A Fresh Consideration of Development Strategies for Smaller Island States and Territories - Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Pacific Region - page 56

territories do not just provide scenarios of very high population density - with
places like Bermuda, Malta and Singapore topping the list - but they also provide
examples of land areas with very low population density, as well as the only
examples of completely de/unpopulated, geographically discrete areas on the globe.
“'Uninhabited' is a word attached only to islands” (Birkett 1997 : 14). These locales
are attractive and have their own value, one that exploits their often unique natural
qualities and apparent 'underdevelopment', for the purpose of more sustainable
living, exclusive retirement locales and/or niche tourism.
Two Distinct Paradigms
Most of what are seen as successful island jurisdictions today have managed to
avoid extensive resorts to industrialisation, and the environmental fall-out that such
a development trajectory unwittingly implies. 2 Other than Malta, Fiji and Mauritius,
no smaller island economies have embarked on any significant industrial programs,
thus often managing to 'leap frog' from primary to tertiary sector production in a few
decades (e.g. Baldacchino 1998 ).
Having said that, many of these successful smaller island jurisdictions today find
themselves operating within two distinct and quite diametrically opposed develop-
ment paradigms. In a variant of 'the Triple Bottom Line' - an approach to decision
making that considers economic, social and environmental issues in a comprehensive,
systematic and integrated way - this paper focuses on just the two 'e' terms in
this configuration, relegating the status of the third, social dimension to that of an
intervening variable.
The first batch is typified by dynamic, aggressive and competitive export
producers who can depend on strong knowledge and finance capital pools. Such
locations typically have high population densities, limited land areas, large pools of
immigrant labour, considerable foreign direct investment, significant manufactur-
ing sectors and extensive overseas investments, but poor and degraded local natural
environments (if any exist) and higher per capita carbon footprints. 'City states'
such as Hong Kong, Malta, Monaco and Singapore - as well as larger countries
such as Japan - are leading examples (e.g. Debattista 2007 ). These would have
usurped the “slowcoach of agriculture”, given the absence or low political clout of
a rural hinterland (Streeten 1993 : 199). This could be, in turn, an outcome of poor
soils or difficult terrain unsuitable for commercial farming. This cluster of features
can be labelled as the economic development approach.
In contrast, the second batch of examples is typified by island locales that flaunt
their clean, serene and pristine natural environments, often accompanied by distinc-
tive cultural practices associated with indigenous communities. Low populations
2 This is not to exclude the environmental degradation that can result on small islands from excessive
dependence on one mineral resource - as in the case of Nauru and its phosphate.