Small, Lovely, Vulnerable: Island Nations Seek Financial Help

NASSAU, Bahamas, February 2, 2004 (ENS) - The small island nations of the world may be beautiful, but they are impoverished and exist on the margins of international trade. They are threatened by global warming, natural disasters, and radioactive as well as hazardous wastes, and they are crying out for the assistance of the international community.

Ministers and senior representatives of the governments of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), gathered in Nassau, Bahamas last week for the Interregional Preparatory Meeting for the 10 year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action. In the Nassau Declaration issued at the close of the meeting, the participants affirmed the Barbados process, and detailed a strategy for increasing their security and wellbeing.

Their strategy is based on obtaining the financial resources from the wealthier nations of the world to deal with their overwhelming problems - many of them environmental.

"The current emphasis on security has resulted in the diversion of resources from the sustainable development agenda," the SIDS declared.

"Security must be viewed in a multi-dimensional fashion, including threats such as natural disasters, food security, water security, incidence of HIV/AIDS, narco-trafficking, illegal trade in small arms," they said in the declaration.

In their declaration, the small island developing states "emphasize the urgent needs" for "new and additional financial resources, provided in adequate, predictable and timely flows," in order to respond effectively to these challenges.

The island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands (Photo courtesy Bishop Museum)

Multilateral financial institutions should establish special debt reduction criteria for SIDS to alleviate their excessive levels of debt burden, and SIDS should utilize innovative financing mechanisms such as debt swaps, the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, and microfinancing mechanisms, the declaration asserts.

The problem is that while the international community has provided financing and technical assistance in sectors that were fairly new ten yeas ago, such as climate change, and persistent organic pollutants, overall international financial aid to SIDS has declined by over 50 percent between 1994 and 2004. Also, an analysis of the reports shows an increase in ad hoc stand-alone projects, rather than a programmed or strategic approach to funding.

These islands are the vacation playlands of the rich, but when the tourists leave, the problems remain, and the funding needs of small island nations are many and varied.

Rising sea levels due to global warming are an immediate threat. "The failure of most industrialized countries to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions means that the vulnerability of SIDS will be increased and that adaptation to climate change continues to be a major priority for SIDS," the Nassau Declaration states.

The international community must fully implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), they say and "ensure the immediate ratification and entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol," an add-on to the UNFCCC that would limit the greenhouse gas emissions of 37 industrialized nations in the period 2008 to 2012.

Further "urgent action" on the part of the rest of the world to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions, including through the "development and increased use of renewable energy" is absolutely necessary, the small island officials say.

SIDS are among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the increasing intensity and frequency of natural and environmental disasters, so when a cyclone sweeps the islands they face disproportionately high economic, social and environmental consequences.

Because of the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Ami in January 2003, many of the buildings on Rabi Island, Fiji, are still in a state of disrepair due to lack of funds. (Photo courtesy Raobeia Ken Sigrah and Stacey King )

In December 2003, the UN General Assembly decided to convene a World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2005, to conclude the review of the Yokohama Strategy and its Plan of Action, with a view to updating the guiding framework on disaster reduction for the 21st century.

The small island states are asking that the World Conference address their specific issues including the possibility to put in place appropriate insurance and re-insurance arrangements for SIDS as they relate to natural and environmental disasters.

On Sunday, the Cook Islands government approached the World Health Organization for guidance on how to deal with the high level of chromium suspected of causing health problems in college students. This is only the latest example of the trouble that the small island states are having with toxic, hazardous and radioactive wastes.

The island nations have trouble dealing with wastes both modern and historic. Marine debris, ballast waste and World War II shipwrecks threaten the "ecological integrity" of their countries, the officials said.

Much of World War II was fought on and around the island states. Now they are demanding that nations whose naval vessels were sunk in SIDS territories during World War II act to ensure these vessels do not become a source of pollution, and accept liability for rehabilitation in the event that pollution occurs.

This rusting shipwreck found near the Majuro airport in the Marshall Islands is a relic from WWII Japanese occupation.(Photo courtesy David Huskins)

The international community is asked to provide financial support by 2015 for the development, transfer and implementation of appropriate technologies to deal with these wastes.

And on the issue of ships dumping waste at sea that then washes up on their shores, the SIDS said, "There must be regional cooperation to reduce the quantity of waste disposed of at sea."

The control of the transboundary movement of hazardous waste must be strengthened, they state, especially through the enhancement of activities under the Basel and Waigani Conventions. This must include the principles of prior informed agreement, liability and compensation, the emergency fund and support for the regional centers.

The small islands are at risk of invasive species when visiting ships dump their ballast water, containing organisms from other parts of the world, near an island port of call. The Nassau Declaration asks the International Maritime Organization to expedite the process towards the elaboration and conclusion of a convention on ballast water.

Later this year, from August 30 to September 3 at a ministerial meeting in Mauritius, these issues will again come up for inclusion in an updated Barbados Programme of Action for the sustainable development of small island developing states.

To learn more visit the UNESCO website on SIDS by clicking here.