Meeting report

Thèmes abordés

Island Developing States - agriculture - environment - economy

Résumé du document

Monday 11 February, we organized a meeting on issues related to the development of Small
Island Developing States (SIDS). For this, a mayor organized the debate between people : scientists
(biologist, climatologist, environmentalist), teacher, tourist, businessman, fisherwoman, small and big
farmers, etc... Many topics were discussed, such as tourism, transport (infrastructure), agriculture,
education, environment (environmental impacts and climate change), economy (employement), etc...

At first, we talked about public transportation, that it's developed for tourists, but the price isn't adapted the local population. The route of transport corresponds to tourist sites and not to the place of
residence and work. Thus, tourism finance the transport network, but we have no tourism in all the
island. For this, we propose a label eco-tourism to develop the rest of the island in relation to the nature or work on farms in agritourism. But we said that tourists do not want to work during their vacation,
perhaps to discover the local people and customs.

Extraits

[...] Meeting Report Monday 11 February, we organized a meeting on issues related to the development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). For this, a mayor organized the debate between people : scientists (biologist, climatologist, environmentalist), teacher, tourist, businessman, fisherwoman, small and big farmers, etc . Many topics were discussed, such as tourism, transport (infrastructure), argiculture, education, environment (environmental impacts and climate change), economy (employement), etc . At first, we talked about public transportation, that it's developed for tourists, but the price isn't adapted to the local population. [...]

[...] The impacts of tourism, as tourists have more imprint on the environment than the local population, because of their lifestyle and their higher purchasing power. Further, in agriculture, we have many problems related to the water pollution by the land use, which creates conflicts with tourism activities because it requires water for tourists. Transports have also environmental impacts, especially in the land use (regional planning) and in the rejection of CO2. Through education is needed to raise awareness of their environment and important working tool to preserve them. [...]

[...] We also discussed about education, a major issue for the development of these islands with a large young population. Knowing that, these states have little income, we suggest that some programs, including those related to the environment, for example, supported by NGOs or by an aid program of the United Nations for example, because childrens work in the fields instead of going to school for to earn money. So, agritourism can solve this problem. We propose that tourists are working in farms : it's agritourism, especially in small farms for develop them. [...]