Source: PNG Loop

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.

The Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry told PNG Loop that he is not against the Sepik Oil Palm Project which is located in inland Turubu LLG in the Wewak electorate but  he is against the SABL agreement which he claimed was going under the guise of planting oil palm but was  going into logging.

However, Limawo Holdings Limited chairman Aron Malijiwi has denied that they are going into large scale logging and said the developer of the project is doing selective clearing of trees to make roads and also build camps for its employees.

“The company has built a 50 km road connecting inland Turubu with the Angoram District water front and also the oil palms are planted in the Sepik Plain(savannah grasslands),” Malijiwi said.

Limawo holding is the landowner company representing 56 Incorporated Land Groups (ILG) and holds 20% share in the Sepik oil palm project.

The Sepik Oil Palm Project has already planted more than 205, 000 seedlings and aiming to plant 800,000 seedlings covering 3000 hectares of land by the end of this year.

Minister Maru is the brains  behind the K6 billion Sepik Special Economic Zone which will be planting oil palm starting in the Yangoru Saussia electorate, and later involve other districts.

Both oil palm projects will be developed on the Sepik plains which is covered in vast savannah grassland and are neighbouring districts.

When both projects go into full scale operation they will be employing an estimated 20,000 workers each, and will develop the local economy of East Sepik Province.