Managing the transition from logging to mining in post-conflict Solomon Islands

Matthew G. Allen*, Douglas J. Porter

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    12 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Set against the backdrop of a recent low-level civil war in which distributional tensions over natural resources played an important role, this paper draws upon Solomon Islands' experience with commercial logging, and its more limited experience to date with large-scale mining, to ask what the political economic impacts of an anticipated expansion in mining activity might look like. Employing comparative literature on political settlements and the political economy of extractive industries, we analyze the potential for the development of institutional arrangements that will be better able to manage the familiar but intensified social and political economic contestation that an expansion of large-scale mining is likely to engender. While an array of institutional reforms - which we canvass - would present ways to tackle these contestations, especially their salient spatial dimensions, ultimately we are skeptical about the likelihood that Solomon Islands' political elites will invest in them and concerned about the prospect of a return to violence at the intersection of landowner disintegration and provincial-national government tensions over benefit-sharing.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)350-358
    Number of pages9
    JournalExtractive Industries and Society
    Volume3
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2016

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