What is small island sustainable development about?

This article explores the nature of the development process on small islands and considers this in the context of different interpretations of sustainable development. A case study of the Galapagos is presented which considers the drivers and threats to development in these islands.

The Brundtland/Rio conception of sustainable development was used which included factors such as:

1. The ‘environmental crises’—characterized by a move from focused incidents to global issues.

    

2. Resource depletion—neo-Malthusian concerns about the sustainability of growth-based economic policies reliant upon ?nite resources.

    

3. The north– south divide—growing north–south disparities.

    

4. Globalization—the emergence of market capitalism and democracy as the dominant political/economic ideology and the integration of global markets.

    

5. Post-modernist skepticism—this has been called the ‘cultural rejection’ of the certainty of both science and conventional politics.

    

6. Institutional frameworks—transnational institutional structures which provided a stage for the sustainable development debate to evolve and which are also ideologically underpinned by market capitalism. 

    

Development pathways presented in the literature fall into two camps.

1. Development focused on economic growth by means of:
   import substitution; 
   the development of new export markets; 
   the pursuit of aid and remittance payments or economic rent as ends in themselves.
2. The encouragement of people-centered development activity that is driven by participatory processes and aimed at meeting basic needs. 

    

The report argues that the economy of the Galapagos islands is driven by export-orientated primary and tertiary sectors. However, in many other respects (limited resources, specialization, etc.) the Galapagos are typical. Like many islands, the economic well being of the Galapagos is dependent on trade in an increasingly globalized market. At the same time there is an ongoing process of increasing local autonomy.

The SLG has increased local control of resources. The drive for protection of the Galapagos comes from international recognition of their ecological signi?cance, which has created a favorable scenario for the islanders. Models of sustainable development may have something to offer islands in terms of the internal management of resources. However, CS models assume a level of control and stability that may simply not exist on many islands. Islands have very limited control over exogenous threats or the economic drivers of development. The case study illustrates the complexity of sustainability in an island context. It recommends that the intriguing paradox that some islands may be managing local resources sustainably, while exploiting unsustainable patterns of global consumption, deserves further investigation.