How familiar does this sound... Malaysian logging companies offering promises of oil palm to get access to vast areas of forest for logging.

PNG is not alone in suffering from a huge illegal land grab by foreign companies...

From PNGexposed Blog

SABL Commission of Inquiry Report 2: Pages 867-899

Continental Ventures Limited “failed completely to ensure transparency and good governance in its dealings with the landowners of the SABL project area.” [p875].

From EMTV news

Failure to produce and implement a full Commission of Inquiry recommendation over the controversial Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABL’s) is causing distress for innocent landowning communities in rural areas.

The people of West Pomio in the East New Britain Province, are one among those facing the plight of losing their land and suffering ill treatment to their forests by foreign developers under SABL agreements.

By Colin Filer* on DevPolicy Blog

From PNGexposed blog

Mr Kila-Pat “unlawfully caused a SABL to be created, which he further unlawfully granted to an entity not even agreed upon by the landowners” [p 59]

“…Romily Kila-Pat deliberately decided to ignore and by-pass the existing protocols and practices… when [he] decided to grant three separate SABLs … over Portions 2456C, 2466C and 2485C”. [p153]

there was “misrepresentation and fraud involved in the whole process”… “His conduct was ‘highly suspicious”  [p164]

From PNGexposed blog

SABL Commission of Inquiry Report 1: Pages 51-67

“The SABL was invalid and improper.” [p62]

“The DLPP file contains three different versions of the Land Investigation report (LIR) by two different investigators, all of them incomplete and defective.” [p54]

The LIR “fraudulently contrived and concocted to legitimize a prohibited activity, was deceptive and dangerous…” [p62]

Lester Seri

"Project to be nation builder"

From Rimbunan Hijau (The National)

THE Gilford Palm Oil project in the Sigite-Mukus area of West Pomio is described by developer Rimbunan Hijau (RH) as a nation-building project that will contribute significantly to the people and country.

In a statement from RH, the 30-year cycle project is said to cost K750 million – one of the company’s biggest investments in PNG.