Join us to hear from two leading campaigners for land rights in Melanesia about the impacts of land reforms on Melanesian peoples, their cultures, economies and livelihoods.
Join us to hear from two leading campaigners for land rights in Melanesia about the impacts of land reforms on Melanesian peoples, their cultures, economies and livelihoods.
Throughout Melanesia, customary land tenure is under pressure from aid agencies such as AusAID, which want to instigate land reforms as a means to accelerate economic growth in the region. However, local indigenous peoples have significant concerns about the transformation of land ownership practices through registration and privatisation. Customary ownership remains central to the lives of Melanesian peoples and land reforms threaten to undermine their livelihoods, cultures, environments and economies.
Joel Simo is the Director of the Land Desk at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Joel has published numerous works on Land in Vanuatu and has extensive experience leading grassroots community education and organising at a national level. He has played a key role in facilitating regional networks and collaborations on land.
Steven Sukot is the Campaigns Manager for the Bismarck Ramu Group, a local community development and conservation NGO based in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Protecting Melanesian customary land is a major focus of BRG’s campaigns at present. Steven has been instrumental in facilitating the formation of the Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance (MILDA).
For more information about the tour contact Gary Lee on (02) 9557 8944; 0416 373 621; email gary [at] aidwatch [dot] org [dot] au
In November 2009, two leading campaigners for trade justice in the Pacific visited Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney to speak about the implications of PACER-Plus on Pacific Island economies and communities. See here for media coverage of the tour.
This edition (October 2009) focuses on the Pacific Islands. It features articles on the traditional economy in Vanuatu, customary land in Melanesia, land reform in Timor Leste, climate change adaptation funding, PACER Plus, and aid for trade.
This AID/WATCH briefing paper provides an overview of the land situation in Vanuatu from pre-independence to today. The paper highlights how Australian interests and aid relationships are often in opposition to the needs and aspirations of the majority of Vanuatu’s indigenous peoples and risk hijacking their development futures.
This series of fact sheets, produced by the Australian Civil Society Network on Pacific Trade, provides information and analysis on a range of issues related to PACER Plus.
PACER Plus is a proposed free trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and 14 Pacific Island countries, which will cover trade in goods, services and investment.
PACER Plus will have major impacts on Pacific Island economies and communities, including significant losses in government revenue, undermining of public services, business closures and job losses.
To find out more about PACER Plus and its potential implications on Pacific Islands, see below.
5 March 2010 - Environmentalists argue that what began as an initiative to clean up dirty palm oil production practices, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has become little more than an NGO-endorsed greenwashing tool. Rebecca Zhou, of Reportage/enviro reports.
January 1, 2010 -
A senior United Nations AIDS official says the AIDS pandemic in Papua New Guinea is pushing the health system to near collapse and wants Australia to work closer with health authorities to combat the virus spread.
Kevin Rudd promised Pacific nations that he would act on climate change, but his key climate advisor now says it's inevitable that islands will soon be uninhabitable because of rising seas.
