By Pasifika Wardrobes Media Consultancy

Customary owned land is the secure source of sustaining livelihood and must be utilized well for the benefit of local Papua New Guineans.

This was one of the key conclusions from a rapid qualitative assessment report titled “Gender and Economic Choices in Papua New Guinea” which was commissioned by the World Bank, Papua New Guinea.

Principal researcher, Marjorie Andrew said land is an important source that Papua New Guineans have relied heavily on for generations, and it has continued to sustain livelihood over years.

Andrew said social pressures based on development have forced people to commercialize their traditional assets such as their customary land, thus many becoming spectators whilst their land is used with limited to no say over what is being done.

“It is a case of today that land has been commercialized and developer or investors take advantage of commercializing land to an extant where people or the owners of the land work on their own land in return to earn an income, or sustain themselves...and this is changing the gender and economic needs in the country,” said Andrew.

She said there were many social constraints put on women and men to sustain themselves financially, and land was one pressing issue.

Kenn Mondiai from Partners with Melanesians said a great example of today’s land commercialization that is not benefiting landowners and locals in the country, but robbing them off their land is the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL).

Mr Mondiai said a lot of foreign owned companies have acquired customary land illegally under the SABL scheme and have carried out vast logging in the name of agriculture development.

“The SABL Commission of Inquiry has found out that most SABLs in the country were illegal and the scheme failed our local landowners...it is daylight robbery,” said Mondiai.

He said the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has labelled the findings of the SABL inquiry as “failed” and it was time “Mr O’Neill got true to his words by cancelling all SABLs and return all land titles to the rightful landowners.”

Ume Wainetti from PNG Institute of National Affairs shared similar sentiments, adding that she has seen a lot of Papua New Guineans in oil palm project areas who have very little benefits on their land as resource owners, yet they are left with very little choice but to support their families economically.