worked to restore the natural environment for the past 15 years. |
NZ Navy ship runs aground off Samoa, catches fire and sinks
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 6 October 2024 (RNZ) - Government and environmental agencies in Samoa are on alert after a New Zealand Navy ship caught fire and sank off the south coast of Upolu. The HMNZS Manawanui - a specialist dive and hydrographic vessel - was conducting a reef survey when it hit the reef on Saturday night. Seventy-five crew and passengers were taken off the vessel by liferafts and other boats which came to the rescue. |
Chagossians criticise lack of say in UK deal to hand over islands
LONDON, UK, 3 October 2024 (BBC) - People with roots in the Chagos Islands have criticised what they called their "exclusion" from negotiations leading to the UK government's deal to give up its sovereignty of the region. One of the largest islands on the tropical atoll, Diego Garcia, will remain a joint US-UK military base and is expected to remain so for 99 years with an option to renew. |
Antarctic plant cover growing at dramatic rate as climate heats
LONDON, UK, 4 October 2024 (Guardian) - Plant cover across the Antarctic peninsula has soared more than tenfold over the last few decades, as the climate crisis heats up the icy continent. Analysis of satellite data found there was less than one sq kilometre of vegetation in 1986 but there was almost 12km2 of green cover by 2021. The spread of the plants, mostly mosses, has accelerated since 2016, the researchers found. |
Jamaica welcomes US move to clamp down on gun trafficking
KINGSTON, Jamaica, 3 October 2024 (Guardian) - Jamaica’s deputy prime minister has welcomed a campaign by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, to push through new measures and legislation to tackle gun trafficking from the US to the Caribbean. |
Taniala Regenerative Camp aims to heal deforestation scars
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 3 October 2024 (Mongabay) - The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new and fertile land to grow crops like maize and peanuts. But amid the damage, in the village of Lambokely, is a carefully tended exception. Roland Frédéric Tahina and a group of volunteers tend baobabs, Indian siris and a range of indigenous species they’ve planted on a small plot they’ve named the Taniala Regenerative Camp. |
Migrating seabirds are bringing forever chemicals into the Arctic
VICTORIA, Canada, 4 October 2024 (Hakai) - Between March and May each year, 15 million black-legged kittiwakes gather from across the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to nest and breed on rocky Arctic cliffs. But a new study suggests these seabirds don’t arrive empty-handed. They carry souvenirs from the south: forever chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) picked up in more polluted southern waters. |
The women running New Zealand's 'third island'
STEWART ISLAND, New Zealand, 4 October 2024 (Guardian) - On New Zealand’s remote Stewart Island, Helen Cave is juggling multiple demands with aplomb: her latest haul of crayfish is due at the wharf, clients in China are phoning her about business and her grandson wants to take his new drone for a spin. |
Dominican Republic 'to deport up to 10,000 migrants a week'
LONDON, UK, 3 October 2024 (BBC) - The Dominican Republic says it plans to deport up to 10,000 undocumented migrants a week to combat uncontrolled migration. The plan was announced by President Luis Abinader's spokesman, Homero Figueroa, who blamed the international community's slow response to months of gang violence in neighbouring Haiti and its failure to restore stability. Tens of thousands of Haitians have fled across the border into the Dominican Republic. |
Cuba's coastal dwellers mitigate the effects of climate change
MANZANILLO, Cuba, 2 October 2024 (IPS) - When the weather is bad, the residents of the Litoral neighborhood in Manzanillo, Cuba, are forced to evacuate their houses. When it’s calm, the sea penetrates the foundations of houses, leaving them vulnerable. Now the community is getting together to restore the mangroves and improve the environment to return their homes to safety. |
Dust sparks rare massive phytoplankton bloom off Madagascar
PARIS, France, 3 October 2024 (SPX) - Recent research has revealed that dust carried from southern Africa towards Madagascar by wind triggered the largest phytoplankton bloom observed in two decades. This event, which occurred between November 2019 and January 2020, was particularly unusual due to its timing, as phytoplankton blooms are rarely seen during that time of year. |
Cost-benefit analysis exposes 'bogus' promises of palm oil riches
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 3 October 2024 (Mongabay) - The arrival of the palm oil industry in Indonesia’s Papua region has wrought more than five times as much environmental and social damage than the benefits it has delivered, according to a new cost-benefit analysis. |
UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
LONDON, UK, 3 October 2024 (BBC) - The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century. The deal – reached after years of negotiations - will see the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic move. This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft. |
Could a ban on sea farms save Canada's salmon?
TOFINO, Canada, 3 October 2024 (Guardian) - Clayoquot Sound is home to some of the last 60 salmon farms left on North America’s west coast. But now the salmon farming industry, blamed for contributing to the collapse of wild salmon stocks, faces an uncertain future. In June, the Canadian government announced a ban on open-net pen salmon farming from coastal waters in July 2029, as part of a commitment “to protecting wild salmon and promoting more sustainable aquaculture practices”. |
Past failures can't stop Indonesia from clearing forests for farms
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 3 October 2024 (Mongabay) - The Indonesian government is embarking on yet another project to establish a massive area of farmland at the expense of forests and Indigenous lands, despite a long history of near-identical failures. The latest megaproject calls for clearing 1 million hectares in the district of Merauke in the eastern region of Papua for rice fields. |
New Caledonia election postponed for a year
LONDON, UK, 2 October 2024 (Guardian) - France’s new prime minister, Michel Barnier, has announced that a provincial election scheduled for December in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia has been postponed for a year. |
Mining rush has caused no more deforestation than farming
MANCHESTER, UK, 1 October 2024 (Conversation) - If tens of thousands of miners turned up in the middle of a protected rainforest to mine for sapphires, you might expect that to cause lots of deforestation and harm local wildlife. But in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar, over 10,000 people mining for sapphires didn’t cause more damage to the forest than farmers clearing land for agriculture, which remains the most important driver of deforestation in this area. |
FITB and cruise lines working on solutions for clash days
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, 2 October 2024 (MercoPress) - The issue of controversial clash days during the cruise summer season has been addressed by Falkland Island Tourist Board (FITB). Clash days are when two or three cruise vessels coincide and hundreds of visitors, maybe even thousands “invade” the Islands, particularly Stanley. It must be remembered that the population of the whole of the Islands is 3,600 and Stanley some 2,500. The capacity of the latest vessel designs is sometimes larger that the local population. |
Turning waste into energy - a pathway to achieving circular economy
PORT VILA, Vanuatu, 2 October 2024 (SPREP) - The possibilities of turning waste into energy and how this can contribute to a circular economy were explored during at a workshop being held in Port Vila this week. Pyrolysis technologies that can turn plastics and used oil into energy, using an ancient process used to make charcoal of heating feedstocks in a closed retort with no oxygen until they ‘crack’ and turn into vapour. This vapour can then be burnt directly as a fuel, or it can be cooled to produced a usable gas similar to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). |
Why did China test-fire an ICBM into the South Pacific?
ARLINGTON, US, 2 October 2024 (Diplomat) - A brief statement by the Ministry of National Defense in Beijing called China’s September 25 test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the South Pacific Ocean near Tahiti “routine.” That description is cynical in its dishonesty. China’s actual “routine” is to test its missiles within or near its territory, such as Xinjiang or the Bohai Sea. The last time China fired a missile into international waters was in 1980. |
PNG leader glossing over clear evidence of widespread illegal logging
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 2 October 2024 (RNZ) - An NGO in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has dressed down Prime Minister James Marape for claiming his government is sustainably managing the country's forests. Marape made the comment at the UN General Assembly but community advocacy group ACT NOW said Marape's government is doing nothing to stop widespread illegal logging and in particular the abuse of agricultural clearing licences. |
Tuvaluans determined to stay put are fighting challenges
SYDNEY, Australia, 1 October 2024 (ABC) - Talua Nivaga is determined to save his homeland. As the co-founder of Tuvaluan youth climate group Fulifafou, he's watched the rising seas encroach and swallow parts of his island nation. While many Tuvaluans are considering migrating to escape the worsening effects of climate change, Mr Nivaga has told the ABC he is resolute in staying and fighting for the future of Tuvalu. |
Encouraging update on seabird conservation in French Polynesia
UA POU, French Polynesia, 30 September 2024 (SPREP) - Following eradication efforts implemented in 2023, a monitoring mission has confirmed that the three islets of Ua Pou, in French Polynesia, are now rat-free. This achievement will provide a safe haven for native and endangered seabirds to nest, restoring balance to the Marquesan coastal ecosystem. |
Exploring Ireland's first marine park
LONDON, UK, 30 September 2024 (Guardian) - The Kerry Seas national park encompasses 70,000 acres of marine and coastal habitats off Ireland’s west coast. It embraces numerous sites of rich cultural heritage and outstanding biodiversity. The latter includes internationally important seabird populations, plus everything from basking sharks and sunfish to dolphins and whales. |
E.Guinea, Gabon clash at ICJ over oil-rich islands
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, 30 September 2024 (AFP) - The two West African nations have been squabbling over the 30-hectare (74-acre) island of Mbanie and two smaller low-lying islets, Cocotier and Conga, since the early 1970s. Unlike most contentious cases that come to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague the two countries eventually agreed to send the thorny issue to the judges to find an amicable solution. |
Scientists race to save Marietas Islands corals from ocean warming
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 30 September 2024 (Mongabay) - The corals of the Marietas Islands, a pair of small islands in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, have survived record-high temperatures and uncontrolled tourism triggered by the sudden international fame of “the beach of love,” a picture-perfect quarry where people like to take selfies. Today, the corals of Islas Marietas National Park, created in 2005, are recovering slowly, reduced to a fifth of the coverage they had 30 years ago. |
UK can't stop Falkland Islands extracting million of barrels of oil
LONDON, UK, 30 September 2024 (OT) - In what will be seen as a blow to the UK’s movement away from fossil fuels under the new Labour Government, the Falkland Islands seems intent on approving the development of a huge oilfield in its territorial waters. Rockhopper Exploration said its views on the exploration and development of the Sea Lion basin remain unchanged, and it is proceeding with drilling. |
Diego Garcia: What is on the secretive UK-US island?
LONDON, UK, 29 September 2024 (BBC) - Diego Garcia, which is about 1,000 miles from the nearest landmass, features on lists of the world's most remote islands. There are no commercial flights and getting there by sea is no easier - permits for boats are only granted for the archipelago’s outer islands and to allow safe passage through the Indian Ocean. To enter the island you need a permit, only granted to people with connections to the military facility or the British authority that runs the territory. Journalists have historically been barred. |
CAI conference explores challenges and opportunities
FUNCHAL, Madeira. 29 September 2024 (SCN) - The Cruise Atlantic Islands (CAI) Conference continued on Friday, kicking off with the signing of a protocol welcoming cruise passengers and crew to engage in community activities on Madeira like tree planting in Funchal Ecological Park. |
Navy plans to double bombing of this tiny Hawaiian island
HONOLULU, Hawaii, 29 September 2024 (Civil Beat) - Some 23 miles southwest of Niihau lies Ka’ula, a remote islet teeming with nesting seabirds, monk seals and marine life that also happens to be the last Hawaiian island used by the military for aerial bombing and target practice. The Navy has trained there for decades even though the state insists it is the rightful owner and has tried to protect wildlife under a seabird sanctuary. Now, the Navy looks to increase its exercises on the uninhabited islet as international tensions grow with China and the military shifts more focus to the Pacific. |
Sooty terns under threat on Seychelles Aride Island
VICTORIA, Seychelles, 29 September 2024 (SNA) - Illegal poaching, overfishing and climate change are some of the biggest challenges the population of sooty terns is facing on Seychelles' Aride Island, said an official of the Island Conservation Society. |
Smear campaign against celebrity-endorsed nature reserve exposed
LONDON, UK, 28 September 2024 (BBC) - A nature reserve in the Philippines, which has been lauded by top climate activists and film stars, has come under a concerted disinformation attack on social media as it fights to continue its work, a BBC investigation has found. |
Sea turtle nests in Greece reach record numbers
ATHENS, Greece, 28 September 2028 (Guardian) - Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what Charikleia Minotou - who coordinates the WWF programme in the protected area - has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, long described as the Mediterranean’s greatest “maternity ward” for the Caretta caretta loggerhead sea turtle, has become host to not only record numbers of nests, but record numbers of surviving hatchlings as the species makes an extraordinary resurgence. |
Small snails make big comeback in French Polynesia
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 27 September 2024 (Mongabay) - Scientists have found Partula snails born in the wild on the French Polynesian island of Moorea, showing that a 40-year effort to save these tiny creatures is working. |
World's first CO2 storage service soon ready in Norway
OYGARDEN, Norway, 26 September 2024 (AFP) - On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone was marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, its 12 shiny storage tanks rising up against the sky. A jumble of pipes snake around the tanks, one of them plunging into the North Sea. It is here that the liquified CO2 will be transported by boat. From the tanks, it will travel through a 110-kilometre pipeline before being injected into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres, for permanent storage. |
On remote Greek island, migratory birds offer climate clues
ANTIKYTHERA, Greece, 27 September 2024 (AFP) - Birds "are among the first to be affected by climate change such as drought, which poses a big problem for their distant travel," ornithologist Christos Barboutis told AFP at an observation station on the small Aegean island of Antikythera. |
A murder mystery depicting Fiji's inequities
MELBOURNE, Australia, 27 September 2024 (Conversation) - Set in Suva, with a tropical cyclone looming, Sugar, An Ethnographic Novel follows three strangers from different cultural backgrounds. They find themselves entwined in a brutal murder, a crime revealing inconvenient truths about the darker side of global development. |
Agricultural encroachment can lead Taveuni into a crisis
TAVEUNI, Fiji, 27 September 2024 (SPREP) - The island of Taveuni is Fiji’s 3rd largest island and the development of agriculture has increasingly been at odds with the need to protect and conserve its natural environment. As encroachment into the Taveuni Forest Reserve and Ravilevu Nature Reserve for agricultural production of dalo and yaqona expands, it has affected ecosystem services provided by these natural resources, especially watershed protection. |
NASA analysis shows irreversible sea level rise for Pacific islands
PASADENA, US, 25 September 2024 (NASA) - In the next 30 years, Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji will experience at least 8 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise, according to an analysis by NASA’s sea level change science team. This amount of rise will occur regardless of whether greenhouse gas emissions change in the coming years. |
Island nations unite at UN
NEW YORK, US, 25 September 2024 (UN) - As wars and crises dominate global headlines, leaders from small island developing States used the UN General Assembly platform to sound the alarm on climate change – their most pressing existential threat – warning that it is obliterating economies and livelihoods. |
Clock ticks on Indonesia shark skinners as population plunges
LAMONGAN, Indonesia, 25 September 2024 (Mongabay) - Indonesia accounts for more sharks caught in open water than any other country, but fish stocks around the main island of Java are in crisis due to years of overfishing by large vessels using purse seine nets. |
'Extinct' Guam kingfisher takes flight again after nearly 40 years
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 25 September 2024 (Mongabay) - Caretakers released six Guam kingfishers, a bird species known locally as sihek, into the wild on Palmyra Atoll on Sept. 23, marking their first free flight in nearly four decades and a triumphant return from being classified as “extinct in the wild.” |
Return to normal maybe some time away at Kokoda
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 26 September 2024 (RNZ) - The Kokoda Trail, the route used by Australian troops in the Second World War in Papua New Guinea, and the site of many fierce battles, remains shut down by landowners. The trek, the biggest single attraction in PNG tourism, was shut down last week in a protest by landowners, unhappy they have not received grants promised since Kokoda was relaunched about 15 years ago. |
Abrupt name change for Port Blair has caused a backlash among locals
ARLINGTON, US, 26 September 2024 (Diplomat) - Across the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a striking new banner occupied every prominent space. Next to roads lined with potholes, it read: “Port Blair is more than a name. Port Blair is a feeling. And that feeling is home.” The banner was a response to the Indian government’s swift decision to change the name of the island capital, long known as Port Blair, to Sri Vijaya Puram. |
Indigenous Sasak brace for another weekend of repression
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 26 September 2024 (Mongabay) - Motorcycle racing’s biggest show, the MotoGP championship, is on the Indonesian island of Lombok this weekend, where top racers will battle it out on a track built on land taken by force from Indigenous Sasak communities. |
Crime grips Cuba's streets
HAVANA, Cuba, 25 September 2024 (BBC) - The crime rate in Cuba is worsened by a new drug called “quimico” – a cheap chemical high with a cannabis base that is increasingly popular among Cuban youth in the parks and on the streets. |
Surge in minke whales could be down to fewer basking sharks
LONDON, UK, 25 September 2024 (Guardian) - The highest ever recorded numbers of minke whales and the lowest number of basking sharks were observed in the Hebrides in 2023, according to the latest findings of the 20-year monitoring programme by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. |
Moscow focusing on Aland Islands as a possible target for attack
WASHINGTON, US, 24 September 2024 (JF) - Moscow is focusing on the Åland Islands as a potential target in the event of war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) now that the West has taken new steps to boost the defense of Gotland and the Svalbard islands. This Russian attention reflects the islands’ location astride key trade routes in the Baltic Sea and their complicated legal status. By international accord, they are neutral and demilitarized even though Finland, which has sovereignty there, is now in NATO. |
Young people in island nations face an existential question
NEW YORK, US, 25 September 2024 (AP) - It’s the uncomfortable talk that as a young woman, she knows she should have with her parents. They alluded to it, once, but couldn’t quite address it directly. And Grace Malie was glad to avoid the subject with them, though she and her friends do discuss it. As her home, the tiny but shrinking island of Tuvalu, slowly erodes from climate change's rising seas, should she rough it out on the remaining high land? Or should she flee her home, her culture, her heritage and her past to go to Australia - in what her government negotiated as “Plan B?” |
Norway is shying away from tourism
LONDON, UK, 24 September 2024 (Guardian) - Norway has some extremely beautiful landscapes, such as Lofoten, a stunning chain of islands that offers northern lights during the winter months and midnight sun during summer, and the countless breathtaking fjords. It is therefore no surprise that tourist numbers have surged in the last few years. |
Old tensions in New Caledonia
NOUMEA, New Caledonia, 24 September 2024 (Guardian) - New Caledonia was on edge on Tuesday, with fears tensions could spill over into fresh unrest as the territory marked the anniversary of the French takeover – and some independence figures prepared to issue calls for sovereignty. |
Low-lying Pacific islands pin hopes on UN meeting
LONDON, UK, 24 September 2024 (Guardian) - This week the United Nations general assembly will hold a high-level meeting to address the existential threats posed by sea level rise as the issue climbs the international agenda; last year the UN security council debated it for the first time. |
Environmental groups urge EU 'high risk' label for Sarawak
BANGKOK, Thailand, 24 September 2024 (AFP) - Environmental and rights groups urged the European Union Tuesday to label Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo "high risk" under controversial new anti-deforestation rules to be implemented from the end of December. |
Scotland's seabed being damaged in protection zones
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2024 (BBC) - Environmental groups say large parts of Scotland’s sensitive seabed are still not being protected - 10 years after new laws were introduced. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were created around the country’s coastline in 2014 but fishing has still not been restricted in more than half the sites. |
Sri Lanka swears in new left-leaning president
LONDON, UK, 23 September 2024 (BBC) - Sri Lanka's new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been sworn into office, promising "clean" politics as the country recovers from its worst economic crisis. The left-leaning Dissanayake has cast himself as a disruptor of the status quo, and analysts see his victory as a rejection of corruption and cronyism that has long plagued the country. |
A possible rat sighting on St Paul Island has caused a stir
JUNEAU, Alaska, 22 September 2024 (AP) - On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw - well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it. A rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on St. Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. |
The global war on island rats
WASHINGTON, US, 19 September 2024 (Science) - In 1959, voracious invasive rats were blamed for killing hundreds of white-faced storm petrels, a small seabird, on New Zealand’s Maria Island. In part to protect the birds, conservationists spread rat poison on the 2-hectare island, also known as Ruapuke. They didn’t intend to eradicate the rats but 5 years later were pleasantly surprised to discover that the rodents had disappeared, and the seabirds were safe. |
An Indigenous-led solution to crime in the Tiwi Islands
SYDNEY, Australia, 22 September 2024 (SBS) - Australians living in the remote Northern Territory on the Tiwi islands have been facing some of the highest crime rates in the nation. Local elders are now looking to remedy that through a grassroots approach that will provide support for families in the community. |
Sri Lanka votes in first election since protests ousted president
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 21 September 2024 (BBC) - Sri Lankans are voting for a new president in the first election since mass protests sparked by the country's worst-ever economic crisis unseated the leader in 2022. Saturday's vote is widely regarded as a referendum on economic reforms meant to put the country on the road to recovery. But many are still struggling to make ends meet because of tax hikes, and cuts to subsidies and welfare. |
How the Isle of Eigg achieved energy independence
ISLE OF EIGG, UK, 20 September 2024 (CNET) - Since they acquired the island through a community buyout in 1997, a central part of the residents' plan for that future was to take control of Eigg's energy. Although visible from the mainland, Eigg is still 15 miles off shore - that plus its tiny population meant it wasn't economically inviting to run a cable to the island to connect it to the electric grid. |
Island biogeography of the megadiverse plant family Asteraceae
GOTTINGEN, Germany, 20 September 2024 (Phys.org) - Asteraceae, a family of flowering plants, are the most diverse group of flowering plants in the world. This plant family comprises about 34,000 species. An international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen has now compiled and analyzed a new global database on the distribution and evolutionary history of all Asteraceae species. |
Haiti edges towards holding first elections since 2016
LONDON, UK, 20 September 2024 (BBC) - Haiti's government has taken a key step towards holding long-delayed elections with the creation of a body which will oversee the polls. The nine-member provisional electoral council - set up on Wednesday - has been tasked with organising elections by February 2026. The last time Haitians voted someone into power was in 2016. |
New Caledonia police kill two in operation linked to deadly unrest
LONDON, UK, 20 September 2024 (Guardian) - Two men have been killed in New Caledonia during a police operation to detain activists suspected of involvement in May’s deadly unrest which was sparked by attempts from Paris to change voting rights in the French Pacific territory. |
The Sea Change film festival on the island of Tiree is a DIY affair
LONDON, UK, 20 September 2024 (Guardian) - Think of a film festival and images of celebrities, paparazzi and throngs of tourists might spring to mind, but one festival on a Hebridean island does things a little differently. The Sea Change film festival, which runs from Friday to Sunday, has been attracting the public and the film industry to Tiree (population about 650) in the Inner Hebrides for the past five years. |
How Cyprus became a world leader in solar heating
NICOSIA, Cyprus, UK, 20 September 2024 (Guardian) - Cyprus has outstripped all other EU member states in embracing hot-water solar systems, with an estimated 93.5 % of households exploiting the alternative energy form for domestic needs. |
Aland is lovely, weapon-free and too close to Russia
LONDON, UK, 19 September 2024 (Economist) - Aland, a Skye-sized island surrounded by 7,000 islets and rocks, is awkward for Finland. Over 95% of its trade passes through or near the islands, as do crucial data and electricity cables linked to the rest of Europe. But Finland is bound by treaty to keep these Swedish-speaking islands demilitarised in peacetime. They have been so since the Crimean War, when Britain and France tried to strangle Russian trade through the Baltic. |
Puerto Rico's infrastructure still recovering from Hurricane Maria
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, 19 September 2024 (ABC) - Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria - nearly seven years after the powerful Category 4 storm caused extensive damage to the island's already delicate infrastructure. September marks National Preparedness Month and the start of Hispanic Heritage Month - stark reminders of the work that remains to be done on the island, especially as climate change could lead to more rapidly intensifying hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin. |
The Take: Jamaica - An island without beach access?
DOHA, Qatar, 20 September 2024 (Al Jazeera) - Less than 1 percent of the Jamaican coastline is accessible to the public. People’s livelihoods and leisure rely on access to the waters, but locals are prevented from beach access to make room for more all-inclusive resorts for foreign tourists. How are Jamaicans fighting back? |
Reducing the role of cash in Pacific Island economies
SYDNEY, Australia, 20 September 2024 (Interpreter) - In the Pacific Islands region, cash is king. But a transformation to digital financial services could unlock economic dividends needed now. The undertaking would be no small feat. Massive gaps exist between digital and traditional financial services in the Pacific Islands, driven partly by low trust in storing and sending money digitally and a lack of infrastructure across the region. |
Feral deer eradicated from Wild Duck Island to protect turtles
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia, 19 September 2024 (ABC) - Feral deer have been eradicated from a Great Barrier Reef island in an attempt to preserve one of Australia's largest flatback turtle rookeries. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service believe the rusa deer species was illegally introduced to the 330-hectare island for hunting in 2005. |
Norway deep sea mining to cause 'irreversible' harm
OSLO, Norway, 20 September 2024 (AFP) - "Norway's deep sea mining plans in the Arctic will cause irreversible harm to biodiversity," Greenpeace said as it published a report titled "Deep Sea Mining in the Arctic: Living Treasures at Risk". |
Many people in the Pacific lack access to adequate toilets
BRISBANE, Australia, 20 September 2024 (Conversation) - Across Pacific nations, almost half a million people are living in informal urban settlements with a lack of proper sanitation, which can include difficult access to working toilets. This affects health, wellbeing, education and livelihoods, especially for women children, older people, and people with disabilities. |
Big changes sought in wake of Porgera violence
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 20 September 2024 (RNZ) - Warring clan leaders in Papua New Guinea's Enga province have agreed to peace talks after chronic tribal revenge killings among local terrorists with military-style weapons. Police say 32 people died during the brutal five-day conflict, 60 received life-threatening injuries and 59 houses were burnt to the ground. |
Hope for coral reefs after IVF colonies survive record heat event
LONDON, UK, 18 September 2024 (Guardian) - Young corals bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted in reefs around the US, Mexico and the Caribbean have surprised scientists, after most survived last year’s record marine heatwaves, while older corals struggled. |
Life on a remote island - in pictures
LONDON, UK, 19 September 2024 (Guardian) - A new book presents images of a mysterious, unnamed remote island alongside extracts from journals and quotes from residents. The book takes a poetic, philosophical approach to comprehending the wider world through the perspective of this solitary microcosm. Some quotes are purposely not attributed to any specific person; instead consider them ‘whispers’ that are heard across the island. |
ETA digital visa scheme could cost Channel Islands millions
LONDON, UK, 19 September 2024 (BBC) - A digital visa scheme could cost the Channel Islands "millions" and deliver a reputational hit, a travel expert has said. The new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is a permit which non-British and non-Irish citizens, who do not require a visa, will need to enter the UK. |
EU to allocate funds to help Canary Islands host migrants
LYON, France, 18 September 2024 (Euronews) - The European Union is set to allocate €14 million to Spain's Canary Islands to enhance their capacity to accommodate migrants. The EU says the aim of the scheme is to "strengthen the safeguarding of our external border through the Canary Islands," which has seen a surge in migrant arrivals from West Africa. It follows a similar payment of €20 million from the EU to the Spanish archipelago made in March. |
Tunisia fisherwomen battle inequality and climate change
KERKENNAH, Tunisia, 17 Sepember, 2024 (AFP) - Off a quiet Tunisian island, Sara Souissi readies her small fishing boat. As a woman in the male-dominated trade, she rows against entrenched patriarchy but also environmental threats to her livelihood. Souissi began fishing as a teenager in a family of fishers off their native Kerkennah Islands near the city of Sfax, defying men who believed she had no place at sea. |
Fijian coral study reveals over 600 years of rising sea temps
BERLIN, Germany, 19 September 2024 (SPX) - An international research team has revealed that sea surface temperatures in the southwestern Pacific, particularly around the Fijian archipelago, are currently the highest they have been in over 600 years. The findings stem from a study of coral records, which show that the year 2022 marked the warmest in the region since the year 1370. |
The US election has put the spotlight on Haiti
ADELAIDE, Australia, 19 September 2024 (Conversation) - Since the recent US presidential debate, Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have doubled down on claims that Haitian immigrants are causing crime and disorder in Springfield, Ohio. These claims spread rapidly because of the bogus assertion that pets were being stolen and eaten. The claims fit a pattern of assertions by Republicans – particularly around election time – about immigrant-fuelled crime. |
Lush rainforest in Falklands?
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, 19 September 2024 (MercoPress) - A researcher from the University of Southampton (UK) has found evidence that the treeless, rugged, grassland landscape of the Falkland Islands was home to a lush, diverse rainforest up to 30 million years ago. |
Grizzly Bears appear on Vancouver Island
VICTORIA, Canada, 19 September 2024 (Hakai) - Grizzly sightings on Vancouver Island are rare but have been increasing in frequency over the past decade. Young males from the mainland plunge into the ocean seeking new territory and a chance to mate. Some swim across Johnstone Strait, part of the Inside Passage, to reach the eastern shores of Vancouver Island. |
Niue launches three key documents to flight climate change
ALOFI, Niue, 18 September 2024 (SPREP) - Niue, a nation with a population of less than 2,000 people, and battered by the impacts of climate change, has taken a critical step to maximise its ability to access climate funding from the Green Climate Fund, and other potential donors to fight climate change, with the launch of three key documents today. |
Transhipping of fish costing Pacific nations
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 18 September 2024 (RNZ) - The latest analysis released by the Pew Charitable Trust on transhipment of tuna has found that the Western and Central Pacific regional fisheries management organisation is on the losing end of the multi-billion dollar industry. About US$10.4 billion worth of tuna are transhipped annually with around US$6.5 billion coming from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, the organisation revealed. |
US moves soldiers to Alaska island amid Russian military increase
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, 18 September 2024 (ABC) - The U.S. military has moved about 130 soldiers along with mobile rocket launchers to a desolate island in the Aleutian chain of western Alaska amid a recent increase in Russian military planes and vessels approaching American territory. |
Solomon Islands secures finance for new solar PV projects
LONDON, UK, 18 September 2024 (PVTech) - A group of investment firms led by the Asian Development Bank has partnered with the government of the Solomon Islands to finance new solar PV power plants, increase rooftop solar PV installations and support the islands’ power sector reforms. |
One woman's goal to protect islands in the Salish Sea
PARK CITY, US, 17 September 2024 (KPCW) - Conservationist and author Shelia Harrington has a new book titled, "Voices for the Islands." In it, Harrington highlights the importance of protecting nature on and around the islands of the Salish Sea located off the shores of Washington state and British Columbia. |
Philippines hydro boom rips Indigenous communities
KALINGA, Philippines, 18 September 2024 (Mongabay) - The Philippine government has approved 99 hydropower projects in the mountainous Cordillera region, part of a broader plan to rely on renewable energy sources for 35% of the country’s power by 2030. The planned projects are dividing rural communities between those who believe the dams will bring in jobs and money and those who fear damage to water sources and cultural sites. |
The long hard task of fixing PNG's broken cycle of justice
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 18 September 2024 (RNZ) - In 2022, Papua New Guinea's Parliament unanimously voted to change the country's gun laws making it possible for the courts to impose life sentences on people found to be in possession of illegal firearms. But nobody has yet been convicted under the new laws. |
Huge turnout expected for rally against deep sea mining
RAROTONGA, Cook Islands, 17 September 2024 (CIN) - The organisers of the At Sea, Sail Out Rally are anticipating a “huge turnout of people” at the event tomorrow. The “peaceful rally at sea and on land to call for a precautionary pause to deep sea mining” is organised by Ocean Ancestors, a collective of individuals, NGOs, and businesses united by their shared passion for protecting the ocean. |
Photographs reveal sharp decline of Norway's seabirds
LONDON, UK, 17 September 2024 (Guardian) - When Rob Barrett set out to survey one of the country’s largest colonies in the 1970s there were too many birds to count. Now, his pictures and archive images, including nesting areas on small uninhabited islands, show a species decline echoed around the world. |
Living on King Island has always come with its challenges
BURNIE, Australia, 17 September 2024 (ABC) - King Island Dairy is the largest single employers on the Bass Strait island, but the factory and associated cheese brand is set to be closed next year. It's one of a number of major industry closures that have rocked the small Tasmanian island community in recent decades, with workers forced to consider if they have to move away. |
Sri Lanka faces another crucial election
MULLIVAIKAL, Sri Lanka, 16 September 2024 (IPS) - Thousands of Tamils are heading to Mullivaikal on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka, many of whom were here 15 years ago and still live in the region. They are there, May 18, to commemorate the massacre of civilians in a ‘no fire zone’ during the final stages of the civil war. This was the last day of the bloody civil war, which raged mainly in the northern and eastern parts of the island since 1983. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas had finally surrendered to the Sri Lankan government. The aftermath continues to rock the island. |
COP29 hosts unveil busy programme as main climate agenda stalls
PARIS, France, 17 September 2024 (AFP) - COP29 host Azerbaijan said Tuesday that voluntary pledges on everything from tourism to world peace would be sought at the UN climate summit as disagreements over money stymie the main agenda. Nations are supposed to agree at the November conference how much should be raised for developing countries to cope with climate change but the formal negotiations so far have been mired in disagreement. |
25-fold surge in malaria at Indonesia gold frontier
POHUWATO, Indonesia, 16 September 2024 (Mongabay) - Diagnoses of malaria in Pohuwato district on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi soared by more than an order of magnitude in 2023. The rise in the disease has been linked to deforestation in the district as well as its large trade in alluvial gold. |
Philippine coal mine roars into production amid waves of complaints
SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines, 17 September 2024 (Mongabay) - San Miguel Corporation, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, has started mining coal from a concession in the mountain village of Ned in the country’s south. The local Catholic diocese, along with environmental and tribal groups, oppose the mine, citing potential risks to the environment and to the region’s water and food supply. |
Community archaeology is helping people
VICTORIA, Canada, 17 September 2024 (Hakai) - Tiny fountains rise, sparkle, and splash back down on the intertidal zone of Xwe’etay, or Lasqueti Island, British Columbia. It’s as if the clams squirt in response to the beat of the Salish drums. Over 70 people have gathered amid the sharp shells and algae slicks of this low summer tide. Our circle includes Indigenous people, residents, anthropologists, archaeologists, and visitors. We’re here to get a sense of the deep human history of this place and ponder how we might live with it together. |
Shootouts over gold mine kill 30 in PNG
LONDON, UK, 16 September 2024 (BBC) - A series of shootouts between rival tribes over a disputed gold mine has left at least 30 people dead in Papua New Guinea. Unrest had been brewing near the Porgera gold mine in the country's central highlands ever since members of the Sakar clan settled on land owned by their rivals, the Piande, sometime in August. |
A stolen skull, a severed statue has divided the city of Hobart
HOBART, Australia, 14 September 2024 (BBC) - For months, an unusual monument sat in an oak-lined square at the heart of Tasmania's capital: a pair of severed bronze feet. A statue of renowned surgeon-turned-premier William Crowther had loomed over the park in Hobart for more than a century. But one evening in May, it was chopped down at the ankles and the words "what goes around" graffitied on its sandstone base. |
ICS opens conservation centre on Seychelles Platte Island
VICTORIA, Seychelles, 15 September 2024 (SNA) - Conservation efforts on Platte Island in Seychelles have been significantly bolstered with the recent opening of a new conservation centre managed by the Island Conservation Society (ICS). One priority will be the monitoring of a large lagoon teeming with marine life that serves as a feeding ground for various marine species, most notably for hawksbill turtles, a critically endangered species. |
Repairs begin on clan's island stronghold
LONDON, UK, 13 September 2024 (BBC) - Conservation work has started on a clan stronghold in the Western Isles. Barra's Kisimul Castle dates from the 15th Century and was built on a rock in the sea at Castlebay as a Macneil power base. It was shut to the public at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and has not reopened since due to concerns about the safety of parts of the building. |
The Tongan women pushing for change
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga, 13 September 2024 (Guardian) - Under an 1875 law, women in Tonga are prohibited from owning land. The law also makes it difficult for women who marry non-Tongans to buy land together. Women can only inherit land in specific circumstances, such as when there are no male heirs, and they must remain unmarried. |
Greenland urges Denmark to confront its dark past
NUUK, Greenland, 13 September 2024 (AFP) - Denmark's forced contraception scandal in Greenland has snowballed since a victim first spoke out five years ago with the territory urging the Danish state to acknowledge the trauma it had caused. Danish authorities between the 1960s and the 1990s forced more than 4,500 young Inuit women to wear a contraceptive coil - or intrauterine device (IUD) - without their or their family's consent. The campaign was aimed at limiting the birth rate in the Arctic territory, which had not been a Danish colony since 1953 but was still under its control. |
Mystery tremors were from massive nine-day tsunami in Greenland
LONDON, UK, 12 September 2024 (BBC) - A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a 200m wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days. That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord - moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations. |
More than 80% of EU marine protected areas are ineffective
LONDON, UK, 13 September 2024 (Guardian) - Most of Europe’s marine protected areas, set up to safeguard species and habitats, will not meet conservation targets as they provide only “marginal” protection against industrial activities such as dredging, mining and bottom trawling, a study has revealed. |
Key measures languish in Pacific Islands pact with US
WASHINGTON, US, 12 September 2024 (VOA) - More than six months after a crucial security deal between Washington and some Pacific Island nations was signed into law, key features of the Compacts of Free Association have not been implemented, raising questions in the region about U.S. commitment to its Pacific partners in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing. |
Personhood for whales: 'A legacy' of late Kiingi Tuheitia
VAVA'U, Tonga, 13 September 2024 (RNZ) - The residents of the Tonga island group of Vava'u are promising to honour the late Maori King's call for whales to be given personhood. Vava'u is one of the few places in the world where tourists can swim with whales. Earlier this year, Maori and Pacific leaders signed a declaration called He Whakaputanga Moana, giving whales rights, including the freedom of movement, a healthy environment and the restoration of their populations. |
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