Deadly insect kills and devours thousands of seabird chicks a year
| | LONDON, UK, 8 February 2026 (BBC Wildlife) - There are giant, carnivorous centipedes killing and eating up to 3,700 black-winged petrel chicks annually on a small, remote Australian external territory in the South Pacific. Phillip island centipedes can grow to almost 30cm in length and subdue their prey by using two pincer-like appendages, called forcipules, to inject a toxic venom into their prey, which, apart from seabird chicks, includes geckos, skinks and crickets. |
No one owns our Arctic land, we share it, say Greenland’s Inuit
| | LONDON, UK, 8 February 2026 (Guardian) - Greenland and its people were thrust into the global spotlight last year when Trump revived his demand that the US take control of the island for national security and to access its abundant mineral resources. For the Inuit people, who have lived here for centuries, no one owns the Arctic land. The concept that ownership is shared collectively is central to the Inuit identity and has survived 300 years of colonisation. It is written into law, people can own houses, but not the land beneath them. |
Why western Sicily is Italy's emerging arts hub
| | LONDON, UK, 8 February 2026 (Guardian) - Art is helping to revitalise Sicily’s ghost towns and deserted urban spaces, with the earthquake-hit town of Gibellina becoming Italy’s first Capital of Contemporary Art. |
Sardinia bristles at mafia inmate plan
| | NUORO, Italy, 7 February 2026 (Reuters) - In Nuoro, a remote city on the Italian island of Sardinia, a high stone wall rings the local prison, a fortress-like complex once renowned for holding high-profile mobsters and convicted terrorists far from the mainland. Only a handful of top mafiosi remain detained there and Sardinia is no longer seen as a dumping ground for criminals, instead building an international reputation around tourism. But that could change under a plan of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government which has alarmed residents. |
Bermuda snail thought to be extinct now thrives
| | LONDON, UK, 7 February 2026 (Guardian) - A button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs. The greater Bermuda snail was found in the fossil record but believed to have vanished from the North Atlantic archipelago, until a remnant population was discovered in a damp and overgrown alleyway in Hamilton, the island capital, in 2014. |
What Trump's plans for the Arctic mean for the global climate crisis
| | LONDON, UK, 6 February 2026 (Guardian) - This week, the Trump administration took a key step towards opening new leases for oil and gas drilling across millions of acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – a pristine and biodiverse expanse in northern Alaska and one of the last wildlands in the US still left untouched. |
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SIDS |
 | | 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States 27-30 May 2024, Antigua and Barbuda |
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NAF |
| | North Atlantic Forum bi-annual international conference 17-21 June, 2024, Connemara, Ireland, |
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IWRA |
| | 1st Islands Water Congress 4-6 Sept, 2024, Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
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ANATOMY OF ISLANDS |
| | 12th Anatomy of Islands symposium 26-28 Sept, 2024, Jelsa, Hvar Island, Croatia |
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CIS |
| | Critical Island Studies 4th international conference 3-4 Oct, 2024, Manila, Philippines |
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CBD |
| | COP16 21 Oct-1 Nov, 2024, Cali, Colombia |
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UNFCCC |
| | COP29 11-22 November, 2024, Baku, Azerbaijan |
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ISLAND DYNAMICS |
| | DARKNESS II conference, 20-23 January 2025, Nuuk, Greenland |
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JICAS |
| | Islands And Island Studies conference 3-7 June, 2025, Jersey, Channel Islands |
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UNITED NATIONS |
| | UN Ocean Conference 9-13 June, 2025, Nice, France |
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UPEI |
| | 3rd international conference on SIS and SNIJs 16-20 June, 2025, Charlottetown, PEI |
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ISISA |
| | 20th Islands of the World Conference 7-11 July 2026, Shinan County, Jeollanam-do, South Korea |
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