Small Island Developing States (SIDS) account for a significant percentage of the world’s unique biodiversity and ecosystems (Cherian, 2007). They contain resources that can contribute positively to economic and social development, within individual SIDS and globally. However, the extent to which they can is not fully known. Thus, there is a vital need to properly assess and document these resources to understand their current condition, the stressors that affect them (natural and anthropogenic) and the landscapes they occupy. National Ecosystem Assessments (NEAs) can provide quantifiable knowledge, along with keenly observed qualitative data, to help develop policies aimed at making island ecosystems sustainably beneficial to their flora, fauna and human populations. Grenada’s diverse biomes are representative of those found throughout the Caribbean region, including high-elevation rainforests and natural springs, coastal mangroves, and coral reefs (Moore, Gilmer and Schill, 2015). However, due to Grenada’s relatively small human population, challenges related to human capital, and scientific and administrative capacity are accentuated. A NEA can help by providing policy-relevant information that empowers Grenadians to conserve national ecosystems through a combination of national and regional efforts and to take action, in concert with other SIDS, to influence international decision making on preventing biodiversity loss.
Two core assumptions of the Grenada NEA are that: 1) robust biodiversity rests on a foundation of healthy ecosystems, and 2) healthy ecosystems provide a wide array of valuable services that contribute, directly and indirectly, to human well-being (MA, n.d.; Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2021). The ecosystem services framework is foundational to all the NEAs that have been completed, on both national and global levels. As a concept that informs practice, ecosystem services provide tools and methods for understanding the value of ecosystems to people. It can inform policy makers and stakeholders of what is gained by maintaining existing ecosystems in all of their complexity, what is lost when ecosystems are in decline, what the major threats and stressors are, and how to make policies that reach beyond specific and short-term interests. This long(er)-term and more holistic view of ecosystem valuation can provide a more accurate understanding of current threats. It can also guide the formulation of strategies for adaptation to, and mitigation and prevention of both current and future harms. In those ways, the ecosystem services approach encourages policy makers and stakeholders to look beyond policies that focus solely on the development of a country’s specific natural assets for economic gain and is more consistent with the guiding principles of sustainable development.
