Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

Extract from 165EX/4 September 2002
(pdf version of the complete document)

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Towards sustainable living in coastal regions and on small islands

Main line of action 1: Enhancing sustainable living in coastal regions and on small islands: mainstreaming integrated approaches and intersectoral cooperation

Equitable and sustainable management of coastal and small-island resources was advanced through furthering the development of wise practice agreements for managing conflict over coastal resources and values, as well as the external assessment of the intersectoral field projects in Indonesia (Jakarta megacity impact on the Bay), Nigeria (Lagos flooding) and Russia (White Sea coastal resource-use conflicts). Wise practices, guidelines and principles were furthered through 21 new postings to the trilingual, Internet-based “Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development” Forum (user name csi, password wise). These included two syntheses on topics that generated most reactions, namely traditional fishers’ knowledge and soft engineering measures for coastal erosion control. Information and knowledge sharing were enhanced through the above-mentioned Forum, which now connects 12,000 people with a wide variety of expertise and affiliations in over 90 countries. Moreover, 35 texts on field project and university chair activities and assessments, as well as publications were added to the CSI website, which is receiving an average of 60,000 hits per month. Both the forum and the website are becoming dynamic parts of the coastal and small-island knowledge society. 

Main line of action 2: Advance actions on priority areas of Small Island Developing States and effective contribution to implementing Barbados+5 and other multilateral agreements and action plans

The sustainable development capacity of small islands was strengthened through the intersectoral field project activities in a dozen eastern Caribbean islands, as well as in Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea (Motu Koita, Port Moresby and Moripi Cultural Area and Trobriand Islands) and Samoa. Knowledge and information sharing was improved through the preparation and global distribution of 3,000 hard copies of the workshop results on “Wise practices for the prevention and resolution of conflicts in Small Islands” the creation of a small-islands webline, the initiation of Small Islands’ Voice, and the publication and distribution of the first (for the island of Anguilla) in a series of nine booklets on “Wise practices for coping with beach erosion” in the eastern Caribbean islands. 

Small Islands Voice

The project commenced in four countries in the Caribbean (Saint Kitts and Nevis), Indian Ocean (Seychelles) and Pacific (Palau and Cook Islands). National committees – comprising government, non-governmental and community-based organizations, media, private sector and civil society – stimulate and facilitate activities at the local level in each island country. Trial surveys to determine the main environment-development issues of concern to the general public were undertaken in Saint Kitts and Nevis and in Seychelles. Staff members from different sectors in three field offices (Kingston, Dar es Salaam, and Apia) participated in all start-up activities. A website has been created (http://www.smallislandsvoice.org) and 10,000 copies of a promotional brochure have been produced and widely distributed. Three Small Islands’ Voice texts posted on the Internet-based wise practices forum generated extensive expressions of interest and offers to contribute. One such offer resulted in the initiation of youth activities in the Cook Islands. A paper entitled “Civil society’s perspective on environment and development issues” was presented at the Islands of the World VII Conference in Prince Edward Island, Canada (June 2002). Internet-based forums for discussion among the general public and schools in the three regions have been prepared and are scheduled to begin in September (user name view, password only). 

Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) in a global society

The project involves all UNESCO programme sectors and the Apia, Bangkok, Montevideo and Moscow field offices, with others under discussion. Assessment missions focusing on poverty alleviation through sustainable resource use planning are completed for indigenous Mayanga/Moskito knowledge in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua, and for farmers’ knowledge in Charan, Bangladesh. Consultations with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre indicate concern about school curricula that may undermine indigenous knowledge of value for customary resource management. Data (text/image/audio/video) on traditional knowledge of navigation have been compiled, using Internet-based databases with expert inputs from New Zealand, Guam and Samoa. Missions to the Cook Islands, with the Cook Island Voyaging Society, and to Satawal, supported by the Federated States of Micronesia and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), have provided digital footage of navigators’ knowledge. These data contribute to the second CD-ROM in the LINKS series that uses NICTs as a tool for indigenous knowledge revitalization. An international seminar organized by CNRS in association with LINKS on “NGOs, Indigenous Peoples and Local Knowledge” was held in UNESCO Headquarters in May 2002. An extrabudgetary request has been prepared for a UNDP/GEF-associated project on equitable resource governance among the indigenous Even and Koryak peoples occupying a World Heritage Site in Kamchatka (Russia). Another proposal concerning customary resource management in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Palau is being discussed with UNEP/GEF, Vanuatu Cultural Centre, University of Bergen and other experts. An associate expert post has been created for the LINKS project and is now seeking a government sponsor. A six-month internship provided by Canada has allowed an indigenous youth to gain international experience while assisting the LINKS endeavour. LINKS was on the agenda of one of the round tables at the Johannesburg summit and gathered wide support. 

	Introduction	Activities	Publications	search
	Wise practices	Regions	Themes