SABL Process
From a customary owner’s perspective, there was a significant and critical jump in the process that left them marginalized. Many Customary landowners agreed to a land investigation study but at no point did they consent to a SABL, as Elizabeth Tongne stated in an Interview with Canopy Watch in 2012
“A land investigation study becomes a 99-year lease”.
It transpires from the Commission of Inquiry into SABL’s consent for a land investigation study that is often used as proof of approval for a lease agreement.