Substantive responses received by the Small Islands Voice global forum to the posting on ‘The ‘right’ development for Aitutaki’ adapted from articles and letters to the Editor in Cook Island News, 18^th October, 3-5 November 2003; and an article in Cook Islands Times, 3^rd November 2003 http://www.sivglobal.org/?read=50  7^th January 2004

From Solomoni Biumaiono, Fiji

I tend to agree with Mr. Tepaki's view even though the other bloke's view is not bad at all. The concept that’s always faced us Pacific Islanders is how to develop using the 'current' or modern modes of development, including social, cultural and political developments. Let's face it, we're in a global village and what happens in another part of the globe does affect us all. However, we're lucky in the Pacific that we have not exhausted all our natural resources, destroyed our environment or polluted it either. So, the rest of the world had been telling us and what our leader thinks, the best way to move forward is by sustainable development – think global, act local. I am no expert in this but I would say that quality is better than quantity.

All people on Aitutaki get to benefit from this airport expansion socially, culturally but most importantly economically.  As they say, too many cooks spoil the soup. So if tourism operations are centralised to one big (perhaps) five star resort, everyone will benefit from its trickle down effect. Whatever happens, I still sincerely believe that the people of Aitutaki know real well how to approach this subject in a sensible and economically-minded manner.

From Donna Blake, Jamaica

Hello and Happy New Year, I am from Jamaica and would love to participate in the forum and receive e-mails.  The idea is a great one - sharing our experiences and bolstering each other with similar experiences and solutions to issues. Keep up the good work.

From Temakei Tebano, Fiji  

Hi colleagues, happy New Year. The views presented on 'the right development for Aitutaki' are quite interesting. Being a small island resident I would like to contribute my own ideas. I believe in development but what kind of development and what impacts it has on our culture, environment/biodiversity, finances and so on? We may have been travelling the world and seen marvellous things in those big countries, things that we think will be good in our islands and for our people, maybe yes and maybe not. Some ‘developments' may be too big and even destructive compared to the size of our small island nations. So it is important to weigh out the long and short term benefits and sustainability of any potential development. A 4 star hotel can be in the form of traditional housing (with some concrete blocks for washing, shower and toilets), excellent local foods (plenty of fish, crab, etc.), local entertainment,  local activities, attractive diving spots, fishing - things that people from overseas do not have, things that are local and traditional and environmentally friendly. Remember that we have been given our beautiful islands with the lovely resources (the people, the culture, beliefs, art, the land and the sea and other living organisms) and to remain proud islanders (in a sense of being kind, friendly, respectful, helpful, trustworthy, etc) we need to develop these resources with wide open eyes and thoughts. 

From Smith Tebu, Vanuatu

Thanks for the brief news on Aitutaki Island, it was wonderful reading about it.

Substantive responses received by the Small Islands Voice global forum to the posting on ‘Quality is better than quantity?’ by D. Blake, S. Biumaiono, T. Tebano http://www.sivglobal.org/?read=51  20^th January 2004

From Ilan Kelman, UK

I have been following this discussion with interest and I have been learning plenty. I provide here an example from one small, remote island which I was fortunate enough to visit. Further details are on my website http://www.islandvulnerability.org or go directly to my report ‘Managing Vulnerabilities of Small Island Heritage’ at http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/islandvulnerability/projects.html#arkell

The small island of Koltur, one of the Faroe Islands in the North Sea, has some analogies to the Cook Islands situation through its built, rather than natural, heritage. With an area of 2.5 km², Koltur is the smallest of the 17 inhabited Faroese islands. The population is two: a couple who farm the island, who were selected from a group of applicants to live there, and who are guardians of the unique Faroese heritage on Koltur.

Koltur has some of the best examples of the old building tradition, in terms of community layout, building design, and architecture. Two clusters of buildings remain. The old buildings have not been well-maintained, but they are well-preserved and detailed architectural drawings have been produced.

An opportunity exists to turn Koltur into a heritage site of the traditional Faroese building and community styles. One idea is making Koltur a living site where the buildings would be preserved and maintained yet made into a functional farm to illustrate how farming has been conducted in the Faroes over the past millennium.

One principal issue is accommodation and facilities for visitors. Bringing the old buildings up to the modern safety and access standards could damage the buildings, either physically or through altering their character. Therefore, camping appears to be most appropriate alternative, but the cold, damp climate could preclude that option. Similarly, regular transport to and from Koltur would be needed, yet would impact the island’s isolation.

Visitors could perhaps work on the farm and contribute to the restoration and maintenance work. With groups arriving and departing irregularly, chartering a boat or helicopter becomes viable with minimal impact on Koltur’s remoteness.

The challenge for Koltur, as elsewhere, is balancing preservation with tourism. Visitor numbers should not exceed the ability to provide facilities without damaging the island or sacrificing the heritage, including the character of its surroundings. Nonetheless, visitors would bring in revenue which would be needed to run and maintain the heritage site. Visitors would need to understand fully the environment which they were visiting along with the challenges and vulnerabilities. They will get cold and wet and they should not expect cocktails by the pool.

These tradeoffs are similar to those experienced by the other island heritage sites mentioned. An asset exists, either nature or buildings, and could be used to generate incomes to sustain island life. But how could that be done without destroying island life? I would propose three fundamental principles to follow in order to continue discussion:

- Keep all businesses and all infrastructure owned by locals.

- Be only what you are. Do not try to be something else to match external expectations.

- Be honest with visitors about what they get.

These will probably attract more visitors than they scare away!

I look forward to other views and to learning more,

From: Candace Key, Abaco, The Bahamas

We are experiencing some of the same development quandaries as the Cook Islands.  However, the Cook Islands are much bigger and more populated than our small cays of the Abaco chain in The Bahamas.  Typically our cays are 5-6 miles long and 1 mile wide at the widest spot.  Our capital island of New Providence is only 20 miles long and encompasses over half The Bahamas’ population.

We have three very small (less than 30 rooms) resorts on our island and over 100 rental homes – unfortunately most belonging to foreign second-home owners – not locals.  People flock to our island because we are not a big, busy, huge, resort type of island that they could have found on any coast in their own country.  And especially since most of our tourists come from the USA, we have to provide them with a different experience while capitalising on our natural and cultural heritage and resources.  Since we are so small, we must ensure that what we do provide for entertainment for our visitors is sustainable and will not be used up or ruined in a generation.

We have read and heard many reports from our visitors – most come time after time – that they prefer the small homey type resort where they are treated like family by the staff and they are able to mingle with the locals and learn about our culture and heritage. 

We as a community defeated the plans a foreigner had to develop the north end of our island with a large resort – we simply could not handle the garbage, amounts of people or the expected crime that would develop.  We were also against their plans to offer their own fishing guides, boat and golf cart rental, which would have pushed the locals offering the same things out of business.

However, for those people on islands without jobs, and where there is a lot of land that could be used for development and provide local jobs, the feeling could certainly be different.  However, we still maintain that several small resorts are preferable and cause less environmental impact than huge ones.

Our regional airport has long been outgrown.  However, do we want a much larger one that will bring jets flying low over us all day and possibly all night?

Because we live on a small island and people constantly tell us we have what people look all over the earth for, we say keep it small for success.  We have been successful in what we do so we feel confident in our answer.  We do not even have a policeman on our island – well actually one lives here but he rides the ferry everyday to work on one of our larger mainland cays.  We wish you success with your island development in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands and hope that it will be suitable to your needs, and not for a foreigner to just come in with empty promises and ruin your environment so that he can become richer.

From Roxanne Naylor, Vanuatu

Comments from Vanuatu. We run a small tourism website and often receive feedback from the guests. Here is an edited version of the most common comments (these are not my opinions):

1. Hotels and accommodation that blatantly misrepresent themselves as 3, 4 or even worse 5 star. The airfares to the small Pacific Island nations are not cheap, so guests are disappointed when they arrive to see the swimming pool not much bigger than a bath-tub, when in the brochure it appears huge, and the lovely pictures of the beach are normally nowhere near the hotel. This is by far the biggest complaint.

2. Dirty streets and dowdy, unpainted shops and rubbish laying everywhere.

3. Lack of vegetarian dishes with variety.

4. Beer or drinks not cold enough.

5. Lack of activities for rainy weather. A good suggestion was to have a cooking school or demonstration of preparation of simple dishes, like Tahitian salad, how to cook a banana, split a vanilla bean, make coconut cream, preparation of manioc, green papaw salad, the different types of root vegetables and how to recognize and prepare them etc. or weave a basket, make flower decorations. Then they can eat what they helped to prepare. This could actually be done anytime, wet or not. Part of culture is just watching a dance or eating a feast, it is also the common day to day cooking not using lamb flaps or tinned beef either.

6. Getting tinned or frozen food when there is normally ample local produce to make things like fresh lime juice, coconut drinks etc., instead of the watered down concentrated orange juice.

7. One couple went to a sitting of Parliament and considered that the highlight of their trip!

8. Another minor, but increasing, complaint not being able to book their holiday on the internet to save money and outdated websites.

9. Now for my own pet hate - photo of food in restaurant. Features a dozen flowers on the plate, can you eat Frangipani? Then the inevitable bottle of wine, unopened, but with 2 glasses 1/2 filled of wine surrounding the inevitable lobster and hibiscus.

There will always be a winging tourist that no matter what you do you will not please them. But truth in advertising and a shift in service attitudes is needed, instead of shrugging the shoulders and saying this is the Pacific way.

Substantive responses received by the Small Islands Voice global forum to the posting on ‘Small outer islands have different development needs’ by C. Key http://www.sivglobal.org/?read=52  4^th February 2004

From Michael Glantz, USA

Hi from Colorado. Two pieces of information that might be of interest to your readers:

1. We have just put a report on line of a meeting on early warning systems. It is at www.esig.ucar.edu/warning

2.  Island affairs editorial:  http://www.fragilecologies.com/feb04_04.html

From Anita James, St. Lucia

 
Well it looks like that Bahamas island is ‘Paradise Found’ and ‘Paradise maintained’ as well. Congratulations and keep it up!

From Francoise Lee, Mauritius

Islanders will be proud and happy to be able to communicate among themselves. Excellent initiative

From Jaime Matera, Colombia

I have changed my email address but would like to continue enjoying the great exchange of information in your forum.  Could you please add my new email? Thank you for a great job!

From Mark Skinner, Australia

On the question of development of Aitutaki, it is already over developed, it needs no more and the government should be aware that there is enough environmental damage that has to be reversed before the lagoon is polluted to such a degree that it will not recover. I first was there in 1994 and then again last year and the difference was remarkable. The lagoon looks to be in a state almost as bad as Muri. It was quite pristine in ‘94. I believe there will be more ciguatera outbreaks there and this is mostly due to the contamination by the waters from sewerage and farming activities.

The people of Aitutaki need to be more aware of these signs of pollution (notice a big green algae bloom south of the harbour?) and put people into government who are prepared to do something about it! Some of the developments have been environmentally unsound, you now have a ‘dead’ passage (do tourists really like to swim there?) next to one resort that should have never been built (which may happen to Avana passage?). You now have accommodations for tourists on motus that should never have been built. Stop putting the greed of developers in front of your environment or you will no longer wish to live there yourselves! Go for a swim at Muri one still morning and smell the air!

From Temakei Tebano, Fiji

Hi there. Many thanks to our friend from The Bahamas. That is exactly what I meant in my last contribution, development or eco-tourism that focuses more on cultural activities that foreigners have never experienced, island hospitality, simple island lifestyle, good balanced local food, good and comfortable local accommodation, clean surroundings, etc. not a sophisticated five star hotel setup that foreigners run away from. Well done mate and keep your venture in tune with your island beauty.

Substantive responses received by the Small Islands Voice global forum to the posting on 'Principles for island development: ownership, identity and honesty' by A. James, I. Kelman, T. Tebano, M. Skinner http://www.sivglobal.org/?read=53  17^th  February 2004

From Jose Gerhartz, Jamaica

I'm glad to hear about Abaco's sustainable tourism paradise. It really made me glad because I recently had the opportunity to visit The Bahamas (Nassau, New Providence) during the Interregional Preparatory Meeting for the Review of the Barbados Programme of Action. My impression during that short visit was that The Bahamas had a tourism development model very far from sustainable. Unfortunately the delegates were taken to visit a fancy, massive 12 stories, 5 star hotel complex (Atlantis). I was really shocked with a suite that costs 25,000 US$ a night!!! And not to mention an aquarium recreating Atlantis and huge casinos. Can you image the amount of energy and resources to ‘sustain’ such a development? So, congratulations to Abaco for offering a different Bahamian face to the world.

From Dulph Mitchell, San Andres, Colombia

I am from the island of San Andres (The Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina), supposedly owned by Colombia and now being claimed by Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

For the sake of good order let me give you our territory's location: some 300 miles northwest of the Colombian coast and 110 miles east of the Nicaraguan coast, 27 square kilometres of land with not less than 100,000 people of which only 25,000 are natives. The Colombian State has forced us to become, by her mainland invaders, a minority in our own homeland. We do not consider ourselves belonging to Colombia (though we are unfortunately under her neo-colonialist regime) nor Nicaragua. We consider ourselves San Andreans. The Colombian Constitution of 1991 has determined us as ‘Raizales’.

I must have mistakenly deleted Candace Key's description of Abaco in The Bahamas, since I have not seen it, but I certainly agree that on small islands development should be kept small-scale so as to fit in with local needs. In our case it went all to the contrary and now we are facing a serious garbage problem and a calamitous situation of having water that is only 1% drinkable, 30% usable and 69% contaminated.

From Tetoaiti Tabokai

My views: The islands are meant to be as they are, were and forever more the beauties of the oceans, sprouting here and there to add light and reality to the natural wonder of creation.  They are the products of the last phases of creation.  Can anyone add more?  I don’t think so.

The people living on the islands are masters of the place.  They know what to do to maintain the balance between human consumption for living and the resources that need to continue thriving. The balance between men and nature is maintained through activities of controlled population growth (infanticide, like it or not), the natural occurrence of weather patterns which dictates the flow of nutrients in and out of an island,(and thus creates the periods known in the islands as ‘time of plentiful’ and ‘time of scarcity or drought’).

The interacting roles between man and the natural weather patterns on the islands controls and restricts the harvest of resources and dictates the number of people required on an island.

Modernisation and its impact is creating a lot of imbalances on these once beautiful emeralds of the oceans.  People are now increasing in numbers, the balance between consumption and food supply is balanced by imported food which is of poor nutrient value. Effluents from sewage and industry are wreaking havoc on the islands.

Tourism? The dilemma.

Invite more destruction and cash or stop tourist coming and their dollars.

Under option one, we are looking at people who flew all the way to our shores with cash and who are willing to spend and inject it into our poor economy.  But we have to house them under the best and appropriate shelters.  Something safe or else someone will be to blame.  So we import more rubbish into the country and build more ceramic, do more paintings, and use other non-organic materials.

Under option two we are robbing those of the privilege of wanting to see our islands.  The islands are supposed to be pristine offering spectacular sites both under water and on land, the beach the corals and marine life.  Our conscience if we had any at all, will remind us that there are people out there wanting to see our ‘Great Wall of China.’

A third option may be that we open our shores, allow visitors only that wish to live and dwell as close as can be to the way of life enjoyed by the islanders. Nothing lush will have to be added.  Only then could we see the real tourist coming.

From Temakei Tebano, Fiji

Hi Small Islands Voice. Thank you very much for keeping us posted with recent developments in our small island nations, something that we will always want to share our views on and learn from others. Allow me to add some ideas regarding ciguatera poisoning mentioned by our colleague from the Cook Islands. Yes, the quality of water and reef destruction are linked to ciguatera. So many nutrients in the lagoon or surrounding sea encourage algal growth that in turn encourages and harbours various toxic dinoflagellates (including Gambierdiscus toxicus) to grow and multiply. These toxic dinoflagellates are then picked up by the algae-eating fishes and the toxin is passed on through a food chain and finally to us humans. Similarly, the destruction of a reef provides more surface area for algae to grow. The balance that has been there was broken and the resultant product from a new equation is what is we term ciguatera poisoning - a problem. In fact, ciguatera is not a problem - the problem is human beings who tipped the balance. Naturally toxic areas are a gift, they are there as reserves, they have a purpose and those are the breeding grounds, the juveniles migrate from there to other non-toxic areas and that is where we can catch them. Greed and carelessness that endanger our land and marine environments will give us more problems, so we have to take care of our vulnerable environments particularly in our small island states. Please avoid damaging our environment in the name of 'development'.

From Laiakini Tuirabe Waqanisau, Australia

Hi, my name is Lai and I am thankful to this website for updating my knowledge on small island issues. I also come from a small island nation - Fiji and from the beginning of my university studies I had decided to study environmental science. I have since completed a Bachelor of Science and am now beginning a postgraduate degree in Environmental Science.

I hope in the future to be able to contribute to the conservation of Fiji's water resources and help other small island nations in the process.

Substantive responses received by the Small Islands Voice global forum to the posting on ‘The ‘island-way’ of doing things’ by J. Gerhartz, D. Mitchell, R. Naylor, T. Tabokai http://www.sivglobal.org/?read=54  3^rd March 2004

From Arlington James, Dominica

 Hello, I am writing from the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica (absolutely not the Dominican Republic, please, though we do follow a republican type of government, with a President as Head of State).

I read with interest the contributions on ‘The Island Way of Doing Things’. Dulph Mitchel was quoted as saying that ‘Our territory has 27 square kilometres of land, with no less than 100,000 people of which only 25,000 are natives.’  Is this really the area of that island? If so, then with such a population density, what sort of opportunities are there for forest-based recreation? Is any of the land area protected for the current and future generations of native San Andreans in the form of national parks, reserves, etc?

From Tai Purcell, Samoa

This discussion is very interesting! I don't think that the small islands will be able to satisfy every tourist’s holiday needs. However, the key thing is cleanliness! It doesn't matter if a development is a 5 star large hotel or a small traditional house on the beach, so long as the beddings, food preparation, toilet facilities etc. are clean, then there is a likelihood for tourism development to be sustainable. Even if a development is a 5 star

hotel, but the rooms are not aired and sheets, towels, toilets etc. are not clean, then sustainability will eventually become a huge issue.

While I agree with Dulph Mitchell that the island tourism development should be kept small-scale so as to fit in with local needs, I think that ‘keeping them small’ is not the answer, sustainability is. How do we get regular guests to come and stay to sustain the tourism development? I think it is through the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) which allow the small islands to participate in the global markets.

Marketing of small island development internationally can be very, very expensive. And if the money moguls come to the islands and offer to advertise the tourist development to the global market, I can tell you that because of the lack of skills and capacity of the local people to know these things, the money moguls will end up earning a much bigger income than the locals themselves - I am very sad if this continues to happen.

While ICT is a great tool to enhance and provide cheaper ways to market our products overseas, there is a more urgent need in the islands that needs to be addressed. That is, there is a larger need for capacity building in the small island developing states especially for the local people on how to use ICT. This capacity building allows the local people to gain the skills to use the internet and email effectively, to ensure that their websites are

updated regularly and to respond to queries almost immediately because if not, then there is a chance that they are missing out on some economic returns.

My own family has some beach fales (traditional Samoan house) and during Cyclone Heta, all the six fales and the dinning house were wiped out. However, we have already rebuilt 4 and are still building. From our experience, people from other countries absolutely love living the simple island lifestyle that we live. A single traditional house with no furniture except the bedding, close to the sea with homemade furniture on the beach is the ideal relaxing holiday for them. Some have returned on numerous occasions!  We don't even have a flush toilet because the water is scarce in our part of the country but we use the long drop! We thought that the long drop is a setback for our development, however, most people don't mind it saying that it is ‘clean.’ This is where I base my comments above.

One of the issues we face is having no communications. We don't have a telephone because we don't have access to the telecommunication infrastructure - however, our tourist development is on the website of the Samoa Visitors Bureau. This is how our business is advertised overseas. So we don't have any idea of how many tourists to expect, how long they will stay etc. When we get more tourists that we can cope with in our fales, then we use our own house or assign them to neighbouring villages. This is why I suggested above that ICT is the tool because even if we don't have access to a telephone but have access to the internet, we could set up our own website and manage it from the most remote village of Samoa. So, my comments above are based on first hand experience. Thanks for providing this forum.