Stimulating investment in pearl farming in ... - World Fish Center

Despite its present weaknesses, effective sub-national government at island level is crucialto providing a secure environment for rural business. Steps are being taken now withinternational assistance to rebuild competent provincial government able to maintain closetouch with rural communities. In the background are the constitutional review process andthe possibility that provinces may become states in a federal system.In any case, commercial investors in rural locations will need to maintain good workingrelations with provincial or state government at political and official levels. Timelyconsultation in planning, legal compliance and transparency of dealings are critical.1.6 The ethnic conflict of 1998-2003The ethnic 1 fragmentation of the country acts as a brake on economic development, butpolitically it has also tended to act as a stabilising factor—it has been difficult to build acritical mass of support for radical policies that would be positive or negative fordevelopment. This appearance of multi-ethnic stability suffered a severe blow in 1998-2003 with the eruption of violent conflict and subsequent establishment of gun-rule inHoniara, Guadalcanal and parts of Malaita, and intermittently in Western Province.Known as ‘the tensions’, the upheaval was specifically triggered by extremist elementsfrom Guadalcanal, who tapped into a pool of dislike and mistrust over inward migrationand settlement, particularly from Malaita, and resulting unresolved disputes over land thathad grown up in North Guadalcanal over several decades. Successive governments hadfailed to intervene in any significant way despite being asked many times to do so.The disastrous outcome included an estimated two hundred violent deaths, physical andmental suffering and loss of property for many thousands of people, the collapse of theethnically-split police as a disciplined force, and the overthrow of the elected governmentin an armed coup in June 2000. Though a peace process was initiated by civil society andexternal assistance, and a general election was successfully held in late 2001, it was notuntil June 2003 that the rule of armed gangs and their leaders was ended (next section).The most sustained violence occurred in Guadalcanal between persons from that islandand from Malaita, the latter armed and assisted by Malaitan police. At the same time morewidespread violent incidents and the broad psychological trauma of the conflict had adestabilising effect in other parts of the country. The damage to ethnic ‘neighbourliness’and sense of nationhood has been substantial. Continued population growth and migrationfrom the more populated and resource-poor islands (Malaita, Reef Islands) to those withmore space and possibility of work (Guadalcanal, Isabel and the New Georgia group)mean that the risk of further ethnic violence cannot be ignored.Investors in rural areas need to be aware of this history. They need to actively foster goodrelations with neighbouring communities, maintain an ethnic composition in theirworkforce that minimises friction, and be alert for signs of tension in and around theirinvestment so as to identify its causes and organise ways of alleviating them. There areseveral examples in the tourism sector of investments that have successfully done this, andthey are worth studying. They tend to be on a similar scale to a potential oyster farm.1 In current Solomon Islands’ usage ‘ethnic’ more often refers to island or language group identity than to race.5