NAURU: SUBSTITUTING ONE DEPENDENCY FOR ANOTHER? A CHALLENGE TO THE ORTHODOXY OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Although the general thrust of strategies to achieve sustainable development is focused on the careful husbanding of various resources, there are some circumstances in which a different focus is necessary. The central Pacific island of Nauru is a special case in which the principal resource, phosphate, has been mined almost to the point of exhaustion. For this island microstate the challenge becomes 'what to do next?', a question which is particularly acute because there is little else which can be done on the island. This represents a challenge to the orthodoxy of sustainable development. In this paper the special circumstances of Nauru are examined to reveal the difficulties which may be encountered in developing countries when the primary resource is exhausted, not least in finding a suitable strategy to maintain a sustainable state.