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R i s k , t r a n s p a r e n c y a n d s e c u r i t y community can learn from SIDS, particularly in relation to climate change as they are some of the first to experience the realities of living with environmental change. The partnership is also interested in learning within SIDS, as many of the partners involved are from the education sector. Emphasis is also placed on the learning aspect within SIDS as it applies to education for sustainable development practices, and developing the research capacity of, and the ability to research within, SIDS. Within the partnership there are 22 participant organisations, including the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC), as well as those from the UN higher education and tertiary education sectors, and from climate science, human rights and other disciplines. The partnership works with the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol to elicit stories of SIDS’ experiences of living with environmental change and uncertainty, and is bringing these to the 2015 Green Capital activities. The city of Bristol in the UK has been nominated European Green Capital 2015, but most of the activities so far planned are very European in focus. As such the partnership is working with SIDS to bring a different perspective, and a different story to this platform. The partnership is also working with Sazani Associates, a non-governmental organisation that works in Wales, Zanzibar and Belize, to develop a SIDS peer exchange in the professional learning community about contextualising the education for sustainable development curriculum in local contexts. The partnership, together with CHEC, is interested in developing training about the blue economy, to develop transferable credit modules so that people can either come to SIDS and take a one-off course for which the credits may be transferred to another state, or sit within SIDS. There is also a project called Schools at University for Climate and Energy (SAUCE), which is a European on-campus education project for pupils on the topics of energy and climate change – the partnership is working on extending this project to SIDS to move it beyond the European space. The data is out there, whether it has to do with fisheries, education or any other topic, and the partnerships wants to make the experience of SIDS more visible to the international community. As such, the partnership hopes to develop some facilities, including data repositories to help highlight these experiences. Furthermore, many of those involved in the research aspect of the partnership are interested in developing a multidisciplinary bid to help develop the research capacity. The view from Seychelles Jean-Paul Adam In Seychelles we have realised from our own development experience that the ocean is an underappreciated space. We take the ocean for granted. It is too often used as a dumping ground; in terms of fisheries, the people who are fishing often don’t care who the ocean belongs to, they want the fish. They are not interested necessarily in looking at the long-term development concerns in relation to the ocean and we have noted that often the ocean is viewed as a space for extraction. Why do we feel the Commonwealth is the right organisation for the blue economy? The Commonwealth is actually one of the most SIDS-specific institutions in the world, and, though not a high-budget grouping, it is very good at technical assistance. The vast majority of Commonwealth states, over 40, are coastal states. Among economists, the holy grail for developing countries is to achieve value-added. In relation to oceans, some economists actually say the best way to have value added on to fisheries is to leave them in the sea, because there is more value to the fishery if it’s in the sea. Now the reality of human development means that this is not strictly the case because as people we interact with the ocean in fundamental ways and, certainly from the perspective of Seychelles, we believe that sustainable fisheries are possible. We believe that there should be ways of developing fisheries with local communities whereby we can guarantee the long-term sustainability of those kinds of resources. We see the blue economy concept as an opportunity to flip the oceans from a space for extraction to a space for development. We look at land-based development and we often speak about landuse plans. Very few countries actually have marine spatial planning or, looking at it another way, development plans based on the ocean. This is what Seychelles wants to do and we are working with a few partners. The Commonwealth is one of those helping us with this, the other is the Nature Conservancy, which is looking Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 128 There is much that the global community can learn from small states Tom Perry


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