This paper explores a contemporary coupled human-environmental system on a small island in the South West Pacific. It describes the historical change of the resource management strategies, notably the agricultural land use, in this former subsistence system. Our conceptual mindset draws on Boserup’s classic theories of land use intensification as well as on her more recently proposed heuristic framework to describe development processes that underpin land use system change. We illustrate how land use has become partially disconnected from the local population pressure and therefore remains relatively stable while the larger livelihood portfolio has undergone significant diversification. At present, the agricultural system is a supplement to a range of strategies that support the increasing number of people on the island. This explains why land use patterns continue relatively unchanged while livelihood and food supply strategies have changed.