With the COVID-19 pandemic still expanding across the globe, ACT NOW is urging the PNG government to drop its plans to put customary land into the hands of commercial banks. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated once again that customary land is a vital and irreplaceable resource for families and communities.
The funds will be used for the procurement of specific agri-commodities from smallholder farmers in Vietnam, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Uganda as well as the expansion of Olam’s cocoa processing facility in Indonesia.
Jubilee Australia and the Oakland Institute denounce the National Land Summit, organized by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government, as a dangerous attack on the country’s unique customary land tenure system.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination asked the PNG government yet again, to respond to concerns that PNG continues to authorise the exploitation of indigenous land by foreign companies through SABLs.
ACT NOW! is demanding Papua New Guinea government to immediately publish a full list of SABLs current status. SABL is one of the world’s biggest illegal land grabs, and now more than 5-years after PNG government promised to cancel the SABL, people are still waiting to hear which leases have been cancelled.
The United Nations has accused the Papua New Guinea government of racial discrimination against its own people over its failure to stop foreign companies using SABL leases to illegally occupy customary land.
New report shines a spotlight on the ongoing resistance to land grabs and provides recommendations calling for immediate action, not only by the PNG government but also various UN bodies and national governments.
The SABL Land Grab: Papua New Guinea’s Ongoing Human Rights Scandal, a new report published by ACT NOW! and UK based charity, War on Want highlights the devastating impacts on people living in rural communities and gives a voice to those who have suffered the illegal loss of their land to logging and oil-palm plantations.
The PNG government is trying to bury and forget the SABL land grab scandal in which more than 5 million hectares of land has been stolen from rural communities.
Community advocacy group ACT NOW! warns APEC delegates attending food Security Week in Port Moresby that Papua New Guinea government has a very poor record on protecting rural famers. The most glaring example is the SABL land grab, in which over 5 million hectares of land was taken from rural communities.
Customary land registration processes can easily be captured by local ‘big men’ and companies with disastrous consequences for local people, says study on oil palm expansion in Papua New Guinea.
Communities in Papua New Guinea's West Pomio District will suffer more than $US73 million worth of damage due to Special Agriculture Business Leases, according to a local advocacy group Act Now.
