Pursuing Livelihoods and Re-imagining Development in the Oil Palm Regions of the Guadalcanal Plains, Solomon Islands
Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In the 1970s, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate introduced large scale plantations in the Guadalcanal Plains (Tathimboko) as vehicles for development. The Guadalcanal Plains thus hosted an oil palm industry operated by the UK Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) until its closure in 1999 due to the Guadalcanal conflict (1998-2003). After the conflict, oil palm production continued under a new investor, New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) and its subsidiary, the Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Limited (GPPOL). Reconfigured terms of engagement between company, landowner, and state and provincial governments ensued. This thesis, based on a comparative study of four villages in the Guadalcanal Plains, offers a detailed analysis of the livelihood experiences of a migrant (lavithaghe) community, two landowning communities and a 'frontier' community in relation to their terms of engagement with the oil palm industry and the livelihood trajectories that have resulted. The thesis begins by exploring the shifting development debates that have informed thinking about Third World societies since the 1960s. Further analysis focuses on the shortfalls of modernisation and underdevelopment theories and draws on post-development perspectives as a launching pad for an alternative imagining of development in rural Third World societies. The study demonstrates that rural communities in the Guadalcanal Plains are not passive recipients of development. Rather, they proactively shape their own development trajectories by resisting, adjusting, modifying and accommodating development and change processes in ways that fulfil their livelihood needs. Applying an adapted sustainable livelihoods approach/framework in the case study sites reveals the complexity of livelihoods in a rural community-oil palm industry nexus. The oil palm industry and membership of local landowning units (mamata) have a special association with the asymmetrical nature of access to livelihood assets in the Guadalcanal Plains. But the symbiotic interactions between social relations, institutions (formal and informal), organisations (formal and informal) and access produce diversified livelihood portfolios that include both oil palm and non-oil palm activities, underpinned by both market and non-market practices (a hybrid system). These diversified livelihood practices are embedded in the local context of the Guadalcanal Plains ('social embeddedness') and are performed to maintain relationships (relationality) between different actors to widen access and create sustainable livelihood outcomes. The study redefines concepts of sustainable development, provides empirical support for an extended sustainable livelihoods framework that gives greater emphasis to cultural and political factors, and contributes more broadly towards scholarship on alternative development imaginings.
DOI: 10.25911/scqr-sh76
Author: Pendeverana, Lincy
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3166372803