Nahona`ara means ‘facing the `ara’, the place where the southeast winds meet the land just west of Point Cruz. Nahona`ara became Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands with a population of 160,000, the only significant urban centre in a nation of 721,000 people. Honiara: Village-City of Solomon Islands views Honiara in several ways: first as Tandai traditional land; then as coconut plantations between the 1880s and 1930s; within the British protectorate (1893–1978) and its Guadalcanal District; in the 1942–45 war years, which created the first urban settlement; in the directly post-war period until 1952 as the new capital of the protectorate, replacing Tulagi; and then as the headquarters of the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) between 1953 and 1974. Finally, in 1978, Honiara became the capital of the independent nation of Solomon Islands and the headquarters of Guadalcanal Province. The book argues that over decades there have been four and sometimes five changing and intersecting Honiara ‘worlds’ operating at one time, each of different social, economic and political significance. The importance of each group—British, Solomon Islanders, other Pacific Islanders, Asians, and more recently the 2003–17 presence of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI)—has changed over time.

Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are two small states that have struggled to develop successful social policies since independence. This study traces their social histories and examines factors that have hindered progress. Future development requires a move away from traditional social structures and a focus on political stability and economic growth.

This book presents a detailed case study of ecological and cultural interactions between the people and their natural environment at Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands, a land of rich biodiversity. This volume documents the subsistence lifestyle of the people and their indigenous ecological knowledge, analyzes the effects of recent socioeconomic changes on the people and ecosystem, and proposes future directions for sustainability. The contents have been designed to answer questions such as, “What kinds of factors have determined whether current human actions are sustainable or will result in a collapse of biocultural diversity in the Solomon Islands?”; “How do Solomon Islanders recognize nature and biodiversity conservation in traditional ways or under socioeconomic changes?”; and “How can harmony between humans and nature be achieved in the Solomon Islands under changing socioeconomic conditions?” A truly transdisciplinary approach is applied, integrating theories of human ecology, quantitative ethnobiology, and folk ecology and methods of vegetation surveys, ethnographic fieldwork, remote sensing, and health surveys, in order to link different domains of humans and the natural world. In addition, this work focuses on the importance of understanding of diversity not only in natural environments, but also in human societies, and will be a valuable source for many, especially ecologists, anthropologists, conservation practitioners, and rural development planners.

"An account of the 1998-2003 crisis, a critical review of the major interpretations and an investigation of the underlying causes ... [and] analyses the post-coup period up to the arrival of RAMSI in July 2003"--Introd.

This comprehensive and systematic survey of all the countries of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands - from Afghanistan to Vietnam - presents statistics, directory material and informative essays on topics relating to contemporary and historical events in the region as a whole.