Our Mission

Statement of Principles

Melanesian Geo Magazine is a grassroots publication which focuses on the people and environment of Melanesia. We are based in the Solomon Islands, and in Fiji. This initiative combines a mixture of scientific research, backpack journalism, creative writing, and local story – telling in Melanesia.

Our Mission and Goals
•To bring an awareness of environmental and social issues affecting the people and ecosystems of Melanesia.
•To engage with and encourage local researchers, writers, and critics to have a say about issues concerning the environment and society in Melanesia.
•To engage in this new form of online publishing.
•To provide information for students wanting to learn something about Melanesia.

With truthful and reflective articles by individuals who reside in, or who have a concern for Melanesia, Melanesian Geo offers a forum for information and participation in conservation, community education, and sustainable development. Readers will not only learn about environmental issues in Melanesia, but may also contribute to conservation and sustainable resource management efforts through the exchange of ideas, debate, or by being directed to avenues, establishments or institutions where immediate action may be taken.

Purpose of this publication
• To provide an alternative reader friendly journal for local writers, researchers, and civil society groups throughout Melanesian to contribute to.
• To raise awareness of contemporary social and environmental issues that impact the Melanesian environment and its people.
• To provide current and up to date research data and information about Melanesia for students, researchers, and tourists.
• To help record and store by user friendly medium information that is the intellectual property of Melanesia and it’s people and should be made available in a simple way to the populace.
• To empower local communities and leaders by providing information in order to make responsible choices and decisions to development.

Research:
• MG seeks to empower local research opportunities in Melanesia by providing an awareness and responsiveness of the social and environmental issues in the region.
• MG seeks to provide information on relevant foundations/grant agencies that are applicable to local research students/young conservationists/local charitable organizations.
• MG provides an avenue for publicity and coverage of social and environmental issues in Melanesia.
• MG seeks to provide an avenue to network between various local and overseas researchers working in Melanesia.

How Melanesian Geo works
Melanesia covers six countries, West Papua (Indonesia), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, and New Caledonia. The writers and contributors to Melanesian Geo live in different countries within the Melanesian region and are engaged in various disciplines. These include scientific research, journalism, conservation, photography, tourism, and education and development.

We want to be a voice for grassroots people in Melanesia and encourage residents of the region to have a say as to what’s happening to their communities, and to the environment around the region. For this reason we go for stories that fail to be noticed by or make the mainstream media reporting. We report on stories in fair flung places, remote villages, and places that are generally not known or heard of by the outside world. Our coverage and magazine carries a highly illustrated feel, and is graced with beautiful photographs of the people, places, wildlife, and general landscape of this vast, yet fragile region of earth.

We hope you learn something new about Melanesia, and are encouraged to do your bit for the earth. This can be by supporting and encouraging the sustainable use of earth’s resources where you live, by making choices as to how best you can lessen your carbon emissions, by not littering (littering is a major problem in Melanesian urban centers), by looking after your marine resources and not over harvesting them, by not harvesting unwontedly large tracts of tropical rainforests, by helping protect biodiversity in all its forms, and by generally making simple choices that will ensure the long term well being of your surrounds – your environment.