Submitted by Ryu 

By reading some comments made by others, I believe people do not really understand what the underlaying problems are here in Papua New Guinea regarding the issuance of SABL.

In PNG customary land is owned by clans and not tribes and the clans are headed by leaders who in consultantion with his clan members decide what is to be done with thier land. In a tribe there may be say, 50 to 100 clans and they all speak the same language. I does not mean that one Association or company can go ahead and apply for the SABL through the lands Department. Unless all clan leaders sign the Incorporated Land Group (ILG) forms.

What has been happening in the issuance of the SABL is incorrect, I say this because only one or few families form Associations and apply for the SABL, especially those living in the cities and towns without the approval of the Clan chairmen who are living back at rural village settings, so I support the NGO in this matter.

There is nowhere in PNG one clan and or family has more than 500,000 hactres of customary land. The issue here is people who are aplying for the SABL are not consulting the land owner ILG’s, which is an attempt to steal the land and engage foreign companies mostly to do logging and make quick bucks in the name of agriculture and at the expense of mostly illiterate land owners.

This was the case for Purari Developement Association headed by Roy Evara and the Iare Tribe families of Baimuru Gulf Province, of the recent issuance of the Baimuru -Karimui Formil 8 SABL. It is currently a court matter now.

So the PNG Government concept is right but few greedy self centered individuals are misusing it for thier own gains.