The cancellation of controversial flawed land leases in Papua New Guinea has been halted, leaving traditional landowners unsure of when they will get their land back.
Jimmy is from the Junk-Aral District of the Jiwaka Province, and he walks from Jiwaka out to the Madang Province to sell his bags of coffee beans and peanuts once or twice every month. From where Jimmy’s village is located, one has to climb very rugged steep mountains, brave the thick jungles and cross some of the fastest flowing rivers to get to town and back home.
The latest logging and oil palm operations in Tring village of Turubu in East Sepik Province were claimed by landowners as destructive, unbeneficial and illegal.
The claims come after proper procedures were not followed, no real benefits shared among landowners and consent was not sought through the immediate landowners before trespassing into customary land by the logging company.
Locals in the Bewani/Wutung LLG area of West Sepik Province are appealing or respect from a foreign company that was contracted to utilize their land.
The Bewani Palm Oil Development, a landowner company representing the 124 ILGs, claim that a Malaysian contractor, whose sublease was terminated last October, has not compiled with landowners' orders to move out.
The foreign logging company deemed illegal by the National court is still heavily logging down kwila trees and leaving the land barren in Turubu, East Sepik Province. Despite being called out by the court to stop the illegal logging on portion 144C, these Asian thieves have resorted to other ways to continue stealing the kwila trees behind the back of the laws of this land.
Picture: A cultural carving from East Sepik, Papua New Guinea
Source: "Red Soil"
Carvers of the East Sepik Province are greatly very saddened and disgusted to learn of the PNG Government’s facilitation of the theft of 5 million hectares of land, under the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) scam.
'Passing the buck' like everyone else again. fact remains that the PNG Forest Authority is the government body mandated to issue all FCA's and not the Lands Department. Thus, the PNGFA should see it as thier responsibility to cancel any FCA's that have been issued to illegal SABL(s).
SABL(s) have been deemed illegal but why is it that logging is continuing? Is it becuase the FCA's are still valid?
As the world gets back to work in 2015 there has still been NO ACTION to cancel the huge SABL land grab, revoke the unlawful leases or stop the illegal logging in Papua New Guinea.
It is now 567 days since Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was told that the SABL leases were unlawful and should be cancelled.
O'Neill has failed for two years to take any action against the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians responsible for the SABL land grab and illegal logging - and now he is expressing surprise they have done nothing to cancel the leases or stop the logging...
SABL investigation: O’Neill says bureaucracy not responding
The Bewani Palm Oil Development, a landowner company representing the 124 ILGs, claim that a Malaysian contractor, whose sublease was terminated last October, has not compiled with landowners' orders to move out.
