Monograph Abstracts

The Governance of Common Property in the Pacific Region

Abstract

In a region where mining, forestry, fish and other primary resources are so basic to income, employment and national prosperity, an understanding of rights to land, water and minerals is fundamental. Tenure regimes in the Asia-Pacific region are vastly more diverse and complex than in those of any other part of the world for comparable population numbers. These studies will overcome the simplistic misunderstandings that have obscured understanding in so many instances. This book provides an up-to-date overview of the main patterns of indigenous property rights, particularly those held by corporate groups, in the South Pacific Forum region (Australia, New Zealand and the independent Pacific island nations) plus a valuable comparative chapter on Canada. It explores the relative success and failure of a variety of approaches to the management of these complex systems, and offers insights and suggestions for the amelioration of present and likely future stresses in the systems. It is a valuable contribution to the understanding of both governance and property, and to the effective sociopolitical development of the region.

Contents

1. Introduction, Peter Larmour
2. Changing Forms of Communal Tenure, R. Gerard Ward
3. Resolving Property Issues as a Precondition for Growth: Access to Land in the Pacific Islands, Satish Chand and Ron Duncan
4. It's the Land, Stupid!: The Moral Economy of Resource Ownership in Papua New Guinea, Chris Ballard
5. Customary Land Tenure and Common/Public Rights to Minerals in Papua New Guinea, Andrew A.L. Lakau
6. Improving Security of Access to Customary-Owned Land in Melanesia: Mining in Papua New Guinea, Ron Duncan and Rod Duncan
7. Common Property, Maori Identity and the Treaty of Waitangi, Sir Hugh Kawharu
8. Common Property and Regional Sovereignty: Relations between Aboriginal Peoples and the Crown in Canada, Peter J. Usher
9. Property, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination in Australia, Henry Reynolds
10. Common Property Regimes in Aboriginal Australia: Totemism Revisited, Deborah Bird Rose
11. Cooperative Approaches to Marine Resource Management in the South Pacific, Colin Hunt
12. Common Property Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks: Tuna in the Pacific, Janaline Oh
13. Common Property Conflict and Resolution: Aboriginal Australia and Papua New Guinea, Kilyali Kalit and Elspeth Young