‘We are happy to tell you the sisimol stories (small stories)’: Reframing what counts as conservation work in the Arnavon Islands, Solomon Islands

Abstract

Funders and governments alike increasingly understand the importance of women's inclusion in environmental conservation and natural resource management across the Pacific region. Despite this recognition, the weight of evidence suggests that entrenched gender inequalities continue to create barriers for women's engagement in conservation management and related projects like those for climate change adaptation. Against the dominant narrative that women are always marginal in environmental management in the Pacific, we draw on the small stories provided by women in communities around the Arnavon Islands in the Solomon Islands to show that in fact women are deeply engaged in conservation efforts and environmental care. Building on the concept of emplaced sustainability, we reframe what counts as the work of environmental conservation to include the mundane, small and everyday activities undertaken by women. Rather than marginal, the collective mundane and everyday work of women takes place alongside the ‘important’ or ‘big’ work of conservation in the region and we argue that both kinds of labouring matter for sustaining ecological livelihoods.