by Jemima Garrett

Millions of hectares of customary land in Papua New Guinea has been stolen as a result of agricultural and business leases approved by the government, a report by Greenpeace has found.

In life we go through many battles. That is a given. Epic battles, short battles, long battles, little insignificant battles and the most painful battles are those that you fight internally.

Those battles are usually the ones where we don’t realize we’re fighting until we get injured or injure someone. It’s harder to see where the battle lines are and who or where the enemy is. In these battles the black and white is indistinguishable and you end up seeing more grey areas. Though it is vital to make the distinction and there is no space for error.

Samap village in PNG's East Sepik province is like many other places in the country - isolated and without road access. But despite their isolation, a transformation driven by a small group of businessmen is putting Samap's community on a path to becoming self-made millionaires. The people have taken control of their land and are becoming leaders in the Buai (betelnut, areca) trade. They're making almost a million kina every year by trading with buai buyers from Papua New Guinea's highlands.

Papua New Guinea. Thirty seven years on and we are still being treated and treating fellow Papua New Guineans like second-class citizens in our own country. Do you agree? Maybe, maybe not.

The campaign against experimental seabed mining in the Pacific is building up a great momentum, but we still need your support to ensure a positive outcome.

via Radio New Zealand International

The executive director of Papua New Guinea’s Chamber of Mines and Petroleum says the only way of guarding against fluctuating commodity prices is by diversifying the economy.

UPDATE: Wednesday 20 June 2012

John Numapo (Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases) has said in an interview with Radio Australia that the Final Commission of Inquiry report is almost ready to be released. The report with the recommendations will be handed to whoever is the Prime Minister after the current elections, he says.