Foreign owned logging companies could be defrauding the country of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues and ACT NOW! is calling for a moratorium on any further logging licences until there is a full and transparent investigation and the cancellation of all illegal SABL leases.
Foreign owned logging companies could be defrauding the country of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues says community advocacy group ACT NOW! It is calling for a moratorium on any further logging licences until there is a full and transparent investigation and the cancellation of all illegal SABL leases.
The government has tried to bury and forget the SABL land grab scandal in which more than 5 million hectares of land has been stolen from rural communities.
It is using a well tested formula that we see employed almost every time a new corruption scandal is exposed:
First a long-drawn out official inquiry that is delayed by funding and other logistical problems.
Then a further delay before the inquiry findings are tabled in Parliament.
The government has tried to bury and forget the SABL land grab scandal in which more than 5 million hectares of land has been stolen from rural communities.
It is using a well tested formula that we see employed almost every time a new corruption scandal is exposed:
First a long-drawn out official inquiry that is delayed by funding and other logistical problems.
Then a further delay before the inquiry findings are tabled in Parliament.
Fraudulent SABLs that the government has failed to cancel despite the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry are still causing conflict and injustice - see stories below.
This is what the Commission of Inquiry said about the SABL over Portions 2465C and 2466C.
“There was misrepresentation and fraud involved in the whole process” [Report p164]
Landowner signatures were forged in “a criminal act” [p150].
Community advocacy group ACT NOW! is warning APEC delegates attending the current Food Security Week in Port Moresby that the Papua New Guinea government has a very poor record on protecting rural famers and supporting local agriculture.
“In PNG we have more than 1 million local farmers who feed more than 7 million people every day, yet the government continues to allow foreign corporations to steal their land for logging and oil palm plantations” says campaign coordinator Eddie Tanago.
Communities affected by three Special Agriculture Business Leases in the West Pomio District of East New Britain Province have assessed the economic damage caused by logging and oil palm planting at more than K2.4 billion.
Communities affected by three Special Agricuture Business Leases in the West Pomio District of East New Britain Province have assessed the economic damage caused by logging and oil palm planting at more than K2.4 billion.
The damages assessment has been compiled by seventeen communities that have lost 42,400 hectares of customary land under the Pomata, Ralopal and Nakiura leases.