Source: Radio New Zealand

An NGO which pushed for an investigation into the issuing of Special Agriculture Business Leases in Papua New Guinea is questioning why the government hasn't acted on the findings of a Commission of Inquiry.

In September the prime minister Peter O'Neill tabled a report in parliament from the inquiry which found more than 90 percent of those leases were fraudulently or improperly obtained from customary landowners.

Source: Alison Bevege in the Herald Sun

HE WAS just a little kid, maybe six years old. Walking through the garden with his mother and two teenage aunties.

Then the Indonesian soldiers came.

"My mum was in front, leading me in the middle and my aunties behind,'' said Benny Wenda, now 39.

"My mum knows they will rape and she tries to defend.''

A soldier smashed her in the head with the butt of his gun.

"The Indonesian military beat my mum down in front of my eye,'' he said.

Source Sinclaire Solomon, PNG Edge

An East Sepik province commentator has called on the Government to cancel all Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABL) and to investigate and prosecute those responsible for one of Papua New Guinea’s worst land development schemes ever.

Source: Radio Australia

By Pasifika Wardrobes Media Consultancy

Customary owned land is the secure source of sustaining livelihood and must be utilized well for the benefit of local Papua New Guineans.

This was one of the key conclusions from a rapid qualitative assessment report titled “Gender and Economic Choices in Papua New Guinea” which was commissioned by the World Bank, Papua New Guinea.

Source: Upreshal Singh, FMT news

By Pasifika Wardrobes Media Consultancy

Landowners and interested citizens are still anticipating the outcome of the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) taskforce, since the appointment of the taskforce in late October this year by Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill.

Many who have followed the issue of SABL since the Commission of Inquiry have questioned the Government why it has taken too long to cancel all SABLs and return land titles to the rightful landowners.

Source: The National

THE National Court in Waigani has issued an interim order restraining an oil palm company operating in Northern from transporting any equipment, material or property into the Collingwood Bay area. 

Landowners successfully obtained the restraining order last week.

Governor Gary Juffa yesterday congratulated the landowners for their persistence in pursuing what he suspected was an illegal Special Agriculture Business Lease in the province. 

From Radio New Zealand

The managing director of one of Papua New Guinea’s main coffee exporters says the industry needs more famers.

Monpi Coffee operates out of Goroka, the capital of Eastern Highlands province and one of PNG’s largest coffee-growing regions.

Chris Anders has lived in Goroka for 30 years and says coffee from the region is very good quality.

He says that was proved recently when a supplier won third place at awards held by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

By Nina Wegner in The Huffington Post

Sad but true: the mahogany desk in your study or the merbau flooring in your living room probably came from illegal timber logged on tropical lands. It's a dirty trade that's been happening for decades, but a new report finds that Papua New Guinea, one of the main exporters of illegal timber in the world, is now leasing out its ancestral lands to foreign loggers and investors in one of the fastest and largest land grabs in recent history.