By Franklin Kolma / Post Courier

A development researcher has found that land mobilisation and Public-Private Partnership policies renders legitimate traditional land and resource owners mere spectators.

On 21 February 2019, Nautilus Minerals Inc. filed for protection from creditors under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.  Whilst claiming this as a victory in their decade-long campaign to stop the Nautilus Solwara 1 Project in the Bismarck Sea, local communities and civil society in Papua New Guinea are taking heed that the fight is not over until all Nautilus licences are cancelled.

By Madang Maror* and Alliance of Solwara Warriors

We, Madang Maror and Alliance of Solwara Warriors with support from the Sepik Communities hereby announce that the National Land Summit is a scam.

In Papua New Guinea traditional land does not belong to individuals, it is a communal stewardship. Therefore, the Lands Department and organizers of the summit have NO MANDATE to talk about our traditional land.

The government of plotting to grab more customary land and hand it to multi-national companies and the commercial banks.

While it has been forced to stop issuing illegal SABL leases, the government now intends to use the National Land Summit as a cover to find new ways to ‘facilitate access to customary land’.

Tax evasion by multinational companies involved in the exploitation of Papua New Guinea's natural resources is finally on the government radar and an increasing number of reforms are being implemented.

Latest international survey results emphasize again the need for a full funded Independent Commission Agaianst Corruption 

Source: Patrick Niato Tom / Post Courier

A new report by the global watchdog Transparency International has again classified Papua New Guinea as one of the most highly corrupt countries in the world.

Source: Oakland Institute

In advance of the release of the World Bank’s 2019 Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) report, the Oakland Institute exposes the Bank’s new scheme to privatize land in the developing world.

It is one of the world’s biggest illegal land grabs, yet more than 5-years after the government promised to cancel the SABL leases and return the land to its customary owners, the people of Papua New Guinea are still waiting to hear which, if any, leases have been cancelled.