The core of my work has consisted of generating new empirical data by conducting ethnographic field work on the island of Malaita in Solomon Islands, an archipelago of just over 600,000 inhabitants, situated at the Western Pacific’s logging frontier.
I conducted over 200 interviews with a roughly equal number of women and men living in 14 logging concessions in Malaita province. In addition, I household records that were kept for 30 days by ten households. These records provide insight in income, time expenditure, diets and happiness among people who live in logging concessions.
Based on a selection of the generated empirical data, I led the publication of a professional report called From Happy Hour to Hungry Hour. Logging, fisheries, and food-security on Malaita, Solomon Islands. This open-access, illustrated report was written for local and national audiences in the field of forest governance and gender, but can also be used for scholarly purposes. It presents ethnographic evidence of how logging affects Solomon Islander men and women and how it transforms gender relations, while it also proposes specific measures to protect women’s well-being in forest concessions.
In the report, I call for attention to a number of issues surrounding logging that specifically affect women. Part of these issues relate to women’s livelihoods. For instance, the bulk of women’s fishing activities takes place in mangrove forests, but my research shows that sedimentation caused by upstream logging activity is negatively affecting these forests, which in turn is detrimental to women’s ability to collect shells from them. Moreover, in many logging concessions mangrove forests are clear-cut to facilitate the construction of logging infrastructure. In such situations, women’s fishing grounds disappear altogether. Another issue affecting women’s livelihoods concerns the effects that logging has on freshwater supplies. As fetching water is mainly done by women, pollution and even destruction of water sources as a result of unsustainable logging activities is burdening women in particular.
Aside from the impacts that logging has on livelihoods, my study calls attention to a number of severe social impacts. These include conflicts over the inequitable distribution of benefits from logging, increased alcoholism, increased domestic violence and sexual exploitation of women and girls. While women are profoundly affected by these issues, as they are not part of decision-making processes surrounding logging – which is exclusively a male domain – they seek other ways to influence the situation. For instance, some women have attempted to resist logging, while others find ways to set-up their own timber-milling businesses in the margins of large-scale logging operations. However, what is ultimately needed is commitment from logging companies and governments to safeguarding women’s well-being in forest concessions. To that end I have drafted a Policy Brief and given multiple presentation to share my findings and recommendations with relevant government and civil society organizations. In addition, I have presented my work to different scientific and lay audiences.
