SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS LEASE

“SABLs have distorted the structure of timber products from Papua New Guinea, destroyed complex forest ecology’s and left customary land ownership systems in a state of impoverished disarray while defining the cutting edge in legal and legislative manipulation by log exporters”.

 

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY FINAL REPORT

Paul Barker Institute of National Affairs

In 2016 the Canopy Watch Network conducted a review of the state of affairs regarding the Commission of Inquiry’s Final Report on SABL’s. How have the customary landowners been affected, have the recommendations of the commission been carried out? Canopy Watch had the opportunity of asking Paul Barker, Executive Director, from the Institute of National Affairs in Port Moresby,for his perspective.

THE CUSTOMARY LAND OWNERSHIP SABL DISPUTES

Election Broadcast in Papua New Guinea

In 2012 Canopy Watch was launched with an awareness appeal broadcast on prime time national television before the Papua New Guinea Elections. At this election, the nation awaited the delayed Commission of Inquiry Final Report on Special Agricultural Business Leases. This policy that had ripped into customary owned land to set land aside for agricultural development. However, it became clear that the new lease system policy was a fast-track way for logging companies to circumvent the forestry act.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

“Traditional leaders provide invaluable insight into the community’s cultural landscape, including norms, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that can significantly affect the community’s receptiveness to outside influences”.

TRADITIONAL LAND TENURE SYSTEM

Gabriel Mollock Community Leader

Gabriel Mollock community leader in Turubu explains the complicated process of customary land ownership in Papua New Guinea. He expresses the need for proper social mapping in the introductory phrase of large-scale agricultural development projects. It is not development; development is about people, improvement of their standard of living, quality of life, and infrastructure. But looking at what is happening right now, it is like ripping off our resources.

CHIEFTAINSHIP CEREMONY NEW HANOVER

Lavongai Rich Cultural Tapestry

Canopy Watch captured the inauguration of John Aini as a Traditional Leader in Lavongai, now referred to as New Hanover. His Chieftainship Ceremony in 2012 created an interlocking of the cultures of New Hanover and New Ireland for the first time in over 80 years. While this celebration took place in the South East of the Island, the new Special Agricultural Business Leaseholder’s started the process of stripping the timber assets from Central New Hanover, clear-felling a resource-rich island that had sustained human settlements for over 4000 years. The customs and traditions of New Hanover’s population are now in an unwanted transition, as the abundant natural resources that sustained them becomes degraded and diminished.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

“We provide the framework, resources, and theoretical knowledge essential in creating intervention strategies and assistance with the implementation and evaluation of programs and services”.

A NAME FOR DESTRUCTION

John Aini Traditional Leader

John Aini, a lecturer at the National Fisheries College of Papua New Guinea and the founder and director of Ailan Awareness, a small NGO in New Ireland, presents his view on SABL’s impact in New Hanover. As a traditional leader, John has informed and guided the work of Canopy Watch into the insights of communities living alongside industrial logging. “SABLs is just another word for destruction. They are not interested in development; they just want our logs”. In 2018 John was proved correct when the developer abandoned New Hanover after clear-felling the island.

RIPARIAN BUFFER ZONE APPEAL FOR AWARENESS

Forest River Ocean Hydrology Crisis

One of the main breaches in the logging code of practice is not respecting the buffer zone to waterways. This regulatory method would protect the ecosystem dynamic that preserves the traditional system’s environmental endowment. There should be a minimum of a 50-meter buffer to a class one river. The logging operations in New Hanover do not follow this practice. There are unseen impacts of unregulated logging on low-level forest extracting methods such as community forest garden produce, river and reef fish stock, and domestic water supplies.