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Small island developing states: coastal systems, global change and sustainability

  • Special Feature: Review Article
  • Understanding and Managing Global Change in Small Islands
  • Published:
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Abstract

The intent of this paper is to place the concepts of exposure, vulnerability, resilience and risk in the context of the consequences of global change for the sustainable development of small island developing states (SIDS). Many such states face a number of global climate change risks, such as an increase in the proportion of more intense storms, along with other global change threats that include energy security and costs. All these threats come on top of local development threats, such as increased run-off, often with increasing levels of contaminants due to unsustainable agricultural and industrial practices. When taken together, the resulting pressures on islands and their communities lead to significant increases in vulnerability to change due to reduced resilience to these changes. Vulnerability is also increasing as a result of contemporary processes that heighten the exposure of material and other assets. The capacity to address hazard risk also influences vulnerability. This includes the level of awareness of coastal hazards and exposure, and access to critical life support infrastructure, especially for people living in hazard-prone areas. Vulnerability and resilience are considered to be important integrating concepts when managing the local consequences of global changes. There are many initiatives that will help reduce the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of SIDS to such changes. These include improving risk knowledge and coastal resource and land use management, while also strengthening socio-economic systems and livelihoods. In this way, managing global change can be closely aligned with local development and humanitarian processes, thereby enhancing the overall sustainability of development processes and outcomes.

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Notes

  1. SIDS were first recognised as a distinct group of developing countries at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992. As there is no widely accepted definition of a small state (Crowards 2002), membership in the group is by self-selection. In 1984, the Commonwealth Science Council Meeting set the maximum area of a small island at 5,000 km2. Currently, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs lists 52 SIDS. These are island countries that tend to share similar sustainable development challenges, including small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on international trade and fragile environments.

Abbreviations

CBD:

Convention on Biological Diversity

CoP:

Conference of the Parties

EEZ:

Exclusive economic zone

ENSO:

El Niño—Southern Oscillation

GEF:

Global Environment Facility

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

MSI:

Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action

NCD:

Non-communicable disease

SIDS:

Small island developing states

UNCLOS:

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

WTO:

World Trade Organisation

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  1. Institute for Global Change Adaptation Science (ICAS), Ibaraki University, Environment Research Laboratory Building, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, Ibaraki, 310-8512, Japan

    John E. Hay

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Handled by Donald L. Forbes, Geological Survey of Canada/Natural Resources Canada, Canada.

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Hay, J.E. Small island developing states: coastal systems, global change and sustainability. Sustain Sci 8, 309–326 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-013-0214-8

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