Community Aspirations for Human Security in the Lolihor Watershed Area:

Their Implications to Strengthening Local

Capacities for Project Development and Implementation

Prepared by:

UNDP-OPS PACIFIC REGIONAL EQUITABLE

AND SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (ESHDP)

In cooperation with

National Planning and Statistics Office

Department of Local Government

Ambrym Local Government Council

North Ambrym Area Council

Profitable Environmental Protection (PEP) Project of FSP

And the Chiefs and people of Lolihor

May 1994

REPORT ON THE LOLIHOR WATERSHED AREA

Community Profiling and Project Identification in Marginal Village Communities

Utilizing the Human Security Approach

A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The local capability-building process for Community Profiling and Project Identification was carried out in the Lolihor Watershed Area in North Ambrym from 06 November to 30 November 1993. Thirteen villages, “places” or settlements were covered by intensive social preparation activities involving most households in the area.

A total of 18 national and local development trainers/ community organizers were given both theoretical and practical work on how to assist village communities:

- facilitate consensus on primary human security concerns;

- identify key problems and agree on the root cause which has given rise to the perceived threats to human security;

- determine the appropriate courses of action to take in the face of such threats;

- generate project ideas based on human security concerns and immediate priority needs.

Aside from the informal dialogues or visits in all the settlements, community assemblies were undertaken in the major villages. A total of 140 participants served as resource persons or representatives for their respective clans, villages or groups, including religious, women and youth groups.

The following major findings/ conclusions were derived from the community dialogues, “workshops,” and village immersions undertaken by the national and local trainers under the ESHDP training program:

1. Ownership of land, or having access to its use, is central to the sense of human security of households, clans and villages in Lolihor.

The people from the various villages said “haryelyelan tone ruan gerwuten” or changing for a better life would not be possible unless:

- each family has enough pieces of land as source of food both for home consumption and traditional and Christian feasts;

- each member of the family has his or her own piece of land, or has access to additional pieces of land as source of cash for school fees, medicines, transport fare, uniform for football team, contributions to the school and for needs requiring cash.

2. The resource persons from the villages noted that the ownership f more than 50% of Lolihor’s cultivable area is under dispute. Religious and political difference amongst clans and villages in the area stern from this basic conflict.

The 44 sq. km. Land in Lolihor rises to 1175 m. elevation. The intact rainforest protects the steep slopes above 800 m. elevation, the current boundary for the subsistence gardens. The villages are all below 300 m. elevation, spread out in an 8 sq. km. Area, where most of the disputed land is located. These settlements contained 950 people head-counted during the profiling activity at each village.

3. The dispute over land ownership has given rise and, in some cases, intensified existing inert-clan or inter-village conflicts.

A bululm or clan disputing a land claim normally detaches itself from the main village, sets up its own religion, joins another sect or congregation, or affiliates itself to a different political party.

4. The people said these conflicts affected the sitting of development projects, e.g. the location of health aid posts, schools, water supply systems. All these are on disputed land which prevent local communities and government agencies to plan for their expansion or to adopt long-range planning. There were cases of water pipes being removed by a party to a land dispute thus depriving entire villages of water supply.

5. A rapid survey of 24 bululms undertake in three villages (Fanla, Fanrarao and Ranon) as part of the community profiling activity showed that the 53 member families own a total of 129 pieces of land. In Lolihor, on account of the land disputes, nobody gives information on the size of a piece of land.

The participants in the village profiling workshops noted that there were 7 pieces considered as “big lands” (plantation; land “from the sea to the mountain”; land “from the middle of Ranon to the mountain.”). Excluding these big landholdings, each family in the survey owns or has access to an average of two pieces of land.

Noting that a village in Lollihor has an average of 5 to 8 births a year, the participants predicted that certain families and bululms will be in trouble in the coming years. In fact, the participants could identify the large-sized families which have fewer or smaller pieces of land.

6. With the increase in population and the greater demand for cash on account of new aspirations (education, health, trip to Port Vila, etc.), It is expected that the hunger for land will intensify.

It was noted that the area opened for cultivation increased by almost a kilometer each year into the surviving rainforest. It has been estimated that with the current rate, the intact rainforest will be gone in less than 10 years.

7. Some participants reported that serious damage to the environment remains unattended particularly in land under dispute. Severe cases of forest burning and soil erosion were cited in large sections of the prime land under dispute.

8. The consensus was that concrete steps should be taken to resolve current conflicts over land.

Resolving these conflicts will lead to:

- more land available for development projects;

- greater impetus to food production both for home food security and cash generation;

- relieving the pressure on the rainforest by opening vast tracts of land below the current limits to the garden;

- greater inter-village unity and cooperation since the underlying cause for most religious and political difference amongst the settlements can be traced to basic conflicts.

9. On how to resolve the land-based conflicts, the participants pointed out that the present system implemented by the government if too costly and tedious for all the parties concerned. They recommended a system based on previous indigenous arrangements.

10. As for the vast tracts of land under dispute with former plantation owners, the participants urged Government to decide once and for all the manner of payment for the property. In this way, the kastom owner can be more definite in allowing the use of the land for developmental purposes.

11. It was the consensus that resolving the existing conflicts over land ownership and use in Lolihor will significantly enhance local capabilities to arrest current threats to human security in the area.

They assessed varied experiences with past projects and were encouraged to draw lessons. A number of project ideas were generated.

These project ideas will have to be developed in the light of the human security concerns articulated by the village communities. A framework has been suggested towards this end.

B. METHODOLOGY

The UNDP-OPS Pacific Regional Equitable and Sustainable Human Development Program (ESHDP) implemented the initial village level capability-building program in cooperation with the Government of Vanuatu, through the NPSO and the Department of Local Government, and the Profitable Environmental Protection (PEP) Project of FSP.

The methodology consisted of training national and local trainers to undertake the following basic sequential steps:

a. Facilitate community consensus on priority human security concerns in the area and evoke from the people themselves their own perceptions of how to take these concerns into account in overcoming day-to-day development problems:

b. Assist the village communities to determine the interrelationships of problems, the underlying cause of most problems which undermine human security, and identify possible courses of action which can create the most impact on these problems;

c. Generate project ideas from each village community based on the people’s own observations and insights, their perception on the success and failure of past projects, and on what they consider to be threats to their human security.

d. Assist the village communities and/ or Lolihor watershed community to further develop the project ideas using a human security framework.

A training design was prepared which dealt in detail on how to carry out this methodology. The national and local trainers were given intensive inputs on participatory approaches, the use of Human Security as the focus for identifying problems and determining possible strategic actions.

The design also included: a) consultative meeting with the Ambrym Local Government Council; and b) project identification workshop which involved all sectors of the Lolihor community in assessing the results of the village profiling activity and agreeing on possible projects.

C. MAJOR FINDINGS FROM THE PROFILE

Lolihor as land of conflicts

Almost two hundred years ago, the people of Lolihor started carving out their villages from the wilderness down the slopes of two active volcanoes. These villages are now locked in intense conflicts over land ownership as well as religious and political affiliations.

Most people believe resolving some of these conflicts is a necessary precondition to systematically improving their situation in the area. In a series of dialogues, “workshops,” and community immersions recently undertaken for a month in the Lolihor watershed area, the people in all the villages identified the resolution of these conflicts as their priority need. They perceived these conflicts as the main threat to human security in the area.