ABSTRACT
The debate on “the commons” is cognate with a general debate on whether gardening practices in pre-cash cropping contexts in places such as Papua New Guinea included practices of conservation or not. The issue is difficult to elucidate because observations tend to have been made when cash cropping had already been initiated along with other changes in politics, both in colonial and post-colonial times. Ralph Bulmer, who was the Foundation Professor of Anthropology at the new University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, spent many years on fieldwork in the Kalam area of Madang Province. Bulmer’s approach to the topic is cautious and wide-ranging. Sinclair’s account makes it abundantly clear how important the coffee industry became in Papua New Guinea, especially the Highlands, both to plantation owners and to small-scale producers. The plantation owners were initially expatriates from Australia, often closely linked in with government officials and often also having long-term commitments to Papua New Guinea.
