Small Island States and Sustainable Development:
Strategic Issues and Experience

Bass S.M.J. and Dalal-Clayton D.B. (1995): Small Island States and Sustainable Development: Strategic Issues and Experience, Environmental Planning Issues No.8, International Institute for Environment and Development, London.

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) met to consider the interlinked problems of environment and development, and to propose principles and means by which nations and the international community could pursue development paths that were more sustainable. Agenda 21, the action plan of UNCED, stressed the importance of developing National Sustainable  Development Strategies (NSDSs) as a mechanism for arriving at concrete policies and actions that help countries move towards sustainable development, and which help them to meet the commitments and principles agreed at UNCED. In 1994 the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States was held in Barbados and set out a programme of action for small islands to implement Agenda 21.

This paper focuses on the ecological, economic and social factors which typify small island states, and lead to their vulnerabilities. The opportunities for, and difficulties in developing, national strategies for sustainable development are then considered.  Illustrations are brought through case studies of recent island strategies in Mauritius, the Seychelles, the Caribbean, St Helena and the Solomon Islands.