When the Dipterocarp Falls Down:

Thinking Human and Nature in the Melanesian Anthropocene

Abstract

  This paper focuses on the advancement of commercial logging projects in the West Fataleka region of northern Malaita Island, Solomon Islands, and the new relationship between local people and the power of land. The key concept is the creation of "gap" in both nature and society. This enables us to make an ethnographic description of nature-human relations in contemporary Melanesia. Furthermore, we reflect on ourselves facing the new nature; humanized earth.

  The conclusion of this paper is as follows. The people of Melanesia, confronted with a new and unpredictable nature, are our contemporaries who share the prospect of an unsettled future. Ethnographic accounts of the experiences of these people will pave the way for a Melanesian response to the Anthropocene.