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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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A workshop focusing on an 'Integrated Framework for the
Management of Beach Resources within the Smaller Caribbean
Islands' was held at the Mayaguez campus of the University of
Puerto Rico (USA) from 21 to 25 October 1996. Organized and
co-sponsored by the University's Sea Grant College Program
(UPR/SGCP), the event also received support from the Caribbean
Development Bank as well as UNESCO (CSI and IOC).
The reason for selecting management of beach resources as the
major focus of the workshop was well explained by one of the
participants, who gave a talk on 'Destroying the goose that lays
the golden egg'. Considerable economic losses and
non-sustainability of human development are the consequences of a
number of factors, including: intensive coastal development and
beach mining in small-island situations (in some cases un- or
poorly controlled) and pollution, added to natural coastal
changes such as those caused by tropical storms, hurricanes and
climate change.
Participants from small-island countries made presentations based
on case studies related to beach management. These were followed
by presentations by several lead agencies on their involvement in
coastal planning and management programmes in the region. Group
discussions and a field demonstration were conducted. A strategy
for 'sustainable beach management by the year 2001' was developed
by the participants.
Representatives of the Eastern Caribbean Islands, involved in the
COSALC beach monitoring programme, met for the first time since
the establishment of the programme by UNESCO in the mid-1980s.
The workshop activities centred around the following
inter-related themes: beach management, sand mining, beaches and
tourism, coastal erosion and hurricane impacts on beaches. Among
the participants were physical planners, environmental
scientists, researchers, educators, representatives of government
agencies, and members of the private sector (developers and hotel
owners). Other topics examined were: community-based, traditional
and modern approaches to beach management; social issues
affecting beaches, such as access, ownership and user conflicts;
beach mining policies and related lacunae in national
legislation; alternatives to beach mining, examples of best
management practices etc.
Over thirty participants were from the following small island
Member States, Associated Member States and territories of the
Eastern Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,
British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts
and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad
and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos and US Virgin Islands. Also
invited were some 20 participants and resource persons from
Puerto Rico itself as well as one participant from the USA and
another from Belize.
The workshop was organized on the CSI 'platform', which seeks
to facilitate the transition from sectoral to integrated
approaches to coastal management and the appropriate application
of relevant research findings.
For more information on the COSALC project, contact:
(i) Dr. Gillian Cambers, UPR/SGCP, fax (1-787) 265 2880; or
(ii) UNESCO/CSI at csi@unesco.org
