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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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January 2000 - June 2000
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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands (CSI)
The coastal regions and small islands platform continues to implement integrated intersectoral action. Fifteen students from Senegal, Mauritania and France have been attending one-year postgraduate courses on sustainable coastal development at the UNESCO Chair at Dakar University (Senegal). A new course in informatics has also been introduced. The theory courses were complemented by field trips, in coastal Senegal. A Chair website hosted by Dakar University has been created.
Within the Urban flood control (Lagos, Nigeria) project, field activities on drainage channels in Ikoyi and Victoria Islands were completed and the corresponding report issued. In June 2000, the project was evaluated, and a workshop for representatives of national media convened to draw the attention of stakeholders to measures needed to diminish flooding effects on the population.
In the Caribbean, customized manuals on beach monitoring were prepared and submitted to counterpart national agencies, new beach monitoring software was installed, and national personnel were trained in the use and management of the beach-change databases. The project Interim (Phase I) Report has been issued and Phase II launched. The COSALC Coordination Centre at Puerto Rico University co-organized in May the national conference "Management of beaches in Puerto Rico: investing in our future". Within the fishing for sustainable lifeways around the Gulf of Gonâve (Haiti) pilot project, the main ethnoecological studies have also been completed and the corresponding report issued.
Within the pilot project Sound Development in the Motu-Koitabu Urban Villages (port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) an awareness programme was conducted, a list of local resource people produced and a series of position papers presented at a public hearing. Within the pilot project Wise use of swamps and riverine resources in the Moripi cultural area (Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea), a first analysis of field research results was completed by students of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). In the recent Towards sustainable island living in Trobriand Island (Papua New Guinea) pilot project, first phase activities to re-establish traditional agroforestry practices have been evaluated in five villages, including the replanting of key fruit- and nut-producing tree species decimated by recent droughts.
Within the pilot project Education for Sustainable Village Living, Saanapu-Sataoa (Upolu Island, Samoa), field interviews on traditional management practices and the preparation of a locally adapted mangrove resource book with photographic illustration were undertaken. A one-day media workshop was held in Seychelles in May enabling interaction between journalists and environmentalists on coastal issues. Consultations were also held on environmental action learning and the eco-school concept in small island situations.
In support of joint CSI-SEACAM (Secretariat for Eastern African Coastal Area Management) education and training activities, a manual for development and management of local level projects was translated into French and used during the joint UNESCO-SEACAM-COI (Commission for the Indian Ocean) training course for NGOs of the Indian Ocean Region (Madagascar, June). More than 20 participants from Comoros, La Réunion (France) and Madagascar studied project preparation.
A training course was held in May on Alternative Income-Generating Activities for Women in villages along the coast of the Jakarta Bay (Indonesia). In collaboration with Antara (Indonesian News Agency) three issues of the bulletin "Our Sea" were prepared and circulated in schools and in communities. An environmentally Friendly Kampung (Village) was opened in May to foster initiatives on waste management, community organization, alternative income activities and environmental education with the overall objective to generate a model that could be replicated in other areas in the Jakarta metropolitan area.
A Tripartite Review Meeting of UNESCO-UNDP FIT project "Coastal Resources Management and Sustainable Tourism in Ulugan Bay" (Palawan Island, Philippines), was conducted in February. The ecological and biodiversity study was finalized and data analysed in order to provide input to the policy formulation. The database for fisheries was finalized and training organized for local and regional institutions in June 2000. The ECOTONE IX interdisciplinary workshop (Puerto Galera Biosphere Reserve, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, May 2000) on "Wise Practices in Coastal Tourism Development in Protected Areas", organized jointly with MAB, addressed the main concern of the above-mentioned biosphere reserve on the issue of ecotourism. A Puerto Galera 2000 Declaration entitled "A Charter for Ecotourism in Biosphere Reserves" was adopted – a landmark document intended to guide all development initiatives in such a protected area.
Within the pilot project A place for people in protected areas – the indigenous Moken and park authorities along the Andaman Sea coast (Surin Islands, Thailand) interdisciplinary resource assessment studies have been concluded, including preliminary assessments of indigenous ecological knowledge. Their results and recommendations were presented to the park authorities during a seminar held in May.
Intersectoral public-awareness activities on sustainable coastal development were launched, in cooperation with the Culture Sector and the Associated Schools Project, at the World Ocean Museum (Kaliningrad) and the Polarny City Museum (Murmansk Region) of the Russian Federation. Assistance was also provided to the Russian Federation, Spain and Portugal in launching a EC/TACIS-funded project on Education and training in Integrated Coastal Management through which 10 Russian students were trained in Spain from April to June.
