Source:  Jimmy Kalebe

An awareness campaign was conducted last week covering the coastal villages of Turubu in East Sepik Province.

The awareness that covered 21 villages mainly looked at Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC) and Reduce Emission from land Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) was well received and drew much interests from participating communities.

The awareness program took place after much of Turubu Local Level Government area came under huge pressure for massive logging and oil palm plantation establishments as well as other government initiated projects.

Through this awareness, local people were able to have an open mind on FPIC and its importance when dealing with any impact projects that are likely to take place on lands that are customarily owned.

The awareness campaign revealed to the people the rights that the people have in FPIC to protect their customary land rights from being overlooked by foreign interests and to make collective decisions by all clan members for communal benefit sharing.

During the campaign, REDD was also revealed to the people as an alternative project that forest owning communities could venture into in order to protect their forested areas from logging or other human destructions.

Clan elder and former councilor Benedict Suar of Forok village said many landowners have never know how to protect their rights resulting in loss of ownership over land and resources to developers or elites within the community.

He said forests owning communities and landowners in Turubu LLG have lost their rights to their land under Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) but through legal battle, their rights have been returned adding this time people must not repeat the same mistake again.

Mr Suar said much of forest destruction is done by logging and subsistence gardening. These again was the result of many do not know how to engage into land use planning or simply they were lured into surrendering their consent by intermediation or coercion by developers or individuals.

Women spokesperson and awareness facilitator Bertha Rabum of Kep Village said FPIC should be the process followed when engaging into any impact projects.

She said if REDD project is to reach into local communities, clan leaders will have to include all members as this projects aims for a communal benefit sharing for all.                                                   

“We have faced with the current logging and oil palm operations circumstances where landowners were being bribed, forced to give consent and police brutalities were rife.

Majority of the landowners do not received maximum benefits from their natural resources that were destroyed as steps involved in FPIC were not followed by developers,” said Mrs Rabum.

She reiterated that with REDD as an impact project, communities must first and for most know how to protect their rights under FPIC in order for all clan members to share benefits equally.

The week long awareness campaign was conducted by Turubu Eco Forestry Development Program Inc.