Editing Papua New Guinea (section)

=== Land tenure ===
[[File:OkTediMine.jpg|thumb|The [[Ok Tedi Mine]] in southwestern Papua New Guinea]]

The PNG legislature has enacted laws in which a type of tenure called "[[Aboriginal title|customary land title]]" is recognised, meaning that the traditional lands of the [[indigenous peoples]] have some legal basis for inalienable tenure. This customary land notionally covers most of the usable land in the country (some 97% of total land area);<ref>{{cite web |title=Customary Land Tenure in Papua New Guinea: Status and Prospects |author=Armitage, Lynne |publisher=Queensland University of Technology |url=https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlcrest/api/core/bitstreams/afe3fa43-ba5b-4a1a-b48a-9503adab21e5/content |access-date=15 July 2005 }}</ref> [[alienated land]] is either held privately under state lease or is government land. Freehold title (also known as [[fee simple]]) can only be held by Papua New Guinean citizens.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mj.gov.tl/dntp/rel/DATA/LLP%20I/ARD%20Reports%20and%20studies/Compartive%20Study/Comparative%20study%20by%20HBW%20Inc.pdf |title=Facilitating Foreign Investment through Property Lease Options |author=HBW International Inc. |access-date=28 August 2007 |page=9 |date=10 September 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925201815/http://www.mj.gov.tl/dntp/rel/DATA/LLP%20I/ARD%20Reports%20and%20studies/Compartive%20Study/Comparative%20study%20by%20HBW%20Inc.pdf |archive-date=25 September 2007 }}</ref>{{rp|9–13}}

Only some 3% of the land of Papua New Guinea is in private hands; this is privately held under a 99-year state lease, or it is held by the State. There is virtually no freehold title; the few existing freeholds are automatically converted to state leases when they are transferred between vendor and purchaser. Unalienated land is owned under customary title by traditional landowners. The precise nature of the [[seisin]] varies from one culture to another. Many writers portray land as the communal ownership of traditional clans; however, closer studies usually show that the smallest portions of land whose ownership cannot be further divided are held by the individual heads of extended families and their descendants or their descendants alone if they have recently died.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}

This is a matter of vital importance because a problem of economic development is identifying the membership of customary landowning groups and the owners. Disputes between mining and forestry companies and landowner groups often devolve on the issue of whether the companies entered into contractual relations for the use of land with the true owners. Customary property—usually land—cannot be devised by will. It can only be inherited according to the custom of the deceased's people.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} The Lands Act was amended in 2010 along with the Land Group Incorporation Act, intended to improve the management of state land, mechanisms for dispute resolution over land, and to enable customary landowners to be better able to access finance and possible partnerships over portions of their land if they seek to develop it for urban or rural economic activities. The Land Group Incorporation Act requires more specific identification of the customary landowners than hitherto and their more specific authorisation before any land arrangements are determined; (a major issue in recent years has been a land grab, using, or rather misusing, the Lease-Leaseback provision under the Land Act, notably using 'Special Agricultural and Business Leases' (SABLs) to acquire vast tracts of customary land, purportedly for agricultural projects, but in almost all cases as a back-door mechanism for securing tropical forest resources for logging—circumventing the more exacting requirements of the Forest Act, for securing Timber Permits (which must comply with sustainability requirements and be competitively secured, and with the customary landowners' approval). Following a national outcry, these SABLs have been subject to a Commission of Inquiry, established in mid-2011, for which the report is still awaited for initial presentation to the Prime Minister and Parliament.{{As of?|date=May 2023}}{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}