Implications and recommendations for conservation and development from

Despite the limitations discussed above, this thesis has provided findings that are relevant to both conservation and development, in the Solomon Islands and more generally. Firstly, this thesis has demonstrated the value of a participatory approach for measuring wealth inequality, which is suitable for areas with limited engagement with a cash economy, complex family and tribal ties, and an absence of basic infrastructure. I

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found the results from this approach to be well correlated with household expenditure and that it provided insights into poverty, in a manner that was appropriate to the local context. This participatory approach could improve the effectiveness of community- based conservation through identifying the poor and exploring local poverty in other regions. The knowledge gained from this exercise could then be used to develop appropriate strategies to address the underlying causes of poverty, alongside providing a baseline measure from which to monitor impacts of any intervention.

Secondly, in recognition of the contributions that natural resources make to livelihoods of poorer households in Kahua, efforts should be taken to improve the sustainability and security of this relationship. In Kahua, the proportion of income earned from natural resources by poorer households was higher than found in other studies (Chapter 5, section 5.4.2). This may reflect that the market economy was introduced far later than in other developing regions (Furusawa and Ohtsuka 2006), and so there remains a distinct lack of options for income generation, but a growing need for cash income as people become more integrated into the market economy. As with other areas around the world, the collection of natural resources is an activity that is generally available to all households, but one that is more likely to be exploited by poorer households with limited land resources and other assets (e.g. Fisher 2004; Shackleton and Shackleton 2006; Fu et al. 2009). The use of natural resources clearly plays a vital role in

supporting daily livelihoods of poorer households in Kahua. To improve the

sustainability and security of this livelihood resource, efforts could include assessing the feasibility of cultivation and sustainable management of species identified by local communities as important to livelihoods (e.g. Pandanus sp.). However, how the use of such natural resources could assist these households to accumulate assets or improve their standard of living remains less clear. Other studies have concluded that the use of

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natural resources are more central to preventing the deepening of poverty, rather than lifting people out of poverty (Shackleton et al. 2007).

Thirdly, this thesis highlighted the critical role that inequalities can play in constraining access to different livelihood opportunities, which has wider implications for

conservation and development initiatives to ensure they do not exacerbate inequalities. For example, the lower involvement of poor households in cash cropping suggests that the poor have less access to such income sources, either through a lack of initial land holding assets and/or other assets such as education or labour. Thus, this thesis indicates there is a need for development initiatives to go beyond conventional income generation projects, to include support for differential land and resource access

(McSweeney and Coomes 2011), which will most likely require institutional reform. However, this may be particularly challenging in Kahua and across the wider Melanesian region because of the somewhat unique customary land tenure. This collective ownership of land and natural resources by descent-based groups means that development and conservation initiatives need to operate differently in this region. Customary land tenure has been considered to present an insurmountable barrier to commercial agriculture and foreign investment, as there are multiple claimants to a particular parcel of land, no strong tradition of delegated authority, and no statute of limitations with regards to customary claims (Fukuyama 2008; Haque 2012).

Consequently there are added challenges for landowners to convert customary land into alienable property, which both denies potential investors secure tenure, and also inhibits entrepreneurialism by preventing the use of land for collateral to access loans. This may mean that the inequalities arising from land tenure in the Solomon Islands, and across the wider Melanesian region, are more entrenched than in other areas around the world.

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Fourthly, the negative impact of monoculture cocoa on avian diversity, particularly endemic species, should be addressed. My findings in relation to the increasing intensity of land use change and a decrease in endemic species are in line with other tropical island studies in São Tomé (de Lima et al. 2012), and more generally with an increasing body of literature demonstrating habitat specialists to be particularly affected by environmental disturbance (Colles et al. 2009). Specifically, intensive cocoa farming has also been found to have negative impacts on biodiversity in other studies, with declines noted across a wide range of plant and animal taxa (e.g. Lawton et al. 1998; Schulze et al. 2004). The negative impact on biodiversity associated with increasing monoculture plantations fits into recent literature that has found there to be ‘habitat fragmentation threshold’, which once crossed eventually leads to a regime shift (Pardini et al. 2010). This highlights the need to conserve a reasonable amount of native

vegetation cover to maintain high levels of biodiversity and ecological resilience in human-modified landscapes (Pardini et al. 2009). Thus, in Kahua the expansion of monoculture cocoa plantations could be expected to negative impact on endemic biodiversity and ultimately ecosystem functioning. Consequently efforts should be made to prevent the expansion of monoculture plantations in Kahua. For example, this could be achieved through the promotion of planting cocoa as a shade crop. This is where cocoa is planted under the shade of native tree fauna, and has been shown to have improved benefits for both crop yields and biodiversity (Steffan-Dewenter et al. 2007; Waldron et al. 2012). For this to be achieved, small holders will need support in how to mitigate the negative impacts of monoculture cocoa on the environment, such as through increasing the numbers of native shade tree species and planting fruit trees.