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DEVELOPMENT THEORIES IN THE PACIFIC ISLAND CO}.ITEXT
Ken Piddington
Cornmissioner for the Environment
Wellington, New Zealand
ABSTRACT
The Pacific Islands are diverse in characteristics though sharing a common
oceanie environment. The traditional galue systems of the people are generally
sufficiently strong to have imposed some mutation of Western economic concepts.
In many islands subsistence economies are dominant.
Their economies are dependent on and vulnerable !o influences fnom outside
[he region, htt they possess a cer[ain resilience so Lhat stalistical catastrophes do
not instantly become human caLasLrophes.
Pacific naLions, while placing hiqh value on their independence' have
established mechanisms of regional coopenation which are powerful influences on
guiding appropriate development "in lhe Pacific Way". Inportant feaLures of lhis
philosophy are Lhe insistence on the relevance of culture, custom, and tradiLiont
and response to the instinct for nesource conservation. These features provide an
environrnental ethic.as an essential underlay to economic development.
In global terms the Pacific lslands approach lo development is therefone
polentially instructive.
lntroduction
It is a pleasure to be m a voyage of rediscovery in this learned company. Exactly t'
years Bgo, es Deputy Director of the f ledgling South Pacif ic Bureau for Econon
Co-operation (SPEC), I was finding out about buying furniture and geLting sLationery print'
in $uva, Fiii. We were temporarily located in the old RNZAF Officers Mess, on the campus
Lhe University of the South Pacifie. I began to learn abouL pay sceles for office staff in
developing country and about cockroaches and nrcsquitoes...
Around us on the campus, and in the capitals of the emerging states of Lhe Sou
Pacific, the debate abouL developmenL was in full swing. The catch phrase of the debate a,
indeed the rallying point for the New Pacific was "The Paclfic Way". This was the title of
irnportan! set of papers produced by the South Pacific Saial Sciences Association in I97J.
Many definitions were offered for what was meant by the J:hrase, buL I have alwa
drawn o-r tlrat provided by my Director a! the time, Hrt Mahe Tupouniua:
"Yes, I believe there is a Pacif ic way; Lhere is a distinctive style of thinking
which we can call the Pacific way of thinking. Most importantly, the Pacific way
is capable of being applied to practical situations.
"The Pacific way is a way of looking at things in relaiion to all the facts and
circumstances involved in a given situation. It is a way which takes inLo €lccounL
not merely the legal, the political, the social, and economic aspects; it takes into
eccount the moral, ethical, and spiritual implications and consequences. By
definition, therefore, the eoncept of justiee is built in to [lre Paeific way.