The Vanuatu Cultural Centre is campaigning against the leasing of niVanuatu land for fear the owners may not get it back.
The Director of the Cultural Centre says many niVanuatu people who have leased their land to businessmen have not received sufficient compensation and believes once land is leased, it is gone.
Marcellin Abong says its members have been conducting awareness programmes to teach niVanuatu people on the importance of retaining their land and how to protect it.
"You lease your land for 75 years for example and then if the developer develops your land and after 75 years, that 75 years is two, three generations, and then after that you want to get your land back, so you have to compensate the developer. And it's very, very hard for the niVans who own the land to compensate these developers."
Marcellin Abong says the first family that began leasing their land, which is collectively owned, only gets 2000 vatu at the end of the year, which is insufficient to share between all the owners.
