Dr Hartmut Holzknecht has joined the Customary Land Solutions team.   Hartmut is a social anthropologist specialising in natural resource tenure systems and property relations.  A citizen of Papua New Guinea, his particular expertise is in customary land in Melanesia.  His recent work has been in climate change and its implications for customary resource owners (in particular in Melanesia). He is a very experienced fieldworker and often involved as a facilitator in various contexts, a supervisor for project/program development and implementation and as a mentor for local communities, trainees and younger professionals.

Hartmut has previously worked with Spike and John as a facilitator at the USP/RICS/UN FAO South Pacific Land Tenure Conflict Symposium, as well as collaborating with them on the ‘Review of Customary Property Rights and Formal and Informal Institutions for Economic Development and Conflict Minimisation’ project for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.  His depth of expertise on customary land in PNG, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, is a welcome addition to the transdisciplinary CLS team.