Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to examine the ecology of coconut plantations in the Solomon Islands, focusing on Lever’s Pacific Plantations Limited’s biological pest control during the first half of the twentieth century.

Paper long abstract:

In the estates of Lever’s Pacific Plantations Limited (LPPL) in the Solomon Islands, there were foreign bees, beetles, goats, cows, parasites, flies, moths, birds, and iguanas. There were also exotic grass, bracken, fungus, bacteria, and, of course, alien humans. All of them were there for coconuts. But how were they related to each other?

This paper will discuss how plantations, while intended for monoculture, introduced diverse life forms that were not native or endemic to the land. LPPL was a subsidiary of a British soap giant, Lever Brothers Limited, which became today’s Unilever. To gain cheaper copra and coconut oil, LPPL ran the largest coconut plantations in the Solomon Islands during the first half of the twentieth century. Growing coconut palms in the Pacific, however, posed a great challenge: a continuous battle with pests. LPPL attempted to solve the problem with biological control measures. For example, to rid a type of beetle pest, LPPL introduced parasites that infected the beetles. In order to control moths, LPPL imported a specific bird that preyed on moths. The birds, consequently, attracted iguanas, which resulted in an iguana eradication campaign where human labour was needed. Since LPPL lacked labourers, cattle were introduced to assist humans. By analysing the series of biological controls adopted by LPPL, this paper will map an ecological system of coconut plantations run by LPPL using both historical and scientific sources.