Vanuatu Land Boom - Vanuatu

Dec 2006
All is not well on the Pacific paradise of Vanuatu. A property boom, fuelled by tourists, is undermining the island's traditional culture. Many claim their land is being stolen.

"What happened to the Vanuatu way of life?" questions Graham. He first learnt his land had been sold when the bulldozers moved in. Without his knowledge, another family had registered the land as theirs and sold it to a foreign investor. Now, he cannot even access the ocean, formally reached through his land, because the path is on 'private property'.

Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Vanuatu
• Land
• property
• real
• estate
• pacific
• tourism
• news
• documentary
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[manhogharbour]

I blame the Vanuatu Government for ignoring the issue. From the outset, land has been very important to Ni Vanuatu for generations, before the arrival of white man. Since Vanuatu reached statehood in 1980, we have seen the gap between the rich and the poor widening. Evidently in Port Vila, we have seen the vast majority of locals live in slums whilst the rich especially the expatriates living in posher nicer areas

[manhogharbour]

I would like to urge the Ni Van customary land owners to be very careful before contemplating selling their land to foreigners. This is because the importance of land in Vanuatu is more than what land is to many Westerners, land represents life, materially and spiritually. Importantly, these facets of land have remained with our people for thousand of years. We the present generation and the Govt have a duty to safe guard and protect land for our future generations.

[yingdiskette]

To the people of Vanuatu: Start killing Australians on the spot with machine guns or machetes!

[emkaylua]

I wonder what happens when the 75 year lease is up. Who gets to control who at that time?

[kfiresmith]

The deception and greed on display in this video is absolutely crushing to see.

[EatDeuche]

@teamsarah10

Tourism is Vanuatus BIGGEST Export, the land would not be worth half as much without Tourism, actually there would not be roads to 90% of the land if it wasn't for the 'white' tourists.

Sure it is bad what happened to the family from Pango, although that was another ni-vanuatu family tricking the vanuatu government, so really.....

[teamsarah10]

the problem is on both sides, and both sides have thier problem story to tell. Some Nivans welcome the tourist industry for work and education purposes.

[ghostriderblack89]

except that vanuatu is the happiest country in the world and zimbabwe is the unhappiest country in the world :D

[traverser11]

also, in response to your video, although their are alot of rich (certainly not 'battler') australians and other foreigners buying holiday homes on subdivided traditional lands, it seems most of these subdivisions have remained unnocupied for years while their price keeps increasing, which makes it appear that they are being bought and sold by speculators, returning zero benefit in form of jobs, consumers, or tax to vanuatu's economy.

[traverser11]

unfortunately, my video reply didn't really cover the issue of progress and action since the land summit in 06, although i did record a fair amount of people expressing their frustration over the lack of it. the lands tribunal desperately needs expansion and fast tracking, land valuation seriously needs to happen to help stop speculators extortion of vanuatu as a tax haven, and meanwhile it funding for the lands ministry is being cut.