Protecting and restoring Iceland's precious wetlands
| | CAMBRIDGE, UK, 25 February 2026 (BirdLife) - Because Iceland lies between Greenland and mainland Europe, it is a natural stopover for many migratory birds travelling along the African-Eurasian Flyway. Birds stop here to rest and refuel, and many species also breed in Iceland. Historically, a large proportion of Iceland’s lowlands were wetlands. However, following government-subsidised drainage efforts between 1940 and 1990, around 90% of these wetlands were affected as land was converted for agricultural use. |
Indigenous communities oppose Papua forest rezoning for palm oil
| | JAKARTA, Indonesia, 25 February 2026 (Mongabay) - Indigenous communities in Indonesian Papua have filed an administrative objection against forestry ministry decrees that reclassify more than a million acres as nonforest land, clearing the way for oil palm development under the government’s food estate program. |
Russian firms have routed $8bn of trade through UKOTs
| | LONDON, UK, 25 February 2026 (Guardian) - Russian companies have used Britain’s secretive island territories to conduct $8bn (£5.9bn) of trade since the invasion of Ukraine, according to a report that highlights the flow of goods ranging from oil-drilling equipment to luxury yachts linked to Moscow’s political elite. |
A second gold rush in Solomon Islands but a familiar extractive trap
| | SYDNEY, Australia, 25 February 2026 (Interpreter) - On the eight-kilometre stretch between Alligator Creek and the Ranadi industrial area in Honiara, drivers idling in the city’s notorious traffic are greeted by a scattering of signs reading “we buy gold”. About 20 of these signs have appeared over the past three years, many printed on billboards, others hastily painted on walls or cardboard. |
How ancient Scottish rocks throw 'snowball Earth' theory up in the air
| | LONDON, UK, 25 February 2026 (Guardian) - During the ”snowball Earth” period about 700m years ago, Earth’s climate shut down. The planet was encased in ice and insulated from seasonal variations: spring, summer, autumn and winter all stopped. Or at least that was the theory. Recent examination of some ancient rocks from the remote Garvellach islands of west coast of Scotland has now overturned that thinking, suggesting there were periods during snowball Earth when the climate woke up. |
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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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