After having been in operation for over 13 years, GIN officially closed down as a charitable company in November 2015. The founder and executive director of GIN, Graeme Robertson graeme@globalislands.net, was appointed a Research Associate with the Institute of Island Studies (IIS), University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), in March 2015 for a five-year term that was subsequently extended to 2025. He has continued managing the Global Islands News Desk to support the activities of ESIN, GLISPA, ISISA and SICRI as well as the UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability spearheaded by UPEI and the University of Malta that works to establish and expand comparative academic research on Small Island States (SIS) and Sub-National Island Jurisdictions (SNIJ) such as their latest ‘Towards Sustainable Island Futures’ project. It operates from the premise that SIS and SNIJ are innovative, entrepreneurial and connected, not vulnerable, lacking and isolated.
From January 2020, the Global Islands News Desk began to source and feature press articles on how COVID-19 was spreading and having disparate consequences upon islands around the world. Over the next three years 1200 articles were annotated and compiled into a major 450 page report ‘Three year timeline of COVID-19 pandemic impacting islands worldwide’ published online by the IIS in February 2023. Some 150 different countries, territories or local jurisdictions are individually named and listed, together with regions (i.e. Caribbean, Pacific, SIDS), on the contents page so that readers can quickly identify/reference them and their associated articles. In addition, the main purpose of this report was merely to act as a resource enabling all those who are interested to undertake further research. As you would expect, the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 upon islands predominate throughout this series of press articles. Whilst the repercussions for island tourism and the cruise industry are manifest there are ten additional thematic areas. These cover diverse topics such as the significant rise of digital nomads; drone technology; green recovery plans and vaccine diplomacy.
Graeme has also been furthering his personal interests of investigating the socio-economic, environmental and political significance of guano islands around the world; the cultivation, harvesting and utilisation of seaweed and whether this natural resource is in danger of becoming over exploited; branding and niche marketing by island food and drink producers; the development and promotion of small islands as ecotourism destinations; and postal history of the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha; for publication in various journals. However, his prime concern and focus will be the repercussions of climate change on North Uist and how to maintain traditional practices like crofting agriculture, vital for preserving the machair habitat and internationally important bird populations, so they can co-exist alongside new and much needed employment opportunities derived from income generated by two new community owned wind turbines, ever increasing tourism related enterprises and becoming a potential location for a sub-orbital vertical launch spaceport from where rockets could be used for a variety of satellite and payload operations. In addition, he has been closely following what headway the Scottish government has made since first publishing their ‘Empowering Scotland’s Island Communities’ prospectus in June 2014, subsequent passing of The Islands (Scotland) Act by the Scottish Parliament in 2018. After over five years of tedious political debate and consultation the National Islands Plan for Scotland with its 13 strategic objectives and 134 specific measures to support achieving them was finally published in December 2019.
