This paper reports the first outcomes of a research program “Environment and Sustainable Development in the Caribbean space” co-funded by the European Union, the Région Martinique and the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane under the European Union operational programme 2007-2013. Since the middle of the last century, the Caribbean countries, regardless of their great diversity and political fragmentation, are faced with the recurring problem of development. Having explored different paths, they are looking now for new development models. This challenge which becomes obsessive over the decades, is now a major concern: indeed, the Caribbean territories are per se vulnerable and highly exposed to natural risks due to climate change. In addition, this relates to areas where tensions between exploitation and conservation of a rich biodiversity are particularly strong. Based on the promotion of tourism and services as part of an “open regionalism” at the intersection of global and local scales of public action, the current development strategies give rise to a dual approach with, however, rather mixed results: on the one hand, a discursive use of sustainable development, apprehended through its environmental dimension, evidences a new way of looking at the region and a change in the way the region sees itself; on the other hand, a political use of sustainable development through cross-cutting policies, is hindered by the complexity of structures, the multiple levels of action and regulation, and the difficult appropriation of public-policy organization by local communities and people.