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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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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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ARCTIC COUNCIL |
| | UArctic Congress 26-29 May 2026, Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
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SICRI |
| | Island Studies International Conference 25-28 June, 2026, Tacloban City, Leyte Islands, Philippines |
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WORLD ISLANDS FAIR |
| | The world’s first international event themed around islands 5 Sept-4 Nov, 2026, Yeosu, South Korea |
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SPREP |
| | 11th Pacific Islands Conference for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas, 7–11 September 2026, Noumea, New Caledonia |
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ANATOMY OF ISLANDS |
| | 14th Anatomy of Islands symposium 15-17 Oct, 2026, Jelsa, Hvar Island, Croatia |
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SOCIETY OF ISLAND BIOLOGY |
| | 5th Island Biology conference 2-6 November, 2026, Atami City, Japan |
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IWRA |
| | 2nd Islands Water Congress 27-29 Jan, 2027, Montego Bay, Jamaica |
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ISISA |
| | 21st Islands of the Word Conference 6-10 June, 2027, Willemstad, Curacao |
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