Mauritius was the first country in the world to ratify the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). As a small island development state (SIDS), it well knew of the risks all coastal areas faced from rising sea levels.

Now a new book, Saving Small Island Developing States: Environmental and Natural Resource Challenges, will help shed more light on monumental developmental and environmental issues the world must confront today.

“The stance of this book therefore is that when we address the issue of global climate change, we should work towards saving small islands states for they will be the first to show the benefits of policy and technological interventions and any adverse side-effects. Thus they can be a cost-effective laboratory for learning and doing, for achieving a sustainable world,” he added.

Work on the book began in 2007 with series of discussions with experts in environmental economics and management in universities in the UK, USA, Japan, India and Australia. Several of these experts contributed with their own chapters in the book.

“350-odd pages packed with conceptual and analytic information on how to approach environmental management. Perhaps this is one of the best publications of its kind; and its timeliness is appreciated,” he added.

“Perhaps a cocktail of regulation and market forces could curb the vicious cycle to environmental ruin; and — as this book attests — with their manageable human scale, SIDS could lead the way,” he underlined.

June 18, 2012
School of Business, Amritapuri