 |
Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
 |
|
Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
|
 |
Sojourn in Samoa
By Peter Espeut, Executive Director of the
Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) Foundation,
writing in the Jamaica Gleaner, 6 December 2000
I AM spending this week in Apia, the capital of the archipelagic state of Western Samoa in the Pacific Ocean (near to New Zealand), not to be confused with American Samoa (capital Pago-Pago) next door. I feel quite at home for several reasons. There is not a tree or shrub I do not recognise from Jamdown, the result of the British colonial policy of moving plants (and people) around their empire. In this case most of the transfers were in our direction; the only plant I think we gave them (and the world) is the pineapple. We came out ahead with coconuts, bananas, sugar cane, otaheite apples and the like, which are originally from these islands!
I walked into a supermarket on Monday and felt right at home. Aside from the banana and plantain chips, the music being piped through the store was Marley's Three Little Birds (Every little thing's gonna be alright). I guess there is no place in the world you could go where that sort of thing wouldn't happen. I remember in 1977 walking into a small cantina in a back street in Melchor, just across the Belizean border with Guatemala, to hear Ernie Smith's Duppy or a Gunman firing from a jukebox. Jamaica has made its mark on the world through her music, and it feels good!
We are also making our mark on the world through our environmental initiatives. I am here in Samoa at the invitation of UNESCO to share with the participants from this part of the world what my NGO is doing in the Portland Bight Protected Area of Jamaica's south coast. Other participants are from the Philippines, Palau, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, the Maldives and the Seychelles, and they were quite interested in the approach we are taking to involve rural communities in the planning and management of the natural resources of Portland Bight.
Part of the attractiveness of the approach is official Jamaican government policy which calls for management responsibility for protected areas to be delegated to non-government organisations (NGOs). Jamaica is on to a good thing, and the eyes of the world are truly upon us.
The differences between Jamaica and Samoa are substantial, which probably make it impossible for them to adopt many of our approaches as they are a traditional society in ways that we cannot be. The aboriginal inhabitants of Samoa are in the vast majority, and they still live by long-standing folkways. In particular, the village structure is still intact, with a village council and a chief. These institutions exert tremendous social control over the behaviour of ordinary Samoans.
For example, the Council of Chiefs has determined that on Sundays every Samoan (adult and child) must go to church any church or be brought before the village council and face a monetary fine. Church attendance in Samoa is very high. Crime is very low.
Anthropologically Jamaica is a modern society, and except for the three Maroon towns which still have colonels, we have no villages (since we have no chiefs or their equivalent). Just after Emanci-pation, the settlements formed by the Baptists and other missionaries were (Free) villages, but they have long since lost their village character. We have very few traditions (in the anthropological sense) in Jamaica, values and attitudes we all share. Maybe we should get some. Why don't we start with transparency in government?
And so environmental conservation in places like Samoa is theoretically simple: get the chiefs on your side and it's done! The trouble is that chiefs are susceptible to the same pressures from private sector 'developers' as politicians are, with the same consequences. For every solution there is a problem! Trouble in paradise!
In Samoa they have recognised the value of mangroves, and the chiefs have decided to protect every mangrove stand in the archipelago by creating a system of protected areas; they are involving schoolchildren in monitoring the health of the mangroves. They seek to protect their fisheries and to encourage tourism.
Experiencing other cultures from around the world is good, and I am happy to be here. Ultimately each of us needs to develop strategies to help improve conditions at home, and it is good to experience first hand what is being done in other places. Even more valuable when you find it is good theory which you can then seek to apply. When all is said and done, in some things we're actually ahead of the game!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
For more information, please contact:
Peter A. Espeut,
Executive Director,
Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) Foundation,
7 Lloyds Close,
Kingston 8
JAMAICA, W.I.
Fax: (876) 978-7641
