Buying a private island may seem like something reserved only for the rich and famous But islands come in all sizes as well as prices the Isles of Fleet dot the murky waters of the Solway Firth Real estate agents are pushing for the sale of Barlocco Island a 10-hectare tidal island for approximately $190,000 That is four times cheaper than your average London flat You would have to build your cozy living space on your own as well as find a sustainable supply of energy and electricity Barlocco is a tidal island and is only accessible by foot at low tide the island lies within the Borgue Coast Site of Specific Scientific Interest Any development would require jumps through multiple bureaucratic hoops These hurdles do not seem to deter prospective buyers Over 50 people have expressed interest in the island La Cornelia Island is one of the 365 islets of the Isletas de Granada off the Asese Peninsula in Nicaragua This island group formed when the nearby Mombacho volcano erupted around 20,000 years ago La Cornelia itself is currently listed at just US$90,000 one of the cheapest islands for sale in the region It is a mere .4 hectares (one acre) of land in Lake Nicaragua Isletas de Granada saw intense naval action and pirate activity During the political strife from the 1970s to 1990s those still faithful to the past Somoza dictatorship and the Marxist revolutionary Sandinistas were forcibly removed from their homes be warned of the possible social and political implications In northeastern Brazil near the end of the São Francisco River lie six lone specks called the Piaçabuçu Islands and they can be yours for a modest price of US$79,500 It is a wonder that this chain has not been snapped up already this is because of a very odd legal technicality the owner of these half-dozen islands would not own them forever Finding additional information on the Piaçabuçu Islands is a challenge No contact details seem to exist for the realtor or governing authority But this price doesn’t stop the imagination from soaring Tucked in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains between Ottawa and Montreal you can get two adjoining islands measuring a total of 3,690 square meters for $495,000 The main islands already possess a two-story house if you’re looking to expand the amenities you’ll have to navigate the bureaucracy These islands lie in the Réserve faunique de Papineau-Labelle This nature reserve is the most southerly in Quebec This island off the coast of Sicily near Palermo has had settlers since the Roman Empire you can get a 15-hectare island awash in archaeological a group of young Turkish women were apparently cast off by their disgruntled families The women sought refuge on the small island but unfortunately spent the rest of their days there Locals say the spirits of the women still linger Despite the ruins of a 16th-century watchtower (only destroyed during WWII) the owners are still having a hard time letting this historical treasure go Countess Paola Pilo Bacci’s family owned Isola delle Femmine for several centuries but is no longer able to maintain the property there is always a US$160 million island available to you contains 45 hectares of Southeast Asian tropical beauty It even went without a name for over 70 years the island’s name comes from a specific fish that thrives in these waters After its purchase in the 1990s by a company called Richy Island Phuket Co Excursions to the island are common because it’s close to the mainland It hosts historic temples and shrines as well as a world-renowned pearl farm Kristine De Abreu is a writer at ExplorersWeb Kristine studied at the University of Leicester in the UK an animal lover and shameless ramen addict Sign up to receive ExplorersWeb content direct to your inbox once a week Alagoas state Brazil — The landscape where the São Francisco River enters the Atlantic Ocean seems so out of place it makes one wonder if this is still coastal Brazil White sand dunes stretch as far as the eye can see; clusters of cashew trees throw flickering shadows like ocean waves on the sand Here among these shifting dunes escaped slaves in the 19th century hid from the Portuguese who came searching for them the formerly enslaved founded the Pixaim Quilombo near the mouth of the river and developed a reliable sustainable lifestyle and community well attuned to the dynamic But it is a lifestyle utterly dependent on the São Francisco River; reliant on the planting of rice in marshes downstream and on catching plentiful freshwater fish upstream varied and growing water demands by upstream dams and other users are threatening the long-established quilombo lifestyle — demands that experts predict will worsen severely in Brazil’s Northeast one of the nation’s most climatically vulnerable regions “We used to catch fish that were meters long but now you have to go much farther up the river to find them,” remembers 84-year-old Aladim who lives in Pixaim and goes by his first name only According to Aladim and Marise dos Santos Lima a tour guide who works for the Piaçabuçu Tourism Information Association about half of Pixaim’s population has already left for Brazil’s cities as their two main livelihoods — fishing and rice cultivation — become more untenable “You are lucky if you have a son and a grandson that stay.” The lower stretch of the São Francisco River has suffered decreased flow for decades as hydroelectric dams, agribusiness and other interests have tapped into upstream waters. But a severe multi-year drought beginning in 2012, and considered one of the harshest in recent decades, if not of the last 100 years has greatly deepened the estuary’s water problems The drought caused long periods of water stress, variability, and unpredictable levels and flows of the entire region’s rivers and reservoirs leading to decreases in hydropower generation as well as rising conflicts between the agricultural and electrical sectors The drought reduced the water flow so much that the São Francisco River basin has encountered substantial changes due to intensive human activities such as river regularization [channelization] and damming an adjunct professor of oceanography at the Federal University of Alagoas who has studied the river Decreased flow has radically increased the salinity of the lower stretch of the river with potentially devastating effects on rice growing as fish and plant populations are displaced by salt and are replaced by opportunistic invasive species The São Francisco is one of Brazil’s most important rivers It is the longest to lie entirely within the nation’s borders running 2,700 kilometers (1,678 miles) from the central-south highlands of Brazil through the semi-arid and dry terrains of the Northeast The São Francisco watershed drains 644,000 square kilometers (248,650 square miles) The region is inhabited by 18 million people living in 503 municipalities along its main stem and tributaries with shoreside urban areas including the country’s capital Known as the “River of National Unity,” it supplies irrigation water for an expanding fruit and vegetable industry and a large freshwater fishery that provides food to millions; it is also vital for transporting goods and people Importantly too, it generates lots of hydropower — one of the most important of Brazil’s energy sources especially for the dry Northeast, which has grown particularly dependent on the São Francisco River. Over 40% of the installed electrical generating capacity in the Northeast comes from hydropower which previously fluctuated in a range from 800 to 8,000 cubic meters per second has been deeply cut to a constant flow of around 2,000 cubic meters per second “Dams always change the natural runoff on rivers where they are constructed,” says Dr a marine ecologist at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife This can be especially detrimental for rivers that experience a lot of difference in their seasonal discharge A lot of people end up being impacted by these changes especially people that depend on these cycles like fishermen and shrimpers,” says Barletta in river flow have significantly altered aquatic ecological conditions in the lower São Francisco River Those changes have particularly harmed fish dependent on regular seasonal fluctuations some of the stream’s species most important to traditional fishermen have been rendered locally extinct simply disappeared from this region of the basin,” reports Dr a biologist at the Federal University of Lavras who studies fish populations in the river Other studies likewise show a reduction of a variety of fish species as the result of impacts due to the dams fishermen and the fishing industry can adapt especially as drought strengthens its hold on the region “We can’t say that there are fewer fish than before, but there are definitely other fish,” says Dr. Igor da Mata Oliveira, a fisheries engineer at the Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. “For example there is a fish in the lower São Francisco called ‘curmata’ (Prochilodus nigricens) was the most important species for the fisheries when compared to] all the freshwater fishing resources represents less than 3% of the total volume landed.” Reductions in river flow have also caused greater intrusion of seawater Aladim remembers a time when he used to catch “sweetwater” fish in the river and plant rice in the marshes adjacent to the dunes Rice cultivation was especially common along the last 15 kilometers (9 miles) of the river where the São Francisco’s waters spread out into a delta composed of fertile marshes crumbling stone dikes are visible which once enclosed rice paddies coconuts grow on the shores of abandoned marshes “Rice cultivation was very important traditionally but rice doesn’t tolerate salt at all” notes da Mata Oliveira People from the nearby city of Piçabuçu are now seeing what Aladim has observed: while the river once flowed into the sea “With the advance of the sea into the river It is difficult to find freshwater fish in the mouth of the river and freshwater vegetation can only be found when we go up the river towards the source,” says Marise dos Santos Lima a tour guide from Piaçabuçu who grew up in a traditional river community on the banks of the river “High salinity affects large groups of organisms besides facilitating the introduction of invasive species,” Dr adjunct professor at the Federal University of Alagoas told Mongabay A 2020 study found that the reduction of water released from the Xingó dam starting in 2013 due to increasing drought has led to a marked increase in salinity 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) up from the river’s mouth The levels of salinity in that stretch far exceeded the safe limits for human consumption indicating that the delta water might no longer be a reliable source of drinking water These salinity levels impact the drinking water of Piçabuçu and other towns which often increasingly have to put out boil-water and no-drinking advisories for groundwater supplies due to salt intrusion While dams have had the largest impact on flow regimes so far, climate change is a deepening problem “Climate change plays a central role in this issue Since rainfall in the [São Francisco River] basin is expected to decrease changes in the river’s hydrological characteristics are likely to become even more severe,” says Pompeu Climate change will also seriously tighten its stranglehold on the São Francisco River in the year’s ahead especially impacting its freshwater-starved lower reaches and delta It’s very likely that drought could reduce hydropower production capacity in the region as well That challenge is growing with each passing year. Options for managing the São Francisco’s diminishing flow equitably are running out, with relations between river communities increasingly strained and causing an ongoing debate in Brazil Part of the problem: water management is largely decentralized and regulated by the individual states under Brazil’s water law so there is no overall regulating authority to fairly share out the resource causing competition between states and municipalities the São Francisco River Basin Committee (CBHSF) was created That included a group representing traditional communities that technically should be able to add its voice to water use prioritization But “The problem with the committee is [that] they are not invited to participate with the government of Brazil,” so have little real power a program for the rehabilitation of the São Francisco River basin was created even as then President Lula proposed a plan to divert more of the river’s water to the Northeast via the São Francisco River Water Diversion Project — the largest water infrastructure project ever attempted by the country and parts of which are still under construction “Greater water release in the Lower São Francisco would imply less use for irrigation and energy generation in the upper parts of the basin But this would [only] happen if environmental impacts are prioritized,” says Pompeu who fears that escalating climate change will result in an ever-shrinking water supply — a pie to be divided in ever smaller slices among all the river’s many users it will be even more difficult to implement actions to return [the once great river] to natural conditions,” concludes Pompeu Banner image: Traditional fisherfolk on the lower stretch of the São Francisco River near where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] The ad-free version is ready for purchase on iOS mobile app today we couldn't find that page";var n=e.querySelector("h2");return n&&n.remove(),{staticContent:e,title:t}},d=function(e){var t=document.createElement("button");return t.innerText=e,t.classList.add("error-page-button"),t},f=function(e){var t=document.createElement("div");t.id="recirculation-404",t.classList.add("brand-hint-bg");var n="\n \n \n \n \n \n '.concat(e,' Tick here if you would like us to send you the author’s response