'Melanesian Geo' magazine is a grassroots initiative focused at raising environmental awareness in Melanesia.
06/01/2026
Mt Gallego (often spelled Galego) is a volcanic peak in West Guadalcanal 🇸🇧, rising to about 1,030 m. In British colonial days (the British Solomon Islands Protectorate), it was visited and described by colonial officers and scientists, including the Royal Society expedition that surveyed Guadalcanal’s interior and recorded Mt Gallego’s geology and specimens. Today it is recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area, valued for ridge and rainforest habitats that can shelter endemic Guadalcanal birds and other forest species. For Guadalcanal communities, the mountain also carries kastom value as customary land tied to ancestors, sacred sites, and water catchments for villages. It is frequently on the flyover path to and from the Western Province 🇸🇧.
23/12/2025
West New Britain’s Hoskins🇵🇬 oil-palm scheme—today dominated by NBPOL—began commercial plantings in 1967–68. It brought smallholder blocks, jobs, roads, schools and reliable cash income through nearby mills. But expansion has converted forest, reduced biodiversity, increased erosion and agrochemical runoff, and can silt Kimbe Bay reefs. The Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to curb this.
Reptile species found only on islands are significantly more vulnerable to extinction than their mainland counterparts, yet remain vastly overlooked by researchers, according to a recent study. “Reptiles, partly due to their ability to endure long periods without food or water, are particularly ef...
25/11/2025
The Ghost Bird Returns: The Takahē's Triumphant Comeback from 'Extinction'
In a moment that feels like a page torn from a storybook, the Takahē—a large, flightless bird once thought lost to time—is officially back. Eighteen of these magnificent, prehistoric-looking birds have been released into New Zealand's Lake Whakatipu Waimāori Valley, an area they haven't inhabited for nearly 100 years. This is more than a reintroduction; it's the return of a living fossil to its ancestral home.
The Takahē is a biological marvel. With its iridescent blue-green plumage, powerful red beak, and stout, flightless body, it looks like a relic from the age of megafauna—because it is. Evolving in isolation without mammalian predators, it filled an ecological niche typically occupied by small mammals. For decades after its official rediscovery in 1948, it was known as a "Lazarus species," miraculously brought back from the dead.
This release is the culmination of decades of relentless conservation work, involving predator control, captive breeding, and deep partnership with New Zealand's Indigenous Māori people, for whom the bird holds profound cultural significance. The Takahē's return is a powerful testament to what we can achieve when we commit to healing the natural world.
Strange Fact: The Takahē is so perfectly adapted to its ancient environment that it has a slow reproductive rate, raising only one or two chicks per year. This made it incredibly vulnerable to the rats, stoats, and cats introduced by humans, but it also makes every successful chick today a monumental victory for its species' future.
A $5 million project has helped change the region, allowing for the animal's return.
29/10/2025
FOUND: Bismarck Kingfisher Documented for the First Time in 13 Years
John Lamaris, a PhD candidate at Monash University, found the kingfisher while conducting research in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.
23/10/2025
Australia has lost another unique story.
On remote Christmas Island, one tiny shrew once whispered through the rainforest floor. Confined to the island’s soil and leaf litter, it had no other home.
Now, in October 2025, the shrew is officially gone—declared extinct by the IUCN. Its loss follows a familiar island-script: invasive rats carrying parasites arrived, competition changed, small mammals vanished quietly. The last few sightings were in the 1980s, and despite many surveys since, none turned up a survivor.
This isn’t just another animal lost. It’s Australia’s only shrew, a lineage erased, and part of a broader pattern—about 10% of Australia’s original land mammals are now gone. The rainforest will still rustle, but the shrew’s chorus is silent for good.
Check comments for the full story ⬇️
23/10/2025
Farewell to the Last Kākāpō of Stewart Island – A Precious Taonga Lost
Aotearoa mourns the loss of the last remaining kākāpō on Stewart Island, marking the end of an era for one of our most treasured native species. This gentle, nocturnal parrot — known for its moss-green feathers, endearing curiosity, and inability to fly — symbolised the resilience and fragility of New Zealand’s wildlife. Conservationists have fought for decades to save the species from extinction, moving surviving birds to predator-free sanctuaries like Whenua Hou and Anchor Island. The passing of this kākāpō reminds us of the urgent need to protect what remains of our unique natural heritage. Our forest grows quieter, but the kākāpō’s spirit will forever echo through Aotearoa.
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The publication concept of Melanesian Geo: journal of society and the environment in Melanesia was developed and initiated by Patrick Pikach from Solomon Islands, with the support of two postgraduate students at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji in 2005. The initial purpose of this journal was to draw attention to the rich and distinct biodiversity of Melanesia which each year is being increasingly threatened by a number of factors both natural and man made. Issues of concern in Melanesia are unsustainable development, commercialisation and exploitation of wildlife species, and resource exploitation such as mining and logging, etc. As a team of Melanesian environment students at the time we perceived that a journal that was both illustrative and that provided an easy narration of these issues was more fitting for our grassroots people in the Melanesian region to comprehend and empathise with. And so we endeavoured to fill this niche between the science and the mainstream media by simplifying the data without loosing or “watering down” the emphasis of each issue or story. In addition it is our purpose to try and making the pages more illustrative with colourful pictures of Melanesia. Furthermore, to be relevant to the people of Melanesia and to the context of our contemporary society, we are taking a broader approach to the initial environmental focus of this magazine and will be publishing societal issues that affect our people.
The Purpose of this publication is
• To provide an alternative reader friendly journal for local writers, researchers, and civil society groups throughout Melanesian to contribute to.
• To raise awareness (to the general public, in particular grassroots resource owners, education institutions, civil society groups, legislators, politicians and relevant stake holders) of contemporary environmental issues that impact the Melanesian environment and its people.
• To provide current and up to date research data and information about Melanesia in a simplified manner that may be comprehended and appreciated by the ordinary people of Melanesia. (To bridge the gap between the science and research literature that ensues from such investigations of Melanesian societies, and the exploration and study of organisms or the ecosystem of Melanesia into a narrative that is suitable and may be understood by our people - the laity, the villager).
• To help record and store by user friendly medium information that is the intellectual property of Melanesia and it’s people and should be made available in a simple way to the populace.
• To empower local communities/leaders etc., by providing information in order to make responsible choices and decisions to development.
