The Department of Lands is one of the most corrupt government Departments in PNG.  It has been slammed by the SABL Commission of Inquiry for its role in facilitating a huge illegal land grab. Yet Minister Benny Allen is urging people to register their land with his corrupt officials...

Lands Minister urges landowners to cash in

By Freddy Mou - PNG Edge

Our photos show more illegally felled timber being shipped out of Papua New Guinea.

These images are from East New Britain where Malaaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau is taking logs from an SABL lease area declared void by a Commission of Inquiry.

At the end of February 2014, there were at least 76 political prisoners in Papuan jails.

Simon Konkas | President – New Hanover Forum, Kavieng Branch

Environment Advocate and President of Lovongai Local Level Government, Hon. John Aini was arrested and charged by Kavieng Police and currently on K200 bail for threatening to kill Malaysians involved in logging and to destroy logging company machinery on Lovongai Island.

The President has admitted to the charges.

Stolen logs continue to be shipped overseas under the watchful gaze of politicians, bureaucrats and the police while landowners look on wondering what justice and the law mean for them.

The SABL Commission of Inquiry has declared 66 leases covering some 5 million hectares of land to be illegal. But the government and its agencies are ignoring the findings and allowing foreign logging companies to continue stealing valuable timber resources.

From PNGExposed

Peter O’Neill’s handling of the illegal SABL land grab shows he is impotent in the face of Malaysian logging company control of PNG politicians and officials.

University of Adelaide researchers have helped create a new industry for Papua New Guinea (PNG) farmers based on producing charcoal from locally grown firewood crops. 

A six-year project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and working with PNG researchers and landholders, has seen the development of successful small businesses surrounding the production and selling of charcoal from new quick-growing tree crops.

Sourced from PNG EDGE

The PNG-Eco Forestry Forum has called on the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to appoint a new and neutral chairman for the Ministerial Committee reviewing the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) commission of inquiry report.

Having Forestry and Climate Change Minister Patrick Pruaith in charge was like “giving the keys of the blood bank to Dracula’’, the forum said.

By Catherine Wilson for Inter Press Service

Photo: Villagers in Papua New Guinea point to their village destroyed in a landslide from a quarry being excavated for a liquefied natural gas project. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Aisake Casimira