The 'big durian': one day in Jakarta, the world's largest city
| | JAKARTA, Indonesia, 23 April 2026 (Guardian) - In December, the United Nations officially designated Jakarta as the world's largest city, hosting a staggering 42 million inhabitants. Michael Neilson speaks to several people who call the ‘big durian’ home – about the positives and the negatives – and how community and the city’s infamously dry humour get them through. |
Record puffin count on small island for second year running
| | CARDIFF, Wales, 22 April 2026 (BBC) - A record number of puffins have been counted for the second year running on a small island off Pembrokeshire. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said 52,019 puffins were documented on Skomer Island this year - 8,000 more than in 2025. As well as a growing population of puffins, Skomer is also home to 350,000 breeding pairs of manx shearwaters and thousands of guillemots and razorbills. |
Coral reefs are secretly connected across vast oceans
| | TOWNSVILLE, Australia, 22 April 2026 (Conversation) - Lord Howe Island lies in the middle of the ocean, about 700 kilometres northeast of Sydney. It’s covered in lush forest and fringed by the world’s most southerly coral reef ecosystem. This reef system isn’t as famous as its northern neighbour, the Great Barrier Reef, but our new research shows it plays an outsized role in keeping vast coral regions across the Pacific connected – and alive. |
Why forest conservation is also public health
| | ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, 22 April 2026 (Mongabay) - A new study from Madagascar provides the first complete mitochondrial genomes for two endemic tuft-tailed rats, offering a clearer baseline for identifying and tracking native rodent species. Fieldwork found these native rodents only in intact forest, while degraded areas were dominated by invasive black rats, suggesting a shift in community composition linked to habitat change. Understanding which rodent species are present, where they live, and how their populations change is critical not just for biodiversity, but for identifying how pathogen dynamics may shift across landscapes. |
Fiji villagers reject plan for 'Pacific ashtray' in beach paradise
| | SYDNEY, Australia, 22 April 2026 (AFP) - An Australian billionaire's plan to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji amounts to "waste colonialism" and risks spoiling a "beach paradise", villagers and the Pacific nation's UN ambassador said. Traditional landowner Inoke Tora boarded a bus to the capital Suva on Tuesday with a petition from villagers opposing the $630 million waste-to-energy incinerator, which is forecast to consume 900,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish each year. |
Indonesia orangutan forest cleared for 'carbon-neutral' packaging firm
| | BANGKOK, Thailand, 22 April 2026 (AFP) - Vast tracts of Indonesian rainforest home to endangered orangutans have been cleared for plantations supplying a maker of "carbon-neutral" packaging, an investigation by AFP and The Gecko Project has found. Pulp and paper firm Asia Symbol has a no-deforestation policy and supplied major companies like Haleon, the British pharmaceutical giant behind household brands Panadol and Sensodyne. But wood from plantations where tens of thousands of hectares of forest were felled - including orangutan habitat - was processed at an Indonesian mill supplying Asia Symbol. |
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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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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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