The Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) is having a direct impact on the environment and cultural values, says customary landowner Anna Sipona.
Sipona comes from Malmal Village in west Pomio, East New Britain Province where logging has exploited their environment.
She explained that their forest is gone under SABL and the people in her village live as if they don’t own land.
The land in Malmal is under a 99-year lease agreement and they’ve been told by the developers that the land was now a state land.
Sipona highlighted that their drinking water and fresh water creeks have been contaminated because there are no buffer zones to protect them.
“In reality, what was once our land, we now feel that we are settlers on a land that is no longer ours.
“Our right to life has been severed and our way of surviving has been destructed and we are no longer benefiting from the land as someone else holds the title
“Our land has been acquired in the name of development however we cannot see any development happening instead there is displacement of villages, destruction of forests and food gardens and destroying of cultural values,” she said.
Sipona is calling on the Government to respond to their cries by cancelling the leases and give back their land.
Promises by the Prime Minister since June 2013 to cancel the leases, stop illegal logging and return the land to its rightful owners, as recommended by the Commission has been fulfilled.