Compulsory Acquisition of Land for Public Purposes in the Pacific Island Countries

Abstract

This paper discusses the acquisition of land by the state for public purposes. As every other county in the world the Pacific countries have to provide certain social and economic infrastructures like schools, police stations, hospitals, roads, and electricity and water supply for their population. These buildings, roads and other necessities usually are built on land owned by the state. If the state does not own land that is appropriate for the purpose it has to buy it or lease it. This can be done through negotiations with the owners or through compulsory acquisition. In Western countries this is not a too difficult process and usually just a matter of how much money is paid for compensation. The people will deal with losing their land without bigger problems and only rarely protest against it. In the South Pacific it is not as easy. The majority of the land, approximately 80 to 98 per cent, is customarily owned land. Customary land is mostly owned by a family or group of people and the rights the single person has on the land derive from custom and normally are not written down. For the people the land is not simply a source of income and food, for them it is the place where their families always lived and where all their spiritual rituals were performed. They see it as the land of their ancestors and feel responsible for protecting and preserving it for their future descendants. The deep connection to the land that is founded not only in the economic value of the land makes it difficult for many Pacific governments to get land for public purposes be it by buying or leasing. The connection of the people to the land also expresses itself in the prohibition to sell customary land to people who are outside the customary group. All governments of the Pacific states are allowed to buy customary land and all countries except Nauru have implemented legislation that allows them to compulsory acquire this land. They have different approaches for the way it is done.