Access
to information on islands and small island developing States (SIDS)
especially
from within the United Nations system
[THIS SITE IS MAINTAINED FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES, BUT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED SINCE 2006]
Introduction
to the Islands Web site
Action
by the United Nations on islands
Environmental
Vulnerability Index developed for SIDS
Island
Directory (compilation of geographic, environmental,
and socio-economic information on some 2,000 islands and over 150 countries,
territories and administrative units with islands)
[A new Global Island Database is under development at the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre for launching in 2010]
Small
island environmental management
A do-it-yourself course and training programme
for people living on islands.
Includes 46 units explaining the basic
principles of island environmental management.
United
Nations Documents on Islands
Islands in Agenda 21, the Barbados Conference,
reports to the Commission on Sustainable Development, results of the Mauritius
International Meeting, etc.
LINKS to other web resources on islands
UNEP is collaborating with the
Global Islands Network
INTRODUCTION to the Islands Web site
Islands have long had a romantic attraction for people for many reasons, including beauty, environmental interest, recreational opportunities, security and uniqueness, and this is the foundation for island tourism. For island inhabitants, there are both advantages and disadvantages to island life. Because they have many features in common that set them apart from other geographic areas, islands and small island States are increasingly recognized as a special category worthy of distinctive treatment.
Environmentally, islands are noted for their unique fauna and flora which are particularly vulnerable to disturbance and destruction by human activities. Socially, they exhibit many unique cultures and special human adaptations to island life. Economically, there are limitations of small scale, remoteness and vulnerability to outside influences that present special challenges for their sustainable economic development within limited island resources. With the increasing rate of global change, islands represent some of the most fragile and vulnerable resources on the planet.
This Islands site, hosted by UNEP and assembled by Arthur Dahl, Senior Adviser to the United Nations Environment Programme, provides access to a number of resources concerning islands, primarily from within the United Nations system, that are otherwise rather scattered and difficult to obtain. It includes basic UN documents or extracts from documents relevant to islands, educational materials concerning islands, and a directory listing some 2,000 islands and giving their basic geographic, environmental and socio-economic characteristics. Other information or links will be added as appropriate.
Action by the United Nations on islands
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 1989 at its 44th session (GA 44/206) on possible adverse effects of sea-level rise on islands and coastal areas, particularly low-lying coastal areas. Agenda 21 adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 features a programme area on Sustainable Development of Small Islands (Chapter 17G), and this was followed by the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, held in Barbados in 1994, which adopted a Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development, has created a Small Island Developing States Unit to oversee the implementation of this programme of action.
Progress in implementing some thematic areas of the Programme of Action was reviewed by the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) at its 4th session in 1996, and by the UN General Assembly Special Session on the implementation of Agenda 21 in 1997. Progress in the remaining thematic areas was reviewed by the CSD at its 6th session in April 1998. There was a full review 5 years after Barbados at a special session of the UN General Assembly in September 1999 after preparatory discussions at the 7th session of the CSD. Islands also featured prominently at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August-September 2002.
The International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Barbados +10) was held in Port Louis, Mauritius on 10-14 January 2005. It adopted the Mauritius Declaration (pdf) and the Mauritius Strategy for the further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (pdf). The official web site for the Mauritius International Meeting is at http://www.un.org/smallislands2005/. More general information on SIDS is at SIDSnet.
The UNEP Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (UNEP GPA) based in The Hague is leading UNEP action for SIDS. See the UNEP SIDS web site at GPA.
The Regional Seas Programmes of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) include all of the small island developing States, and have done much to encourage regional cooperation among islands on environmental issues, such as through the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP).
As part of its Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reporting process, UNEP, in cooperation with the European Union, prepared a first series of Environment Outlook reports for the major small island regions of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific in 1999, with the participation of regional institutions. A new set of reports was prepared for the SIDS International Meeting in Mauritius in 2005 and launched on 6 January 2005, including the Caribbean Environment Outlook, Pacific Environment Outlook and Atlantic and Indian Ocean Environment Outlook.
UNEP is also collaborating with the Global Islands Network in building an information system to support all small islands. This site is one part of that collaboration.
UNITED
NATIONS DOCUMENTS
Agenda
21, Chapter 17G, Sustainable Development of Small Islands (1992)
The
Barbados Declaration (1994)
Programme
of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States
(1994) with links to subsequent
progress reports on each action area [156 KB]
Report of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Barbados, 1994) The full report of the conference, including the Barbados Declaration and the Programme of Action [257 KB]
Reports
to the 4th Commission on Sustainable Development (1996)
- Management of
natural and environmental disasters in small island developing States
- Sustainable development
of energy resources in small island developing States
- Sustainable tourism
development in small island developing States
- Maritime transport
in small island developing States
- Sustainable development
of air transport in small island developing States
- Development of
communications in small island developing States
- Coastal area
management in small island developing States
Report
to the 5th Commission on Sustainable Development (1997)
- Progress report
on the implementation of the Programme of Action
Extract on small island developing States from the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (UN General Assembly Special Session, 1997)
Report of the ad hoc expert group meeting on vulnerability indices for small island developing States (New York, 15-16 December 1997)
Reports
to the 6th Commission on Sustainable Development (1998)
- Progress in the
implementation of the Programme of Action
- Climate change
and sea level rise
- Management of
wastes in small island developing States
- Freshwater resources
in small island developing States
- Land resources
in small island developing States
- Biodiversity
resources in small island developing States
- National institutions
and administrative capacity in small island developing States
- Regional institutions
and technical cooperation for the sustainable development of SIDS
- Science and technology
for small island developing States
- Human resource
development in small island developing States
Decision 6/4 of the Commission on Sustainable
Development (1998):
Review
of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States
Report to ECOSOC
(1998)
- Development of
a vulnerability index for small island developing States
Reports
to the 7th Commission on Sustainable Development (1999)
- Status of Implementation of the Barbados
Programme of Action (E/CN.17/1999/6)
- Climate Change and Sea Level Rise (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.1)
- Management of
Wastes
- Freshwater Resources (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.3)
- Land Resources (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.4)
- Biodiversity Resources (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.5)
- National Institutions and Administrative
Capacity (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.6)
- Regional Institutions and Technical
Cooperation (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.7)
- Science and Technology (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.8)
- Human Resources Development (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.9)
- Coastal Zone Management (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.10)
- Sustainable Tourism (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.11)
- Energy Resources (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.12)
- Natural and Environmental Disasters
(E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.13)
- Telecommunications (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.14)
- Air Transportation (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.15)
- Maritime Transportation (E/CN.17/1999/6/Add.16)
- Current Donor Activities for Small Island
Developing States (E/CN.17/1999/7)
[these documents are available as pdf
files at the UN
web site]
Reports
from the Global Environment Outlook Programme of UNEP:
- Caribbean
Environment Outlook 1999
- Pacific
Islands Environment Outlook (pdf) 1999
- Western
Indian Ocean Environment Outlook (pdf) 1999
- Caribbean
Environment Outlook - 2004 (pdf
on UNEP web site)
- Pacific
Environment Outlook - 2004 (pdf
on UNEP web site)
- Atlantic
and Indian Ocean Environment Outlook - 2004
(pdf
on UNEP web site)
Reports
for the Barbados +10 review - 2004
considered at the Preparatory Meeting
at CSD-12 on 14-16 April 2004
- Implementation
of the Barbados Programme of Action - Report of the Secretary-General
(pdf on CSD web site)
- AOSIS
Strategy for the Further Implementation of the BPOA - (pdf on sidsnet
web site) [basis for negotiations]
- UNEP's
Assistance in the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for
the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (pdf)
Reports
from the Mauritius International Meeting - 2005
- Mauritius
Declaration (pdf)
- Mauritius
Strategy for the further Implementation of the Programme of Action for
the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (pdf)
United
Nations General Assembly Resolutions on Small Island Developing States
(1999)
- GA
54/224 - Implementation of the outcome of the Global Conference on the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States
- GA
54/225 - Promoting an integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea
area in the context of sustainable development
Traditional environmental knowledge and resource management in New Caledonia, A.L. Dahl (1989) reviews the wide range and great sophistication of indigenous knowledge about small island management
ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY INDEX
The South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) has developed an Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) which was presented to the Mauritius International Meeting on 12 January 2005. The project responded to the request of the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action for SIDS to develop a vulnerability index, and complements work on economic and social vulnerability that has already demonstrated the disadvantages suffered by SIDS. The SOPAC project is now completed, and goverments are encouraged to trial the EVI at the national level pending further international implementation.
BASIC DOCUMENTS ON THE EVI
EVI
Final Report 2005 (pdf 1,732 kb) - explains the EVI
EVI
Descriptions 2005 (pdf 1,378 kb) - descriptions of each indicator
EVI
Country Classification (pdf 22 kb) - shows EVI ratings for all countries
EVI
Summary of Global Scales (pdf 62 kb) - map with distribution of EVI
scores
EVI
Status of Global Data and Scores (pdf 17 kb) - graphics of data holdings
and scores
EVI Frequently Asked Questions (pdf 5,480 kb)
TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
EVI Manual
(pdf 16,854 kb) - How to use the Environmental Vulnerability Index
EVI
Calculator (Excel file 1,071 kb) - data entry form
OTHER USEFUL DOCUMENTS
EVI
2004 Technical Report (pdf 27,030 kb) - detailed documentation of methodology
EVI
Think Tank II Report (pdf 670 kb) - latest expert peer review of the
EVI
PREPARATORY PROCESS
A first proposal for an Environmental
Vulnerability Index appropriate for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
was released by SOPAC on 4 February 1999.
This work was further developed at an Environmental Vulnerability Index
(EVI) Think Tank, 7-10 September 1999
in Pacific Harbour, Fiji. In a second phase, the index was tested in 5
countries, and a workshop to expand application of the EVI to a representative
set of countries around the world was hosted by UNEP in Geneva, Switzerland,
on 27-29 August 2001. Work then continued
refining the index and assembling the necessary data sets, leading to the
launching of a preliminary EVI based on 50 indicators at the 12th UN Commission
on Sustainable Development in New York on 15 April
2004 and a second EVI Think Tank in Suva, Fiji, 4-6
October 2004, before the final presentation at the Mauritius
International Meeting on 12 January 2005.
More than 300 experts contributed to the development of the EVI. While
further refinements and improvements will always be necessary, the index
is now ready for application at the country level. It is designed for use
in all countries, not just small island states.
SOPAC has established a website for the Environmental Vulnerability Index at http://www.vulnerabilityindex.net/ where the full results and various reports on its development can be obtained.
See also the Report of the ad hoc expert group meeting on vulnerability indices for small island developing States (New York, 15-16 December 1997)
Indicators relevant to the environmental vulnerability of islands can also be found in the Island Directory. These are specific to individual islands, rather than aggregated at the national level for SIDS.
For further information on islands, contact:
Arthur Lyon Dahl
12B Chemin de Maisonneuve
CH-1219 Ch‰telaine, Geneva
Switzerland
e-mail: dahla @ bluewin.ch [no
spaces]
http://yabaha.net/dahl
Background photograph of
Carrie Bow Cay, Belize Barrier Reef, ©
by Arthur Lyon Dahl
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Last Updated 22 March 2010
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