Melanesia's violent environments: Extractive resource industries, agrarian change and conflict in the Western Pacific

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Large-scale mining activities were deeply implicated in the armed conflicts on the islands of Bougainville (1989-98) and Guadalcanal (1998-2003). Island Melanesia is now on the brink of a major new mining boom, compelling an urgent reconsideration of the relationships between mining, violence and political fragmentation in this island region. This project will focus on the role of agrarian change and patterns of socio-economic inequality at different geographical scales, a poorly understood dimension of these relationships. The results will contribute to the development of policy approaches that minimise the risk of further violence, while also offering new theoretical insights into the complex global phenomenon of 'resource conflict'.