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Our Vision
The Global Islands Network represents a hub that connects and coordinates efforts to
help ensure a healthy and productive future for islanders.
Our Mission
The Global Islands Network is a non-profit organisation established in June 2002 to
conduct and promote
- culturally appropriate
- ecologically sound
- economically sustainable
- socially equitable
development on islands worldwide.
Our Objectives
The directors and staff of GIN are committed to advancing the interests of islanders
and islands in diverse situations at various levels over time, primarily through
electronic communication, but also via face-to-face interactions, print, and other means.
Our particular objectives include:
- Facilitating the capacity of islanders to acquire, disseminate and utilise knowledge
resources;
- Improving access to existing data and generating original information about islands;
- Providing technical assistance and supporting initiatives which further integrated
development on small islands;
- Encouraging collaborative projects and comparative studies between and among islands;
- Fostering cooperation by sharing good practices and offering a forum for discussion; and
- Strengthening the voice of island communities as well as their representatives in
intergovernmental and policy making bodies.
How does GIN operate
Around the world on numerous islands, people are sharing their concerns and identifying
solutions through association with GIN and our partners.
Islands are characterised by various factors, many of which create barriers to growth
and development, such as remoteness and insularity, peripherality to centres of decision
making, a limited range of natural resources, specialisation of economies, small markets,
narrow skills base, poor infrastructure, vulnerability to natural disasters, degree of
exposure to forces outside their control such as climate change and sea level rise, plus
often unique but threatened biological diversity.
GIN brings together islanders and partner organisations, comprising amongst others,
government agencies, university departments, research institutes, marine laboratories,
businesses, companies, NGOs, voluntary bodies and community groups, in a network where
they can learn from each others experience, borrowing as well as replicating best
practices to:
- Improve production of renewable energy
- Minimise waste
- Introduce efficient public transport
- Raise standards of water and air quality
- Adopt integrated coastal zone management plans
- Create protected areas
- Safeguard endangered species
- Control or eradicate alien invasive species
- Document and maintain biodiversity
- Promote sustainable tourism
- Diversify economies to reduce dependence
- Capitalise on Exclusive Economic Zones
- Regulate local fisheries
- Introduce ‘no-take’ marine reserves
- Preserve traditional island cultures
- Respect indigenous peoples, languages and customs
- Foster gender equality
- Use ITC to better health care and education
The topics listed above are just one way of grouping issues and challenges.
Each of these areas is closely linked with the others, and cannot be addressed in isolation.
Islands offer the world, in microcosm, some of the clearest opportunities for developing
integrated systems of governance and management.
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