onsisting of tens of thousands of islands scattered over 30 million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean (an area roughly four times larger than the continental United States), Oceania encompasses Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, three culturally distinct groups of developing nations. Simply called “the Pacific.” by international development agencies, the region is often administratively grouped with Southeast Asia. But the most serious obstacles to sustainable development that exist in the 22 developing Oceanic nations stem from environmental and socioeconomic features quite distinct from those of continental Asian countries. Understandingthese differences is important, for how the environment is developed and managed in Oceania ultimately could significantly affect a major portion of the world’s marine resources. With a combined population of only six million people, the tiny developing nations of the Pacific face environmental problems of the same scale as those of very large nations. A complete discussion of specific environmental problems of developing Pacific nations may be found elsewhere ( I ) . They are summarized below to establish the context for a discussion of obstacles to sustainable development. Oceania’s problems The region’s numerous environmental problems can be roughly classified as those that can be effectively addressed domestically and those that require significant international or regional attention. The primary domestic concerns of the larger (typically Melanesian) countries arise from mining, deforestation, and agriculture, whereas the usual concerns of smaller nations (typically Micronesian and Polynesian) stem from inadequate fresh water resources, overcrowding, and poor sanitary conditions. Domestic concerns common to almost all island nations include management of solid and hazardous waste, contamination of fresh water, pollution of coastal waters, destruction of coral reefs and other special habitats, coastal erosion, overexploitation of marine resources, and sea level rise. Issues of international concern include radioactivity from weapons-testing programs, toxic and nuclear waste dumping, driftnet fishing, and climate change. National capabilities to address these problems while stimulating economic development are limited by traditional land management systems, unique population dynamics, the complexity and fragility of island ecosystems, narrow natural resource bases, heavy reliance on foreign aid, and geographic isolation. Land management systems Traditional systems of land ownership complicate environmental management and economic development efforts in the Pacific region. Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian land tenure systems feature hierarchies of land ownership rights from which social status is derived. Every person born into Pacific society inherits land rights: thus 30-50 people from all levels of society may have tenure to a given land parcel. Although high chiefs often have the power to persuade persons at lower levels in the land rights hierarchy, consensus decision making is required to approve any major land use change. Historically, the land tenure system was the lifeblood of a communal subsistence lifestyle, reinforcing a land management system whose taboos mandated the sus2286 Environ. Sci. Technol.. Voi. 27. No. 12, 1993
ii MARTHA J. CRAWFORD Howard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 tainable use of resources. Today, high rates of urbanization are weakening those taboos and mechanisms of control, and are rendering coastal resources increasingly vulnerable to overexploitation. Recent attempts to inboduce environmental regulations that would limit land use and control access to natural resources have been consistently challenged by landowners, who interpret any attempt to limit land rights as a challenge to their social status. Furthermore, efforts to establish nature parks have been stalled indefinitely by the customary requirement of consensus decision making. In summary, land management in the Pacific is complicated by traditional links between land rights and social status, which frustrate modern development and environmental protection efforts. Unique population dynamics Several unique population dynamics also constrain development and environmental protection efforts. High population growth rates, more than 3% per annum, exist throughout the region. National budgets are strained by the ever increasing social, health, and education needs of the young population. Environmental management needs often go unmet because of lack of funds. For instance, it has been conservatively estimated that more than 70% of the human sewage in the Children frolicking on Pohnpei Island, Fedemted States of Micronesia ~013-936w93/0927-2286504.00/0 0 1993 American Chemical Sociely
Pacific islands finds its way into coastal waters without prior treatment (2). The second unique aspect of Oceania’s population is that, with less than 2% of its area composed of dry land, population densities are quite high. Regionally, the average population density is 350 people per square kilometer, but densities as high as 50,000 people per square kilometer occur in some Micronesian urban areas. Such crowding overburdens natural systems and fosters sanitary and social problems. Third, because 50% of the region’s population is under the age of 18, Pacific work forces and markets are relatively small; this prevents the development of economies of scale and ensures the chronic shortage of skilled human resources needed for development and environmental protection efforts. Fourth, a high rate of emigration to foreign countries results in a “brain drain.” In the Marshall Islands, 50-6036 of the urban population aged 19 to 24 is unemployed, and lack of economic opportunity is often cited as the primary reason young people educated abroad choose not to return. In the cases of American Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, and Wallis and Futuna, similar situations have resulted in larger populations of islanders living abroad than incountry. Although remittances from these populations are considerable, they do little to enhance economic growth a n d mainly strengthen the cash economy, which encourages the overexploitation of
natural resources by displacing traditional management systems.
Linkages between ecosystems There are intricate links between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Rapid population growth leads to a shortage of land sites suitable for agriculture, waste disposal, and human settlement, which increases pressure on the coastal zone. Even the largest Melanesian islands have limited areas suitable for development because interior mountains are often steep and infested with malaria. Because many natural processes converge and interact in the coastal zone, even small-scale development activities there can affect the environment on a large scale. For example, Tongatapu, Tonga, has experienced severe coastal erosion as a result of dredging for construction materials during the past decade. Majuro, Marshall Islands, has experienced severe eutrophication of lagoon waters and coral reef death following construction of an interisland road, whose causeways prevent coastal currents from flushing the lagoon. Complex interactions of natural processes in the relatively small area of the coastal zone may render common management methods ineffective. For example, a watershed management approach used successfully in continental nations would be inadequate in atoll nations, whose fresh water lenses may change shape and location because of coastal erosion, wave overtopping, and storm activity. The concentration of human activiEnviron. Sci. Technol.. Vol. 27. No. 12. 1993 2267
ties in the coastal zone prompts the need to clearly define priorities and acceptable tradeoffs.
An ecologically fragile area Island ecosystems are fragile and feature many critical habitats, including coral reefs, mangrove swamps, sea grass beds, bird rookeries, and sea turtle hatcheries. Major threats to these systems include overexploitation caused by poor management and destruction caused by storms or sea level rise. Oceania is home to 77,000 square kilometers (roughly 25%) of the world's coral reefs (3).These reefs support subsistence fisheries, and their health may be critical to productivity of offshore fisheries. Coral reefs are threatened region-wide by dredging, quarrying, pollution, and the use of explosives and chemicals in fishing. Mangrove areas, important habitats for fish larvae and prawns, are used as dump sites for household and industrial wastes. In Fiji, mangrove swamps have been drained and reclaimed for conversion to sugarcane and rice cropping.
All of the world's endangered species of sea turtles occur in the Pacific, and some of the world's most important hatcheries are located in the region (4). Sea turtles are threatened by accidental capture in fishing nets, the collection of eggs, and the hunting of adults for human consumption. Important sea bird rookeries in the region are increasingly threatened by the encroachment of human settlements. Island nations seeking to develop fisheries and tourism sectors face the challenge of developing management plans that minimize impacts on these sensitive habitats and make contingencies for the effects of sea level rise and severe storms. Natural resource bases Narrow natural resource bases force island nations to depend primarily on one or two sectors for economic development. This renders national economies particularly vulnerable to international market fluctuations and encourages overexploitation of natural resources. Nearly 40% of the world catch of
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tuna, the second most important commercial fishery in the world today (after shrimp-prawns), is taken in the central and western Pacific (5).Exploitation of this and other resources in the marine sector is the primary target of Pacific island nations, because land-based resources are generally limited. Distribution of the land area in the region is uneven: 95% of the total land area is in Melanesia, 4.5% in Polynesia, and 0.5% in Micronesia. At one extreme, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a large Melanesian country of mountainous islands with land areas of 450,000km2and a national population of 3.6 million. Relatively richly endowed with minerals, fertile land, timber, and marine resources, PNG is nonetheless heavily dependent on a few natural-resource-based exports. At the other extreme, Tuvalu, a Micronesian country of coral atolls, has a total land area of only 26 kmz and a national population of under 10,000. Constrained by poor soils and limited freshwater resources, Tuvalu is totally dependent on its marine resources. Despite the dif-
ferences between these two nations, to varying degrees they are both highly vulnerable to the overexploitation of key natural resources.
workforce employed by governments (7),aid monies often serve simply as government transfers, instead of being used to stimulate real economic development. In short, the region’s continued dependency on foreign aid is rendering selfsufficiency a less and less attainable goal by replacing subsistence lifestyles, which once ensured sustainable management of resources, with unsustainable cash economies.
Reliance on foreign aid Despite receiving the highest level of per capita foreign aid in the world, the post-colonial Pacific has experienced overall economic stagnation. Many Pacific nations have reported healthy GDP growth rates during the past two decades, and regional exports increased from U S . $0.2 billion in 1970 to $2 billion in 1988 (6);even so, trade imbalances have widened and economies still depend on infusions of foreign capital. Besides a few Melanesian countries with significant mineral deposits, most Pacific nations export relatively low-value natural resource-based products such as sugar, fish, cocoa, taro, copra, and beef. Domestic populations increasingly demand relatively high-value manufactured products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and cars, so trade deficits have increased. Furthermore, with more than 50% of the region’s formal
I
Geographic isolation Geographic isolation is a major obstacle to the sustainable development of Pacific island nations. Because access to world markets is limited by distance and cost of shipping, geographic isolation impedes economic development. Isolation of islands within a country creates logistical difficulties for development and environmental management projects and encourages urbanization. Whereas it might be fairly simple and inexpensive to supply toilet facilities to 50,000 people living in one area, it is difficult and costly if they must be delivered to 30 islands separated by thousands of miles. In addition, inefficient marine transport gridlocks domestic markets. thus creatine nressures that encourage urbanization and indirectly contribute to a plethora of environmental problems. For example, in the Marshall Islands, where two-thirds of the population lives in urban areas and most environmental problems stem from urbanization, inefficient domestic shipping blocks the access of people living on the outer islands to basic amenities such as soap, flour, and sugar. This increases the lure of government jobs in one of the urban areas and ultimately augments overcrowding and sanitation problems. Coastal zone management It is ironic that the Pacific was sustainably developed before European contact, millennia before the words “sustainable” and “development” became joined. For nearly 3000 years, people subsisted in Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. However, life was harsh, and some aspects of that society-enforced birth control and infanticide, the tyranny of chiefs, endurance of famines-would not be tolerated by modern societies. Leading subsistence lifestyles, Pacific peoples were closely linked to the environment. The continuation of society depended on the wise use of resources, and strictly enforced
taboos and hunting seasons ensured sustainable use. To a large extent, aspects of life in the modern Pacific that are unsustainable have sprung from the advent of a cash economy, the extension of life spans by the introduction of Western-style health care, and resource exploitation. Rapid population growth and the ability to exploit resources on a large scale for immediate financial gain have displaced the Pacific from its sustainable roots. But there is no going back. Today, Pacific nations face the challenge of integrating traditional and modern knowledge to formulate a system of environmental management that addresses the ecological intricacies of the coastal zone and the complexities of modern environmental problems. Indeed, the development of a system of “integrated coastal zone management” has been hailed by agencies as diverse as the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the best framework for sustainable development of the island nations. Recent widespread interest in sea level rise has resulted in international funding being made available for coastal management planning. Institutions that might assist in such an effort exist at the national, regional, and international levels. Most of the 22 developing Pacific nations have a national government body responsible for at least rudimentary environmental protection. At the regional level, environmental protection is coordinated by the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, a nongovernmental organization whose members include the 22 developing Pacific nations, Australia, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the United Nations, the Alliance of Small Island States, whose 36 member nations are located in all of the world’s oceans, unites island nations on issues relating to sea level rise and has consistently supported efforts to initiate coastal zone management in island nations. Overall, the level of institutional readiness to undertake coastal management efforts is encouraging. but it does not ensure success. Ultimately, sustainable development of Pacific island nations can be achieved only through coastal management programs that are fully integrated with national planning efforts and land tenure systems, and that address the special obstacles to sustainable development discussed I
I.
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above. Funding and technical assistance from international organizations can be effective only if efforts are led and coordinated in-country. And the participation of local populations in coastal management efforts can be ensured only if traditional leaders are involved and fully supportive. Environmental problems arising from modern activities such as dredging, mining, and large-scale fishing require modern, innovative solutions. Although it is important to recognize the traditional roots of sustainable development in the Pacific and to build on them whenever possible, it is unrealistic to expect modern societies to go back to traditional regimes. Although formidable, the ohstacles to sustainable development discussed above can be overcome. Ongoing efforts to reduce population growth rates and mitigate urbanization: to inventory and understand biodiversity: and to agree on t h e management of important, highly migratory fisheries are encouraging. Ultimately, however, reestablishing sustainable societies in
the Pacific will require new coastal management methods that integrate traditional and modern knowledge and involve local peoples.
References (1) "Strengthening Environment Man-
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
agement Capabilities in Pacific Island Developing Countries (Final Report of Regional Technical Assistance 5403)": South Pacific Regional Environment Program: Apia, Western Samoa. 1993. Fauvao. V. Areas of Environmentol Concern in the South Pacific Region: South Pacific Regional Environment Program: Apia, Western Samoa. 1990. "State of the Environment in Asia and the Pacific": UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific: Bangkok. 1990: ST/ESCAP/917. Thomas, P.. Ed. "Report of the Northern Marshall Islands Natural Diversity and Protected Area Survey, 7-24 September, 1988": South Pacific Regional Environment Program (Apia. Western Samoa) and East-West Center (Mama. HI). 1989. Marine Fisheries Production in the Asia-Pacific Region; Food and Agriculture Organization: Bangkok, 1989. Industrial Restructuring in Asia and the Pacific: In Particulor with (I View to Strengthening Regional Cooperation: UN Economic and Social Com-
BIOREMEDIATION 02/C02 Respirometer
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mission for Asia and the Pacific: Bangkok. 1991. (71 Environmental Development: A Pocific lslond Perspective; South Pacific Regional Environment Program: Apia. Western Samoa. 1991.
\leasures 0,and C 0 2 conrumption/protluctionin 1 IO 80 rncasuring charnbcrs using a sin@ set of sensors
(periodically measures headspace gas concenwtions).
I Temperature of samples can vary during experiment. I Allows removal of sample substance from inside of the chambers during experiment. 3 Superior sensitivity 0.2pIh Important for low level biological activity. 3 Measuring chambers can be user's own, 501111to 10 L. 3 Real time graphics, fully computerized. 3 Measures both liquids or solids. 3 Programmable air refresh, 24 hour operation.
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Martha 1. Crowford is o .Vational Science Foundation F'rllow in the Division of Applied Sciences, Horvord Univer-
sity. She is enrolled in a Ph.D. environmental engineering program and is foc u s i n g on p o l l u t i o n c o n t r o l a n d management of the coastal zone. Previously she lived in the Marshall Islands, where she worked os consultant to the general manager of the national Environmental Protection Authority. Crawford hos traveled widely in the Pacific and has participated in numerous international conferences concerning coastal zone management in small island states.
