Rainforest Composition and Histories of Human Disturbance in Solomon Islands

Bayliss‐Smith, Tim; Hviding, Edvard; Whitmore, Tim

doi:10.1639/0044-7447(2003)032[0346:rcahoh]2.0.co;2

Cited by 25 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the ecosystem management approach, the role of people in ecosystems is explicitly addressed in two ways: (1) even relatively isolated systems are often influenced by humans, and have been for hundreds of years (Foster 2002;Head 2000;Heckenberger et al 2003;Willis et al 2004); (2) some communities have traditionally used and managed biodiverse areas, and as such may have contributed to the conservation of these areas (Fairhead and Leach 1996). A case study from the Solomon Islands (Box 2) illustrates the former point (Bayliss-Smith et al 2003).…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…''Thresholds of The New Georgia Forest, comprised of several islands (New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kolombangara, Gizo, Vangunu, Rendova and Tetepere) includes the largest salt water lagoon in the world: the Marovo Lagoon (see Wikipedia 2005). It is among the few places on earth 'where large tracts of coastal rainforest cover remain' (see Bayliss-Smith et al 2003). This region is assumed to be pristine wilderness by numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are advocating for an IUCN status.…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the Marovo Lagoon area comprising the southern part of the New Georgia Group reveals some inherent contradictions. According to Bayliss-Smith et al (2003):…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such Marovo has been proposed for permanent conservation and even as a possible UNESCO World Heritage Area' Through combined evidence from oral history, aerial mapping, ethnography, archaeological and botanical fieldwork, Bayliss-Smith et al (2003) revealed that the apparently pristine rainforest of New Georgia is only 150 years old. They have documented that in the main inland zones of Marovo (Gatokae, Vangunu, Kolombangara and New Georgia excluding Roviana) contained a disturbed forest with the dominant presence of Campnosperma sp.…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both Campnosperma sp. and Terminalia brassii are light demanding trees, which if in high frequency reflects a situation of relatively massive disturbance to the canopy (for discussion see Bayliss-Smith et al 2003).…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demything “wilderness”: implications for protected area designation and management

Kalamandeen

Gillson

2006

Biodivers Conserv

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Protected areas are a cornerstone of many conservation approaches, and concepts of pristineness and wilderness are often considered central to protected area designation and management. However, these concepts are rarely explored through a historical lens that captures the philosophies and assumptions underlying protected area designation. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of protected area designation and management by reviewing the history of four main conservation approaches: (1) Wilderness conservation and the Yellowstone Model;(2) Wise use and the Game Reserve Model; (3) Wildlife and Biodiversity conservation; and (4) Ecosystem management. Through examination of the history of these Models, we discuss the values, rationale and assumptions behind each approach, and how these interface with protected area designation. In each case, we explore the extent of dependence on concepts of wilderness and pristineness. We also highlight the evolution of alternative criteria for designating protected areas, and ascertain how far these alternative values influence protected area designation and management.

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Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the Marovo Lagoon area comprising the southern part of the New Georgia Group reveals some inherent contradictions. According to Bayliss-Smith et al (2003):…”

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ecosystem Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Demything “wilderness”: implications for protected area designation and management

Kalamandeen

Gillson

2006

Biodivers Conserv

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Savanna anthropogenesis in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia: re‐interpreting the palaeoenvironmental data

Hunter-Anderson

2009

Archaeology in Oceania

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This paper argues that human actions had nothing to do with creating tropical Pacific island savannas, which likely arose during the Pleistocene, and that geographic factors such as soils, climate, and fire are responsible for their distribution and persistence in the Holocene. Palaeontological observations from the southern Mariana Islands, including charcoal particles, pollen, and spores in palaeosediments from Guam and Saipan, cited by archaeologists as evidence for human-caused savannas, are re-interpreted as a natural outcome of geo-climatic conditions. Archaeological and ethnographic findings, past climate proxies, and field studies in soil science are also brought to bear on the issue. The data and arguments presented in favor of natural causation of the Marianas savannas motivate a re-examination of proposals that purport to explain the presence of savannas elsewhere in the tropical Pacific. Implications for future research are drawn. '… to kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. ' Charles Darwin (1809-1882 Given the continuing debate over whether the Pacific Islands grasslands, or savannas, are anthropogenic, this paper provides reasons for archaeologists to abandon the notion that prehistoric human actions were responsible for the development of grasslands, or savannas, in the Mariana Islands of Micronesia (Fig. 1), and it calls into question the appropriateness of anthropogenic savannas elsewhere in Oceania. It considers palaeoenvironmental data (fossil pollen, spores, and charcoal particles in wetland sediments) that have been cited as evidence for this view and argues that in order to include such palaeoenvironmental observations in models of the human past, extra care is needed to warrant their use as human behavioral proxies. The paper shows that such care is lacking in the proposal by Athens and colleagues that deliberate firing of 'pristine forests', presumed to have covered the southern Mariana Islands upon human entry, resulted in the rise and spread of savannas beginning by c. 4300calBP or even earlier (Athens and Ward 2004a, 2004b;Athens et al. 2004). A geoclimatic alternative to the Athens model of Marianas savanna anthropogenesis is offered below, supported by palaeosediment data generated during fieldwork by Athens and colleagues, as well as by observations from archaeology, ethnography, geography, and soil science with which the Athens model does not conform.The paper is organized as follows. First, current explanations for savanna formation, derived from mid-20th century theories of Pacific botanists F.R. Fosberg and J. Barrau and applied to the Pacific Islands, are presented and their problems indicated. Next, a recent proposal by archaeologist J.S. Athens and colleagues that also invokes prehistoric human actions to account for the savannas of the southern Marianas is reviewed and critiqued. A geoclimatic alternative then is outlined, with attention to its ability to account for observations that have been problem...

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Changing Ethnobotanical Knowledge of the Roviana People, Solomon Islands: Quantitative Approaches to its Correlation with Modernization

Furusawa

2009

Hum Ecol

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This study examines the acculturation of ethnobotanical knowledge in association with modernization by analyzing similarities and differences within a language group, the Roviana people of the Solomon Islands. Cultural consensus analysis and evaluation of either village-level or individual-level modernity were performed for seven villages. In one modernized and one less modernized village, detailed socioeconomic data at the individual level were collected. Intervillage variation of knowledge correlated with modernity only when the villages were referenced to the less modernized villages, while there was no correlation when the most modernized village was used as the base knowledge. An informant's knowledge in the less modernized village was affected by socioeconomic factors, but this was not observed in the modernized village. From these results, I suggest that modern knowledge is easily integrated into the ethnobotanical knowledge system but is not directly related to the loss of indigenous botanical knowledge.

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Rainforest Composition and Histories of Human Disturbance in Solomon Islands

Cited by 25 publications

References 8 publications

Demything “wilderness”: implications for protected area designation and management

Demything “wilderness”: implications for protected area designation and management

Savanna anthropogenesis in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia: re‐interpreting the palaeoenvironmental data

Changing Ethnobotanical Knowledge of the Roviana People, Solomon Islands: Quantitative Approaches to its Correlation with Modernization

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