Next Monday, 14 May 2018 four representatives from the Falkland Islands Government’s Natural Resources Department will be part of a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office lead delegation meeting with the Government of Argentina, in Buenos Aires, to begin two days of discussions on fish and squid stocks in the South Atlantic, and the possibility of resuming the exchange of scientific fisheries data for the benefit of the region.
A Dundee-based charity has succeeded in its epic mission to declare a sub-Antarctic island rodent-free for the first time since humans arrived more than 200 years ago. In 2011, the South Georgia Heritage Trust started the world’s largest project to remove the invasive rats and mice to save South Georgia’s wildlife, including threatened pipits and pintails.
Europol and the Centre for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at reinforcing their efforts to address environmental crimes, especially those that have an impact on climate change.
A new UK-U.S. Antarctic research program to improve the prediction of future sea-level rise was launched on Monday at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge. The £20 million 5-year research collaboration, funded jointly by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), brings together over 100 polar scientists from leading UK and U.S. research organizations.
The Falklands Islands Government have just recently finalized a review process of their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Falklands Conservation, a local environmental NGO. This is an important partnership for the Government and has been in place 2006 on a formal basis.
A man and his teenage son died with electrocution during a storm that struck Buenos Aires City and the metropolitan area on Sunday dawn and morning. Winds blowing at over 130 kilometers and massive rainfall, 120 millimeters, caused the collapse of roofs and publicity billboards, trees and lamp posts were knocked down, plus extensive flooding and power cuts that affected thousands of clients. An estimated 2.500 people had to be evacuated and even more had to abandon their homes.
European Union countries voted on Friday for a near-total ban on insecticides blamed for killing off bee populations, in what campaigners called a “beacon of hope” for the winged insects. Bees help pollinate 90 percent of the world’s major crops, but in recent years have been dying off from “colony collapse disorder,” a mysterious scourge blamed on mites, pesticides, virus, fungus, or a combination of these factors.
Dozens of companies have signed up to efforts to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic packaging by 2025, it has been announced. Under the “UK Plastics Pact”, the businesses have also agreed targets to make 100% of their plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable and to ensure 70% is effectively recycled or composted.
April 25th is “World Penguin Day”, undoubtedly the world’s most popular bird – think of Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, Pingu just to name a few uses in popular culture. These charismatic flightless birds are funny to watch on land but are graceful and rapid in water. They occur only in the seas of the Southern hemisphere; there are seventeen species of penguin ranging from the Galapagos to Antarctica.
Record levels of micro-plastics have been found trapped inside sea ice floating in the Arctic. Ice cores gathered across the Arctic Ocean reveal micro-plastics at concentrations two to three times higher than previously recorded. As sea ice melts with climate change, the plastic will be released back into the water, with unknown effects on wildlife, say German scientists.