Abstract

The Grenadine Islands lie on the Grenadine Bank extending some 120 km between Grenada and St. Vincent, and occupy about 1,500 km2 of the bank. This area supports the most extensive coral reefs and related habitats in the south-eastern Caribbean. The international boundary between Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines lies about midway down the bank. The largest islands have towns and communities. Others are resort islands. Most are visited by yachters and fishers.Tourism and fishing are the major sources of employment in the area. Tourism development is proceeding apace, while fishery resources appear to be fully or overexploited. Governments of both countries perceive their Grenadine Islands as having high potential for tourism and associated development. They also recognise the vulnerability of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the area 10 environmental degradation and that sustainable development depends on conservation of the resources. There the emerging view that the entire area should be a transboundary World Heritage Site. The Tobago Cays Marine Park has been established and other MPAs are planned, but a broader approach is needed. Achieving sustainable livelihoods from marine and coastal resources will need organisational change at many levels. There is a complex interplay of local and intemational private interests, local, national, and international NGOs, as well as tensions between main island government and local inhabitants. Therefore, conventionally planned change is difficult to implement. The model of organisational change that is most likely to be applicable is one based the science of complex adaptive systems and chaos theory. Intervention should employ 'containers', 'significant differences', and 'transforming exchanges' to increase the capacity for self-organisation among stakeholders. Understanding of other chaos elements such as boundaries, butterfly effects, coupling and attractors can be used to encourage self-organization.

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