By Eddie Tanago
Papua New Guinea’s population is growing at an explosive rate, which makes retaining control of customary land vitally important. Customary land is very valuable. It sustains a huge economy and provides employment for 3 million local farmers. Customary land is also vital for food security and it makes people strong and self-reliant.
Photo shows an earlier (December 2016) protest by people in Pomata against logging
Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau (RH) is continuing it's efforts to log in the Pomata SABL area in the Pomio District. Local people say this is despite a court decision ordering all logging operations to stop pending the outcome of a court challenge to the logging permit.
Rural Farmers Need Govt Support - Not Foreign Owned Agri-businesses
Community advocacy group ACT NOW! wants Papua New Guinea's first ever National Agriculture Summit to be focused on helping Papua New Guinea’s 3 million rural farmers and not on assisting large foreign owned industries to grab more customary land.
Rural Farmers Need Support - Not Foreign Owned Agri-businesses. Photo: Oxfam
Author: Eddie Tanago
Papua New Guinea's first ever National Agriculture Summit should be focused on helping Papua New Guinea’s 3 million rural farmers and not on assisting large foreign owned industries to grab more customary land.
By D. Amari Jackson - Atlanta Black Star
Papua New Guineans shouldn't be easily lured into slavery overseas, as Paul was in the article below. We should work our own land and reap the benefits, the true value of our land, instead of looking for fast/easy money.
Source: Centre For Environmental Law and Community Rights
The rural population of Papua New Guinea have long suffered at the hands of both foreign and national developers. This short documentary film captures the environmental injustice and human rights violation being experienced by the communities, living in the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) project site of Pomio and Kairak in the East New Britain Province.
“Our houses were torn down, and we were beaten and threatened to cooperate with the company’s demands. Our MP Beldan Namah initiated the project, and so was leading in all that.”
That’s from Jack Luke, an Incorporated Land Group (ILG) Chairman from the Bewani Oil Palm Plantation in the West Sepik (Sandaun) Province.
Anna Kwembi from Elis village of Bewani in the West Sepik Province is not fond of the experiences and changes the Malaysian logging company, operating under a Special Agriculture Business Lease, has brought to her area, and its impacts on her and her family. Like many others ActNow! has come across while investigating the Bewani area, Anna is struggling to keep the logging company out of her family’s land area, but she’s struggling alone.