Source: PNG Loop

State minister and member for Yangoru Saussia Richard Maru is against the Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) device being used to acquire customary land in the country.

Source: PNG Loop

Expert Former Chief Land Title Commissioner Josepha Kiris has issued a stern warning to people selling  customary land in NCD to restrain or face the full brunt of the law.

Kiris, who is also a professional lawyer, told PNG Loop that customary land was not supposed to be sold as there was no law guaranteeing the buyer to own the land. 

Source: The National

SPECIAL agriculture business leases are nothing but a “scam” used by logging companies and will be outlawed immediately, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.

He told a radio talkback show yesterday that the logging companies and certain individuals in Government were preying on the innocent and unassuming people in rural areas.

He responded to callers from around the country on the FM100 talkback show complaining about SABLs and the damage they were doing.

Source: Radio New Zealand

The National Court in Papua New Guinea has declared two special agriculture and business leases covering 38 thousand hectares of land in Oro Province null and void, ordering the state to cancel the title deeds.

The land is in part of the customary territory of nine indigenous tribes, who argued that they rely on it as the basis for their economy and subsistence livelihoods.

Source: PNG Loop

Forestry Minister Douglas Tomuriesa says a submission on the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into Special Agriculture Business leases will be presented to the National Executive Council this week.

He says the submission contains two recommendations from the Ministerial Committee on 94 SABLs held by logging companies across the country.

Source: PNG Loop

Landowners of the Collingwood Bay area in Oro Province say the government must act now on recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the handling  of Special Agriculture Business Leases.

Adelbert Gangai told PNG Loop that the order by the courts for land titles to be handed back to customary landowners in Collingwood Bay was a victory for all landowners in Papua New Guinea.

Source: Post Courier

The National Court has declared two special agriculture and business leases (SABL) covering 38,350 hectares of land in the Oro Province null and void and has ordered the Sate to cancel the title deeds.

The orders declaring the two leases null and void were through consent drawn up by the disputing parties and endorsed by the court.

Source: Environmental News

Papua New Guinea's National Court has declared two leases held by Malaysia-based Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) null and void, and ordered the government to cancel the licenses to convert nearly 40,000 hectares of rainforest and community forest for oil palm plantations, reports the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). 

Source: The National

THE Northern government and the landowners of the Collingwood Bay area have cancelled two Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) through the National Court in Waigani.

Governor Gary Juffa announced that at a media conference in Port Moresby yesterday.

He did not elaborate on the court’s ruling but said Northern was the first province to be successful through the court of law in the cancellation of its SABLs.

Source: Rainforest Action Network

High court sides with Indigenous communities in battle over controversial Malaysian palm oil giant’s plan to develop large areas of ancestral territory and pristine forest