It is time to rethink the term ‘SIDS’?
The countries known as Small Island Developing States are stewards of very large territories of ocean, playing an important role safeguarding vast ocean areas.
The vulnerability of many island states to severe weather, sea level rise, and other impacts of climate is significant and growing, but this is not the only reason they are a priority for Global Environment Facility investment, according to GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.
“For many years, we have had the wrong focus on SIDS as small island states. These are large oceanic states. There is enormous potential in investing in these territories for the good of the global environment,” he said during a recent visit to Antigua and Barbuda.
In total, small island developing states own and manage as much as 30 percent of the world’s oceans through their exclusive economic zones, which is on average 28 times their land area.
Take the Seychelles. The African island nation has a land area of 455 square kilometers and an exclusive economic zone in the Indian Ocean of 1.4 million square kilometers, which is larger than the size of the Indian Subcontinent.
“Our ocean territory is not twice, three times, or 10 times the size of our islands. It's 3,000 times bigger than our islands,” said Ronny Jumeau, the Seychelles’ roving ambassador for climate change and Small Island Developing State issues. “We are large ocean states. I don't like the term ‘large ocean states’ because the acronym is LOS (“loss”). I like ‘big ocean states,’ where the acronym is BOS (“boss”),” he said.
The term is fitting for the small country that has proved a leading innovator for financial market solutions for nature. In 2018, the Seychelles launched the first sovereign blue bond with GEF support, creating a new avenue for supporting sustainable marine and fisheries projects with a combination of public and private funding. The $15 million blue bond led to the establishment of the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust, which issues grants to advance local marine conservation and sustainable fisheries projects.
“You never know what can come out of SIDS. The Global Environment Facility knows this well. The blue bond was the first sovereign blue bundle. It was a small bond, which we did together with the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. Since then, blue bonds have taken off,” Jumeau said. “One of the good things about SIDS, and the GEF has understood it and others have understood it, is that we can pioneer solutions, find ways forward. The fact that other countries much bigger than Seychelles, other economies bigger than Seychelles, are now going ‘the Seychelles way’ shows that they have found value in examples from us.”
Seychellois fisherman with nets. Photo credit: The Ocean Agency/Adobe Stock
Kate Brown is Executive Director of the Global Island Partnership, a platform that enables island leaders and their supporters to build resilient and sustainable communities. She stressed the outsized role that small islands play for the health of the planet as well as the innovative solutions that incubate in these contexts.
“Islanders understand the connection between the land and the sea, that what you do on land impacts the ocean and vice versa. This is why a lot of them have these solutions that they can really share with the world once we enable that to happen,” Brown said, welcoming the change of thinking about the role and potential of small islands on the world stage. “I think there's more recognition that islands are solution makers – that islands need help, but they don't need to be patronized,” she said.
Significant momentum for island resilience also comes from civil society – including community organizations, Indigenous groups, women’s associations, and youth advocates.
The Adopt-A-Coastline project was one of the winners of the GEF Inclusive Assembly Challenge Program, winning seed funding for projects in Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis.
“One of the things that I'm grateful for from the GEF is the passion it has for bringing CSOs, youth, and women together in a collaborative approach with the government,” said Katherine Byles, the winning project’s director, explaining the big difference this support can make for those wanting to help at a grassroots level. “If you're called to stand up for the coastlines or called to stand up for the mountains or whatever it is that you're passionate about, then it's up to you to lead on that and not wait for the government.”
To date, the GEF has invested more than $3.2 billion in over 1,000 environmental initiatives in Small Island Developing States. These programs and projects have spanned 38 island countries, eight of which are also classified as Least Developed Countries. They include national, regional, and global efforts related to sustainable use and management of natural resources, improved management of chemicals and waste, and reduction of pollution, climate change, ocean health, and more.
Diver checking on restored coral in the Dominican Republic under the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund's Coral Restoration Project. Photo credit: Tanja Lieuw/Caribbean Biodiversity Fund
For example, the new Blue Green Islands Integrated Program is also supporting countries such as Belize, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Cuba, Maldives, Mauritius, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Timor Leste, Trinidad & Tobago, and Vanuatu to apply the value of nature to policy and investment decisions in key sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and cities.
Rodríguez said that while SIDS were long considered “the voice of conscience” in environmental negotiations, because of their large exposure to the risks of climate change in spite of minimal carbon footprints, they are now playing an increasingly larger role reflecting the importance of their vital work as managers of marine protected areas and ocean ecosystems.
“The GEF has been working for three decades to help countries create systems of protected areas, which in turn lead to new economies around the services that protected areas and their ecosystems provide,” Rodríguez said. “We are committed to continuing to invest in and partner with small island states to develop innovative, integrated solutions to climate change adaptation, safeguarding critical biodiversity, address chemical pollution, post-consumer waste, and other challenges that are relevant to countries of all sizes and geographies.”
One such example is the ISLANDS Program, which stands for Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in Small Island Developing States. This initiative connects 33 SIDS across the Atlantic, Caribbean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, which share challenges around the use and disposal of dangerous chemicals. This includes toxins regulated by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Minamata Convention on Mercury, as well as end-of-life issues for vehicles, electronics, and PVC material used in islands. This program will support SIDS to begin the transition to zero-waste, pollution free economies.
Karen McDonald Gayle, CEO of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, said collaboration between island states has also been helpful to incubate ideas about how to build and finance a blue economy, and turn concepts like “blue carbon” into real opportunities. The GEF is working with the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund and other national conservation trust funds worldwide to create paths for long-term investment and design projects aimed at global environmental goals.
