The community damage assessment report on West Pomio’s Special Agriculture Business Leases was launched on Tuesday, revealing that more than K2.4 billion worth of damages was incurred under this arrangement.
The damages were assessed and compiled by seventeen communities who lost 42,400 hectares of customary land under the Pomata, Ralopal and Nakiura leases.
Representatives of the affected regions were at the report launching and shared details of the report.
The total assessment of damages was reported at 2 billion, 402 million, 362 thousand and 483 kina.
17 villages participated in carrying out the assessment and putting the report together with support from stakeholders, including ACT Now! PNG.
On Tuesday they converged to launch it.
Malmal Village spokesperson Ana Sipona said the community never agreed to the loss of their customary land or the logging and oil palm planting.
She said the land was leased without due awareness by the government – hence the land was given up without informed consent.
The SABL Commission of Inquiry revealed the same thing; across the country 5 million hectares of land was illegally acquired.
In the report, the affected communities reported losses in commercial timber business, rural subsistence production loss – calculating costs per a family of 6 from over 29 thousand per year to 14 thousand per year in the period of 6 to 7 years.
They also estimated 50 percent loss of cocoa blocks to date; where 931 families lost an average 3,120 per year, that’s 1 million, 452 kina over 7 years.
Other losses included employment downturn, subsistence security, cultural recreational value and the loss of ecological good and services.
The affected communities say in unison that the size of the damages assessment is a powerful reminder of the value of customary land to local communities; the damages they suffer when the state facilitates or encourages customary land alienation.
(A bulldozer flattens the earth after forests have been cleared in West Pomio, where locals are protesting the biggest land grab in PNG’s history – Picture: Greenpeace)