Research Fellow
Social anthropology, Melanesia, land and other natural resource use, management and tenure systems, community and rural development, institutions and institutional change, policy development, socio-economic persistence and change
Phone: + 61 (0)2 6125 8149
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: Hartmut.Holzknecht@anu.edu.au / hartmut68@hotmail.com

Hartmut Holzknecht grew up in Papua New Guinea and is a Papua New Guinea citizen. He did his secondary and tertiary education in Australia and completed a PhD in social anthropology at The Australian National University in Canberra. He speaks some local Papua New Guinea languages as well as the national lingua franca, Melanesian Tok Pisin, German and elementary French. Hartmut has excellent communication, training and liaison skills that are critical at a number of different levels across the whole range of his activities and involvements.

Hartmut Holzknecht is a social anthropologist with major interests in natural and human resource management issues, in resource use and tenure systems and property relations, in socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political persistence and change, in community and rural development issues and in the nexus between human societies and natural resource management. The main area of focus is the Melanesian region of the southwest Pacific.

Professional Activities

As both an academic and an applied anthropologist for almost 30 years, I have been involved in a wide range of activities - mostly focussed in Papua New Guinea and the southwest Pacific - in research, teaching, training, publications and writings, administration, private enterprise, consulting and project work. I have been an active and widely known consultant in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific (at a number of levels in government and non-government engagements, in private enterprise, in aid organizations and multilateral institutions). I continue all these activities as and when required.

I have also worked in private enterprise (as managing director of a large group of companies in Papua New Guinea; member on a number of boards of directors and committees, including a large agricultural cooperative), in the public service (provincial planner, then First Assistant Secretary, Policy, Planning & Coordination in one Papua New Guinea provincial government) and in working in various activities to find ways of making a wide range of appropriate information and support services accessible to the general public and assisting people to get systems and processes to work more to their and their communities' benefit.

At SRES, I am also supervising graduate students up to PhD level. I am preparing a multi-year research program, 'Land in Melanesia: Foundations for Governance, Security and Economic Growth in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands'. I have been involved with Professor Peter Kanowski in an ACIAR-funded scoping study, 'Papua New Guinea Agroforestry', that began on May 1st, 2005 and was completed at the end of February 2006. A three-year follow-on project is at present in the process of being approved by ACIAR. A second ACIAR-funded study on the effectiveness of mobile sawmills in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia is currently under way.

Academic Highlights

Selected Publications

Holzknecht, H. 2005 Models for successful rural development. Development Bulletin. No. 67: 30-32 [Effective Development in Papua New Guinea: Local Initiatives and Community Innovation]

Mandan, T. and H. Holzknecht 2005 'Nanak mutuk': Development through self-reliance in the Burum Valley. Development Bulletin. No. 67: 33-36 [Effective Development in Papua New Guinea: Local Initiatives and Community Innovation]

Kanowski, P., H. Holzknecht and C. Perley (leading convenors) 2005 'Oceania: islands of contrasts', Chapter 18 in G. Mery et al. (eds.) World Forests, Society and Environment Project. Helsinki: International Union of Forest Research Organizations.

Holzknecht, H. 2005 Session Opening and Closing Remarks, 'Overcoming Constraints in Papua New Guinea'. February 18. Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney.

Holzknecht, H. Presentation 'Oceania: islands of contrasts'. IUFRO-WFSE Policy Workshop, January 12-16, Victoria, B.C., Canada [preparing policy brief to accompany WFSE volume for the IUFRO World Congress, Brisbane, August 2005].

Holzknecht, H. 2004 [November 24-26] 'Good News' Conference, Divine Word University, Madang and State, Society and Governance Project, The Australian National University.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2003 Customary Land Tenure Systems: Resilient, Appropriate and Productive. Pp. 18 - 23 in T. Curtin, H. Holzknecht & P. Larmour, Land Registration in Papua New Guinea: Competing Perspectives. Discussion Paper 2003/1. Canberra: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2003 "Customary Land Issues affecting Peri-Urban areas in Melanesia". Keynote presentation to the Colloquium on Peri-Urban Customary Land Issues in Papua New Guinea. Melanesian Land Studies Centre, PNG University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2003 Report II: Social and Community Issues in Middle Ramu and Approaches to Development Options. Report for ACIAR Project FST 98-118. Canberra: Bureau of Rural Sciences.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2002 Land, people and governance: Conflicts and resolutions in the South Pacific. Pp. 8 - 12 in Development Bulletin, Vol. 60 (Dec. 2002; Theme: 'South Pacific Futures'). Canberra: Development Studies Network.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2002 Afterword / Las Tok: Why? What? When? Where? How? Who/By whom? Pp. 257 - 269 in N. Sullivan ed.. Culture and Progress. The Melanesian Philosophy of Land and Development in Papua New Guinea. (Papers from the Divine Word June 2001 Land Symposium). Madang: DWU Press.

Holzknecht, H. A. 2002 Invited participant, South Pacific Land Tenure Conflict Symposium. The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Two presentations: "Regional Contribution: Papua New Guinea' and 'Opportunities, Potentials and Problems in Customary Land Tenure in Forestry-related and other Developments in the South Pacific' (also session chair, discussant and facilitator). [see http://www.usp.ac.fj/landmgmt/symposium/pacificnetworklinks.htm]

Holzknecht, H. A. 2002 Historical Aspects of State Dealings with regard to Registration of Customary Land [June; unpublished]

Holzknecht, H. A. 2002 Land, People and Governance: Conflicts and Resolutions in the South Pacific. Paper presented at the Foundation for Development Cooperation's Development Research Symposium: 'South Pacific Futures'. Brisbane, 22 - 24 July, 2002.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1999 Customary Property Rights and Economic Development in Papua New Guinea. Pp. 139 -164 (Ch. 5) in T. van Meijl & F. von Benda-Beckmann, eds., Property Rights and Economic Development: Land and Natural Resources in Southeast Asia and Oceania. London: Kegan Paul International.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1999 Past, Present and Future: Building on Papua New Guinea's Customary Strengths in Resource Management. Pp. 29-31 in Development Bulletin, Vol. 50 (Oct. 1999; Theme: 'Development: Papua New Guinea perspectives'). Canberra: Development Studies Network.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1999 Papua New Guinea's Rainforests: Policy, Practice, Stakeholders and Resource Management. Pp. 107 - 120 in Environment Papua New Guinea, Collected Papers Series, Volume 1. J. Rivers, F. L. Bein and P. Siaguru, eds. Lae: Environmental Research and Management Centre, Papua New Guinea University of Technology and New Delhi: UBS Publishers' Distributors.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1999 Starke Traditionen. Landbesitz und Landrechte in Papua-Neuguinea. Chapter 6 [pp.67-86] in "Unser Land - Unsere Seele". Pazifikstaaten und Ihre Landrechte, G. Vanselow, editor. Pazifik-Informationsstelle. Neuendettelsau: Pazifik Netzwerke e.V.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1998 Arentz, F., B. Brunton, A. Carothers, L. Cortesi, H. Holzknecht and C. LaFranchi, Sustaining Papua New Guinea's Natural Heritage. An Analysis of the Papua New Guinea National Forest Plan. Boroko: WWF South Pacific Program and Gerehu: Greenpeace Pacific.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1997 Problems of articulation and representation in resource development: The case of forestry in Papua New Guinea. Anthropological Forum, 7(4): 549-573. (Original paper read at the ASAO [Association of Social Anthropologists in Oceania] Meeting, Hawaii, February 1996.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1997 Morobe Province, 1978-1991, pp. 199-227 in R. May and A. Regan with A. Ley (eds.), Political Decentralization in a New State: the Experience of Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea. Bathurst: Crawford House Press.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1997 Pro Bono Publico? Conservation and Appropriate Resource Management Strategies in Papua New Guinea. Ch. 17 (pp. 368-390) in C. Filer (ed.), The Political Economy of Forest Management in Papua New Guinea. NRI Monograph 32. Boroko: Papua New Guinea National Research Institute and London: International Institute for Environment and Development.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1997 Two Sides of the Coin: The Case of Forestry, Chapter 5 (pp. 94-104) in S. Toft (ed.), Compensation for Resource Development in Papua New Guinea, Monograph No. 6. Boroko: Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea, and NCDS Pacific Policy Paper 24. Canberra: Resource Management in Asia-Pacific, and National Centre for Development Studies, The Australian National University.

Holzknecht, H. A. 1995 Papua New Guinea Land Tenure, Land Use and Biodiversity Conservation, Chapter 5 [pp. 59-68] in N. Sekhran and S. Miller (ed.), Papua New Guinea Country Study on Biological Diversity. A Report to the United Nations Environment Program. Waigani, Papua New Guinea: Dept. of Environment and Conservation, Conservation Resource Centre, and Nairobi, Kenya: Africa Centre for Resources and Environment [ACRE].

Holzknecht, H. A. (ed.) 1994 Training Materials for Land Group Facilitation. Hohola: Forest Management and Planning Project [PNG Forest Authority, Groome Poyry Ltd., World Bank].

Holzknecht, H. A. (ed.) 1994 Manual on Land Group Incorporation, Boroko (PNG): Forest Management and Planning Project, Landowner Involvement Component, Working Paper 4.

Brown, M. and Holzknecht, H. A. 1993 An Assessment of Institutional and Social Conservation Issues in Papua New Guinea. In J. Alcorn and B. Beehler eds., PNG Conservation Needs Assessment, Volumes 1 & 2. Waigani: Dept. of Environment and Conservation, Government of Papua New Guinea and Washington: Biodiversity Support Program.