Samoa village payments for customary land lease queried

Transcript

AUTAGAVAIA TIPI AUTAGAVAIA:  The 250 000 Samoan tala payment of that lease for the second year was distributed and announced last Friday by the Member of Parliament of Gagaifomauga number 3, which includes Sasina village, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt. And that money it is the second time as I said from last year that the village has received payment.

SARA VUI-TALITU: Was it the same amount last year as well?

AT: They didnt say whether it was the same amount except to say that it would be the $120,000 US dollars a year for the 500 acres of land being leased to this Asian based in Hong Kong for the planting of nonu trees.

SV: How do they divvy up the payments? Is it a fair share or is it paid according to rank or what you do?

AT: Well that is a big question. Other money paid as part of a separate lease under the agreement with an investor based in Hawaii years ago. There were a lot of strories that came out about how the money got divided up in the village of Sasina and as you see, all those church ministers in this village have received their portions of the money distributed out last weekend.

SV: So the money well it says it has been distributed but there doesn't seem to be much transparency around how it got distributed.

AT: No they didn't provide any details on how it would get distributed but I heard it goes on how many matai represent village members in the village but not all families got some.

SV: Is anyone crying foul or complaining?

AT: I am pretty sure there must be some in the village as any distribution of such a huge amount of money like this is being distributed.

SV: What do you think of that costing for land being used to grow nonu?  Is that land being paid for based on market rates?

AT: I am not an expert on market rates for lease of customary land but 500 acres of land being leased for 100 years is a lot of year. And this current generation will be much older like 40-50 years in the future ahead and these senior ones now who are part of this lease deal will be gone by then and the main concern to some in this country around leasing out of customary land is the question of the population of the village in the future. Where are people in these families going to work on or cultivate for farm and so on in the future if this land is leased out for 100 years into the future.