Land formalization turned land rush: The case of oil palm in Papua New Guinea

Land formalization for large-scale agricultural development has received renewed interest in academic and policy circles as a mechanism to spur economic development and growth. International development organizations increasingly promote large investments by private investors in the agriculture sector to enable access to capital and technology, and generate employment and productivity. This article uses a case study in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where the government seeks to attract large-scale transnational investments for oil palm production by formalizing large swathes of customary land. Employing a political economy approach to land rights, the case demonstrates how PNG’s recent land formalization policy has been captured by powerful ‘big shots’ and companies, within an environment of weak and changing governance. The article highlights the importance of analyzing contextual factors such as the local political economy to understand the process and outcomes of land formalization attempts. To understand the distributional outcomes of land formalization, this article finds that it is less useful for governments and development agencies to ask if land formalization works, but rather for whom and under what conditions.