Dr. Lati Lati, a Samoan academic lecturer in politics at the University of Otago, says there is a concerted effort in the Pacific to free up land for investment.
He elaborates that those efforts are encouraged by organizations like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
State minister and member for Yangoru Saussia Richard Maru is against the Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) device being used to acquire customary land in the country.
Expert Former Chief Land Title Commissioner Josepha Kiris has issued a stern warning to people selling customary land in NCD to restrain or face the full brunt of the law.
Kiris, who is also a professional lawyer, told PNG Loop that customary land was not supposed to be sold as there was no law guaranteeing the buyer to own the land.
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill said Port Moresby was a rapidly growing city with so much land being illegally acquired.
He said the Government was repossessing pieces of land taken illegally by individuals and putting them into trust.
He was responding to a caller on FM100 radio talkback show who said Port Moresby did not have sufficient recreational facilities because of all the land grabbing going on in the city. The caller said recreational areas in Port Moresby had been taken up or sold to foreigners or individuals.
The National Court in Papua New Guinea has declared two special agriculture and business leases covering 38 thousand hectares of land in Oro Province null and void, ordering the state to cancel the title deeds.
The land is in part of the customary territory of nine indigenous tribes, who argued that they rely on it as the basis for their economy and subsistence livelihoods.
Forestry Minister Douglas Tomuriesa says a submission on the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into Special Agriculture Business leases will be presented to the National Executive Council this week.
He says the submission contains two recommendations from the Ministerial Committee on 94 SABLs held by logging companies across the country.
High court sides with Indigenous communities in battle over controversial Malaysian palm oil giant’s plan to develop large areas of ancestral territory and pristine forest
The people of Collingwood Bay in Oro Province are in a real celebratory mood after the Department of Lands conceded to giving back their customary land after 20 years of court battles.
The people have reclaimed their land – a total land area of 38,350 hectares, given away by the Department of Lands in two Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) for 50 years.
