The Government yesterday stepped into the Special Agricultural and Business Leases controversy and ordered a Commission of Inquiry (COI). All logging permits granted under such leases are also suspended until the COI carries out its investigations and presents its report and recommendations to Parliament.
During a meeting in March 2011 twenty-six experts from biologists to social scientists to NGO staff crafted a statement calling on the Papua New Guinea government to stop granting Special Agricultural and Business Leases. According to the group, these leases, or SABLs as they are know, circumvent Papua New Guinea's strong community land rights laws and imperil some of the world's most intact rainforests. To date 5.6 million hectares (13.8 million acres) of forest have been leased under SABLs, an area larger than all of Costa Rica.
"Papua New Guinea is among the most biologically and culturally diverse nations on Earth. [The country's] remarkable diversity of cultural groups rely intimately on their traditional lands and forests in order to meet their needs for farming plots, forest goods, wild game, traditional and religious sites, and many other goods and services," reads the statement, dubbed the Cairns Declaration.
However, according to the declaration all of this is threatened by the Papua New Guinea government using SABLs to grant large sections of land without going through the proper channels. Already 2 million (nearly 5 million acres) hectares of the leased land has been slated for clearing by the government's aptly named Forest Clearing Authorities.
Scientists says people can write to Papua New Guinea's National Executive Council (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), which includes the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, and express your serious concerns about the rampant increase in SABLs and their social and environmental costs. You could also send a brief letter to the editor of the Post-Courier Newspaper (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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to Papua New Guinea's National Executive Council Subject: Please, stop granting Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs) Dear Sirs, I'm hereby want to express our deepest concern regarding the Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABL). I'm learning that to date 5.6 million hectares (13.8 million acres) of forest have been leased under SABLs, an area larger than all of Costa Rica. Papua New Guinea is among the most biologically and culturally diverse nations on Earth. The country's remarkable diversity of cultural groups rely intimately on their traditional lands and forests in order to meet their needs for farming plots, forest goods, wild game, traditional and religious sites, and many other goods and services.The message's first paragraph. We ask you to protect the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and to place a moratorium on granting new SABLs and handing out approvals to clear forests, and to make sure that an independent review will then be conducted on the legality of the leases. Best Regards Name___ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (don't forget to put your name)
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This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.