Author(s)

Y. Baguant-Moonshiram, M. Samy & K. Thomas

Abstract

Planning as an \“informal activity” related to the development of estates, town and villages has been the practice since colonisation in Mauritius. However, planning as a formal responsibility of the government has been developed only since the enactment of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act in 1954. Therefore, urban planning can be considered to be quite recent in Mauritius. Moreover, the concept of ‘sustainability’ in planning is in the infancy stage in the country. In 2008, the Prime Minister announced his new, long-term vision of transforming the country into a sustainable island – \“Maurice Ile Durable” (MID), the key objective of which is to make Mauritius a world model for sustainable development, particularly in the context of the Small Island Developing States. The government is also coming up with a new concept of ‘Eco-Village’ to make new villages which are more sustainable. But in order to do so, it is very important to find the level of sustainability of the existing towns and villages in Mauritius and to make a critical assessment of the land use planning framework in the island. Urbanisation is an important component when considering sustainable development and vice versa. Unfortunately, rapid urban development has contributed to the degradation of our ecosystem. Mauritius is a small island state where there is a limited amount of natural resources and one of the main objectives of the government is to promote Mauritius as a ‘Sustainable Island State’. This paper makes a critical assessment of existing planning framework in Mauritius after evaluating other countries frameworks in order to promote effective sustainable cities in Mauritius. Keywords: Mauritius, sustainable cities, sustainable land use planning, urbanisation, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Maurice Ile Durable.

Keywords

Keywords: Mauritius, sustainable cities, sustainable land use planning, urbanisation, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Maurice Ile Durable.