Just before the air-space race became the obsession of military and economic powers, the oceans were the space par excellence for human exchanges, both commercial, cultural and migratory. Sea surfaces, lavish with resources of guaranteed value — from hydrocarbons to marine species — have also made a little-known but no less important contribution to climate regulation to human generations.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been ardent supporters of the Millennium Development Goals on population growth, resource availability, territorial isolation, climate insecurity and heeding the vagaries of world trade. These territories – located in the Caribbean, Middle East, Indian Ocean, South Pacific and East Asia – have vociferously called for their full commitment to adhere to the principles of sustainable development in several international fora. Despite increased social investment in communications, infrastructure, energy and transport in these regions; Their vulnerability to commercial competition and the fragility of their natural bases of survival limit the scope of local and municipal governments.
The international context, traumatized by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, has made the ecological and socio-economic challenges of the atolls, islets and archipelagos that make up the island’s geography more complex. The material impacts caused by the restriction of the export of services and the collapse of the revenues generated by mass tourism have limited the capacities of the SIDS to import manufactured goods, to overcome the distances of the exhibiting markets of the trade exchange and to implement the facilities for the digital connectivity required.
According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Environmental Vulnerability Index, SIDS have consistently expended valuable resources in adapting their socioeconomic structures to climate change. Despite being home to less than one percent of the world’s population and producing one-two-thousandth of the planet’s CO2 emissions, island regions present significant uncertainty about the expected impact of global warming and consequent sea-level rise. Aside from the damage done to fisheries, aquaculture and tourism, greenhouse gases have threatened marine habitats and coastal infrastructure for what environmental experts estimate to be just a few decades.
Islanders have been clamoring on planetary stages for habitat security ever since the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 1992 — the famous Earth Summit — identified SIDS’ particular vulnerability to environmental problems and global trade shocks.
The island of St. Lucia has been recognized by UNEP for its environmental work. Photo: Pinbax Pictures.
This human concern for the survival of species in an increasingly unfavorable socio-ecological context was confirmed on the 15th. COP15 Conference on Biodiversity (Montreal, December 3-19, 2022). This high-level meeting identified the Emblematic Global Restoration Initiatives that aim to restore ecosystems to reverse the planetary crisis caused by climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution from waste accumulation.
In line with the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), these projects are designed to mitigate the degradation of natural spaces on Earth on a large scale and in the long-term. These restitution plans for terrestrial and marine ecosystems have been supported by the Inter-Agency Advisory Group on Small Island Developing States, which has been fully operational since the 1990s.
Faced with this ecological and geopolitical scenario, the inhabitants of the island nations will be able to aspire to a sustainable future for their territories, through civic and collective action beyond the neglect and denial of much of the international community.
The Republic of Vanuatu, along with other Pacific archipelagos, has been declared a climate emergency. Photos: Getty Images.