Conservation as Development in Papua New Guinea: The View from Blue Mountain

Abstract

In the village of Kamu Yali, Papua New Guinea, changes to the customary property rights system are complex and multidirectional and do not support the argument made by some scholars that economic development in the Island Pacific is resulting in an overall tendency toward individualization and de facto privatization of property rights. At Kamu Yali there are simultaneous trends toward the fragmentation of collective landowning groups into smaller units and their consolidation into larger units. These changes appear to be the outcome of the varied efforts villagers are making, individually and collectively, toward fuller participation in regional economic markets and closer articulation with external governmental and nongovernmental organizations. In this paper I argue that, while common property theory helps to shed light on some of these events, the local system has to be understood, most fundamentally, as a mixed property system in which external agencies are playing increasingly dominant roles. Three case studies will be used to illustrate the impact of provincial land courts, external markets in marine resources, and NGO sponsorship of a village project on the local property system.