Land, Law and History: Actors, Networks and Land Reform in Solomon Islands

Abstract

From the onset of the colonial era, land reform in Solomon Islands has focused on changing customary landholding arrangements so as to improve productivity and stimulate economic growth. Most land in Melanesia remains under customary tenure, which is broadly communal by nature and cannot be alienated without profound social disruption. Customary land, social relations, livelihoods, power structures, knowledge, identity and place are all inter-related in Melanesian life-worlds. This complexity is still poorly understood by those promoting the view that customary land hinders development, and needs to be reformed in order to establish secure property rights and enhance productivity.

Land reform has been on the Solomon Islands development agenda for more than a century. Its implementation has always focused on enacting land laws to facilitate the transition of customary land to private property rights regimes. This is founded on a development model based on economic premises that remain largely unchanged since the colonial period. This thesis draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a frame to extend the analysis of land reform in Solomon Islands over a long historical trajectory. Using ANT as a frame in this thesis draws particular attention to the roles and networks of key actors in land reform.

Land reform has often been reduced to questions of land registration and land recording. But in Solomon Islands, as elsewhere in Melanesia, the explicit focus in land reform narratives is on ‘unlocking the potential of land held under customary tenure’, because it is assumed that land is ‘locked up’ under custom. Such narratives are part of the global flow of ideas transmitted and translated by key actors. This thesis seeks to provide insights on the role of particular actors and their networks to explain why land reform has been a persistent challenge in Solomon Islands, from 1893 to the present, and how the challenges of land reform might be addressed in a more equitable and effective manner.