Joy Kisselpar | PNG Edge

Prime Minister Peter ONeill is expected to make an announcement soon on the final recommendations from the Ministerial committee on the Special Agriculture Business Lease system.

It is understood the committee which consists of eight cabinet ministers have met and laid out recommendations on how the government should go about executing recommendations from the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into SABL.

By Jeremy Hance on mongabay.com 

Aerial view of jungle river on the island of New Guinea. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

Commercial banks want the government to change the law to make it easier for land leases to be used as collateral for loans, but their plans are ill-timed as the wider problem of corruption in the Department of Lands remains unresolved and this latest plan could mean the legality of fraudulent leases like the Special Agriculture and Business Leases titles could not be challenged.

The banks have issued a report calling for the authenticity of titles issued by the Department of Lands to be protected so the leases can become bankable.

By Jemima Garrett on Radio Australia

British think-tank Chatham House says Papua New Guinea could improve its international reputation and its forest governance by negotiating a forest partnership agreement with the European Union.

Photo: Papua New Guinea is the world's second largest producer of tropical logs but its timber industry has been under fire. (Credit: ABC licensed) 

Source: The National

NORTHERN Governor Garry Juffa has warned companies and individuals planning to develop natural resources in the province to seek permission from the provincial government first.

He sounded the warning after he was alerted on Tuesday that an overseas company had claimed in a foreign newspaper advertisement that it had secured 100,000 hectares of land in Northern.

From Radio New Zealand

The Governor of Papua New Guinea's Oro Province, Gary Juffa, says the country's new anti-graft commission must be truly independent if it is to work.

The Peter O'Neill-led government has passed legislation to create an Independent Commission Against Corruption.

This comes as the Pomio MP Paul Tiensten was jailed for nine years hard labour this month over the misuse of three point eight million US dollars in public funds.

From Radio New Zealand

A former governor of Papua New Guinea's East New Britain province, Francis Koimanrea, has urged the government to scrap the controversial Special Agricultural Business Lease system.

Under the SABL concept, over 70 long term land leases around PNG have been issued on behalf of landowners to foreign investors purportedly for agriculture projects but in effect mainly for logging.

Dr Thomas Webster

I AM EXPRESSING my grave concern over the views expressed by Politicians regarding the comments and views made by researchers and academics, with a view to silencing them.