Island Sustainability

Current global socio-economic trends call attention to the endangered conditions of relatively confined environments all over the world. Many of these regions face problems of depopulation and lack of adequate infrastructures. The problems are aggravated for the case of islands, which have limited resources and few possibilities of developing different types of supporting infrastructures. Many islands depend on tourism for their economic survival. Most of them however, cannot provide all the resources required to maintain a large seasonal population and in many cases basic requirements such as water and energy, as well as agricultural produce, need to be imported. The impact of large seasonal population increases in the community and the resulting socio-economic factors need to be carefully evaluated, as well as issues related to transportation and communication, all of which should be part of an overall strategy. Of primary importance in many cases is to ensure all year round economic activities in order to achieve a permanent and completely sustainable use of the islands' potential. This book contains papers dealing with projects, initiatives and experiences related to different island issues. By using the experience of economically developed island environments, it is possible to learn how to ensure the development of other island communities, not only to prevent depopulation but to encourage new settlement. Those projects will serve as guidelines for other initiatives in less developed islands, adapting those experiences to specific regional, cultural and socio-economic characteristics.