Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas boom – blessing or curse?
Papua New Guinea announced last week that it is deploying its military to quell violence in Hela Province, home to the country's largest oil and gas project. Tribal conflict in…
Human impacts are ‘decoupling’ coral reef ecosystems
Researchers argue that predictability of ecosystem could be sign of health A largely pristine coral reef in the remote Pacific on an island largely unpopulated by humans. Photo by: Brian…
Reeling in religious messages: how faith impacts fisheries in Fiji
Marrying religion and conservation could be key to making Fiji's fisheries sustainable Fijians appear to enter life with vocal cords prepped for singing. It's an ideal trait, because most are…
Top scientists raise concerns over commercial logging on Woodlark Island
Little-known 'biological-jewel' faces commercial logging A number of the world's top conservation scientists have raised concerns about plans for commercial logging on Woodlark Island, a hugely biodiverse rainforest island off…
Extinction island? Plans to log half an island could endanger over 40 species
Little-explored island off the coast of Papua New Guinea could soon face industrial logging Children on Woodlark Island. Photo by: Simon Piyuwes. Woodlark Island is a rare place on the…
Fishing for coherent regulations along Fiji’s coral reefs
Will Fiji implement a much-needed update to its fisheries laws before the September election? If you want to quiet a room in Fiji or feel like a lobster in a…
Dying for Fiji’s Sea Cucumbers
What's it Worth? Deepening pressure on Fiji’s coral protectors. Redfish, Greenfish, Blackfish. Pinkfish, Curryfish, Lollyfish. They sound like Dr. Seuss characters and certainly look like they should be. Yet these…
Bigger than Mexico? Obama announces major expansion of Pacific protected area
President Obama announced yesterday he intends to drastically expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument making what will likely be the largest marine protected area (MPA) on the planet.…
Former Miss South Pacific steps into new conservation role
Alisi Rabukawaqa, an articulate, vibrant, 26-year-old Fijian known in Oceania as Miss South Pacific 2011, has set her sights on a novel conservation program in Fiji. The Conservation Officer program,…
New Caledonia officially creates world’s largest protected area (photos)
The government of New Caledonia last week officially created the world's largest protected area, establishing a multi-use zone that at 1.3 million square kilometers is three times the size of…
Loggers plan to clear 20 percent of tropical island paradise
Rainforest tree on Woodlark Island. Photo by: Simon Piyuwes. Seven years ago, a palm oil company set its eyes on Woodlark Island—a small rainforest island nearly 200 miles off the…
Extinction crisis: rising sea levels will submerge thousands of islands
Sea levels are rising at the highest rate in thousands of years, putting at risk low-lying islands around the world. In a new study published in Nature Conservation, researchers found…
Corals thriving despite acidified conditions in remote Pacific bay
Palau's Rock Islands. Courtesy of Google Earth. Scientists have discovered a small island bay in the Pacific which could serve as a peephole into the future of the ocean. Palau's…
On edge of extinction, could drones and technology save the Little Dodo?
Little dodo baby found: conservationists boosted by discovery that species is breeding. Detail of new painting highlighting the Manumea or little dodo. Painting by: © Michael Rothman 2013. Almost nothing…
Protected forests linked to healthy coral reefs in Fiji
Increasing forest protection in the right areas could increase benefits up to 10.4 percent to coral reef condition, according to a recent study of Fiji's forests and reefs in Marine…
Giant clams are easy to recognize, but genetics proves there is more than meets the eye
Giant clams are among the more easily spotted invertebrates of the marine realm. However, some are actually quite cryptic and distinct species are often difficult to identify, claims a study…
Scientists discover a new coral in the French Polynesia
With humans scattered throughout the globe, it is hard to imagine lands still unexplored or species undocumented. Yet, on the remote French Polynesian Gambier Islands a new coral reef species…
Beetles in the spotlight: a new species of burying beetle from the Solomon Islands Archipelago
If you thought of the little beetle that you saw the other day as just a ‘regular one’ then this might interest you. Scientists from the University of Alaska discovered…
‘Lost’ bird rediscovered in New Caledonia along with 16 potentially new species (photos)
In early 2011, Conservation International (CI) dubbed the forests of New Caledonia the second-most imperiled in the world after those on mainland Southeast Asia. Today, CI has released the results…
First study of little-known mammal reveals climate change threat
One of the world's least-known flying foxes could face extinction by rising seas and changing precipitation patterns due to global warming, according to a new study in Zookeys. The research,…
President’s pledge to ban commercial fishing around Pacific island nation slow to materialize
Commercial fishing allowed in 97 percent of the world-famous Phoenix Islands marine protected area In 2010 President Anote Tong of Kiribati made a historic pledge, committing to protect the waters…
Solomon Islands’ banks shut down logging company accounts
Banks in the Solomon Islands have shut down bank accounts belonging to several foreign logging companies, reports Business Advantage. The move will make it "almost impossible" to receive payments for…
Logging endangers UNESCO World Heritage Site in Solomon Islands
A world heritage site in the Solomon Islands is "in danger" due to logging, warns the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The East Rennell area of the…
Pacific islanders are the ‘victims of industrial countries unable to control their carbon dioxide emissions’
With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level,…
Industrialized fishing has forced seabirds to change what they eat
The bleached bones of seabirds are telling us a new story about the far-reaching impacts of industrial fisheries on today's oceans. Looking at the isotopes of 250 bones from Hawaiian…
Saviors or villains: controversy erupts as New Zealand plans to drop poison over Critically Endangered frog habitat
New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) is facing a backlash over plans to aerially drop a controversial poison, known as 1080, over the habitat of two endangered, prehistoric, and truly…
Humans killed over 10 percent of the world’s bird species when they colonized the Pacific Islands
One of the survivors: the Takahē, a flightless rail from New Zealand. Photo by: © ZSL. Around 4,000 years ago intrepid Polynesian seafarers made their way into an untamed wilderness:…
The Role of Science for Conservation – book review
The Role of Science for Conservation, edited by Matthias Wolff and Mark Gardner, celebrates Charles Darwin’s Bicentennial and 50 years of research by the Charles Darwin Foundation in The Galápagos,…
U.S. Admiral: climate change, not North Korea, biggest threat in the Pacific
Rising sea levels may force inhabitants of Tarawa to abandon the island by the end of century. The island is home to over 45,000 people. Photo by: NASA. This week,…
Extinction warning: racing to save the little dodo from its cousin’s fate
Illustration of the little dodo likely based on stuffed specimens. By: John Gould. Sometime in the late 1600s the world's last dodo perished on the island of Mauritius. No one…