The Office of the Solomon Islands Prime Minister and Cabinet has launched the Government's national research programme into the country's customary land tenure laws this week.
The qualitative research programme will be carried out in six regions in Solomon Islands which have been selected as pilot project sites. The sites were identified in Western, Guadalcanal and Malaita provinces.A statement from the Government Communication Unit said that the launch commenced with the publication of sets of questionnaires in all local newspapers which will guide researchers during the survey.
The research questionnaires will be translated into the languages of the people living in the research target-sites, to be administered by field researchers.
A training workshop for selected researchers will be held during the first week of August 2012.
More than forty (40) researchers will take part in the pilot project. The actual field research will commence towards the end of August, 2012.
The Government Communication Unit says the research is the biggest legal and anthropological investigation ever to be carried out into the country's customary land law since the declaration of Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate in 1896 right up to and after Independence thirty four (34) years ago.
The pilot research project will take up to six months.
Source: Press Release, Government Communications Unit