A New Zealand academic says the economic potential of land in the Pacific is often dismissed.
Massey University Professor Regina Scheyvens and a team of researchers have received funding from the Royal Society's Marsden Fund to investigate the relationship between customary land practices and financial gain.
Ms Scheyvens told Daniela Maoate-Cox land in the Pacific is often talked about as a barrier to economic development.
From left to right: Professor Glenn Banks, Dr Litea Meo-Sewabu and Professor Regina Scheyvens will research customary land practices and financial prosperity in the Pacific.
Photo: Supplied/Regina Scheyvens
Transcript
REGINA SCHEYVENS: We've been concerned for a while about the discourse on land as a barrier to development in the Pacific, especially customary land. There are a lot of people who believe that unless land is freehold it can't be used for economic development, it's not going to be productive, it's not going to be considered as good at attracting foreign investment into the Pacific and we wanted to disrupt those sorts of narratives and showcase some of the positive examples of economic development on customary land and from that to potentially reshape the understandings of economies in the Pacific.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: That's quite a common concern or barrier that's listed is that it's difficult to get land to use, either to grow crops or to sell, but also difficult because there's a limited amount of land in the Pacific, they're quite small islands.
RS: That is the case for some of the islands but when you're looking at the fact that in seven of the Pacific island countries over 80 percent of the land is under customary tenure and that means that most indigenous people in those countries do have enough land on which to at least provide for their own families, that's a significant resource and that's often overlooked. Some commentators are very dismissive of the economic potential of that land, they're very dismissive of subsistence agriculture, of small scale agriculture and again see those things as barriers to progress whereas we're more likely to look at those things on feeding people well nourishing them, the land as having more than just an economic value as well, having a spiritual value, it's significance in connecting people both to their ancestors and to the source of life and livelihood to future generations and so understanding that people's relationships to the land is central to what they're going to want to do with that land in terms of its economic potential.
DM-C: Is there ever a conflict between those views of the spiritual connection to the land and more economic views?
RS: There certainly can be but what we're trying to say is it depends on how you look at the economics I guess and we know there are examples of family businesses and cooperatives on customary land in the Pacific which are true to traditional values but also operate very effectively in the contemporary economy.
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