Rainforest Composition and Histories of Human Disturbance in Solomon Islands

Abstract

On the basis of a Solomon Islands case study, we report that tropical rainforests hitherto perceived as untouched, pristine, virgin, etc., are actually sites of former settlement, extensive forest clearance, and irrigated/swidden agriculture. An unusually wide range of sources--rainforest ecology, forest classification and mapping, ethnobotany, land-use history, oral traditions, ethnographic and archaeological observations--supports our conclusions. These observations have bearings for contemporary perspectives on scenarios for rainforest regeneration after logging. They also force a revision of certain assumptions concerning Melanesian prehistory and historical demography, and indicate that interdisciplinary links between botany, archaeology and social anthropology are needed to achieve a better appreciation of rainforest dynamics.

Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement

“…How then did so few people manage to transform so much of the South Island landscape within 200 y? Polynesians had a long history of island colonization that informed their use and management of New Zealand landscapes (7,11,13,(44)(45)(46). Successful establishment of Polynesian populations typically involved intensive use and management of wild terrestrial, freshwater, and marine resources [for example, in New Zealand, moa (family Dinornithidae), freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), and cockles (Austrovenus stutchburyi)].…”

“…Paleoecological records have become an important tool in such assessments because they disclose the enduring effects of prehistoric forest clearance, cultivation, and pastoralism, as well as the consequences of species introductions and extinctions well before 17th century European expansion (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). Globally, ancient land-cover change has been greatest in regions of densely populated agricultural societies (9,10).…”

“…The colonization of islands in Eastern Polynesia by agricultural-based societies [from circa (ca.) A.D. 800] was no exception and was almost always associated with extensive forest clearance, erosion, and biotic extinctions through the introduction of fire, cultigens, weeds, and mammalian predators (7,(11)(12)(13)(14). Similarly, Polynesian (Māori) arrival in the South Island of New Zealand 700-800 y ago was followed by clearance of more than 40% of the native forests (12,15,16).…”

The River, the Water and the Crocodile in Marovo Lagoon

“…Since the early twentieth century, just about all villages in New Georgia have been located in coastal areas, after demographic upheavals and transformations of political economy caused inland settlements and associated large-scale irrigated taro cultivation to be gradually abandoned (Hviding and Bayliss-Smith 2000: 145-52;Bayliss-Smith et al 2003). The demographic pattern shown on present-day maps is, then, a historically specific configuration very different from that of pre-colonial times.…”

“Turist hem istap lo wea?”: Opportunities for and limitations on tourism development in Marovo Lagoon, Western Province, Solomon Islands

“…However, this way of portraying Marovo Lagoon is not appropriate considering the extent to which Marovo people have interacted, traded and negotiated with non-locals over many centuries, and the transformations on the landscape and everyday life these interactions have caused (Bayliss- Smith et al 2003).…”