Preservation or Diversification? Ideas and Practices Connected with Sustainability in Vanuatu

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore anthropology’s potential to contribute to reflections on the definition of sustainability. It draws on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in the South Pacific island state of Vanuatu, using as its main methods semi-structured interviews, participant observation and freelisting. This article presents decisions and acts of the inhabitants of the rural village of Siviri regarding both the cultivation of food crops and fishing. It relates findings to a recent anthropological working definition of ‘sustainability’ that emphasises facilitating the necessary conditions for change by building and supporting diversity to address the unpredictability of the future. This definition is opposed to other current definitions that stress the preservation of existing norms. The research results presented here show that, with their decidedly future-oriented ideas and practices, the villagers of Siviri engaged with climate change adaptation projects and workshops regarding conservation and subsequently created new cultivation methods and established a marine conservation area. Additionally, they reduced their engagement in cultivation and diversified their livelihood practices. Referring to theoretical approaches connected with the ‘ontological turn’ in anthropology, it is argued that asking ontological questions reveals fundamental differences between the inhabitants of the village of Siviri and international and national governments and organisations in terms of their conceptualisations connected with sustainability. The article concludes that anthropology can make important contributions to discussions about sustainability that have the potential to improve the dialogue between different stakeholders by showing the alterity of conceptualisations. This may lead to new, localised and contextualised definitions of sustainability.