30 Jun 2010

Bougainville men urged to respect traditional land tenure system

12:24 pm on 30 June 2010

A Bougainville NGO is endeavouring to educate men in the Papua New Guinea province not to exclude women from decisions on land.

Land issues on Bougainville were the dominant issue at a workshop run by the Pacific Co-operation Foundation in Wellington this week.

Land remains the centre of life in the province where the majority of people still live subsistently, but in recent years there has been an increase in land sales without the full backing of family clans.

While most land is held matrilineally, women are often excluded, and Hona Holan of the Bougainville Women's Federation says they are trying to change men's attitudes.

"We need to educate our men. We need to tell our men to involve women. What Bougainville Women's Federation is doing today is we are going around educating our men to be involved in decision making in what is coming over to Bougainville."