Bryant Allen, BA, MA (Hons) (Massey), PhD (ANU), Senior Fellow and Acting Head, Department of Human Geography; Convenor, Division of Society and Environment and Acting Head, The Pacific Centre

Email: bryant.allen@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

Bryant Allen carried out research in the Cook Islands in the 1960s and in Papua New Guinea from the 1970s to the present. He has taught at Massey University in New Zealand, Flinders University and the University of Papua New Guinea and has been a Visitor at the University of Norwich and a Visiting Fellow at the PNG National Research Institute. His main interests are in the sustainability of agricultural systems and rural development. He has studied a number of PNG agricultural systems and has also with Mike Bourke and Robin Hide, defined, mapped and described all PNG agricultural systems. He has used the agricultural systems databases, to identify poor and disadvantaged areas in PNG, and has worked on food security and on the social and economic aspects of road maintenance. He was the co-leader of the food and water supply assessment teams during the 1997-98 drought and frosts in PNG. He co-edited a special edition of Asia-Pacific Viewpoint in 2001 on agricultural intensification and the PNG Medical Journal on health and the environment in the Tari area in 2002. He is a co-author of the PNG Rural Development Handbook. He works as a consultant for AusAID, FAO and the World Bank.

Research Interests

Agricultural change in Melanesia and Southeast Asia.

Key Publications

• (with D. Porter and G. Thompson) Development in Practice: Paved with Good Intentions, London, Routledge Press, 1991.
•  (with R.L. Hide and R.M. Bourke) 'The sustainability of Papua New Guinea agricultural systems: The conceptual background', Global Environmental Change, 5(4), 297–312, 1995.
• 'The 1997-98 Papua New Guinea drought: Perceptions of disaster', in R.H. Grove and J. Chappell (eds), El Niño: History and Crisis, White Horse Press, Cambridge, 109–122, 2000.
• (with L.W. Hanson, R.M. Bourke and T.J. McCarthy) Papua New Guinea Rural Development Handbook, The Australian National University, Canberra, 326pp, 2001.
• 'Boserup and Brookfield and the association between population density and agricultural intensity in Papua New Guinea', Asia Pacific Viewpoint 42(2/3), 237–254, 2001.
• 'Birthweight and environment at Tari', Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, Focus Issue on Health and the Environment in the Tari Area, 45(1-2), 88–98, 2002.
• 'The place of agricultural intensification in Sepik foothills prehistory', in A. Pawley, R. Attenborough, J. Golson and R. Hide (eds), Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples, Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, 585–624, 2005.
• (with R.M. Bourke and J. Gibson) 'Poor rural places in Papua New Guinea,' Asia-Pacific Viewpoint, 46(2), 201–207, 2005.
• (with J. Gibson, G. Datt, V. Hwang, R.M. Bourke and D. Parajuli)'Mapping poverty in rural Papua New Guinea', Pacific Economic Bulletin, 20(1), 27–43, 2005.
•  (with M. Lowe) Papua New Guinea Roads Priority Study: Review of National Roads in Papua New Guinea. Land Management Group, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2006.
• 'The setting: Land, economics and development in the Southern Highlands', in N. Haley and R.J. May (eds), Conflict and Resource Development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Studies in State and Society in the Pacific 3, ANU E-Press, 35–46, http://epress.anu.edu.au/conflict_citation.html, 2007.
• (with R.M. Bourke) 'Can rural development alleviate poverty in Papua New Guinea?' Development Bulletin 72, 30–35, 2007.
• (with R. Sengere and W. Susuke) 'The rehabilitation of coffee plantations in Papua New Guinea: The case of Obihaka', Pacific Economic Bulletin 23(1), 85–98, 2008.

Career Highlights

Lecturer, UPNG (1974-81); Research Fellow, PNG Institute of Social and Economic Research (1980-82); Research Fellow ANU (1982-92); Senior Fellow (1992 to present); Head of Department of Human Geography (1998-2001, 2005, 2006-7), Deputy Convenor, Division of Society and Environment, 2005-7, Convenor 2008-.