Landowner Groups

Papua New Guinea’s customary land tenure system means that a significant proportion of the nation’s resource and development opportunities are held by landowner communities. InvestPNG provides a structured engagement pathway for customary landowner groups seeking to connect these opportunities with institutional capital — while ensuring that community interests are protected and governance standards are met.

InvestPNG does not act as an agent for landowner groups. The platform’s role is to assess, structure, and — where standards are met — promote opportunities to qualified investors through a controlled, professionally managed process.

Engagement Eligibility

To engage with InvestPNG, landowner groups must demonstrate a defined level of organisational readiness. The platform works with groups that meet the following baseline criteria:

• Formal incorporation as an Incorporated Land Group (ILG) under the Land Groups Incorporation Act, or evidence that the incorporation process is underway
• Defined leadership structure with documented decision-making authority
• Identified resource or development opportunity with geographic specificity
• Willingness to participate in InvestPNG’s assessment and verification process

Groups that have not yet completed ILG incorporation are encouraged to engage their provincial Lands Division or a qualified legal adviser to initiate this process before approaching InvestPNG.

Resource and Development Opportunities

InvestPNG assesses landowner-held opportunities across all priority sectors, including agriculture, mining, energy, forestry, tourism, and infrastructure. Opportunities are evaluated against the platform’s capital-readiness framework, which considers legal standing, technical feasibility, commercial viability, financial structuring, and environmental and social governance.

Where an opportunity demonstrates potential for institutional capital engagement, InvestPNG works with the landowner group to develop the opportunity into a structured investment brief suitable for presentation to qualified investors.

Community Benefit Structuring

Institutional investors increasingly require clear evidence of community benefit frameworks as part of their due diligence. InvestPNG assists landowner groups in articulating benefit-sharing structures, community development commitments, and social licence arrangements in formats that meet institutional expectations.

This does not replace the need for independent legal advice. Landowner groups are strongly encouraged to engage qualified legal counsel when negotiating benefit-sharing arrangements, land access agreements, or joint venture structures.

Social Licence and Verification

InvestPNG’s verification model assesses whether community consent processes are genuine, documented, and consistent with PNG law and institutional best practice. The platform does not promote opportunities where social licence is absent, contested, or undocumented.

Landowner groups seeking to engage InvestPNG should be prepared to provide evidence of community consultation processes, leadership mandates, and — where applicable — environmental and social impact assessments.

How to Begin

Landowner groups can initiate engagement by contacting InvestPNG through the engagement portal or by submitting an opportunity through the opportunity submission pathway. All initial enquiries are treated confidentially and assessed against the platform’s eligibility criteria before any further engagement is proposed.