In a conference last Wednesday, the Lands Department vowed to take action on land deals in Papua New Guinea - deals in which control of more than 5 million hectares of land, 10% of PNGs land mass, has been taken away from local people and given to corporations.

While Acting Lands Secretary, Romilly Kila Pat, might have been personally sincere in his call to address the issues, he also said it was going to be a “long process”.

More than 100 men, women and children have been issued verbal notices to move out of their government flats in a Madang where they have been living, some for as long as 26 years. 

The flats are reported to have been sold by the National Housing Corporation by the Papindo group of companies. The tenants have been told that the Papindo bought the units for 2 Million kina. 

But The National Housing Corporation Branch in Madang says it has no records of the transaction. 

A new poster that warns of the dangers of Papua New Guinea's land grab has been published. A pdf version can be downloaded below for printing and display.

The real resources curse for PNG is not necessarily economic in nature. As an immature nation still struggling to achieve modernity, it is possible that the intra-national conflict fuelled by competition for the considerable monetary spoils of the resources boom will threaten the very political existence of PNG as a nation....

By Susan Merrell* 

The people from seven villages in the Bogia district of Madang have given their MP John Hickey 14 days to provide answers on how their land has been given away without their knowledge and consent.

We should celebrate one of the largest but least recognised groups in the world, who grow most of the food we eat, says Henry Saragih*

Peasants and small farmers make up half of the world population and grow at least 70% of the world's food. This group includes small-scale farmers, pastoralists, landless people, peasant fishers and indigenous people all around the world.

Papua New Guinea has recently lost over 5 million hectares of land to dubious agriculture projects, a scenario that is being repeated right across the developing world.

April 17, the International Day of Peasant Struggles, was therefore an auspicious moment for prominent farmers, fisherfolk, human rights and research organisations from around the world to sharply criticised the World Bank, three UN agencies and western governments for promoting agricultural investments that are resulting in land grabbing on a massive scale. 

ABC Radio National

While young Arabs might be demanding democratic rights, young Melanesians seem to be questioning the merits of democracy.

Mark Bannerman: Three months into the year, it's fair to say that in geopolitical germs, all eyes are focused on the Middle East and North Africa. Our own foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, has devoted a significant amount of time to the situation there, forcefully putting Australia's point of view.

Dr Samuel Maima, Technical adviser Boka Kondra Bill

THE attorney-general’s statement that the state owns all resources six feet and more under the ground has to be challenged for the sake of our indigenous and customa­ry landowners of Papua New Guinea.


What he endorsed was similar to the resource law that was passed by the British parliament in 1922 which basically exploited all its colonies’ wealth from the Africa to Asia, Australia and elsewhere.


By Jeremy Hance