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The first conference on sustainable development and Agenda 21

In April 1994, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States was held in Bridgetown, Barbados to help small islands states find solutions to the environmental and development challenges they were facing. The Conference was the first global conference on sustainable development and the implementation of Agenda 21, which had been approved at the 'Earth Summit' in Rio two years earlier. The Barbados Conference reaffirmed the principles and commitments to sustainable development embodied in Agenda 21, by approving the , which set out national actions, regional and international actions, policies and measures to help small island states achieve sustainable development. The priority areas of the Barbados Programme of Action were:

• climate change and sea-level rise

• natural and environmental disasters

• management of wastes

• coastal and marine resources

• freshwater resources

• resources

• energy resources

• tourism resources

• biodiversity resources

• national institutions and administrative capacity

• regional institutions and technical cooperation

• transport and communication

• science and technology

• human resources development

The Barbados Programme of Action identified coastal and marine resources as an area requiring urgent action and asked for the establishment and/or strengthening of programmes, to assess the impact of planning and development on the coastal environment, including coastal communities, wetlands, coral reefs habitats and the areas under the national jurisdiction of small island developing states.

In the  Member States said the international community should ¡°build new and equitable partnerships for the sustainable development of small island developing States through the implementation of the Programme of Action and should send a powerful message to the world¡¯s peoples on the possibilities of joint action undertaken with a sense of common purpose and partnership.¡±