Landowners urged to lease land

THE Office of Urbanisation is committed towards mobilising customary landowners and stakeholders to identify their roles and responsibilities in customary land development.
Chairman of OoU Max Kep pointed this out at Faniufa village, south of Goroka, yesterday at the opening of a two-day workshop on ‘roles of stakeholders in customary land development projects’.
“This is for the first initiative to develop customary land since independence 35 years ago, the state has acquired only three percent of the land , 97% remains customary land,” Kep said.
He said  since towns  and  cities  were expanding with growing population and infrastructures, there was nowhere for the people to go.
Kep said customary landowners close to the town and city boundaries were selling land to migrants, saying that if this trend continued there would be no more land in 20 to 30 years time.
He said the Government through OoU came up  with this model to moblise customary lan-downers to help them keep their  title and  ownership while leasing to developers which could bring lucrative monetary returns to them and their children to come.
“We want to create more awareness on the importance of negotiating with the landowners including Faniufa landowners as the model will make sure their rights and ownership are protected for the many generations to come and will be sustained into the future,” Kep said.
He said they would build strong partnership with line agencies and important stakeholders in the development of urbanisation programmes in the country.
Important stakeholders attending the workshop being held at Faniufa village  were  from the Magisterial  Services, National Research Institute, Constitutional Law Reform Commission, Department of Finance and  Treasury, Department of National Planning and Department of Lands and Physical Planning.
Tribal leaders from major  tribes  around Goroka also  attended.