Britain is facing a £25 million claim for compensation from tribes in Papua New Guinea who claim the government has backed a project that destroyed their ancestral lands, poisoned their water and made them ill...They have detailed a catalogue of destruction allegedly caused by a 10,000-hectare oil palm plantation...The UK Department for International Development is the major shareholder in a company called Higaturu Oil Palms, the firm that runs the controversial plantation...A spokesman for Actis [private equity group that manages UK govt. aid money] said: 'We take these sorts of allegations very seriously and are committed to working with the management of Higaturu to ensure improvement in the environmental management of its palm oil plantations.'