Sao Tome and Príncipe heads to polls in tense presidential election
| | ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, 19 July 2026 (Guardian) - Voters in Sao Tome and Principe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials. According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora. |
Moloka‘i growers feeding the island in wake of plant shipment bans
| | KAHULUI, Hawaii, 18 July 2026 (MN) - When the state banned the shipment of plants and gardening materials to prevent the spread of invasive pests to Moloka‘i last year, people started asking Patrick Rogers if he had any herbs and vegetables to sell. Rogers and his partner were farming on a small scale on his late father’s property on the outskirts of Kaunakakai town. Now his fledgling business grows more than 100 kinds of edible crops and ornamental plants out of Rogers’ backyard to sell and give away to people in the community. |
Cuba edges toward breakdown
| | HAVANA, Cuba, 18 July 2026 (Guardian) - When Cuba’s national grid collapses, as it did for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday, a collective groan spreads across its cities and people wonder, again, whether the island’s antiquated electricity system may soon become unrecoverable. |
They escaped the slave trade to an island in the middle of the ocean
| | COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 17 July 2026 (UCSC) - Saint Helena is a tiny volcanic island more than 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa. Between 1840 and 1863, the British Royal Navy brought nearly 27,000 Africans from captured illegal slave ships to a “Liberated African Establishment” on Saint Helena. UC Santa Cruz researchers helped shed new light on the likely origins within Africa of some of those people who died and were buried on the island. |
Biodiversity fears as hybrid fish integrate into Philippines lake
| | LONDON, UK, 17 July 2026 (Guardian) - Escaped ornamental aquarium fish have integrated into a local ecosystem in the Philippines, but scientists say they may be threatening the native biodiversity of the lake. Flowerhorn cichlids – human-bred hybrid fish prized for their bright-gold colour and prominent head humps – are believed to have escaped from breeding facilities into Lake Sampaloc, which sits in a volcanic crater, during a typhoon. |
Tokelau and PNA react to New Zealand fisheries action
| | MAJURO, Marshall Islands, 17 July 2026 (RNZ) - Tokelau - made up of three atolls with a total population of about 1500 people - benefited hugely from joining a Pacific tuna cartel in 2012. The impact of being part of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) was so significant that revenue generated from its lucrative fishery quickly accounted for as much as 40 percent of the national budget for this non-self-governing territory of New Zealand. But all that came to a halt early this year, when the PNA terminated Tokelau's participation in PNA's Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) that manages the purse seine industry in Pacific waters, where over half the world's tuna is caught. |
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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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ISISA |
| | 20th Islands of the World Conference 7-11 July 2026, Shinan County, Jeollanam-do, 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 9-11 Dec, 2026, Montego Bay, Jamaica |
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