Growing demand for more residential land in Papua New Guinea

A Papua New Guinea (PNG) think tank says the government must ensure there is enough land for people to legally live there.

A feature of life in Papua New Guinea is that tens of thousands of people live illegally on the fringes of the country’s cities.

Residents of Bushwala, one of the largest settlements in the capital Port Moresby Facing threat of forced eviction This month, the owner of the site plans to build a new suburb there.

National pension agency Nambawan Super has owned the 200-hectare land for more than 30 years and has advised residents Start developing A well-serviced suburb in the area.

It advised in late April that settlers had until mid-July to vacate the site or face forcible eviction.

On Saturday, Prime Minister James Marape said his The government is offering solutions to those ordered to evict Their place of residence or settlement.

Paul Barker, executive director of the Institute of National Affairs, told New Zealand’s Pacific Radio it was just one of several illegally occupied sites earmarked for clearing.

“There are legitimate landowners around Port Moresby and there are also many who have acquired land through less legitimate means. Nambawan Super’s title is certainly legitimate,” Mr Barker said.

However, he said others’ titles were far less credible.

“It’s really difficult. But it highlights a bigger problem, which is that the prime minister makes statements like, ‘Look, you have to make sure you have proper land title to where you’re going to live’. But the reality is, who provides the land?”

He said that according to the land department, the situation was the same in all other towns across the country.

“There is simply not enough state land available to feed the growing population. So, eventually, settlements inevitably emerge.”

“Many of the settlements have been there for a long time, almost dating back to World War II, and now they are being moved to make way for new developments.”

He said the name Nambawan Super Tower has been around for a long time and people who built houses there had been warned.

“But it is very challenging, the settlements comprise a large portion of the total population and house a large portion of both the formal and informal workforce.

“So, these settlement lands are populated by people of all professions — lawyers, accountants, government workers, police officers.

“Some of them invest huge amounts of money to develop houses, but sometimes these houses are destroyed in a very short time.

Buck said landlords across the country are planning a variety of other large-scale demolitions.

He said other arrangements could and should be made and that promises made by those in power “are often not kept”.

“In many cases, settlers come onto traditional lands and traditional landowners enter into ad hoc arrangements with the settlers, which the settlers believe are in fact legal.

“It’s incumbent on governments to enable traditional landowners to legally trade their land, if they wish, on long-term leases that are long enough for settlers to actually commit to building and potentially reselling the property over time, but also for the state to legally acquire the land.”

According to Barker, in many cases, squatters either pay rent or pay someone for the land.

But for large areas of traditional land, transactions are direct between traditional landowners and settlers, with no legal statutory title.

“The state has a great responsibility”

Buck believes that various special arrangements could be made for landowners and illegal occupants to come to an agreement where extensive surveys would be done on the land and they could then legally reside there.

“Obviously those who have ownership, such as superannuation funds and others who have legal title, will want to protect that ownership and make sure it is not infringed upon, but they also have the opportunity to put in place arrangements.

“But we have to recognize that the state has a huge responsibility to ensure that the land can be acquired legally in some way.”

He noted that Papua New Guinea also faces rapid urbanization, which is often caused by inadequate service provision in rural areas or due to conflict.

He said some people caught up in the conflict in places like Enga and Ela would return home if there was assurance that peace and harmony could be restored.

“But at the same time, these IDPs often end up living illegally or with relatives in the capital, further increasing population pressure and demand for housing.

“The government needs to take responsibility, rather than sitting back and saying it’s someone else’s fault.”

He said land issues were an area where there was a lot of malpractice in Papua New Guinea.

Buck said there have been several land ministers and land department officials who only care about themselves.

“Many state lands were divided and allocated through back-door means rather than front-door means.

“As a result, if you have multiple titles on a piece of land, even if the bank thinks they have a mortgage on the land, they may find out someone else also has a title to the land.”

He added that making land processes more transparent and legal, ensuring more land was properly acquired and enabling traditional landowners to conduct land transactions more formally would help address the problem.