INDIGENOUS landowners are being robbed of their land by a constitutional twist that restricts their ownership only to the topsoil.
The Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) said this as it called for an urgent review of the 2013 Constitution, arguing that current laws deny the indigenous peoples their rightful access to underground wealth.
In a submission to the Constitution Review Commission, FTA general secretary Paula Manumanunitoga said traditional ownership ends at just three feet beneath the surface.
“The ownership of the land extends only to the soil level and three feet below,” Mr Manumanunitoga said.
The FTA is targeting Chapter 2, Sections 28, 29, and 30 of the Constitution, which cover the protection and ownership of land interests.
Mr Manumanunitoga said the ‘Rights of ownership and protection of iTaukei, Rotuman and Banaban Lands’ must be expanded to ensure landowners are not ignored when it comes to the minerals lying deep within the ground.
He called for Section 30, which currently manages the ‘Rights of landowners to a fair share of royalties for the extraction of minerals’, to be strengthened to grant absolute control to the people.
“What it strongly recommends is that the Constitution for it to include that the total ownership of the land must also include everything under three feet or six feet below the level of the ground, including its minerals.”
