Education for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management

Bougainville is the northernmost island of the Solomon Islands archipelago in the southwest Pacific. For historical reasons it is part of the state of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In the region, conflicts over the management of natural resources are common sources of tension. Many of these are in response to problems associated with past and continuing colonial relations. For example, an armed rebellion over the Panguna mine in central Bougainville began as a land dispute following the eviction of traditional landowners, and escalated because ensuing mining activities polluted land and water systems. Mining, forest clearing, and logging are often linked to environmental degradation from unsustainable practices by transnational corporations operating across the Pacific region.