Continued from the previous page
Surrounded only by the seas, small islands are home to some of the most unique and diverse plant and animal species, a fact popularized by the evolution theorist Charles Darwin after his studies in the Galapagos Islands. Studies today indicate that the Western Pacific has the highest marine diversity found anywhere, with some reefs harbouring up to 3,000 species. The region is also home to more critically threatened species -- 110 -- more than anywhere else. Large-scale logging, commercial agriculture, mining and other land-clearing activities have diminished many natural habitats. The most extreme example is Nauru, where phosphate mining has carved out the interior of the island and destroyed entire ecosystems.
Although subsistence farming still accounts for over half of all agriculture on small islands, economic and population pressures are forcing the introduction of more productive farming methods. Many fear that this will open the door to crops with foreign genetic make-ups that could overrun indigenous but low-yielding species.
Natural disasters also threaten biodiversity. Severe storms often have a greater proportional impact on the biodiversity on small islands than elsewhere due to the smaller land mass and smaller habitats.
On Montserrat, a frog known as the mountain chicken is believed to have become extinct due to the acidification of standing water caused by the volcanic eruptions that showered the island.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is helping small islands to review, manage and conserve their forests, while the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization is attempting to preserve the traditional knowledge of local biodiversity. Many countries are using strategies to preserve biodiversity that involve local community participation. This was an important feature of a coastal management plan in the Comoros and in a project to protect marine turtles in the South Pacific. In the Bahamas, made up of 35 major islands covering an area of 100,000 square miles, a project to manage biodiversity data has resulted in a governmental commission that is responsible for coordinating and monitoring environmental and biodiversity activities. Too often, however, the efforts of international agencies and local Governments in the field of small island biodiversity are hamstrung by a lack of resources, a lack of coordination between different organizations, and a lack of integration with other national programmes.
Islands by their very nature are limited in size, and the amount of land available for farming on the small islands is relatively small. Growing populations are forcing more people to compete for this limited land, and the result has been severe land degradation on many small islands. Almost three quarters of the Pacific islands have cited land degradation as a serious problem. In Fiji and Samoa, subsistence farmers have been forced to use marginal lands, where the soil is poorer, or hillside slopes. The problem tends to get worse in areas closer to the coast. Even in Papua New Guinea, where most land is not under cultivation, large plantations tend to farm the land intensively, also degrading the quality of the soil. Degraded land is less productive and causes sedimentation problems in rivers and streams, particularly near the coastal zones. Loss of forest cover continues; population pressures, elimination of traditional land controls, pasture development and logging are among the factors responsible. Extensive logging operations have deforested large tracts of land in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and forests are also under siege in the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and Tonga. In Micronesia, only 15 per cent of the island of Pohnpei still has undisturbed forests, down from 42 per cent in 1976. In the Caribbean, where many forests were originally cleared for sugar and banana plantations, those existing tend to be secondary forests, which lack the rich biodiversity of old-growth forests.
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For small islands, there is no knowing what may lurk around the next corner. Although they have taken the Barbados action plan to heart, a major hurricane or cyclone can erase years of work in hours. And there are just not enough resources to carry out all the programmes needed to ensure that the environment is adequately protected.
Since the 200-mile offshore exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the small island nations add up to about one sixth of the Earth's surface area, better fisheries management in the islands would be a significant step toward improving global fish supplies. Small islands have relied heavily on regional cooperation, which has resulted in agreements, such as the South Pacific Tuna Treaty with the United States.
Island Governments have generally lacked the resources and training to monitor and regulate fishing practices-both in inland waters, where local artisanal fishermen work, and in offshore areas, where foreign, industrial-size fleets often buy fishing rights. Worldwide, it is estimated that 60 per cent of all commercial fisheries have been depleted.
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Number 3 1999
