On the basis of a Solomon Islands case study, we report that tropical rainforests hitherto perceived as untouched, pristine, virgin, etc., are actually sites of former settlement, extensive forest clearance, and irrigated/swidden agriculture. An unusually wide range of sources—rainforest ecology, forest classification and mapping, ethnobotany, land-use history, oral traditions, ethnographic and archaeological observations—supports our conclusions. These observations have bearings for contemporary perspectives on scenarios for rainforest regeneration after logging. They also force a revision of certain assumptions concerning Melanesian prehistory and historical demography, and indicate that interdisciplinary links between botany, archaeology and social anthropology are needed to achieve a better appreciation of rainforest dynamics.
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1 August 2003
Rainforest Composition and Histories of Human Disturbance in Solomon Islands
Tim Bayliss-Smith,
Edvard Hviding,
Tim Whitmore
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AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
Vol. 32 • No. 5
August 2003
Vol. 32 • No. 5
August 2003