The Role of Faith-based Organizations in Environmental Governance: the Case of Forestry in Solomon Islands

Abstract

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have played a significant role in environment-related forms of development and governance in Melanesia, including the Solomon Islands. Yet despite their centrality, there remain significant gaps in understandings of processes and outcomes associated with FBO engagement in environment-related development interventions. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the place of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), an indigenous FBO active in plantation forestry (and other activities) in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands. We find that the CFC possesses impressive income-generating potential and political networks; however this does not always translate into positive social, economic or environmental outcomes at the village level. While FBOs such as CFC are often championed as playing an important role in environmental governance in an under-resourced nation state, the reality is that they can fall well short in delivering appropriate outcomes for poor communities or the environment despite, and because of, their close ties to target communities.

Key Words:

• Church
• community forestry
• environmental governance
• faith-based organizations
• Solomon Islands

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by Henry Boer, David Burch, Larren Gomese, Rose and Gideon Burrow in completion of this fieldwork. Thank you to all those who kindly agreed to participate in this study. We also wish to thank the insights provided by two anonymous reviewers. This work was conducted by staff (Lyons and Walters) employed at the University of Queensland, and a student (Riddell) engaged in research as part of a Masters of Development Practice thesis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Australian Agency for International Development, the Australian government's aid delivery organization, absorbed into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2013.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under the grant [ACIAR/FST/2012/043] Enhancing Economic Opportunities Offered by Community and Smallholder Forestry in the Solomon Islands.