Metabolic Vulnerability and Potentials of Island Environments: The case of the island of Ndzuwani (Anjouan), archipelago of Comoros

This paper contributes to the investigation of territorial metabolism in an underexplored field: the metabolic vulnerabilities of islands. It proposes a survey based on the material and energy flow analysis on the island of Ndzuwani (Anjouan – Comoros), which aims to overcome the constraints related to informal activities and the lack of a statistical database. We develop a grid for analyzing metabolic vulnerabilities, defined as the extension of environmental vulnerabilities to the social and territorial consequences of flow circulation. Thus, the understanding and the spatialization of the island metabolism enable us to apprehend the metabolic vulnerabilities in their material, environmental and territorial dimensions. Emerging island metabolisms also present forces that deserve to be discussed in terms of global South-global North relations.