INTRODUCTION
The report of the Rio conference, Agenda 21, has identified a number of important aspects of information technology and electronic networks for sustainable development. -
The Sustainable Development Network program initiated by the UNDP in 1989 has established some 20 SDN's which are viewed by many governments as an indispensable tool for implementing national Agenda 21's.
In a recent review of Chapter 40 of Agenda 21, Roberto Bissio wrote,
"The large proportion of the analysis and recommendations devoted to electronic networking clearly demonstrates an unprecedented understanding by the Earth Summit that we are not dealing here with just another technology (no other heads of State conference ever praised the virtues of fax, phone or telegraph) but with a substantial reformulation in the way people deal with each other on a global scale. The earth Summit itself was an impressive demonstration of the potential of electronically assisted networking.."
The importance of information for small islands has been emphasized in a number of recent meetings and events.
In 1991, the Prime Minister of Malaysia stated,
"...In the information age that we are living in, the Malaysian society must be information-rich. It can be no accident that there is today no wealthy, developed country that is information-poor and no information-rich country that is poor or undeveloped... Computer literacy is a must if we want to progress and develop. No effort must be spared in the creation of an information-rich Malaysian society."
One conclusion of the Islands 2000 conference held in Sicily in 1992 declared,
"...the most urgent priority is access to appropriate information sources for the exchange of specialized knowledge and expertise relevant to the ecological, economic, social and cultural aspects of development in small islands, so that the islanders themselves can be aware of the available options."
The final draft of the Action Plan of the Regional Technical Meeting for the Atlantic/Caribbean/Mediterranean preparatory to the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) made the following recommendations on Information Management:
"In view of the vast primordial importance of information and the volume which already exists in regional and international organizations and institutions, which represent great value in time and experience in the different areas of sustainable development, efforts must be made to tap these databases and avoid the duplication of studies and wastage of scarce resources. The following actions should be taken:-
Improve the availability of existing information in databases in regional and international organisations and institutions by indexing relevant information for SIDS under a new index entry for SIDS; and-
Promote and facilitate inter-island exchange of information on experiences, research and development in the area of sustainable development between the SIDS."
One of the key questions at this Global Conference is the extent to which the Small Island Developing States are going to take advantage of the incredible opportunities offered by the latest developments in electronic networking to help them cope effectively and creatively with the complex challenges of sustainable development. The flurry of announcements about the National Information Infrastructure in the United States is the most recent evidence of how rapidly the gap is widening between the information rich and the information poor.
WHY SIDSNET?
The information required for decision-making in the context of Sustainable Development poses far greater challenges including the following:
The limited resources and isolation of Small Island Developing States make these challenges even greater. It is essential to provide assistance with the establishment of access to the global electronic networks and, without in any way limiting that access, provide guides to the information that is particularly relevant to the needs of Small Island Developing States. SIDSNET is not a duplication of other networks; it is a guide to the world of networks for people and information relevant to the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States.
Decision and policy makers in the governments of small island developing states clearly need access to the most up to date information about the latest technological innovations and policies which are best able to deal with threats to the fragile ecosystems for which they are responsible.
The nature of these challenges and the potential of SIDSNET to help small island developing states meet them will be explored by reviewing the capabilities of the most recent developments in electronic networking and a number of specific examples of how decision- makers on Small Island Developing States could access and use information relevant to sustainable development.
EXAMPLES
A number of examples of how Sustainable Development Networks can be used to facilitate sustainable development are given in the SDN Brochure.
Imagine a situation in which the government of a small island developing state which meets 90% of its energy needs through imported oil is suddenly faced with major increases in the price of oil . The effect on the country's balance of payments is devastating and the government urgently needs access to information about the latest developments in solar water heaters to reduce the demand for oil in heating hot water and the latest information about making effective use of biomass.
The Ministry responsible sends out an e-mail message to a LIST called Sustainable Energy Futures for Small Islands which has been set up by SIDSNET and is operated by a LISTSERVER in Jamaica. Within 24 hours, the Ministry has received a message from the corresponding Ministry in Barbados about the great success they have had in using solar hot water heaters in reducing their dependence on imported oil with references to papers that are available by e-mail or through the network. The message also gives information about the private firm in Barbados which is currently manufacturing and installing solar panels and about Professor Oliver Headley at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies who is one of the world's leading experts in solar energy.
Another message comes in from the Institute of Island Studies in Prince Edward Island pointing out that a large number of reports on the use of biomass and its cost effectiveness are available on the Gopher at the University of Prince Island. The message also contains an offer to forward the material by e-mail if the Ministry does not have access to a Gopher service.
These two messages are soon followed by a number of others and the Ministry is in an excellent position to acquire the additional information it needs to make the decisions that will soon reduce its dependence on imported oil.
Imagine another situation in which the government of a small Island Developing State is trying to decide whether or not to place an upper limit on the number of tourists to admit to its still beautiful beaches. The Ministry responsible send an e-mail message to its counterpart in Bermuda which has already struggled with this problem. It also sends a message to a LIST which has been set up by SIDSNET to deal specifically with this issue on Small Island Developing States.
The tourist "carrying capacity" of an island has been the subject of considerable study over the past few years and has brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines including water management, waste management, coastal marine management, ecotourism, sociology, environment and economic development.
The ministry learns of a number of Small Island Developing States that are starting to have difficulty in supplying enough water to meet the demands of the hotels as well as domestic requirements. The ministry also learns about the cost effectiveness of using recycled water to supply flush toilets to conserve limited supplies of fresh water.
The impact of building new hotels on the shoreline including mangrove trees is clearly documented in a number of papers and reports.
ASSESSING THE BENEFITS AND COSTS
The costs of access to global information networks depend on the services and bandwidth required and the local tariffs including local government taxes. Figure 1 gives an indication of the cost of an existing e-mail service relative to other networking technologies. Even at this stage, e-mail is by far the most cost effective.
The current cost of a dedicated VSAT circuit was estimated by a UNDP consultant to range from US$200/month for 2.4 KBPS to US$4500/month for 64 KBPS. The consultant also suggested that a capital expenditure ranging from US$100,000 to US$500,000 would also be required to establish a hub to link to the satellite.
The most important thing to appreciate is that the costs of computer communications technologies are decreasing rapidly and that many of the current tariffs are based more on what the market would bear than on what the cost will be when new technologies are introduced. A detailed cost analysis will have to be done for each situation and should include not only the costs of the circuits but also an estimate of the cost per message at various levels of traffic. It is easy to underestimate how much traffic will actually flow through a connection to the Internet.
The benefits will be difficult to quantify without actual experience of obtaining extremely useful information that might well have been inaccessible without an electronic network. In some ways, connecting to global electronic networks requires a leap of faith that is not fully quantifiable. But it is a leap of faith that most of the world seems to be making.
STAGES OF NETWORKING
The phrase Networking means many different things to different people because the capabilities are changing so rapidly and countries and organisations find themselves at one of many possible stages of development. It is important to understand the distinctions among the various stages of networking as clearly as possible. It is far to easy to think that nothing really new and different is happening or that the excitement over these new developments is just more of the same oversell by computer technocrats. What in fact is happening is a fundamental restructuring of the way in which people communicate with each other and access information they need. The latest technological developments make it much easier for people to keep in touch with each other around the globe and to find the information they need.
-Networking through direct personal contact:
Direct personal contact at meetings, conferences, and informal conversations is one of the most effective and pleasant ways to obtain required information. It is however, the most expensive and time-consuming method.
-Telephone/fax/written communications:
These are the most familiar networking technologies and need no elaboration. It is interesting to note that many people first thought the telephone was a toy and would have little practical value. Also the first fax machine was installed in the 1940's and the dramatic increase in use only came after the technology had become much more user friendly.
-Dial up connections:
The use of telephone lines to connect a terminal to a computer has grown rapidly over the past 25 years. Each user needs an account at the host computer and usually must pay a usage fee as well as communications charges in order to access database searching services such as DIALOG, Bulletin Boards (BBS) such as AMBIONET, and commercial information services such as COMPUSERV. The user can search databases, check if a book is available at the local library, send and receive e-mail, send and receive files including software etc. The services have become more and more user friendly and Bulletin Boards such as AMBIONET and WEB provide excellent service.
Unless the host computer is connected to the Internet, the user is limited to the services and information available there. The user can send an e-mail message to another computer to ask it to send information but cannot make an on-line connection to use its services and information directly.
-Local Area Networks:
Local Area Networks (LANS) link a group of PC's usually in an office or organization and facilitate the transfer of information among the users. LAN's can be closed in which case the user is limited to the services and information available on the LAN or they can be connected to the Internet.
-Access to the Internet via a dial up connection:
It is possible to make a dial-up connection to a computer that is connected to the Internet but there can be a number of inconveniences with file transfers and incompatible keys.
-Full Access to the Internet:
With all the services that are available through dial up connections, people often wonder why there is so much enthusiasm about being directly connected to the Internet. Even people who have been talking about the computer/communications revolution for nearly three decades are amazed when they first telnet to computer on the other side of the globe and do a search of the local library or search all the gopher sites around the globe for documents on biodiveristy and can then connect directly to that gopher site and look at the document and retrieve it directly to the terminal without knowing any telephone numbers, computer access codes etc.
The average time between new networks connecting to the Internet is now 10 minutes
-Future services
Multi media, voice and video conferencing, high resolution images will become available as new technologies emerge and bandwidth increases. Distance education could take on whole new dimensions and people on small islands throughout the world who currently have to leave home for advanced education could be able to take courses given at remote institutions.
A more complete list of the kinds of services that are currently available through electronic networks is given in Appendix 1.
THE SCOPE OF SIDSNET
The goal of SIDSNET should be to provide the stage of electronic networking most appropriate for each Small Island Developing State. The minimum level should be electronic mail with the understanding that full access to global electronic networks will be available as soon as it can be supported on a sustainable basis.
Electronic mail may be the only possible form of electronic networking in some cases where the communications capabilities are not yet sufficiently developed to provide full Internet access. Electronic mail can provide access to valuable information especially if the users could send requests to an information service for SIDS which had full Internet access and would search out the appropriate information and send it to them.
SIDSNET should ensure that appropriate global guides such as Directories of Organizations, basic databases and bibliographies are developed and maintained and made available either through the electronic networks or on CD-ROMs.
SIDSNET could also assist in training personnel to support appropriate access.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
-Access to global electronic networks provides a unique opportunity to mitigate many special problems of Small Island Developing States such as remoteness, isolation and lack of infrastructure and to enhance their capacity to cope effectively, creatively and in a sustainable manner with threats to their fragile ecosystems by facilitating the sharing of experiences with other small islands and providing access to information about environmentally sound technologies and policies for sustainable development;
-Policy and decision making in the context of sustainable development of Small Island Developing States require rapid, effective and efficient access to and integration of appropriate information from a wide range of disciplines and sources, including indigenous knowledge and require special organization of information about sustainable development in the context of Small Island Developing States;
-The personal contacts made at this conference should be maintained and developed into a global network of people concerned with the sustainable development of small island developing states;
-Electronic networking is rapidly becoming the most effective and efficient way to link people concerned with the sustainable development of small islands with each other and with relevant information found in a wide range of disciplines and departments;
-Lack of access to global electronic networks will widen the gap between the information rich and the information poor and leave Small Island Developing States even farther behind;
-It is essential to avoid unnecessary duplication and competition;
-Over the past few years, the UNDP has successfully established a number of Sustainable Development Networks (SDN's). The Administrator of UNDP will sign agreements for regional Capacity 21 programmes both in the South Pacific and the Caribbean regions aiming to enable island member countries to build national capacity for sustainable development and to interact through Sustainable Development Networks (SDN), which is part of a global programme for facilitating access to information on sustainable development. It is important that these initiatives continue to work in concert with other relevant UN information networks.
IT IS THEREFORE RECOMMENDED:
1. That this Global Conference formally recognize the urgent need to provide access to global electronic networks for Small Island Developing States and endorse the establishment of a Network of Small Island Developing States (SIDSNET) to facilitate sharing of information and experience on sustainable development.
2. That this Global Conference designate an agency to be responsible for facilitating the introduction of appropriate access to global electronic networks in Small Island Developing States;
3. That each Small Island Developing State or group of states in a region agree to establish a working group with representation from all interested sectors, (e.g. government, education, private and NGO's), to develop a plan for the implementation and management of electronic networking for sustainable development in that state or region. The plan might include some or all of the following:
a. The costs and benefits of various levels of access to electronic networks recognizing that it may be possible to share the costs of access with other potential users not directly related to environment or sustainable development.
b. A recommendation for an appropriate and sustainable level of access to global electronic networks.
c. An estimate of the training required to support and make best use of that level of access.
d. Directories of people and organizations on that island with expertise relevant to the sustainable development of small islands.
e. Identification of relevant information available in all forms including indigenous knowledge and recommendations how such information could be made available through the network.
f. An appropriate organizational structure responsible for managing the local node, liaising with other needs for access to global networks and with regional and global initiatives relevant to sustainable development networks.
g. Identification of a Coordinator who will effectively promote the use of electronic networks to support sustainable development.
4. That SIDSNET be responsible for ensuring the development and maintenance of:
a. global directories of organizations and people with interest and expertise in
Small Island Developing States
b. An electronic bibliography of materials relevant to the sustainable
development of Small Island Developing States
c. A database of basic information on Small Island Developing States
d. Links with other small islands around the globe
e. Links with all relevant global information networks.
5. That the developed nations undertake to make available any data collected by their government agencies that would assist the sustainable development of Small Island developing States.
LIST OF APPENDICES