Various customary landowners from different areas in Papua New Guinea have come together for an open forum underway at Hanuabada Village in Port Moresby.
The two-day forum from February 23-24 is being hosted by the Customary Land Law Foundation (CLLF).
The participants mostly from Central, Gulf, Hela and Milne Bay, have the opportunity to air their voices at the forum and educate themselves about compulsory land registration.
The forum will help landowners understand how Customary Land Law has been available but has never been exposed as our identity to the ownership of customary land.
Founder of CLLF Dr Onne Rageau said the forum aims to remind Papua New Guineans that we have a culture and traditional values to our customary land.
Dr Rageau is also the director of Communal Land Development Limited (CLDL), a PNG fully national own company incorporated in 2007 for the interests of all landowners on the ownership of customary land.
He said that under the customary laws of PNG, any land belonging to clans may not be sold.
CLLF was recently set up by CLDL to secure the 97 percent of the total land mass of PNG commonly known as the customary land.
He discourages landowners from registering their land under the Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs) as it strips them off their customary land titles.
Dr Rageau said compulsory customary land registration stops land grabbing, allows landowners to have an identity to their customary land and promotes investor partnership.