Vanuatu customary land ownership process begins

Transcript

The process of identifying customary land ownership in Vanuatu has now begun under wide-ranging reforms implemented a year ago.

The reforms removed the power of the Land Minister to sell or lease customary land.

Disputes over land ownership have also been taken away from courts to be solved at traditional institutions

Lands Minister Ralph Regenvanu told Koro Vaka'uta where the reforms are at.

RALPH REGENVANU:  The process for obtaining over previously unleased customary land, we are now piloting that process in a number of locations on the islands of Efate, also on Santo, Malekula, Tanna.  There are processes we are piloting.  One is to do with applications for new leases over customary land where the land hasn't been leased before and the other one is determination of customary ownership over custom land using the new process where courts are not allowed to determine but it has to go back to local level customary institutions.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  Have you seen the positive changes that you were looking to see already or is it too early?

RV:  One of the main positive changes we've seen is that there has been no new customary land put under lease that wasn't already in process before the law was passed.  It's really been slowed down in terms of any new leases being given because they have to follow this new process.  To me that is a positive in itself.  Put the brakes on the rate at which land has been alienated from customary tenure without the proper customary owners being identified or consenting.  That was the big problem under the old laws.  Lots of leases had been given over customary land where the custom owners had not been identified and they had not consented to their land being leased and it was leased.  It's about making sure that land which is our greatest asset as people of the Pacific, we don't have much else apart from our land and ourselves, that the land that we do have is properly developed in our interest and with our consent.  It's meant that we have had to put in a lot of new processes to ensure that things are done properly.  We've learnt from our experience over the last 30 years.

KV:  You mention the identification of the customary owners, how difficult is that and how will you approach that task?

RV:  Well we have many customary owners who have been identified by court processes and also by the processes under the old Lands Tribunal Act.  We have repealed the old Lands Tribunal Act and replaced it with the Customary Land Management Act and we've also amended the constitution to remove jurisdiction to determine customary ownership from the courts.  The new process will require a series of public notifications and then meetings at the local level, in New Zealand you would call them at marae or whare, where the customary authorities have to decide according to the rules of custom.

KV:  Has there been any negative feedback or any difficulties that this process has struck?

RV:  A lot of people have been worried about certain aspects of it.  The fact whether this new process of identifying customary ownership is going to work is still a question.  We are starting to pilot it now.  It's more expensive than the old process.  There are a lot more steps to be taken.  There's still uncertainty about whether that is actually going to work.  Some people are concerned about the time it will take to get a lease.  So yeah there have been some criticisms about that.