The objective of this thesis was to establish how, in an emerging era of sinking islands andincreasing environmental degradation, ideas concerning climate justice have been developedin pacific small island states. These ideas have been analysed from a framework of southernand justice theory and, hence, been put in comparison to the global framework of climatejustice and the notion that sovereign states, no matter location or historical circumstances, areleft alone to deal with the worst effects of climate change.The research questions used to achieve the objective were: what ideas of climate justiceare produced in Kiribati, Fiji and the Maldives; in what way do these ideas affect their local adaptation strategies and how can these ideas be understood in light of southern theory? Thedata consisted of three national policies from the countries of interest in this thesis – Kiribati,Fiji and the Maldives – and manifest each country’s approach to dealing with the impacts of achanging climate and, especially, rising seas. These were analysed through a qualitativecontent analysis where an abductive approach was used to establish the themes that guided theanalysis. The result was that ideas of climate justice in the three countries are affected by thechanging tides, both by nature and the international community, but differ depending onnational leadership. It was also found that the adaptation strategies, while being nationalpolicies, all emphasise the need for international solidarity if being able to solve the issue ofdisappearing islands. This is something that has yet to take place within the global frameworkof climate change, where the global North do not want to acknowledge any responsibility forthe fate of small island states but rather aids affected countries based on goodwill and not oflaw.

Coastal areas in Grenada and the Caribbean are experiencing an abundance of stranded macroalgae. Climate change and eutrophication are probable causes of this inconvenience. This leads to logistic and economic dilemmas for the Caribbean societies. Research of methods to benefit from the algal bloom is therefore valuable for a sustainable future in these countries. Studies of biogas and fertilizer production are initiated around the world, but a large scale production is absent. Therefore, this thesis scrutinize the requirements for producing biofertilizer from biogas by examine the content of macroalgae and the conditions in Grenada. To achieve this, a literature study and a miniature biogas experiment were conducted. Grenada would presumably benefit from substituting synthetic fertilizer with biofertilizer from macroalgae utilized in biogas production. The positive aspects includes the recirculation of nutrients, development of renewable energy and autonomous fertilizer production. Further research of the definite macroalgae content is essential to determine the exact extent and conditions of the fertilizer utilization. / Kustområden i Grenada och Karibien är drabbat av större mängder strandade makroalger. Klimatförändringar och övergödning är de huvudsakliga orsakerna till denna olägenhet. Detta leder till logistiska och ekonomiska problem för samhällen i Karibien. Det är därför av värde att forska på metoder för att försöka nyttja algblomningen, för en hållbar framtid i dessa länder. Studier på biogasproduktion och gödselmedelstillverkning av makroalger har utvecklats på senare tid, men en storskalig produktion är fortfarande frånvarande. Därför ska denna avhandling granska kriterierna för att använda biogödsel från biogasproduktion genom att undersöka makroalgernas innehåll, och Grenadas förutsättningar för att genomföra detta. För att uppnå detta så har en litteraturstudie och ett mindre biogasexperiment genomförts. Grenada skulle förmodligen dra fördel av att byta ut syntetiskt gödningsmedel med biogödningsmedel från biogasproduktion med makroalger. De positiva aspekterna av detta är recirkulationen av näringsämnen, etablering av förnyelsebara energikällor, samt självständig gödselproduktion. Vidare forskning på det exakta innehållet i makroalger är väsentligt för att kunna bestämma utsträckningen och förhållandena för gödselmedelsanvändningen.

This thesis examines Antiguan narratives’ peculiar engagements with the national question. It draws largely upon the works of four writers—Jamaica Kincaid, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Marie-Elena John and Frieda Cassin—and selected calypsonians including Antigua’s leading female and male calypsonians, Queen Ivena and King Short Shirt. It reads anxiety as the chief organising principle of the singular deconstructions of gender, ‘racial’, ethnic, and class identities undertaken by these texts. I offer a retooled account of anxiety that elaborates the local/regional concept of bad-mindedness informing the core of the narratives’ deconstructive and recuperative projects. Chapter one probes the bad-minded delimiting of Antiguan literary production. It interrogates the singular cohesive Caribbean canon typically suggested by critical readings, which obscure the narratives/ literary traditions of smaller territories such as Antigua. It also highlights locally produced canons’ intervention into the dominant canons/maps of Caribbean literary traditions. Its discussion is underpinned by the concept of bad-mindedness which I use to frame the evils that locate the smaller territory and its inhabitants at the cultural periphery. Chapter two examines the texts’ enunciations of the bad-mindedness inherent in the construction of the composite gendered identities of 19^th century Creole women, 20^th century working-class Afro-Antiguan women and men, and 20^th century proletarian Carib women. It refashions Erna Brodber’s kumbla trope, Kenneth Ramchand’s notion of terrified consciousness, and Jamaica Kincaid’s line trope to elaborate these enunciations. Chapter three examines Antiguan calypsos’ record of the peculiar responses of small-islanders to their subordinate position within the ‘global village’ and continuing entanglement in British colonialism and neo-colonial relationships and processes. It draws upon Charles Mill’s theory of smadditization/ smadditizin’ or the Afro-Caribbean struggle for recognition of personhood and Paget Henry’s account of the dependency theory to analyse the calypsos’ anxious insistence upon Afro-Antiguan personhood. The primary conclusion of my thesis is that an engagement with the neglected literary traditions of the smaller territories and national literatures on the whole, is likely to excavate a cornucopia of currently sidelined experiences, issues, and transnational relationships which can only serve to enrich our postcolonial conversations.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean are one of the world’s ‘hottest’ ‘biodiversity hotspots’. However, this biodiversity continues to be threatened by habitat loss, and now, by climate change. The research reported here investigated the potential of species distribution modelling (SDM) as a plant conservation tool within Caribbean SIDS, using Trinidad as a case study. Prior to the application of SDM, ancillary analyses including: (i) quantification and mapping of forest cover change (1969 to 2007) and deforestation rates, and (ii) assessment of the island’s vegetation community distribution and associated drivers were carried out. Community distribution and commercial importance and global/regional rarity were used to generate a list of species for assessing the potential of SDM within Trinidad. Species occurrence data were used to generate species distribution models for present climate conditions within the SDM algorithm, MaxEnt. These results were assessed through expert appraisal and concurrence with results of ecological analyses. These models were used to forecast suitable species climate space forty years into an SRES A2 future. Present and future models were then combined to produce a ‘collective change map’ which showed projected areas of species’ range expansion, contraction or stability for this group of species with respect to Trinidad’s Protected Areas (PAs) network. Despite the models being indicative rather than accurate, it was concluded that species’ climate space is likely to decrease or disappear across Trinidad. Extended beyond Trinidad into the remainder of the Caribbean region, SDM may be a crucial tool in identifying which PAs within the region (and not individual islands) will facilitate future survival of given target species. Consideration of species conservation from a regional, rather than an individual island perspective, is strongly recommended for aiding the Caribbean SIDS to adapt in response to climate change.

ABSTRACT The cost of doing nothing would be very high on the fragile national ecosystems andultimately on the society of the Seychelles. ’Seychelles National Report 2012 p55 This Minor Field Study, undertaken as a Bachelor’s thesis, aims to research the Seychelleswork with sustainable tourism development and its challenges. The study was conducted onsite for two months in cooperation with the Seychelles Tourism Board. The national strategyfor sustainable tourism development is intended to maintain the uniqueness of Seychelles.Seychelles has for over 30 years been a global leader in protecting biodiversity and naturalenvironment and 51 % of the total land area consists of conservation areas. On the otherhand, Seychelles main source of income is tourism, with 40 % of the inhabitants directly orindirectly depending on tourism. As one of our interviewees put it: “the more tourism, themerrier”. The country will get better infrastructure and more jobs because of it and howcould that spoil the environment? This study looks into hotels perceptions of sustainabledevelopment in the tourism industry, their work with sustainable practices and thoughtsconcerning ecolabelling. Results show dissatisfaction with the government and that betterenvironmental governance is needed. The recent rapid development of new hotels isbecoming a rather problematic situation due to higher competition, infrastructural problemsand lack of labour force. The interest in an eco label is high, although they believe it iscomplicated to implement and is perceived as expensive. On the other hand, hotels are moreor less working in a sustainable way already.Regardless of the sustainable tourism development initiative, our interviewees had afear that Seychelles is becoming a mass tourism destination. They demand that this trend bestopped. We ask therefore, is more really merrier?

Certains Etats pratiquent la libre immatriculation, également connue sous le terme péjoratif de « pavillons de complaisance » : ils enregistrent des navires chez eux sans considération de la nationalité ou de la résidence effective des propriétaires, et leur permettent ainsi d’échapper au cadre légal de leur pays d’origine. Aspect de la mondialisation, le phénomène qui a pris de l’ampleur dans les 30 dernières années est aujourd’hui largement répandu, voire universel.Au-delà des aspects juridiques (chaque Etat organise son droit à immatriculer les navires), la libre immatriculation a des conséquences économiques fortes car la législation de l’Etat d’immatriculation – dit « Etat du pavillon » – détermine certains coûts ou certaines facilités pour l’entreprise qui l’adopte.Le présent travail propose une lecture de la libre immatriculation des navires en tant qu’objet récent de la science économique et tente, à ce titre, de lever le voile sur la portée de cette activité sur les pays d’accueil, en prenant le cadre restreint de petites économies insulaires de la Caraïbe, berceau historique de cette activité et des centres financiers offshore.Sur la base de données économiques sur 30 ans concernant 7 pays de libre immatriculation de la Caraïbe (produits intérieurs bruts et éléments des balances des paiements), la recherche menée montre qu’hormis peut-être le cas à approfondir d’Antigua, aucune corrélation significative n’existe entre le nombre de navires immatriculés et les gains économiques dans les pays d’accueil. Ces résultats vont dans le sens des critiques de la libre immatriculation : cette activité ne présente pas, en soi, un gain pour les petites économies insulaires étudiées. / Some States host Open Registers (also known under the pejorative term of “flags of convenience”): ships are registered regardless of their actual owners’ nationality or residence, and thus States enable them to escape from their country of origin’s legal framework. By being an aspect of globalization, this phenomenon has been growing up for 30 years, and is nowadays widespread, or even universal. Because each State fixes the conditions for implementation of its right to register ships, the phenomenon is a legal one. But it has strong economic implications too. Indeed, the laws of the State of registration – namely “flag state” – determine certain costs or some advantages for the company that adopts it, and can be attractive or repellent as for them.This work proposes an economic reading of the open registers of ships as a recent object of economics and tries to highlight the contribution of this activity to small islands’ economies, especially through some Caribbean examples (the Caribbean is by the way the historical cradle of this activity and offshore financial centres).Based on data concerning the last 30 years and 7 open-registry countries of the Caribbean (Gross Domestic Products and some items of the balances of payments), the research conducted here shows that, except perhaps Antigua, no significant correlation exists in host countries between the fleets registered and the economic gains : the “open registration” is not, by itself, a gain for small island economies surveyed.

Dans un contexte qualifié d’ « économie du savoir », où la croissance de l’économie mondiale repose de plus en plus sur les activités intensives en connaissance, la thèse s’interroge sur la capacité de deux petits États insulaires en développement – Maurice et Trinidad – à s’adapter pour s'intégrer à cette dynamique. Ces anciennes colonies britanniques, membres du Commonwealth depuis leur accession à l'indépendance dans les années soixante, font état d’indicateurs de développement en constante progression et sont souvent considérées comme des modèles de réussite économique. La thèse étudie la mise en place des institutions dans ces pays et cherche à évaluer dans quelle mesure l’héritage de la période coloniale, à travers la trace qu'ils en conservent dans la période contemporaine, peut faciliter la transition de leurs économies vers les secteurs intensifs en savoir. Pour ce faire, elle retrace leur trajectoire de développement institutionnel et économique des origines jusqu’à nos jours et elle s’intéresse notamment aux mesures prises aujourd’hui pour doter le pays du cadre nécessaire à l’économie de la connaissance, en particulier à travers le rôle de l’enseignement supérieur en tant qu’outil fondamental pour former le capital humain. Tout en reconnaissant que certains des atouts dont disposent les deux pays pour s’engager dans ce processus avec succès peuvent être mis en relation avec leur passé colonial, la thèse approfondit l’hypothèse que leur transformation en économies de la connaissance risque aussi d'être entravée par des caractéristiques héritées de cette période et qui, des décennies après l'accession à l'indépendance, freinent une large diffusion de la connaissance au sein de leur population. / At a time when economic growth is thought to be driven primarily by knowledge, the purpose of this research is to analyse to what extent two Small Island Developing States – Mauritius and Trinidad – are adequately equipped for this new economic context. As former British colonies, they both joined the Commonwealth upon gaining independence in the nineteen-sixties and they have since largely succeeded in overcoming their initially unfavourable conditions. Today, their good political, economic and social development is widely acknowledged. The main focus of this research is to evaluate how far colonial legacy, which is still visible in the contemporary institutions of both these states, can favour the transition they wish to undertake towards knowledge-intensive activities as drivers of economic growth. For this purpose, the research analyses the development trajectory followed by their institutions and their economy spanning the whole period of their colonial and post-independence history; additionally, this research considers the steps which are undertaken nowadays to build the framework required to foster a knowledge economy by studying more specifically the role of higher education as an essential tool for human capital formation. While upholding that some of the assets which could help them achieve their objectives can be linked to their colonial past, the research contends that the transformation of these two countries into knowledge-based economies could be hindered by the legacy of colonisation on some of their current features and which, decades after gaining independence, impedes the widespread diffusion of knowledge amongst their population.

The purpose of this study was to explore the socio-cultural impacts of cruise ship tourism on Port Vila residents and their coping strategies. The study was conducted in Port Vila over the months of June and July 2006. It employs the use of a qualitative research methodology, of participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with a range of tourism stakeholders, including the government, the church and chiefs, as well as a number of small businesses such as public transport operators, small indigenous tour operators and market vendors. These observations and interviews were conducted at the Mama’s Haus project, Centre Point Market Place, and the main wharf area. This thesis was initially aimed at exploring the strategies that the residents of Port Vila used to cope with the impacts caused by cruise ship tourism. As the research progressed, it become apparent from primary data collected that market vendors have not just adapted to the impacts of cruise ship tourism, but that the consequences of their adaptation may be seen as empowering them. They are empowered not just economically, but also psychologically, socially and politically. However, it must be acknowledged that not all small tourist operators in this study felt positively about the impacts of cruise ship tourism; some may be seen as being disempowered. Furthermore, the empowerment of these market vendors is dependent on the continuous flow of cruise ship visits to Port Vila; something beyond their control. The cancellation of future trips or decrease in the number of cruise ship voyages will have significant consequences for the sustainability of this informal sector and the longevity of these micro-enterprises. The study finding implies that coping strategies should not just address how residents and communities cope or respond to tourism, but should also go further by addressing the consequences of the coping strategies adopted.