"The survival of small island developing States is firmly rooted in their human resources and cultural heritage, which are their most significant assets; those assets are under stress, and all efforts must be taken to ensure the central position of people in the process of sustainable development." - Declaration of Barbados, May 1994

AAmbassador Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Samoa's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, looks to the special session of the General Assembly with optimism, and to the future development of countries like his own -- with populations ranging from under 1,000 to just below 11 million inhabitants -- with pragmatism.

UN Photo 130295/Marvin Weill

"Our primary message is implementation. We are submitting ideas by which we think the implementation of the Barbados Programme could be deepened and strengthened." Much attention is being given to the question of cooperation and coordination among donor activities, as well as within the United Nations system. Increased cooperation and coordination, as well as the development of well-targeted projects and programmes, will address the issue of duplication in development activities and relieve the burden of implementation by the small bureaucracies and, in many cases, the limited human resources available for such activities in small island States.

A 41-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) was born in the early 1990s in the context of negotiations on environmental issues. One overarching issue for small island States, Ambassador Slade, Chairman of the Alliance, notes, is the adverse effects of climate change which emphasizes the vulnerability of those countries and has the potential to impact on their very existence. To those problems can be added the loss of biodiversity and the potential for a decrease in trade -- all global problems that are generated externally. "All of them, like climate change, are not of the making of small island States", Samoa's Permanent Representative says. "There are unique circumstances pertaining to island States. They are ecologically vulnerable. Their smallness is a serious physical disadvantage. Their smallness means, for example, that their endeavours to build a good solid economy could be rendered nil overnight as a result of a natural disaster -- by a hurricane."

Regional cooperation is essential. The Pacific has "been able to develop very specialized organizations that deal with political issues, fishing and matters pertaining to the environment, health" and other issues. In the Caribbean, institutions such as the University of the West Indies and CARICOM have also emerged. But this is not true everywhere. "Africa is just beginning to give a lot of attention to strengthening regional institutions," which are "a vehicle for the implementation of foreign assistance and development assistance".

Chairman Slade agrees with the United Nations Secretary-General's assessment that there has been "perceptible progress" in the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action, especially in the area of regional cooperation among small island States. International action is critical. "Small island States are not seeking handouts". At the same time, the difficulties they face cannot be dealt with unless "we can be assured of the necessary financial assistance". But they face a decline in official development assistance (ODA) and, more so, limited or no private investment. For the near future, however, AOSIS looks forward to receiving support for the more than 300 projects the small island States presented to a donor/ SIDS meeting earlier this year.

High on the agenda is the need for training and capacity-building, including engaging in sustainable and active cooperation with the traditional and village communities, active non-governmental organizations and a strengthened private sector. Making use of technological developments is also critical. There is grave concern about the erosion of the existing preferential trade arrangements that benefit these States, which underlines the need to develop their capability to negotiate effectively on those issues in the context of the World Trade Organization. Otherwise, the island States face marginalization as the impact of globalization takes hold. AOSIS expects a positive and forward-looking outcome from the special session, as it continues to stress the very difficult problems posed by the size of their countries and their need of support from the international community, including in particular the United Nations system.

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.

Many islands have already lost shoreline and beaches after extensive mining of sand and coral for construction . On some islands such as Barbados, the destruction of coral reefs has led to the complete erosion of beaches. And in the past, unchecked construction of tourism facilities, such as marinas, jetties and artificial beaches, along the coastlines of Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, Cyprus and other islands has led to the degradation of fisheries, coral reefs, mangrove forests, sea beds and dune systems. Other threats to the coastal region come from poor land use, the destruction of mangroves and the discharge of agricultural, industrial and sewage effluents. Several small islands have adopted plans and programmes for protecting and preserving their coastal regions. Cape Verde, Fiji and Kiribati are among those that have developed plans, while Barbados, which has suffered significant beach erosion in the past, has established a special government unit to manage the coastal zone. Virtually all of the small islands have signed on to the International Coral Reef Initiative to monitor and study ways to improve the health of the reefs. And the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has provided funds to 14 South Pacific States to develop strategic action programmes to conserve and manage coastal and ocean resources in a sustainable manner. These islands have received close to $20 million to implement their programmes, with the GEF contributing $12 million of the total.

UN Photo 158974/M. Grant

Small island developing States have concentrated their efforts on lobbying the major industrial countries to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases that are blamed for speeding up the warming process. The small islands were among the first to ratify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and are strongly in favour of its 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding emission limits for the industrialized countries, and whose "clean development mechanism" gives industrialized countries credits toward their emissions targets if their government agencies or private corporations carry out emissions reduction projects in developing countries. Details of the mechanism are still being worked out, but the island nations hope it could promote investment in solar and renewable energy, which could in turn lessen their dependence on expensive imported oil.

Oil, which tends to cost more in the small islands than in other developing countries, accounts for a large percentage of small island imports: for example, almost a third of all of Cuba's imports in 1995 and a quarter of the imports for the Bahamas. Fuelwood, which is also extensively used for energy, primarily for cooking in rural areas, puts additional pressure on forests and is not a long-term alternative, though bagasse, made from sugar cane waste, could be developed in some islands. Several non-governmental organizations have stressed the need to develop alternative, renewable energy generation sources, such as solar systems that can provide sufficient energy to run small appliances. Waste management is also a major problem on small islands, since there is limited space for landfill, and contamination of the groundwater and surface and ocean waters results from sewage, industrial effluents and agriculture. Tourism also taxes their disposal and treatment facilities. While many small islands have taken steps to manage their waste problem, most do not have adequate waste management plans. Some efforts have led to tangible results, such as the construction of sanitary landfills in Seychelles and Mauritius, as well as on several Caribbean islands. Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Maldives, and Trinidad and Tobago have, with donor assistance, embarked on programmes to upgrade their waste management infrastructure.

The movement of hazardous and radioactive wastes remains a serious concern to small islands, who believe that the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is highly inadequate. In talks leading up to the 1999 special session, small island nations have sought to reaffirm their right, as agreed in the Barbados action plan, to regulate, restrict or ban imports of hazardous waste and to prohibit shipment of hazardous and radioactive substances through their waters, consistent with international law. However, some industrialized countries have sought to soften the wording of the Barbados Agreement. Barbados itself is developing legislation and safety guidelines for the transport, storage and disposal of toxic chemicals.