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.
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.
“Tomorrow, June 24, will mark the three-year anniversary of the Commission of Inquiry reports that exposed the whole scam and confirmed the leases are unlawful”, says Eddie Tanago, Campaign Coordinator for ACT NOW!
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.
A new on-line petition calling on Papua New Guinea’s Treasurer to launch an urgent investigation into the logging industry and its tax record has collected over 800 signatures in just 10 days.
The petition is a response by community advocacy group ACT NOW! to revelations most logging companies operating in Papua New Guinea avoid paying any corporate taxes, depriving the country of hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenues.
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)