By IPS Correspondents
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 9 2005 (IPS)

‘Small Islands, Big Stakes’, goes the slogan of the day in the capital of this sun-baked, rain-swept Indian Ocean island-nation. It could have spoken of Big Problems too, that will be addressed by some 2,000 delegates converging here for what some participants call a make-or-break conference on the future of 37 Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

‘Small islands, Big Stakes’, goes the slogan of the day in the capital of this sun-baked, rain-swept Indian Ocean island-nation. It could have spoken of Big Problems too, that will be addressed by some 2,000 delegates converging here for what some participants call a make-or-break conference on the future of 37 Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The conference is being held against the backdrop of the tsunami Dec. 26 that took more than 150,000 lives and blighted millions. The tsunami showed up the vulnerability and isolation of these islands that also cripples their trade, health, energy and agriculture.

The ‘Small Islands, Big Stakes’ conference called by the United Nations Jan. 10-14 aims to come up with what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hopes will be a “pro- active strategy” to implement agreements on SIDS reached in Barbados in 1994.

These agreements at the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States came to be known as the ‘Barbados plan of action’. The meeting had been called after the fragility of small island developing states came into focus at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1992.

The Barbados plan called for national, regional and international actions in fields ranging from climate change to biodiversity, and from marine resources to tourism. The action plan was seen as the first test of a ‘global partnership’ envisioned at the Earth Summit.

Conference Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chowdhury says this conference is “a critical window of opportunity” for SIDS. “If this occasion to extend the international community’s support to Small Island Developing States in their development efforts is not successful, it might take decades before such an opportunity arises again,” he said.

SIDS representatives say the Barbados Plan failed because it was not a priority for donors.

“Whatever was done in implementation, we did 70 percent of it,” Tuvalu ambassador to the conference Enel Sopoaga told IPS. “But we just can’t do all.” Tuvalu has a population of about 10,000 with its highest point 4.5 metres above sea level. Nine of its islands were submerged under a tide last February.

Sopoaga called the tsunami disaster “a signal of the failure of the international community.” Given political will an early warning system could have been established long back, he said.

The West is being held responsible for many SIDS failures. “We have to do our share, but we also need international partners,” said leader of the Seychelles delegation Claude Morel. “For one thing, we are not the producers of emissions, we are its victims.”

Seychelles, which has had no natural disasters since a landslide in 1862, has faced excessive rains since 1997 and stronger winds since the tsunami, he said.

Rising sea levels threaten to completely submerge the island countries Nauru, Maldives and Tuvalu. As many as 14 major tropical storms in the Caribbean during the last hurricane season brought losses of around 20 billion dollars.

SIDS range from Haiti in the Caribbean (population 8.4 million over 27,750 sq. km) to tiny Nieu in the Pacific (2,000 inhabitants on a 260 sq km surface). Most are penalised by what some have called the “tyranny of distance” for anything they send or receive.

The smallest among them are the most vulnerable to rising seas. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says sea levels rose 10 times faster in the past 100 years than the rate estimated for the previous 3,000 years.

In the face of such difficulties, UN figures show that annual official development assistance to SIDS dropped from 2.3 billion dollars to 1.7 billion dollars over the last decade.

The tsunami tragedy may now become a catalyst in bringing more resources to SIDS. The international community had responded to the Ethiopian famine only after images of starving children hit the TV screens.

Maldives ambassador Muhamed Latheef told IPS he sees “good prospects” that a global partnership would be formed against natural disasters and other SIDS vulnerabilities.

The G7 (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) has frozen debt repayments for tsunami-hit countries for at least a year. Several countries, non-governmental organisations and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank have pledged immediate aid.

But the Mauritius meeting faces other challenges that have surfaced in the past decade.

The UN says trade liberalisation, along with erosion of trade preferences, has had severe consequences for fragile island economies.

Preferential arrangements were dismantled under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. This affected export commodities like sugar, bananas, coffee and coconuts. The revenue from banana exports from the Caribbean island St. Lucia dropped for example from 46.5 million dollars in 1996 to 21.7 million dollars in 2002.

The meeting is being asked also to consider concerted action against the spread of AIDS. The Caribbean has a 2.3 percent adult HIV prevalence rate, second only to sub- Saharan Africa. UNAIDS says “the stage is set for an expanding and widespread HIV epidemic in the Pacific region.”

Small island developing states are also asking for better and more affordable access to the Internet to connect island communities to one another and to the rest of the world. They see information and communications technology offering great opportunities, especially in e-governance, telemedicine and distance learning. But most are up against a poor telecommunications infrastructure, the high cost of computers and of Internet lines, restrictive telecommunications policies and shortage of trained personnel.

The tourism they largely depend on is reaching a scale that endangers the very ecosystems and cultures that attract tourists. It is also sensitive to external shocks, as seen in the reduced number of visitors following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and in Bali, and during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) health crisis in 2003.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 9 2005 (IPS)

‘Small Islands, Big Stakes’, goes the slogan of the day in the capital of this sun-baked, rain-swept Indian Ocean island-nation. It could have spoken of Big Problems too, that will be addressed by some 2,000 delegates converging here for what some participants call a make-or-break conference on the future of 37 Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The conference is being held against the backdrop of the tsunami Dec. 26 that took more than 150,000 lives and blighted millions. The tsunami showed up the vulnerability and isolation of these islands that also cripples their trade, health, energy and agriculture.

The ‘Small Islands, Big Stakes’ conference called by the United Nations Jan. 10-14 aims to come up with what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hopes will be a “pro- active strategy” to implement agreements on SIDS reached in Barbados in 1994.

These agreements at the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States came to be known as the ‘Barbados plan of action’. The meeting had been called after the fragility of small island developing states came into focus at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1992.

The Barbados plan called for national, regional and international actions in fields ranging from climate change to biodiversity, and from marine resources to tourism. The action plan was seen as the first test of a ‘global partnership’ envisioned at the Earth Summit.

But the plan brought little action, despite appeals by the UN General Assembly and at the UN Millennium Summit. This led to the Mauritius meeting now to work out “strategies for implementation.”

SIDS representatives say the Barbados Plan failed because it was not a priority for donors.

“Whatever was done in implementation, we did 70 percent of it,” Tuvalu ambassador to the conference Enel Sopoaga told IPS. “But we just can’t do all.” Tuvalu has a population of about 10,000 with its highest point 4.5 metres above sea level. Nine of its islands were submerged under a tide last February.

Sopoaga called the tsunami disaster “a signal of the failure of the international community.” Given political will an early warning system could have been established long back, he said.

The West is being held responsible for many SIDS failures. “We have to do our share, but we also need international partners,” said leader of the Seychelles delegation Claude Morel. “For one thing, we are not the producers of emissions, we are its victims.”

Seychelles, which has had no natural disasters since a landslide in 1862, has faced excessive rains since 1997 and stronger winds since the tsunami, he said.

Rising sea levels threaten to completely submerge the island countries Nauru, Maldives and Tuvalu. As many as 14 major tropical storms in the Caribbean during the last hurricane season brought losses of around 20 billion dollars.

SIDS range from Haiti in the Caribbean (population 8.4 million over 27,750 sq. km) to tiny Nieu in the Pacific (2,000 inhabitants on a 260 sq km surface). Most are penalised by what some have called the “tyranny of distance” for anything they send or receive.

The smallest among them are the most vulnerable to rising seas. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says sea levels rose 10 times faster in the past 100 years than the rate estimated for the previous 3,000 years.

In the face of such difficulties, UN figures show that annual official development assistance to SIDS dropped from 2.3 billion dollars to 1.7 billion dollars over the last decade.

The tsunami tragedy may now become a catalyst in bringing more resources to SIDS. The international community had responded to the Ethiopian famine only after images of starving children hit the TV screens.

Maldives ambassador Muhamed Latheef told IPS he sees “good prospects” that a global partnership would be formed against natural disasters and other SIDS vulnerabilities.

The G7 (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) has frozen debt repayments for tsunami-hit countries for at least a year. Several countries, non-governmental organisations and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank have pledged immediate aid.

But the Mauritius meeting faces other challenges that have surfaced in the past decade.

The UN says trade liberalisation, along with erosion of trade preferences, has had severe consequences for fragile island economies.

Preferential arrangements were dismantled under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. This affected export commodities like sugar, bananas, coffee and coconuts. The revenue from banana exports from the Caribbean island St. Lucia dropped for example from 46.5 million dollars in 1996 to 21.7 million dollars in 2002.

The meeting is being asked also to consider concerted action against the spread of AIDS. The Caribbean has a 2.3 percent adult HIV prevalence rate, second only to sub- Saharan Africa. UNAIDS says “the stage is set for an expanding and widespread HIV epidemic in the Pacific region.”

Small island developing states are also asking for better and more affordable access to the Internet to connect island communities to one another and to the rest of the world. They see information and communications technology offering great opportunities, especially in e-governance, telemedicine and distance learning. But most are up against a poor telecommunications infrastructure, the high cost of computers and of Internet lines, restrictive telecommunications policies and shortage of trained personnel.

The tourism they largely depend on is reaching a scale that endangers the very ecosystems and cultures that attract tourists. It is also sensitive to external shocks, as seen in the reduced number of visitors following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and in Bali, and during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) health crisis in 2003.

Excerpt: