|
International
Meeting
for the 10-year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action,
Port Louis, Mauritius, 10-14th January 2005
With
the heading 'Small islands, big stakes' this conference opened
under the shadow of the 26th December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The
Mauritius
Declaration and the Mauritius
Strategy, the main outcomes from the meeting, reaffirm that
the Barbados Programme of Action, adopted a decade ago, remains
the "blueprint" for the sustainable development of small island
developing States. It elaborates on a wide variety of actions
under 20 broad headings, including climate change and sea-level
rise; natural and environmental disasters; management of wastes;
coastal and marine resources; freshwater resources; land resources;
energy resources; and globalization and trade liberalization.
The newly-agreed text indicates that small island developing States,
"believe that they are already experiencing major adverse effects
of climate change" and that adaptation to adverse impacts of climate
change and sea-level rise remains a major priority for them. It
also promotes increased energy efficiency and development and
use of renewable energy as a matter of priority, as well as advanced
and cleaner fossil fuel technologies.
A
parallel civil society
forum was convened by Centre for Documentation, Research and
Training on the South West Indian Ocean (CEDREFI), with support
from Small Islands Voice and other organizations, from 6-9th January
2005. Two hundred persons met to discuss their priority issues
and called on civil society and SIDS governments to work side
by side to further action in a number of areas. The main outcome
was the Declaration
of the Mauritius Civil Society Forum.
Ninety-four
youth from SIDS met for Youth Visioning
for Island Living from 7-12th January 2005 at Pointe aux Sables.
They focused on three main themes: Life and love in islands, My
island home, and Money in my pocket. Their declaration,
which was presented to the main governmental meeting, included
a list of specific actions that they committed themselves to implement
on return to their island homes.
Ms. Wendy
Barnet Rivas from Cuba, presenting the Youth Declaration
to the Main International Meeting, 12th January 2005
A
series of Small Islands Voice side
events featuring the different activities on the ground in
the individual islands and the internet forums was also held between
9-13th January 2005.
Among
the many documents distributed at the meetings, UNESCO's
Island Agenda 2004+ Coping with change and sustaining diversities
in small islands provides a series of 'snapshots' of the issues
islands face and the solutions being implemented.
|
