Photo credit: Mike Workman/Adobe Stock
From Fiji, where vast coral reefs teem with marine life, to the Comoros archipelago’s lush rainforests and volcanic terrain, the world’s Small Island Developing States are among the world’s most beautiful places.
They are also among the most vulnerable to pollution and the degradation of coastal and marine habitats, and to natural disasters and climate-linked emergencies.
Their tiny land masses and geographical remoteness make these nations highly import-dependent, while large seasonal influxes of tourists push their per-capita waste generation well above the global average: as much as 48 percent above, according to estimates.
Add to this limited disposal facilities and an increasing flood of plastic litter washing onto their shores from faraway lands, and the result is a growing accumulation of waste that threatens the health of inhabitants and the important and fragile ecosystems on which their livelihoods depend.
In recognition of the unique challenges they face, a flagship Global Environment Facility program is working to help 33 of these island nations arrest the upward spiral of pollution and build a cleaner and healthier future.
Implemented in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, Inter-American Development Bank, and UN Development Programme, the Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in SIDS – ISLANDS for short – has four broad aims:
- To prevent future build-up of chemicals in the target islands
- To safely manage and dispose of existing hazardous chemicals and materials
- To improve the management of hazardous materials throughout their lifecycle
- To promote the sharing of knowledge between communities, however far apart, so participating nations can learn from and inspire one another
The five-year program, which wraps up in 2027, will help island nations deal with dangerous chemicals, mercury, plastics, toxic pesticides, used oil, and end-of-life vehicles by strengthening regulation, improving infrastructure, promoting circular economy principles, and encouraging sustainable consumption and production.
ISLANDS includes five subsidiary projects: one each focused on the Atlantic, one on the Caribbean, one on the Indian Ocean, and one on the Pacific, plus a project to oversee global coordination, South-South learning and knowledge sharing.
The entire program is geared toward the singular needs of island states, where human, environmental, and economic health are more intertwined than anywhere else on the planet.
Preservation of natural beauty is of enormous economic importance to these countries, which depend upon tourism for jobs and growth. In 2023, the world’s small island states (excluding Singapore) derived 38 percent of export revenues from international tourism. In some countries, the percentage runs as high as 85 percent.
All that bounty, however, comes at a cost. High traveler inflows push up waste volumes in countries ill-equipped to cope. This is why partnerships with the private sector in industries such as tourism and shipping are a lynchpin of the program’s success.
The ISLANDS Waste-free Shipping Partnership, for instance, is working with shipping firms to enable target countries to ferry recyclables to distant facilities in empty containers. This will preserve limited landfill space and create opportunities for island-based recycling firms.
In the Dominican Republic, which is visited by more than 1 million cruise ship passengers each year, ISLANDS has teamed up with Carnival Cruise Lines to explore ways to improve plastic waste management in the industry.
Ambitious goals
By the program’s end, ISLANDS aims to have helped participating nations safely dispose of 119,599 metric tons of hazardous waste and 1,523.5 metric tons of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), stop 99.1 metric tons of mercury from entering the environment, 322,600 metric tons of litter pouring into the oceans, and eliminate 1,622.6 metric tons of chemicals of global concern.
The program’s work will benefit some 9.9 million people.
The initiatives that will underpin this success are as diverse as the islands themselves, and many have already made important advances.
Successes in the 14-nation Pacific child program – which encompasses the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu – include the 2023 launch of the Mercury Free Pacific Campaign and strong engagement by youth groups in Plastic Tide Turners Challenge activities.
The GEF-funded Tide Turners campaign is aimed at enlisting young people across the globe in the fight against plastic. In its inaugural on-the-ground event in the Pacific, held during International Coastal Clean-up Day in November 2024, more than 200 young people joined forces to clean up Samoan beaches.
In the Caribbean, a dozen nations – Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago – are working with ISLANDS to strengthen import rules, improve waste management and disposal, and identify opportunities in recycling and waste management. A unique initiative in this region, implemented by the IADB, BlueTech for Waste is working to build the expertise in the private sector to offer waste management solutions for difficult to manage wastes.
The three nations in the Atlantic project – Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome and Principe – are aiming to limit the inward flow of toxic chemicals and materials, improve waste collection, storage, and disposal, and encourage private sector innovation and investment in waste management.
Like many of their ISLANDS program peers, Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, and Seychelles – the four countries within the Indian Ocean child project – are both isolated and rely heavily on tourism for income, which makes the management and export of recyclables and toxic substances both complex and costly.
To help solve this conundrum, teams are working to strengthen regulations, build greener supply chains, and create national and regional waste management systems.
ISLANDS is already making a difference in the region.
The program played a key role in the formation of the Comoros Waste Management Alliance: a UNEP-UNDP partnership designed to help the archipelago tame its plastic pollution crisis. Its goal is to help tiny islands such as Mohéli, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where green turtles lay their eggs and humpback whales breed offshore, halt and reverse the overwhelming rise in plastic waste and litter.
At the center of the ISLANDS web sits the global coordination, communication, and knowledge management project. Through case studies, best practice guides, videos, and a podcast series, the global project will do all it can to the program’s 33 participant nations can profit from one another’s experiences in forging a low-waste future.
