SABL Story Project*

The Pomio West Special Agriculture Business Leases have failed to bring the promised economic development and financial benefits. Instead, whole villages have been taken over as the property of the lease holder along with everything standing on the land. The people have been left trapped as slaves.

There were some fine words from our Prime Minister in Parliament last week on the vital importance of customary land:

“Land, and its connection [to] our people is at the heart and soul of our country and our communities”.

Landowners in the Pomio district of East New Britain have petitioned the government [see pdf file below] calling on them not to authorise logging in a new concession area on their their land as part of the Sigite-Mukus Integrated Rural Development Project. 

For three years Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has failed to cancel unlawful SABL leases affecting over 5 million hectares of land and has failed to deliver on his promises to return the land to its customary owners.

Today, June 24, is the three-year anniversary of the Commission of Inquiry reports that exposed the whole scam and confirmed the leases are unlawful.

Next week is the third anniversary of the Commission of Inquiry reports that exposed the mismanagement, negligence and corruption behind the huge SABL land grab.

Wamsok locals from East Sepik have made their stand to the government to cancel all SABL leases and return land back to landowners.

After awareness by the Tropical Gem group on SABL and land grab, they realised that ilegal logging has been eating away their forest and land has been taken away from customary landowners under fraudulent SABL leases.

The Papua New Guinea government is seeking to use changes to the Land Act to retrospectively endorse a huge illegal land grab covering about 12% of the whole country. Despite the government promoting its new Bill as a move to clean up the administration of land and tackle corruption it will actually have the opposite effect, legitimising and compounding previous illegal acts and depriving a very large number of customary landowners of justice.

Civil society organisations are urging the Papua New Guinea government to take immediate action to end pervasive land grabbing and illegal logging after these issues were highlighted by governments around the world in formal recommendations put before the United Nations yesterday. (1)

Papua New Guinea is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential government revenue through tax evasion by the logging industry. ACT NOW! is calling on the government to take action - but we need your help! 

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