An economists attempt to understand small island communities

As part of the research project “Shadow of the Future”, I traveled to Solomon Islands, where I spend 6 weeks on a very remote island group called the Reef Islands. Our goal was to study how the threat of sea level rise might affect behavior and preferences of people living very low-lying islands. Our idea was that knowing that you will probably have to migrate soon, might change how people behave towards each other and their environment. One part of my research was to conduct focus group discussions. I usually invited around six people from a village to talk about how their village was organized, what problems they were facing, how they were dealing with these problems, and what they thought the future would bring. At the end of each discussion, I asked the people what they think would improve their life the most: “Suppose you had the opportunity to ask your Government or a NGO for something specific that would really improve your lives here on the island. What would that be?”

In the first focus group, the participants unanimously agreed that what they needed most are water tanks. The island is too small for a well and the village has only few small containers to store rainwater. “When there is no rain, we have no water and all we can drink is coconut water. If we run out of coconuts, we don’t have anything to drink until it rains again.” The second focus group took place in a somewhat larger village. The people there had a well and several large water tanks to collect and store rainwater. Water shortage was not really a problem, but the people were poor. They were unable to purchase even the smallest necessities such as plates, mugs or anything else that wasn’t absolutely necessary for survival. “We have all this rare fish and craps in the sea” I was told “but we cannot sell it.” The next marketplace is on an island a three-hour motorboat trip away. For most people the trip itself is too expensive. “If we had a way to store larger quantities of fish we could make larger shipments and make some money to buy the things we really need.” The third focus group took place on an island surrounded by corals teeming with fish, craps and all sorts or sea life. In the village, there were two large water tanks for the whole community. Some households had an additional smaller tank for their own private use. What stood out, however, were two large solar panels in the middle of the village. The villagers told us that a NGO came by last year and gave them the fridge and the two solar panels to power it. I was excited. It seemed this village had it all. No worries about food or water security, plenty of natural resources and even the possibility to turn their resources into money. “How much fish do you have stored? How often to you make the trip to sell fish?” I asked. All I got were confused looks. The fridge was empty.

As it turned out, the fridge was mainly used to cool water, not to store fish. Occasionally, one or two families would work together to fish and fill the freezer as much as they could. Then they would load their boat and make the trip to the nearest market place. However, this was usually not profitable. Mainly, so I was told, because the boats were not loaded to full capacity.

Needless to say, I was confused. “Why are there not more families working together? The more fish you transport on your boat, the higher your profits. Why do people even take this trip with half loaded boats?” Patiently the villagers explained to me that it wasn’t that easy. Some families didn’t like each other and wouldn’t work together. Moreover, the more people involved the more complicated it became. Who was covering what costs and how much does everyone get in the end? For example, does the owner of the boat get some money for providing the boat? If so, everyone who owns a boat might demand that his boat will be used. The same problem arises with the skipper, the containers and the fishing materials. Additionally, there was also the issue of who decides what will be transported back from the market.

I couldn’t believe it. To me, these seemed to be quite solvable problems. Is that really what is holding them back? Later, during the focus group discussion I asked again what people thought would improve their lives the most. The answer was clear: “We need bigger ships so we can transport much more fish and sell it somewhere where we can get a higher price.”

The last island we visited was the smallest and most remote island on our tour. With only 14 households and very little space, it was also the poorest village. The focus group was very slow going. On the one hand, the villagers were very forthcoming and eager to participate. On the other hand, they didn’t seem to want to talk about their problems. So, I changed it up a little and asked them what changed over the last generation. It went somewhat like this:

Villagers: “Food security is real problem here. We have very small gardens and only a few crops will grow.”

Me: “How was it in the past? Was it possible for you parents to grow more crops?”

Villagers: “No, it was the same. Actually, it was much worse. Today, we have cooking bananas and even some fruits. Our parents didn’t had those.”

Me: “How is it going with fishing?”

Villagers: “Fishing is so much easier today than it used to be. Nowadays, we have nets to fish and torches to go diving at the night. We even have motorboats to catch larger fish if we want to.”

Me: “You mentioned before that water security is a problem. Is it more of a problem today than it used to be?”

Villagers: “Actually, it is so much better than before. Today, we have coconuts. If we run out of water, we can drink coconuts! Our parents only had the little coconuts with much less water.”

After we went through all possible issues I could think of, the villagers cheerfully concluded that they don’t have any real problems. Again, I asked what they think could really improve their lives on the island. “It is an island”, they explained to me. “It’s a small island with lots of coconut trees and fish in the water. If you want anything more, then you have to leave the island. Sure, we could use a water tank or a solar panel, but that wouldn’t change our lives much. If you want to buy stuff you need money, and for that, you have to work in the city. Everyone knows that.”