Transcript Slide 1

POLITICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF
THE GRAND THEFT OF CUSTOMARY
LAND IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Colin Filer
The COI into SABLs found that more than 5m hectares of
customary land had been expropriated without the free,
prior and informed consent of the customary owners
But the Commissioners were not exactly on the same page
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OBSTACLES TO INQUIRY
The 2012 National Elections, the political in-fighting, the change of
government, the lock-down of the Government Printing Office that
housed the COI and the ‘threat’ by the new in-coming government to
stop the SABL inquiry were some events that directly affected the
inquiry. The COI was virtually locked out of the building during the
political impasse. This created a lot anxiety and uncertainties
amongst the members of the COI. The interruptions went on for
weeks. Delays in funding support resulted in personnel engaged by
the COI not being paid for months, resulting in people not turning up
for work. In fact, the government still owes the Commissioners and
members of the legal and technical teams 15 months of unpaid
allowances and salaries that are still yet to be paid to this day. The
delay in the production of the recorded transcripts to assist the
Commissioners with their final write-ups, and the lack of co-operation
and display of arrogance by certain members of the COI, also
affected the completion of the final reports by the given deadline.
John Numapo, personal communication, April 2014
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COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY
• Into Land Matters 1973-74 (Goava et al)
• Into Aspects of the Forest Industry 1987-89
(Barnett)
• Into Special Agricultural and Business
Leases 2011-13 (Numapo et al)
What do they reveal about society or
ideology, and how do they relate to the
history of land and forest policy?
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ACTS IN PLAY
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Forest policy reform initiated 1985-90
Forest policy reform consolidated 1990-95
Land policy reform discarded 1995-2000
World Bank disappearing trick 2000-05
Land policy reform process 2005-09
Campaign against the land grab 2009-11
Commission of Inquiry process 2011-13
And what process follows next?
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POLICY IMPERATIVE
“The status of land titles, the low level of confidence in
the DLPP and the provincial offices, delays in
processing applications, increasing incidences of
missing and lost files, the perception of corrupt
practices by the staff of DLPP and provincial land
offices, the increasing number of land compensation
claims, the need to grow the economy to create gainful
employment and income generation for the growing
population, the urgency to make customary land
available for development, and the increasing incidents
of land grabbing, collectively demonstrate the need to
immediately improve land administration.”
Report of the National Land Development Taskforce 2007, p.13
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REAR VIEW MIRROR
“In 1995, the World Bank, as part of its structural adjustment
program, included a condition that Papua New Guinea
undertakes land reform. The policy prescription was in favour of
privatising customary land. However, this raised strong
opposition, which was led by students, non-government
organisations, and trade unions, resulting in the destruction of
public and private properties. This land reform program was
subsequently aborted. In 2002, the Morauta government was said
to have initiated another land reform program. This also drew
strong reactions from the public, again led by students, trade
unions, and non-government organisations. In the course of this
protest movement, four students from the University of Papua
New Guinea were shot dead by the police. Like the World Bank
proposal, this attempt was also aborted. “
Report of the National Land Development Taskforce 2007, p.2
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BIT OF A BLIND SPOT
“Reports of the successful use of the LLB are
coming from the agricultural sector, where it is
being widely used. However, the application of the
LLB system to other sectors, such as the real
estate sector, remains restricted….. The LLB
system should be adopted as one of the
instruments that customary landowning units could
use to release land for development. The
application of the LLB system to industries with
long-term horizons, such as real estate, resorts,
and industrial sectors, needs to be evaluated.”
Report of the National Land Development Taskforce 2007, p.18
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START OF A CAMPAIGN
“I acknowledge receipt of your E-mail dated 14/08/2008 apparently a response
to my E-mail dated 31/08/2007 your copy of which must have been floating
around in the “ether” for almost 12 months?
Following my aforementioned E-mail dated 31/08/2007 (and its predecessor
dated 15/08/2007) and at a meeting at the Department on or about 07/11/2007
chaired by Tony Luben I was given a verbal assurance by Oswald Tolopa that
the grant of Special Agricultural and Business Leases in the favour of
corporate entities and/or others not the person, persons or the ILG leasing
their land to the State has ceased the implication of which was that henceforth
all such titles will issue in the favour of the person, persons or ILG leasing
their land to the State and any subsequent dealings with a third party would
comprise a use right registered against the title in the form of a sublease.
This, clearly, is not the case given more recently four (4) such leases were
granted each in the name/favour of a corporate entity (and not an ILG); each
for the maximum term of 99 years and each over substantial tracts of
customary land…”
Brian Aldrich to Pepi Kimas, 15/8/08
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THE SLEEPING ELEPHANT
• Almost four years elapsed between the moment when Aldrich
first rang the alarm bell and the NEC decision to set up the COI
• Even in 2009, environmental NGOs were so consumed by the
forest carbon policy process (or cargo cult) that they could not
see the wood for the trees
• In fact the wicked barons of the oil palm industry got worried
about the new raft of ‘agro-forestry’ projects long before the
Greenies did
• What the Greenies did was take credit for the results of an NEC
submission in March 2011 drafted by McKinsey consultants
• But if the World Bank had not been kicked out of the forest
policy process, then the government’s so-called ‘green
revolution’ might never have got started
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