After a two-year investigation into the controversial Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABL) system, reports presented by two of the commissioners have found that only four of the 42 leases they examined had obtained landowner consent.
Credit: : Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry
Civil society groups and landowners have claimed SABLs have been used for a huge land grabs, often for unsustainable logging projects.
Last week, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill tabled reports from two of the three Commissioners, but has criticised the performance of the Commission as substandard and costly.
He said the lease system was marred by shocking corruption and mismanagement. He told television network EMTV that his government was creating a taskforce to draw up new laws which would allow for the use of customary land for development.
The Director of Papua New Guinea’s National Research Institute, Thomas Webster, has told Radio Australia the fraudulent leases should be revoked.
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