Why green grabs don't work in Papua New Guinea

Colin Filer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In recent years, private companies have acquired long-term leasehold titles to more than five million hectares of what was formerly customary land in Papua New Guinea (PNG), but hardly any of this land has been devoted to production of the four green commodities in which PNG might have some comparative advantage - sustainable palm oil, bio-ethanol, biodiversity and carbon credits. Nearly all of it is dedicated to so-called 'agro forestry' projects that appear to be short-term salvage logging projects justified by the promise of a purely virtual form of large-scale agricultural production. I argue that the 'agro foresters' have been more successful than the green investors because of a set of political and institutional factors that distinguish PNG from many of the other countries where land grabbing has become the order of the day.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)599-617
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Peasant Studies
Volume39
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2012
Externally publishedYes

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