png example for esg & csg maybe?

On one of Yaq's posts just now he rightly commented:

"Extra Income for Farmers/Graziers - a Source of extra income, over and above what they could earn from the same amount of land usage. Which is why the vast majority of farmers support the industry."

It just struck me that the situation we have wrt CSG and farmers, is the same issue, in principle, as that faced by mining/oil/gas coys had in PNG.

In PNG mining coys were forced to do equitable deals with the PNG landholders - the traditional villagers and peoples who lived on, and lived off, the land.

Have a look at some of the OSH reports to get a good idea of how important this issue is wrt PNG LNG project.

Remember Bougainville? from memory that mine closed because of landowners issues, which eventually led to civil war, then semi-autonomy for Bougainville.

Because of that, the PNG mining coys and PNG govt place a huge emphasis on coming to equitable arrangements with PNG landowners.

Whilst there are quite distinct and different issues and economic and development circumstances between PNG landowners/villagers and Aust graziers/farmers - the basic issues are still similar imho.

I think the CSG industry (and also the coal mining industry) needs to sit down and talk to people like Oil Search and find out how they negotiate and accommodate both sets of needs.

For example, in PNLG the landowners/villagers get a % of the project equity! So that puts the interests of the landowners on the same path as the CSG developers!

In the PLNG project they build infrastructure eg schools, medical facilities, roads, bridges etc, PLUS train the villagers in technical trades etc.

Every one wins - because everyone gets something positive out of it!

IMHO, the CSG boys need to think outside of the square - just paying say $2,000 p/a for a well might be OK now, but soon the landowner will look at the price someone else gets next door, and start complaining, or inflation will eat away at that $2,000 figure.

Give that landowner say equity, or technical training, or a job, or give the village work etc, then the nexus between CSG wells/access and the benefits to the community is enmeshed forever.

cheers