ABSTRACT

Mauritius and Barbados have demographic, socio-economic, and cultural differences, but share similar sustainable development challenges as Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Both countries are physically small, have a narrow resource base, high susceptibility to natural hazards, low economic resilience, and limited human and technological capacity for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change (Nurse and Sem, 2000). Both countries are very dependent on tourism, coastal resources, and international trade. There has been a growing concern in both Mauritius and Barbados regarding the negative impacts of climate change and environmental pollution on agriculture, water, fisheries, erosion of beaches, degradation of reef systems and bleaching of corals, loss of wetlands and depletion of biodiversity. Both countries have been at the forefront of development programmes and strategies for SIDS which produced initiatives such as The 1994 Barbados Programme of Action and The 2005 Mauritius Strategy of Implementation.