Step 6: Incorporate Landowners' Group

Action: Once the foresters have completed their survey work, project staff then work with the landowners to formally incorporate the landowners Group according to government regulations. This process varies from site to site according to the local customary laws, but must be done in the name of a clan - it cannot be done in the name of an individual. If there are two or more clans at a given site, each clan must register their own land. Once the application is made, it is then sent to Port Moresby for processing - this can take some time.

Rationale: Current PNG law requires that any organization wishing to harvest more than 500 cubic meters of timber per year must complete a Forestry Management Agreement (FMA) with the Government Forest Authority. While many of our Groups will not harvest this much timber, we encourage them to go through the process anyway. As part of this registration process, the Group must establish exclusive boundaries to land and clear up any existing land-use disputes. The incorporation process is also necessary in order to be able to obtain bank loans to finance the enterprise.

In addition to the legal and financial necessities of this process, it also has the advantages of helping us reduce the chance of disputes over the land and makes it illegal for clan members to then subsequently sign agreements with other timber companies on the registered land.

Example: In one case, while going through the registration process, we found that the Group had already signed a contract with the government. They were sorry, but we told them there was nothing we could do unless they could nullify the contract.

In another case, while our forestry officer was conducting a field survey, some of the elders in one clan in the village signed an FMA with government representatives. When our officer came back that evening and learned about what had happened, he started a big discussion in the community. It ended with the community members walking that night to the next village where the officials were staying and telling them that they had changed their mind. They gave the officials back their 100 Kina, tore up the agreement, and today now have 32,000 Kina in the bank based on their own efforts.

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