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    Showing 9 of 250 news items in Ocean & Biodiversity
    Pacific Island Countries Unite to Launch Regional Biodiversity Finance Programme
    Ocean & BiodiversityJuly 14, 2025

    Pacific Island Countries Unite to Launch Regional Biodiversity Finance Programme

    Image courtesy of [UNDP](https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2025-07/undp_biofin_con_fiji.jpg) Pacific Harbour, Fiji – Government representatives from 15 Pacific Island Countries and Territories have convened this week at The Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbour to officially launch the GEF-8 funded Pacific Biodiversity Finance (BIOFIN) Umbrella Programme, a landmark initiative to strengthen biodiversity financing across the region. Hosted by the Government of Fiji, the four-day Inception Workshop marks the start of coordinated regional efforts to create an enabling environment that supports the design and implementation of National Biodiversity Finance Plans tailored to Pacific contexts and priorities, strengthens resource mobilization, and embeds gender equality and inclusivity at the core of future finance strategies. In his opening remarks, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Dr. Sivendra Michael said: “Biodiversity is not a luxury. It is the foundation of our economies, our food systems, our resilience, and our identity. If we fail to finance it properly, we are not just failing nature—we are failing ourselves.” “If we do not innovate how we finance biodiversity in the Pacific at the scale, scope, and speed it deserves, we risk losing the very essence of who we are.” Deputy Resident Representative (OIC) of the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, Abduvakkos Abdurahmanov highlighted the importance of regional ownership and local leadership: “This is not just a workshop—it is the start of a new chapter for the Pacific. With BIOFIN, we are working together to unlock financing that reflects the true value of biodiversity. It is about bridging the gap between environmental protection and sustainable development.”

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    Something Strange Is Happening to Tomatoes Growing on the Galápagos Islands
    Ocean & BiodiversityJuly 14, 2025

    Something Strange Is Happening to Tomatoes Growing on the Galápagos Islands

    Caption: Scientists are investigating the production of ancestral alkaloids by tomatoes in the Galápagos Islands. Image Credit: Adam Jozwiak / University of California, Riverside via [smithsonianmag.com](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/isv4Y3O0yIbBiWnQEl92FI0UlQU=/1026x684/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/7d/0c/7d0c8b93-c980-4e1d-82fb-b8509b044946/img_5325_original.png) Excerpt from [smithsonianmag.com](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/something-strange-is-happening-to-tomatoes-growing-on-the-galapagos-islands-180986956/) Some tomatoes growing on the Galápagos Islands appear to be going back in time by producing the same toxins their ancestors did millions of years ago. Scientists describe this development—a controversial process known as “reverse evolution”—in a June 18 paper published in the journal Nature Communications. Tomatoes are nightshades, a group of plants that also includes eggplants, potatoes and peppers. Nightshades, also known as Solanaceae, produce bitter compounds called alkaloids, which help fend off hungry bugs, animals and fungi. When plants produce alkaloids in high concentrations, they can sicken the humans who eat them. To better understand alkaloid synthesis, researchers traveled to the Galápagos Islands, the volcanic chain roughly 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador made famous by British naturalist Charles Darwin. They gathered and studied more than 30 wild tomato plants growing in different places on various islands. The Galápagos tomatoes are the descendents of plants from South America that were probably carried to the archipelago by birds.

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    With coral-rich Churna Island now an MPA, Pakistan takes baby steps on ocean protection
    Ocean & BiodiversityJuly 7, 2025

    With coral-rich Churna Island now an MPA, Pakistan takes baby steps on ocean protection

    KARACHI — From the sands of Manjhaar Beach on the far outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, an island is just visible 10 kilometers, about 6 miles, offshore. Mist rising from the Arabian Sea often shrouds Churna Island from the view of sailors and tourists heading toward it for fishing or diving. Below the waves, the island harbors one of Pakistan’s biodiversity hotspots: a diverse coral community, including one of the country’s only documented reefs. In September 2024, Churna Island and the sea surrounding it became Pakistan’s second designated marine protected area (MPA), an area of around 98 square kilometers (38 square miles). It followed the 2017 designation of the country’s very first MPA around Astola Island, a haven for coral, birds and sea turtles to the east. While Pakistan’s first two MPAs are small and have yet to be fully implemented, they represent baby steps in the country’s nascent effort to protect its marine environment. “Given the growing anthropogenic and environmental threats to the biodiversity hotspots, it was inevitable to declare these areas marine protected areas,” Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani, a wildlife conservator with the forest department of Balochistan province, which oversees both MPAs, told Mongabay. “Churna Island has vast coral biodiversity and Astola is home to both a variety of corals and avian species, especially the migratory birds, which needed to be protected.”

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    Indigenous divers on Chile’s island restore seabed to protect seafood sources
    Ocean & BiodiversityJuly 1, 2025

    Indigenous divers on Chile’s island restore seabed to protect seafood sources

    Daniel Caniullán has been diving in the cold waters of the Guaitecas Archipelago in northern Patagonia, Chile, for more than 30 years. “Just by looking at the seabed landscape, you can tell what species you are going to find,” he says. Just as it is possible to recognize the loss of a diverse forest on land, Caniullán’s experience underwater allows him to quickly identify damaged areas. To undo the damage, local divers “repair or reorganize the seabed to restore biodiversity and interspecies relationships,” according to a recent [paper](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.70004) published in the British Ecological Society.

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    A Deep-Sea Expedition Unearths Unimaginable Lifeforms in the South Sandwich Islands
    Ocean & BiodiversityJune 24, 2025

    A Deep-Sea Expedition Unearths Unimaginable Lifeforms in the South Sandwich Islands

    A recent deep-sea expedition to one of the most remote locations on Earth, the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic, has uncovered stunning new ecosystems surrounding hydrothermal vents. The discovery, which includes vibrant coral gardens and new species, was part of a 35-day mission aboard the [Schmidt Ocean Institute’sresearch vesselFalkor](https://schmidtocean.org/new-coral-gardens-hydrothermal-vents-found-south-sandwich-islands/)(too). This expedition is part of the Ocean Census project, a global initiative focused on documenting marine life before it is lost due to climate change, deep-sea mining, and other environmental threats. The scientific team faced severe challenges including subsea earthquakes, hurricane-force winds, towering waves, and icebergs, but their efforts were rewarded with groundbreaking discoveries. The expedition to the South Sandwich Islands revealed several hydrothermal vent systems previously unknown to science. These vents, which are located on the northeast side of the Quest Caldera, play a crucial role in deep-sea ecosystems. The research team was particularly excited to uncover a vibrant vermillion coral garden thriving near shallow hydrothermal vents around 700 meters deep (nearly 2,300 feet) on Humpback Seamount. While tropical coral reefs are often associated with warm waters, these cold-water coral gardens in the deep sea are a testament to the richness of marine life in unexpected environments.

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    Pacific island nations launch plan for world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve
    Ocean & BiodiversityJune 24, 2025

    Pacific island nations launch plan for world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve

    The governments of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have announced their commitment to create a massive multinational [Melanesian Ocean Reserve](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/82ea18c8f2874d8fa85ad572a844f52f). If implemented as envisioned, the reserve would become the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve, covering an area nearly as big as the Amazon Rainforest. Speaking at the U.N. Ocean Conference underway in Nice, France, representatives of both countries said the vision for the ocean reserve is to cover at least 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles) of ocean and islands. The reserve will include the combined national waters of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, and extend to the protected waters of New Caledonia’s exclusive economic zone. All of the island countries, largely inhabited by Indigenous Melanesians, are located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, within the region known as Melanesia. “The Melanesian Ocean Reserve will give the governments and peoples of Melanesia the ability to do much more to protect our ancestral waters from those who extract and exploit without concern for our planet and its living beings. We hope our Indigenous stewardship of this vast reserve will create momentum for similar initiatives all over the world,” Vanuatu’s environment minister, Ralph Regenvanu, said in a [joint press release](https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/melanesian-leaders-announce-worlds-largest-indigenous-led-marine-reserve-302479997.html).

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    Small island states should lead, not just participate, in ocean-related scientific research
    Ocean & BiodiversityJune 16, 2025

    Small island states should lead, not just participate, in ocean-related scientific research

    **PHOTO:** AFP via The Straits Times ([straitstimes.com](https://cassette.sphdigital.com.sg/image/straitstimes/bc6dd7a0b1c3c2231bcec43e1b407ef3a79510a8ca7b11c485a6e97069a40883?w=860)) NICE, France – Small island developing states have been the subjects of ocean research for too long, and should start to lead – not just participate in – scientific research that would help them better understand the marine environments they depend on. Though they are the custodians of 30 per cent of the ocean under national jurisdictions, small island states lead just 0.3 per cent of UN-endorsed decade of action projects on ocean health, said Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on June 9. Ocean decade actions are science-based programmes, projects or activities endorsed by the UN to improve ocean health. “Small island developing states have been the subjects of ocean research for too long, the observation points in data sets, the case studies in reports, and the vulnerable communities in impact assessments,” Dr Balakrishnan said on the first day of the [UN Ocean Conference](https://www.straitstimes.com/world/world-leaders-head-to-france-for-un-summit-on-ocean-threats) in Nice, France.

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    Environmental DNA, a ‘revolutionary’ key to unlocking the secrets of our oceans
    Ocean & BiodiversityJune 16, 2025

    Environmental DNA, a ‘revolutionary’ key to unlocking the secrets of our oceans

    Pierre Jorcin slides on a pair of gloves, attaches a plastic tube to a filter, plunges it into the water, presses the start button on a small pump and then slowly begins walking through the river stream. Thirty minutes later, he has gathered three litres of water and filtered thousands of particles. The entire procedure seems simple, banal even. But Jorcin’s gesture is part of a microscopic revolution. In the process, the scientist has collected fragments of [environmental DNA](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210907-the-world-in-a-drop-of-water-dna-tool-transforms-nature-tracking), also known as eDNA. “Every living organism leaves traces of DNA behind, whether in water, soil or in the air. And those traces hold out for some time before eventually degrading,” Jorcin explains. “By collecting them, we can identify and catalogue the organisms we find like bacteria, mammals, amphibians, fish, etc.”

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    Value oceans, don’t plunder them, French Polynesia leader tells AFP
    Ocean & BiodiversityJune 16, 2025

    Value oceans, don’t plunder them, French Polynesia leader tells AFP

    The archipelago in the far South Pacific Ocean, an overseas territory of France, is led by Moetai Brotherson, who believes oceans should be valued, not plundered. President Brotherson spoke with AFP about deep-sea mining, ecological stewardship, and his dream of a day where environment summits are no longer needed. A: “It covers our entire exclusive economic zone, approximately 5 million square kilometres (1.93 million square miles). From north to south, that’s equivalent to the distance between Stockholm and Sicily, and from east to west, it’s Romania to Portugal.

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