Papua New Guinea’s Forestry Minister says the government is cancelling defective Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) as relevant departments work their way through the legalities of the process. Source: Radio New Zealand
Under the SABL system, about 12% of the country’s land was leased in what critics say amounts to a massive land grab.
It was the subject of a Commission of Inquiry around five years ago. This found that the majority of the leases had been fraudulently obtained, were mere fronts for logging, and that they should be revoked.
However, in many cases, logging operations have continued under SABLs.
