Source: Isaac Nicholas, Post Courier

LANDOWNERS in East New Britain Province have won a landmark legal battle to retake their “hijacked” land from the controversial Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL).

The people of Baining in Gazelle district had taken the State and developer to court over the SABL deal which has now been declared null and void by the National Court in Kokopo last Thursday.

SABL Story Project*

The Pomio West Special Agriculture Business Leases have failed to bring the promised economic development and financial benefits. Instead, whole villages have been taken over as the property of the lease holder along with everything standing on the land. The people have been left trapped as slaves.

Source: PNG Mine Watch

Over one million people have signed a global petition opposing Nautilus Minerals’ plans for experimental seabed mining in Papua New Guinea and the number is still rising.

There were some fine words from our Prime Minister in Parliament last week on the vital importance of customary land:

“Land, and its connection [to] our people is at the heart and soul of our country and our communities”.

Cartoon: Alliance of Solwara Warriors

The problems just keep stacking up for prospective experimental seabed mining company, Nautilus Minerals, and its planned Solwara 1 mine in Papua New Guinea.

Mining was slated to begin in early 2018, but that date has already abandoned and in the meantime the breadth and volume of opposition just keeps growing. 

Landowners in the Pomio district of East New Britain have petitioned the government [see pdf file below] calling on them not to authorise logging in a new concession area on their their land as part of the Sigite-Mukus Integrated Rural Development Project. 

ACT NOW! has recently given a presentation on sustainable and responsible development to more than 200 secondary school students at the Moresby Arts Theatre.

The presentation, given by Campaign Coordinator Eddie Tanago, was part of the PRIDE program that aims to influence education, confidence-building and the development of expressive abilities in young people through sessions that stimulate discussion about social issues.

By Sylvia Earle, National Geographic 

Thousands of meters beneath the azure ocean waters in places like the South Pacific, down through a water column saturated with life and to the ocean floor carpeted in undiscovered ecosystems, machines the size of small buildings are poised to begin a campaign of wholesale destruction. I wish this assessment was hyperbole, but it is the reality we find ourselves in today.