How terribly sad this is happening in Vanuatu. How crazy to impose a system of land ownership that is foreign to the Ni-Vanuatu culture. Ausaid has a lot to answer for.

I think it is important to understand a couple of things. One - all land in Vanuatu is custom owned and can only be leased for up to 75 years and even then you have to pay annual rent on top of the lease. Two - the Government has no power to prevent a landowner from signing a lease with a private individual. The problem is that there are bad people in the Department of Lands and also lack of awareness for ni-Vanuatu that cause this situation. This has nothing to do with donors, white, black or blue people. As a result whilst large parts of the capital port vila have indeed been leased there is not much leasing going on in the outer-islands. If people want to really learn the lessons from Vanuatu they should have a look at the outcomes of the Land Summit held a couple of years ago - this exposed the damage a few individuals within the Department of Lands were doing by deliberately misleading their ni-Vanuatu brothers. This has nothing to do with Ausaid apart from the fact that their support to the lands project has done nothing - neither good nor bad.

Land in Vanuatu is custom owned, leasing and registration only promotes further annexing and allienation of custom land. Leasing should only provide mechanisms that will protect both the right of the investor and the land owner but not to expropriate land from its custom owner. Any project such as the 'Ausaid's Mama Groan project' should not focus on registration and leasing but assist to formulate mechanisms where land owners are better informed about how to manage their land and it's use. They should not only work towards promoting the interest of the private sector on the short term but also work to build on the social/cultural cohesiveness, security and welfare of the ni-Vanuatu on the long run. In Vanuatu(and Melanesia), Land carries with it the social/cultural capital of its people. Currently the lands department does not work to protect ni-vanuatu land owners but focus their efforts in facilitating investors to grab land from land owners if need be. They even go out of their way to acquire customary land for the state without assisting to identify rightful land owners - adding to the increase dissatisfaction over land dispute resolutions. The land tribunal was supposedly set up as a land appealant court, there is no land court, creating a space where land ownership rights are determine by chiefs who are being nominated by island chief councils aided by the Land tribunal office, but most of these chiefs are mostly politicised. Vanuatu lacks a mechanism to link nakamal decisions(chief court which has been part of Vanuatu culture) to the formal court systems. Mounting disputes from disgruntled landowners are lining up for the supreme courts. In these cases,its the lawyers that thrieve from the proceeds of numerous court cases, which at times, they aided in the confusion to create demand for their business. Vanuatu is in a dilema if it does not change the current status of its land policies.

Thank you for a very informative and well-presented film about a subject of great concern to us all. Those of us who don't live in Vanuatu may assume that the issues of land alienation and the concept of land registration do not affect us, but it is so important to know that there are ways of life that do not depend on turning everything, including land, water and people into units of economy. There was a time, even in Europe, when everyone had a right to the land needed for their survival - unfortunately it was so long ago that we do not remember the quality of life it gave us. Due to our amnesia we think that the only way is to parcel up all the land in the world, stop calling it our mother and refer to it instead as real estate or property. Thank you for opening our eyes to what is happening and reminding me that there are other ways to relate to our land. I wish you strength in your efforts to maintain those relationships in Melanesia.

Do not repeat what other western cultures ave done. Use your own wisdom.