Workshop discusses national land-use plan

TWENTY  participants from Momase, Islands and Southern regions attended a workshop and discussed the importance of having a national landuse plan.
The three-day workshop on forest issues was held last Wednesday in Port Moresby.
The workshop was hosted by Greenpeace, in partnership with the Centre for environmental law and community rights.
The participants said the land use plan would act as a guide to develop impact projects on customary land by the government and other developmental drivers.
It is deemed to be one way of easing local landowners to plan and manage their land and resources that will benefit generations to come.
It was a follow-up to  last September’s workshop with  the aim to empower landowners in their drive to influence the national government to revoke all special agriculture business leases granted so far and to push cabinet to finance the completion of the commission of inquiry on SABL.
During the workshop, participants shared experiences of threats, bribes, misinformation and raised concerns about having their human rights abused.
The participants raised concerns about the delay of the CoI draft report, saying the national government should fund the team to get the final report ready to present to parliament.
They said the coming general election would interfere with the CoI report.
but non-government organisations  needed to push for the tabling of SABL results in parliament.
Moko said local landowners deserved to have their voices heard.
A landowner from Oro province, Kenneth Koza said it was now a collective effort by all stakeholders in the country to work together and influence the government in its decision making relating to SABLs.