By ALISON ANIS
SOME landowner groups from the Cloudy Bay timber project area in Abau, Central province, are against provincial administrator Raphael Yibmaramba’s call for a meeting for all incorporated land group (ILG) representatives in the area.
Mr Yibmaramba issued a notice last week notifying all Cloudy Bay Forest Management Area (FMA) ILG representatives that a meeting was scheduled at Moreguina station this Friday to see if majority landowners were benefiting from the project.
He said they would also try to establish if the landowners were consulted before the sale and transfer of the project to PNG Sustainable Development Limited (PNGSDL).
A representative, who claimed to represent a bulk of the ILG representatives in the area, said they wanted to know if Mr Yibmaramba had been given the approval by 84 signatories to the project to hold the meeting.
The representative said that they were benefiting well from spin-off projects and many of them were beginning to see tangible development in the area after a long time.
Mr Yibmaramba said the purpose of the meeting came after receiving complaints that some landowners were being left out after PNGSDL took over from Northern District Sawmill.
PNGSDL reported no sale or transfer and that the same agreement the ILG representatives had, still applied.