Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

Small islands in the Pacific periodically hit the headlines following cyclone damage, political unrest or threats from rising sea levels and loss of biodiversity. The image generally portrayed is one of vulnerable societies that are victims of climate and environmental change, inept or corrupt leadership, smallness of scale, limited resources and extreme isolation. However, as the papers in this special issue show, these societies actually demonstrate a remarkable resilience and an ability to maintain and/or modify traditional practices and adapt to new challenges.

At a time of global financial crisis where even countries of the northern hemisphere are struggling, it may be that small islands offer messages of hope and lessons for sustainability. Read the latest studies on small island sustainability in the Pacific online now.

Read the top five Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography articles accessed online:

Africa, China and the 'new' economic geography of development
Giles Mohan and Marcus Power

Sustainable land use in Tikopia: Food production and consumption in an isolated agricultural system
Ole Mertz, Thilde Bech Bruun, Bjarne Fog, Kjeld Rasmussen and Jytte Agergaard

Industrial land use and heavy metal contaminated wastewater used for irrigation in periurban Zambia
Evaristo Mwaba Kapungwe

Economic globalization and regional disparities in the Philippines
Anne Clausen

Small island sustainability in the Pacific: Introduction to the special issue
Katherine V. Gough, Tim Bayliss-Smith, John Connell and Ole Mertz

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (SJTG) is an international, multidisciplinary journal jointly published three times a year by the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. SJTG provides a forum for discussion of problems and issues in the tropical world; it includes theoretical and empirical articles that deal with the physical and human environments and developmental issues from geographical and interrelated disciplinary viewpoints. We welcome contributions from geographers as well as other scholars from the humanities, social sciences and environmental sciences with an interest in tropical research.

You can read these special issues and sections online now:

Globalization and gendered livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

Environmental dimensions of the Mexican Tropics

Small island sustainability in the Pacific

Neoliberalism, mobilities and development: Caribbean intersections

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