Papers 16

‘The demands for a small island developing state to participate actively in developing wise practices to cope with environmental issues are not just a part of the review of the Barbados Programme of Action, but a way of survival. In St Vincent and the Grenadines, students of the Bequia Community High School have practically taken the "bull by the horns" as they attacked some of the issues affecting them, as the inheritors of the society we have created for them.

We have held numerous classroom and informal discussions and have short-listed some of the issues, which include erosion, pollution, garbage disposal, teenage sexual problems (including incest), beach protection and access, and violence among youths. With a hands-on approach we have taken measures to address some of these problems, and have had public-awareness meetings on others in seeking the public's cooperation.

On the Park Bay area, students bent their backs and contoured the hillside overlooking the small beach that supports the Hawksbill Turtle Sanctuary. Erecting stone barriers and planting cactus reduced siltation from the runoff that was rapidly killing the coral reef. Salt-resistant grass and vines were planted to trap the sand and encourage dunes, and whelk and crabs were reintroduced to the reef to help control algae. The adjacent landowner has since learnt from us, and has constructed similar contours and planted grass, further reducing erosion. It is hoped that in twenty years some of the released turtles would have a beach on which to lay their eggs when they return. Students have attacked the growing problem of broken glass on the playing field, school compound, drains and beaches, by not only doing cleanups, but by undertaking a glass recycling programme. They have expanded this project to incorporate their families and their community. The school is now a drop-off point for unwanted bottles. These, our students break into small pieces and mix with cement and reinforced steel to produce park benches for their school yard and, soon, community areas. Some of the benches use logs salvaged from cleared building lots as seats and backs. The environment is now a safer place as a result of their efforts.

The beaches are our major concern as we take into account the need to keep them for posterity. User impact, access, erosion and accretion, debris and water quality have become our preoccupation as we utilize our spare moments, public holidays and afterschool hours, learning and exploring these areas. We have monitored the beaches since January 2000 and become resource persons on the issue of beach erosion and existing conditions on most of our beaches. It is no wonder that the Ministry of the Environment sometimes consults us. Among the environmentally conscious citizens, we are considered custodians of the beaches.

To name two recent examples, in July 2003 an unwise individual thought it fit to clear a section of our best beach of its trees, to afford a better view of the water. The phones rang off the hook to find out what we were doing to stop it, and indeed we did by calling the right authorities. Also in mid-September of 2003, a new foreign beachfront developer thought it best for his development and profiteering plans to bulldoze a section of another beach, and erected a seawall of huge boulders, and proposed building a jetty. The first channel for complaint was my home and the Sandwatch students. Meeting with the developers, fishermen, community activists, and several protest letters to the Physical Planning and Development Board and the highest ranks of Government has halted the project, with instructions to restore the beach to as near its former status as possible.

Our students take pleasure in conducting beach cleanups, as even the 6th graders understand that their pleasures and the economic well being of their families depend greatly on the marine environment for the tourist dollar. They also understand the importance of the unpolluted near-shore sea grass beds that serve as nurseries for marine organisms.

With this same enthusiasm, they don Scuba gear, armed only with piercing eyes and a camera to study the correlation between the coral reef, beaches and the survival of the dive tourism and fishing industry.

In August of 2003 we attended a meeting with the St Vincent and the Grenadines Hotel and Tourism authorities and have been given the opportunity to share our experiences on the Sandwatch programme and to interact on issues affecting tourism such as creating a safer environment for tourism and enforcing the laws in cases of harassment. Cooperation in policing the Admiralty Bay to make it safer was pledged by both sides.’ (Belmar 2003)

Young people generally are concerned about the world in which they live and their islands in particular. Environmental issues as described in the article above can mobilize youth.Throughout the Small Islands Voice initiative, it has been seen that young people are very proactive, certain of their capacity to effect positive change, and most of all willing and keen to take action. It is vital to maximize this potential. By contrast older members of society are slower to accept change and sometimes more comfortable with talking about the issues.

This is one area where activities are underway in many islands, as national, regional and Small Islands Voice initiatives. In the Cook Islands a system of Environmental Rangers and an Adopt-a-beach programme provides a framework for beach environmental activities. A similar Adopt-a-beach programme exists in the San Andres Archipelago where youth, public service and church groups adopt a length of coast or beach and carry out various activities to enhance and care for the site. Most of the islands involved in Small Islands Voice participate in an inter-regional Sandwatch project whereby school students conduct scientific monitoring of changes in beaches near to their schools and then work with their communities to enhance these beaches. This project has been operational since 2001 and is supported by UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network and the Coastal Regions and Small Islands platform.

An article on the global forum related to beach access in Tobago, where a private developer had restricted access to a public beach. The writer of the article proposed a ‘People’s Pocket Protest’ targeting the business activities of the developer:

This article on beach access resulted in a heated and emotional debate, with almost all respondents supporting the need to keep beach accesses open to all. Similar attempts to restrict beach access were presented from Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and Bequia. The need to consider such issues in an open framework was emphasized.

The students of Rakiraki High School in Fiji wrote about their water problems on the youth forum.

The provision of good quality, clean drinking water is one of the many environmental problems facing small islands as their populations grow and the numbers of visitors increase. Ironically, Fiji also has a booming export industry of bottled water, the famous ‘Fiji water’.

Young people from other islands responded to the students of Rakiraki with practical suggestions based on their own island experiences. Their responses emphasize the fact that the provision of safe, clean drinking water is a major problem for many small islands.

The subject of water was further discussed on the global forum following an article from St Vincent and the Grenadines discussing a proposal to export spring water. Examples of successful water bottling initiatives from Fiji and proposals for water bottling plants in Kosrae were discussed. Further examples of water woes were described:

Islanders did not see the water issue as a simple case of supply and demand, they were also concerned about wider issues such as the need to protect water sources and wetlands as well as to control logging operations, which in some islands have destroyed the rain forest and in so doing have affected local climate and rainfall. The disposal of plastic water containers in the limited landfill space available in small islands was another issue discussed.

The inadequacy of water distribution systems in many islands was noted and an innovative proposal put forward:

In many of the Pacific islands, water is not just a resource, but also has a spiritual meaning. For instance in Papua New Guinea:

This is one of the most serious problems facing many islands, and concerns solid, liquid and toxic waste. The disposal of solid waste was the environmental concern most often noted during the opinion surveys. But other types of waste also pose problems.

This article led to considerable debate about other methods that had worked in islands.

The students from Praslin Secondary School were not content to just discuss the issue on the internet forum.With the help of their teacher they organized an exchange visit with students from the Madhrasathul Ahmadhiyya School in Male, Maldives in January 2004, and then both schools worked on a joint ‘Zero tolerance for littering’ project.

Indeed young people can make a difference in this issue of littering. As part of their Sandwatch project activities, students aged 8–11 years from Dublanc Primary School in Dominica monitored the types of beach debris found on their beach. They then interviewed members of the community, some of whom admitted they left their litter on the beach. They then conducted a march through their village and stopped at areas where people were gathered such as the restaurant and the Health Centre to discuss their concerns. The next day community members voluntarily cleaned the beach (Hilton, 2003).

Disposal of other types of waste material has also been discussed with Small Islands Voice. Many islands in the Caribbean have been concerned and have made representations to various bodies including the United Nations about the shipment of toxic waste by France and Japan through the Caribbean Sea. Despite the concerns raised about the impacts of any potential accident, the shipments continue. Another interesting aspect of this problem relates to the disposal of toxic waste in small islands.

The environmental issues discussed in this chapter are just a selection from a long list of concerns, but their discussion serves to illustrate that there is a keen awareness about these matters in the general public’s mind. At least in a general sense, islanders are aware of the limited extent of their natural resources and therefore the need for careful and wise management. However, it is in the actual details of how to manage a specific resource where there is often disagreement.

The willingness of young people to tackle some of these environmental problems is also significant, and needs to be fully exploited in a way that their efforts provide lasting benefit. For instance, beach clean-ups need to be combined with long-term projects to try and change people’s attitudes to the disposal of litter, or else the young people may quickly become disheartened.

	Introduction	Activities	Publications	search
	Wise practices	Regions	Themes


	Through inter-regional initiatives such as Small Islands Voice and Sandwatch, beach measurement activities have spread from the Caribbean islands to Seychelles in the Indian Ocean (July 2003) and Palau in the Pacific (July 2002)

	Herman Belmar sitting on one of the park benches made by young people, using broken glass mixed with cement, and salvaged logs, Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, June 2003
	One of the activities of the Adopt-a-beach programme in the San Andres Archipelago is to keep the beaches clean and provide litter receptacles, South East Bay, Providencia, May 2003


Students from Seychelles visited their counterparts in the Maldives and developed a project on ‘Zero tolerance for littering’ (January 2004)