Lester Seri

Many innocent customary landowners in Papua New Guinea continue to fall victim of Illegal Land Grab Scheme that is still going on, perpetrated by unscrupulous logging and palm oil  companies, and bogus middlemen / landowners supported by the government of Papua New Guinea through Government departments such as Lands and Physical Planning, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, and Forestry to mention a few, by not fully complying with the established legal and due diligence requirements. Some five million hectares of land in PNG has been given away in such questionable circumstance in PNG in the recent past resulting in a Commission of Inquiry being set up by the Government of PNG to investigate. While the inquiry into the questionable leases of the five million hectares of land has been completed, the COI report remains to be completed and tabled in the Parliament for deliberations, endorsement and recommendation of appropriate actions to be taken.

Collingwood Bay customary landowners have become a victim of this dirty scheme since 1998 and have been fighting their case in the Courts of PNG since. The first round of the court case was won by the landowners in 2002 where the land titles issued were effectively determined illegal, null and void. Effectively, the land were reverted back to the landowners. Interestingly, the Lands department re-issued the same land titles again to two separate bogus landowner companies who in turn sub-leased to a a foreign company who in turn sold the land to a Malaysia Company called KLK for some 13 million US dollars. This matter has again been taken to Court again by the people but this time for a Judicial Review and the case is ongoing. December 9, 2013, has been set down for a hearing on a trial date to be set.

Existing court order effectively forbid any developer to enter Collingwood Bay supported by customary laws and taboos. KLK has already landed a barge of equipment on the shores of Wanigela, Collingwood Bay, in defiance of the the court orders and the customary
taboos.

A total of about 100,000 acres of customary land is involved where KLK wants to log and develop palm oil against the wishes of the people.

Some six to seven thousand people depend on this limited land area for their existence. Three to five villages / hamlets in Collingwood Bay have gone under sea as a result of cyclone Guba in 2008 and subsequent king tides and storms resulting in displacement of a population that remain to be effectively relocated and settled. More villages will sink under sea over time which means, more people will have to be relocated and re-settled.

Customary ownership of land is recognized under the Constitution of the PNG. Customary owned land effectively provides the only security for the existence of the people. The people want their land back!

What is copied to you is an ongoing campaign by the landowners and their partners / friends in PNG and overseas to pressure KLK to relinquish what are illegal land titles that it's adamantly holding onto. The campaign is a plea to our "Friends" to pressure KLK financiers, Honkong Shanhai Banking Corporation (HSBC), by writing to them and asking them to pressure KLK to relinquish the land titles and to pull out of Collingwood Bay.

Thank you for your support!