Biodiversity-Based Development in Small Island Developing States

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are quite diverse in terms of various development metrics, but are uniformly vulnerable both to macroeconomic shocks and to changes in the biodiversity that supports fisheries and tourism. This special section assembles a set of papers that analyze international demand for the natural resources associated with the two sectors, and the factors that lie behind changes in their supply. Since each stresses the resource base, albeit in different ways, we argue that limits on tourist pressure will be as important as limits on allowable fish catches in the future. We identify the challenge for SIDS as the need to implement an integrated, sustainable resource management strategy that allows biological resources to be allocated to their highest valued uses, while respecting the interests of those with prior rights to those resources.