Islands News

Evolution takes time and space. Enough time needs to pass for genetic differences to crop up in a population of animals and make them distinct from their forebears. And enough…

The remote island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean has finally been declared free of invasive rats and mice in the world’s largest-ever rodent eradication effort. A monitoring…

For logging on islands to be sustainable, it must adhere to clearly defined parameters that limit the impact on water quality and soil erosion, according to new research in the…

The tropical Caribbean island of Haiti is a paradise with a rich, fascinating history, natural wonders, and diverse cultural offerings. It has also been named by some as the next big…

Though the approximately 465,000 islands on planet Earth represent just over five percent of total global land area, they are disproportionately rich in threatened biodiversity — and researchers have now…

On the island of Makira, in the eastern Solomon Islands, bat teeth are more valuable than paper money. But their use as a currency has contributed to widespread hunting of…

For years, sovereign rights in the South China Sea have been an object of fierce contention among the states that border it: the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam (all…

Zanzibar is home to many more individuals of an endemic monkey species than biologists previously believed, according to a recent study. “Scientists have known about the Zanzibar red colobus monkey…

A team of scientists from Seychelles, the United States and the United Kingdom has found a new caecilian, perhaps the smallest species of the legless amphibian on Earth. "As soon…

From the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, scientists have described two new species of Pisonia trees — a group of notorious "birdcatcher trees" known to produce sticky seeds that can…

For a long time, people living on the Vangunu Island in the Solomons spoke about the "vika", a giant rat on the island that lives in trees and cracks open…

High tide keeps getting higher on the islands of the Republic of Kiribati – 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean that rest only a few feet above sea level.…

This is the first in a two-part series on logging in the Solomon Islands. Read the second part for more discussion on the topic. The Solomon Islands is a country that’s…

This is the second in a two-part series on logging in the Solomon Islands. Read the first part for more discussion on the topic. Several companies are vying for the rights to harvest timber in…

PENANG, Malaysia — Fisherman Liew Hock Choon, 50, cut the outboard engine and explained that we have arrived at the position of one of his fish traps. “No GPS,” he…

As I reached the surface, I could hardly believe my eyes. The black shadow of the vessel turned, revealing its distinct cigar-shaped profile. Seeing a submarine at sea with a…

KALAODI, Indonesia  — August through September is clove harvest season here in this corner of the Maluku Islands. The scent of clove flowers pierces the air over the winding, precipitous…

Palawan, a slender archipelagic province whose furthest reaches lie more than 500 miles southwest of Manila, is famed as the "last frontier" of the Philippines. A hotspot of endemism and…

JAKARTA — The archipelagic country of Indonesia has revised upward the official count of its islands, from 13,466 to 14,572. The former figure was submitted in 2012 to the last UN…

Most people have never heard about the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. This island nation is the second-smallest in Africa, covering 1,001 square kilometers (about 386 square miles).…