Post Courier Editorial

Greenpeace yesterday sailed into remote Pomio in East New Britain to mediate allegations of land grab in the area.


The world environment watchdog was invited by local landowners to go in and take up the issue and it’s presence on the ground will give the issue the widest possible attention both locally and internationally. Greenpeace is known the world over for taking up the fight on environmental issues against governments and corporations alike which it feels are reckless in their harvest of natural issues. Its campaigns has put under scrutiny many environmental issues that has attracted the involvement of world bodies and governments to take up a position or force actions to be taken by local authorities.


In Pomio, it is the cry of local landowners who are fighting to take back their land from the hands of loggers who they accuse of grabbing the rights to log thousands of acres of forests under the guise of Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABLs) arrangements. This is a Government backed program where huge tracts of land have been locked in for agriculture and business development.
The land has to be cleared for these developments after which agriculture projects are established. 
However many of these tracts of land, after being cleared off the trees, which are exported as log, show nothing has been done, leaving the landowners questioning the program.


Roads and other facilities that are supposed to be built by the developers have not happened.


Former deputy prime minister and when he was acting prime minister Sam Abal put a stop to the program and ordered an inquiry which is now underway.


In PNG, people’s land is being stolen by corrupt logging companies. Under the SABLs over 5 million hectares of PNG’s remaining forests will be destroyed and the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of traditional communities will be lost forever. Landowners say their land has been stolen and their forests are being destroyed and no-one asked their permission to carry our logging. They want SABL leases be stopped or they will lose their livelihoods for 99 years and their forests forever. 


According to landowners, the Pomio SABL was allegedly fraudulently obtained and many of the names purporting to approve the lease on behalf of landowners were local children - one was as young as three. Some other names belonged to deceased villagers.


Greenpeace says this is a major scandal involving the destruction of forests and the abuse of human rights is rapidly unfolding in PNG.


In Pomio yesterday there was a near confrontation between logging company employees and Greenpeace campaigners.


We support any action that will clear the allegations of land being corruptly acquired. Our people in the rural areas support logging operations because they see that as a way out of poverty. They however are not placed in a position to know that they are not getting what they deserve for their resources. They are being taken for a ride by the loggers who give them crumbs for their trees. 
Police are also being bought out to support to them shut up vocal landowners. This has to be sorted by the police commissioners who must come down hard on his men being used.


Protecting the law applies to both dealing with concerns of the landowers as well as the developers and police have a duty to be fair to both parties.


We hope all the parties can sit down and sort the issues pertaining to landowner concerns this week.