30 Aug 2006

Academic says Fiji's Native Lands Trust Board a foolish manager

10:10 am on 30 August 2006

A senior academic has labeled Fiji's Native Lands Trust Board a "failure" for what he says is its "foolish management" of indigenous land resources.

Fiji TV reports that the comment came from the head of the good governance programme at the University of the South Pacific, Professor Ron Duncan.

Professor Duncan was speaking at a joint annual seminar between the USP and the Australian National University known as Fiji Update 2006.

He said the government should leave the management of customary land to its indigenous owners.

Professor Duncan said the landowners should have the right to negotiate lease terms, the rent, the use of the land and the lease renewal directly with the tenant.

He said if that happened, lease terms would become market based and could be put to open tender.

Professor Duncan says the Qoliqoli Bill should be managed in the same way because to put it under the NLTB would mean the same foolish management of landowners' resources as in the case of land.