Resources

1 Apr 2006

Tim Anderson. In discussing the economic value of customary land in Papua New Guinea, we must recognise the ongoing polemic over land use. Much of this debate is driven by special interest groups seeking access to customary land. Customary landowners in Papua New Guinea, on the other hand, have been mostly well served by their system of custodianship. Land has been the basis for social cohesion, food security, cultural reproduction and ecological management. This is a view supported by the PNG constitution and reflected, in many ways, by the international discussion of the ‘multifunctionalty’ of small farming (Mazoyer 2001).

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1 Jun 2005

June 1, 2005 J Fingleton, ed. A response to a series of papers authored mainly by Helen Hughes whose argument that customary land tenures are the principal cause of poverty in PNG, and that Australia should make its aid contingent upon changes, is influential in Government circles. This report argues that the proposed privatisation is based on wholesale confusion about the nature of land ownership in Pacific nations and reflects an ideological free-market approach to development.

Attached files

• privatising land in the pacific. a defence of customary tenures.pdf

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