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Ms Gina Koczberski

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PhD.  University of Sydney, M.A (research), University of New England, Armidale, B.A (Hons First Class), University of New England.

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    • Role:
    • ECR Fellow
    • Department:
    • School of Social Sci & Asian Languages
    • Location:
    • Humanities 327
    • Telephone:
    • +61 8 9266 7482

Gina Koczberski is a Geographer and an experienced fieldworker with research interests in smallholder livelihood practices, socio-economic change, and rural development in Papua New Guinea.

Since 2000 she has been involved in several research projects examining socio-economic constraints on smallholder oil palm and cocoa production in PNG, with an emphasis on examining how changing demographic, economic and social circumstances influence household relations of production and strategies of commodity crop production.  Also Gina has conducted several fieldtrips to PNG to examine how rural and urban migrants, as 'outsiders'  access and maintain rights to customary land to pursue livelihoods in their new 'homes'.

Gina is joint Chief Investigator (with G. Curry) on an ARC Discovery Grant (2005-2007), 'Contested Landscapes and Divided Communities. The Struggle for Place and Belonging in Papua New Guinea'.  The study examines the growing tensions over land and related socio-economic issues between customary landowners and migrants at sites of high in-migration, such as informal urban settlements and the oil palm land settlement scheme.  This research is investigating the ways that land-poor migrants are entering into a broad range of informal arrangements with customary landowners to gain short and long-term access to land.  She has recently completed a study (with G. Curry and The Nature Conservancy, PNG) on Village-Based Marine Resource Use and Rural Livelihoods in Kimbe Bay, PNG.

Publications

Books (Authored, Research)

  • Curry, G, Nailina, R, Omuru, E, and Koczberski, G. 2007. Farming or Foraging? Household Labour and Livelihood Strategies Amongst Smallholder Cocoa Growers in Papua New Guinea. Perth, Western Australia: Black Swan Press.

Book Chapters (Authored, Research Quality)

  • Koczberski, G, and Curry, G. 2007. Seeds of discontent: oil palm and the changing production strategies among smallholders in Papua New Guinea. In Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Paicif: Between local and global, eds John Connell and Eric Waddell, 108-126. London and New York: Routledge.

Refereed Articles (Scholarly Journals)

  • Curry, G, Koczberski, G, and Imbun, B. 2009. Property rights for social inclusion: Migrant strategies for securing land and livelihoods in Papua New Guinea. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 50(1): 29-42.
  • Koczberski, G, and Curry, G. 2009. Finding Common Ground: relational concepts of land tenure and economy in the oil palm frontier of Papua New Guinea. The Geographical Journal 175(2): 98-112.
  • Koczberski, G. 2007. Loose Fruit Mamas: Creating Incentives for Smallholder Women in Oil Palm Production in Papua New Guinea. World Development 35: 1172-1185.
  • Koczberski, G, and Curry, G. 2005. Making a living: Land pressures and changing livelihood strategies among oil palm settlers in Papua New Guinea. Agricultural Systems 85: 324-339.
  • Curry, G, and Koczberski, G. 2004. Divided communities and contested landscapes: Mobility, development and shifting identities in migrant destination sites in Papua New Guinea. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45: 357-371.
  • Curry, G, Selwood, J, and Koczberski, G. 2001. Cashing Out, Cashing In: rural change on the south coast of Western Australia. Australian Geographer 32: 109-124.