Saint Helena: Sustainable Development and Conservation of a Highly Degraded Island Ecosystem

Abstract

Small islands, such as St Helena, provide special challenges for economic development and environmental management. They are often characterised by high levels of environmental degradation and species extinction (Smith et al. 1993) and relatively high levels of social poverty. Their isolation, size, social and settlement history, restricted suite of natural resources, and vulnerability to the external influences of larger economies endow them with special problems (Kristoferson et al. 1985; Towle 1985). Patterns of environmental and economic degradation are of increasing concern in many island systems. For example, both in the Caribbean, and the US Pacific Territories, a post-war decline in agriculture has resulted from large and persistent wage discrepancies encouraging movement of labour from agriculture to tourism (McElroy and de Albuquerque 1990). Underpinning these recent economic changes are long histories of environmental degradation. This is not a recent syndrome; archaeological evidence suggests that some Pacific islands, notably Isla de Pascua, underwent environmental degradation as long ago as 1200 to 800 B.R (Flenley et al. 1991). In the Caribbean (Watts 1987), Atlantic Islands (Roberts 1989) and Mascarenes (Gade 1985; Cheke 1987), a pattern of massive environmental degradation dates back to European colonial settlement and extensive natural resource exploitation with subsequent development of fragile plantation based economies (Brookfield 1958).