| Summary: | The interaction between science and policy in the management of the environment in
the Pacific region has seen it subject to different interpretations, practices and
policies. Importantly, this has exposed the lack of capacity to mitigate environmental
degradation in the region, and the need for accurate assessment and monitoring of
environmental change.
This thesis examines the conceptions of, and responses to, environmentally framed
vulnerability of Pacific Island communities through an examination of one attempt to
measure environmental vulnerability in the Pacific Islands by the South Pacific
Geoscience Commission (SOP AC). The historical contexts of the science and politics
involved in management of the Pacific environment are described, as the development
of SOPAC's Environmental Vulnerability Index. Their project has selected and
manipulated 47 indicators that do not accurately reflect the role that the environment
has in the lives of Pacific Islanders.
It finds that Pacific Island communities remain subject to policies and methodologies
implemented by a number of organisations that predominantly involve 'top down'
processes that are subsequently imposed on local communities. This gives rise to
problems of governance in environmental management that are not necessarily
resolved by increases in empirical scientific data, or more sophisticated environmental
modelling.
|
|---|
