By Jemima Garrett for Radio Australia

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says controversial land leases abused by the timber industry will be cancelled.

PHOTO: Logging companies in PNG are using special agricultural leases to clear vast tracts of rainforest timber. (Supplied: Greenpeace)

From Radio Australia

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says controversial land leases abused by the timber industry will be canceled.

He made the comments in a messsage sent to the Australian Association for Pacific Studies taking place in Sydney.

It is the clearest sign yet that millions of hectares of land, leased without permission of landowers will be returned.

Jemima Garrett is at the conference for Pacific Beat.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts

Joy Kisselpar | PNG Edge

Prime Minister Peter ONeill is expected to make an announcement soon on the final recommendations from the Ministerial committee on the Special Agriculture Business Lease system.

It is understood the committee which consists of eight cabinet ministers have met and laid out recommendations on how the government should go about executing recommendations from the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into SABL.

By Jeremy Hance on mongabay.com 

Aerial view of jungle river on the island of New Guinea. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

Commercial banks want the government to change the law to make it easier for land leases to be used as collateral for loans, but their plans are ill-timed as the wider problem of corruption in the Department of Lands remains unresolved and this latest plan could mean the legality of fraudulent leases like the Special Agriculture and Business Leases titles could not be challenged.

The banks have issued a report calling for the authenticity of titles issued by the Department of Lands to be protected so the leases can become bankable.

By Jemima Garrett on Radio Australia

British think-tank Chatham House says Papua New Guinea could improve its international reputation and its forest governance by negotiating a forest partnership agreement with the European Union.

Photo: Papua New Guinea is the world's second largest producer of tropical logs but its timber industry has been under fire. (Credit: ABC licensed) 

Source: The National

NORTHERN Governor Garry Juffa has warned companies and individuals planning to develop natural resources in the province to seek permission from the provincial government first.

He sounded the warning after he was alerted on Tuesday that an overseas company had claimed in a foreign newspaper advertisement that it had secured 100,000 hectares of land in Northern.