Bermuda needs to keep pace with other small islands and become more active within the United Nations, according to a new blueprint for the future of the Island.

Charting Our Course: Sustaining Bermuda ? a draft strategy on sustainable development drawn up for the Government ? recommends that the Island join the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), whose members include the Bahamas, Fiji, Haiti and Papua New Guinea.

It also says Bermuda should arrange observer status at the UN through associate membership of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and attend the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) processes of the UN.

?Bermuda is not alone in facing issues of sustainability,? says the report. ?There is much activity on a global level from which Bermuda has already benefited and should continue to do so.?

Erica Smith, the Government?s director of sustainable development, said there was much to be said for sharing best practices and experiences with other small countries because of Bermuda?s isolation.

?Because of our location we are not as plugged in as much as we want to be,? she said. ?The point is to have us as involved in as many areas and processes as possible so that we can see some ideas for progress.?

She said as Bermuda was not a nation it could only participate in the UN, for example, through the UK.

?That?s not necessarily a bad thing but there are specific processes going on in the UN which would be of benefit to us. We would have to arrange through the UK government first to approach the UN system to see if we could be awarded observer status.

?That?s one of our long-term objectives.

?I think the UK would be amenable. The UK has been supportive thus far. We went to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and had to request permission through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.?