| Abstract: |
Small islands exist in a wide range of absolute sizes, making counts of the total number of small islands that exist in the world uncertain. Indonesia, for example, is said to have more than 17 thousand islands, but although some of these are among the largest in the world (Borneo, Papua, Sumatra), it is not clear how many are classified as ‘small’. A relevant distinction exists between those that are permanently inhabited and those that are not, but that criterion has borderline cases as well. Being normally above sea level is a criterion for being an island, but an occasional flooding event (so that the island is not permanently above sea level) does not take it out of the island category. While there have been several initiatives
to represent the shared interests of small islands in global policy arena’s, there is no universally agreed definition of what is small; among small island nations claims of leadership tend to be expressed by the largest among them, that may be least representative; the issues of small islands that are part of larger nations (such as Indonesia or the Philippines) differ partly from those that have nation status. Politically, small island nations, have achieved a clear voice in the climate change debate via the AOSIS association of small island states, some of which are expected to disappear with continued sea-level rise. Some members of this grouping have ’mainland’ or ‘large island’ parts as well (Figure 13.1). Indonesia as a country may have the largest number of ‘small islands’ of any country of the world, but does not belong to the AOSIS association. The concerns derived from a high vulnerability to sea level rise and climate change, however, apply to the small islands (inhabited or not) of small island states and archipelagic nations alike, as well as to the densely populated coastal zones of large islands and continents. |
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