Sustainability of Land Groups in Papua New Guinea

Lepani Karigawa, Jacob Adejare Babarinde and Suman Steven Holis
Additional contact information
Lepani Karigawa: Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Private Mail Bag 411, Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Jacob Adejare Babarinde: Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Private Mail Bag 411, Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Suman Steven Holis: Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Private Mail Bag 411, Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

Land, 2016, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: This paper consists of a review of existing literature relating to Incorporated Land Groups in Papua New Guinea (PNG), followed by a case study of two urban incorporated land groups (ILGs) in the city of Lae. The paper is an attempt at assessing the sustainability of ILGs in the country. The challenges facing the ILGs have heightened public fears that the land groups may not be sustainable. Based on the argument in previous studies that the ILGs are not sustainable, the paper used primary data from two separate questionnaire surveys of randomly selected ILG landowners (including legal settlers) and ILG stakeholders to investigate the problem. The combined sample size of 129 respondents (32.7%) was representative of the total ILG population, while a total of 25 indicators were used to test the respondents’ perceptions regarding ILG sustainability. Findings reveal that only one of the indicators received the positive support of the stakeholders, while no indicator was supported by the landowners. This suggests that the ILGs in PNG are not sustainable legal entities. This dilemma is a consequence of the challenges facing the ILGs, including the issues of corruption in the Lands Department, illiteracy among landowners, poor publicity given to ILGs’ functions, and the dysfunctional ILG legal framework.

Keywords: Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs); sustainability; indicators; sustainability reporting; customary land tenure; Papua New Guinea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/5/2/14/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/5/2/14/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:5:y:2016:i:2:p:14-:d:71182

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().