Top: A swathe of palm plantation in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – A team of Indonesians from communities affected by palm plantations has shared their experiences with actors in the Liberian oil palm industry, introducing a new monitoring tool that builds a relationship between villagers and investors.
Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. The southeastern Asian nation has rapidly expanded its oil palm plantations in recent decades, accounting for 50 percent of global oil palm production.
The Liberian oil palm sector has seen a horde of protests and court actions over the last decade. In May 2020, Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), the country’s largest oil palm company, illegally dismissed 433 employees, sparking outrage across communities in Liberia’s southeastern Sinoe County. In Grand Cape Mount County, on the country’s western frontiers, villagers across the Mano Palm Oil Plantation areas have been at loggerhead with the company over its failure to implement corporate social responsibilities.
“Liberia needs a chamber that will help to mitigate conflict and develop policies about sustainability and human rights,” said Adinko, a senior human rights lawyer who headed the team at the event in Congo Town. “You need a community business, NGO, finance, and partners to talk about how to make the palm oil industry better in your country.
“You need to increase the smallholders in Liberia. You need to have an inclusive business sector, build capacity and provide backup to join with the big economy in your country,” Adinko added.
The event marked the end of a weeklong training of civil society actors on community-based monitoring (CBM), an approach designed to ease tension between communities and oil palm investors.
CBM is expected to mitigate these challenges, tasking multinationals to demand companies abide by existing laws and policies governing the sector. It was organized by Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development (SESDev) with funding from the Rights and Resources Institute (RRI), an international non-governmental organization working to ensure better forest reforms and a forest economy.
“We are now understanding how things have moved from bad to good between companies and communities in other countries,” said James Otto, a lead campaigner at Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). “We wanted to understand what tools and approaches they are using. That gave rise to this exchange.”
Dr. Michael Lartey, the general manager for the sustainability of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), said the success of the program will hinge on the commitment of companies and communities alike.
“The expectation is that whatever we will come up with, whether by MoUs or other social agreements, they must be done through the free prior and informed consent (FPIC) process,” Lartey said.
Banner Image: A cleared forestland in Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA -Dutch financial institution Rabobank received USD$375 million from investing in oil palm projects in Liberia, which are marred by deforestation and human rights violations, according to a new report by Global Witness.
Rabobank, a Dutch financial institution, generated dividends from its investment into Sinar Mas Group, an agribusiness and Food Company and chief investor into Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Golden Veroleum’s largest shareholder.
“The Government of Liberia must redirect harmful finance and promote community-based agriculture and forest management so that Liberians benefit directly from their natural resources,” said Danielle van Oijen, Friends of the Earth – Netherlands, who worked on the report. “The government must get hold of such money as a way of preventing deforestation across industrial plantations.”
The report found that as of July 2018, Rabobank had credited Sinar Mas US$150 million, according to an update provided last December by BankTrack, an international NGO that traces banks’ financing deals. The credited amount was given to GVL through Verdant Fund LP, its parent organization.
Rabobank and other banks from the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China netted $$1.74 billion in interest, dividends, and fees from financing agribusinesses groups that have destroyed tropical rain forests in Brazil, Southeast Asia and Africa since the Paris Climate Agreement. Its finances were invested into soy, beef, palm oil and pulp and paper, according to Global Witness. The credits have involved banks and asset managers whose firms have been accused of causing global climate emergency and placing a shattering cost for rural communities who depend on forests for survival.
An earlier report by Friend of the Earth – Netherlands found that GAR, in 2012 received US$90.8M from Rabobank and $152.21M the next year. The latter was given mainly for the operations of GAR. In 2017 and 2018, ABN AMRO provided a total of US$300.8M to GAR and its subsidiaries.
GAR and other multinational companies use a chain of financial structures to fund their subsidiaries with money they receive from Dutch banks while hiding their connections and avoiding direct liabilities. Over the last five years, GAR, Wilmar and Société Financière des caoutchoucs (SOCFIN) received different loan portfolios from Rabobank. The report comes as palm oil, the most frequently used vegetable oil in the world become a highly controversial commodity. In Indonesia, the headquartered country of GAR, Golden Veroleum’s biggest investor, rain forest there was destroyed and local farmers were chased off their land, according to farmland.org, a website, which tracks purchase and lease of farmland by companies globally.
“Enforcement is lacking and companies do not see the consequences of their harmful operations,” van Oijen said. “We call upon all financiers to immediately stop financing companies engaged in deforestation, pollution and human rights violations, and provide compensation and remedy to the victims and environment.”
Rabobank denied it is financing GVL activities in Liberia. “Loans are generally connected to specific activities and the subsidiary activities in Liberia are not financed by Rabobank,” Johan Verburg, senior policy advisor on risk, sustainability and climate, told The DayLight.
GVL has been frequently linked with deforestation and human rights abuses since it signed a 65-year concession agreement with the government of Liberia in 2010. The company secured 220,000 hectares for its oil palm production across communities in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland counties. But its operations have been tinted with deforestation, land-grab, and human rights violations.
On May 26, 2015, hundreds of Butaw youths demanding jobs and community development were beaten by heavily armed riot police on orders of the company, incarcerating several youths for over a year without trial. One person died from the violence, and several thousand worths of properties were damaged.
GVL has also been accused multiple times of carrying out numerous human rights abuses against workers, including community people. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global oil palm regulatory body, found the company guilty of committing human rights abuses, including forceful entry into traditional shrines. It found the company responsible for illegally encroaching on community lands outside of its concession area. GAR recently upheld the RSPO’s ruling, saying on its website, “There was no attempt to hide or deny the clearance of community land,” vowing GVL would not clear any additional land until it develops a sustainability plan for review by the HCSA.
Last yea0r, the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) report established GVL cut down trees across a thousand hectares of forests, habitat for endangered species and important wetlands. The report found GVL violated the land and cultural rights of local communities, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent.
Golden Veroleum said it would respond to the report. “GVL is working with RSPO and HCSA under their respective complaints systems and that we have previously responded to the allegations,” said Alphonso Kofi, its communication officer.
Banner Image: Golden VeroleumLiberia’s palm nursery in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Gabriel Dixon
MONROVIA – Dutch banks ING Group, ABN AMRO and Rabobank have provided 3.1 billion Euros (nearly US$3.5 billion) in the last five years to agriculture projects that have led to deforestation and human rights violation around the world, including Liberia, a new report has found.
The report, Dutch financial sector European frontrunner in financing deforestation, released by Friend of the Earth -Netherlands and Profundo recently, found that Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP), the Cavalla Rubber Corporation (CRC), Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) and the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) all received Dutch investments through their parent companies to knock down the forest and take away land belonging to rural communities.
These multinational companies use a chain of financial structures to fund their subsidiaries with money they receive from Dutch banks while hiding their connections and avoiding direct liabilities. Over the last five years, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), Wilmar and Société Financière des caoutchoucs (SOCFIN) received different loan portfolios from the Dutch banks.
An earlier report by Friend of the Earth (FOE) found that GAR, in 2012 received US$90.8M from Rabobank and $152.21M the next year. The latter was given mainly for the operations of GAR. In 2017 and 2018, ABN AMRO provided a total of US$300.8M to GAR and its subsidiaries.
GVL is a subsidiary of GAR, a Singaporean multinational oil palm company that now has operations across 12 countries, including Liberia. GAR provides funding it receives from Dutch banks through the Verdant Funds to subsidiaries like Golden Veroleum Liberia.
MOPP and CRC are owned by Wilmar through SIFCA, a subsidiary of the company. Wilmar is also a Singaporean company that operates in the oil palm and rubber industries. SRC and LAC, on the other hand, are owned by SOCFIN, a Luxembourg multinational company whose primary activity involves managing palm oil and rubber plantations in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. The French Bolloré Group holds at least 38.8% of the shares of the company. The Bolloré Group received a loan from ABN AMRO to fund its operations and those of its auxiliary companies such as SOCFIN.
“Despite voluntary commitments of banks and declarations by the (Dutch) government, Dutch financing of companies linked to deforestation and human rights abuses continues, said Danielle van Oijen of Friend of the Earth-Netherlands. “Hence, we call for legal obligations for the financial sector and a shift of finance towards agro-ecology and community-based forest management.”
Evidence of Deforestation, Land-grab and Human Right Violations
Subsidiaries of multinational companies operating in Liberia are all been investigated and found liable for deforestation, land grab and human rights abuses.
In February this year, GVL was declared non-compliance with the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) by a panel set up by the High Carbon Stock Organization in a grievance filed by Friends of the Earth-Netherlands, Sustainable Development Institute, and Friend of the Earth-USA. HSCA Grievance Panel Report concluded that GVL was indeed guilty of deforestation and the destruction of biodiversity areas in Liberia.
In March 2018 the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international body that develops and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil, found GVL guilty of complaints filed by the people of Butaw, Tarjowon, Du, Wolee and Nyennee, and Numopoh through the Civil Society Organizations Oil Palm Working Group (CSO – OPWG) for taking away their land without free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), destruction of sacred sites, and deforestation. GVL also unlawfully dismissed workers for their involvement with communities aggrieved by the actions of the company in violation of both domestic and international labor laws.
GVL said it was now acting in compliance with international standards. “GVL is working with RSPO and HCSA under their respective complaints systems …,” said Alphonso Kofi, the company’s spokesman in an emailed response to The DayLight.
MOPP and CRC have been engaged in deforestation. Their operations have also led to mass forced removals and displacement of local communities in Pleebo-Sodoken District, Maryland County. In 2012, SIFCA security killed a man on its plantation. The company is also known for violating labor laws, including the illegal dismissal of pregnant employees.
SRC and LAC were accused of wrongfully taking away land belonging to local farming communities in Bong and Grand Bassa Counties. The two companies are also alleged to have been involved in bad labor practices and human rights abuses.
The companies did not respond to our queries for comments on the new report.
‘Disappointed’
Reacting to the report, Terry Panyonnoh, a local community rights advocate from Butaw, one of the communities affected in Sinoe County, felt “let down” by the Dutch Government and financial institutions. Panyonnoh was among several community rights advocates and who rallied the Dutch parliamentarians and financial institutions in October 2019 to halt their investment in projects linked to deforestation in their homelands.
“I am strongly disappointed in the government of the Netherlands after our visit and rally in 2019,” said Panyonnoh via Facebook. “I think we will mobilize and present a petition to the government of Liberia demanding the closure of companies engaged in deforestation and the abuse of human rights,” he concluded.
The report comes after global efforts by world leaders and international bodies, including financial institutions and agribusinesses to combat the impact and effect of climate change in the world. At the 26th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), held in Glasgow, Scotland, world leaders sought to agree on how to step up global action to solve the climate crisis. A key issue among the objectives was to discuss measures to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. Liberia made a commitment to cut down on deforestation in the forestry and agriculture sectors.
Up to press time, The DayLight did not get replies from ING, ABN AMRO, or Rabobank. This story will be updated as soon as we receive responses from the banks and the companies.
Primary forest 1-3 km critically important to connectivity and conservation of western chimpanzee in Liberia.
Liberia has the second-largest population of western chimpanzee, recently classified “critically endangered.”
Chimpanzee habitat and movement overlaps considerably with existing timber and agriculture concessions.
Roads network could also pose threat to chimpanzee habitat in the future as the Liberian government focuses on infrastructure.
Banner Image: A bird’s eye view of a forest in Sinoe County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – Primary forest between one and three kilometers is “critically important” for the habitat of western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), a new study on the connectivity and conservation of the mammal has found.
Eleven scientists from institutions in the United States and Germany found that several important corridors for chimpanzee habitat and movements of overlap with existing logging, mining and agricultural concessions. They call on Liberia to make use of its findings in its current and future conservation efforts.
“Protecting primary forest is the most important step that can be taken for the conservation and protection of the western chimpanzee in Liberia,” Dr. Amy Frazier, an associate professor of Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, one of the authors of the study, told The DayLight in an emailed interview.
Liberia has the world’s second-largest population of western chimpanzees. Known as the closest relative to humans, 80 percent of the chimpanzees’ population has declined in the last three decades: from 175,000 in 1990 to 35,000 in 2014, according to a 2017 report. This decline is expected to continue in the future, conservationists say. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently classified the ape as “critically endangered.”
The research shows a concentration of western chimpanzees habitats in the southern and northern parts of the country and lesser populations in the country’s central region. But human activities such as transportation and agriculture in the central region contribute to chimpanzee group isolation in the northern and southern parts of the country, it says.
Road network and human habitation feature in the research’s methodology. Researchers ranked the distance of forest from roads very highly in modeling the relationship between the chimpanzees and their habitats. While human presence was an indicator, infrastructure was even a more important indicator for the researchers. That method supports the main findings of a 2019 study on chimpanzees in Sierra Leone, which found secondary roads in that country impact the mammal’s habitat.
The researchers modeled western chimpanzee habitat suitability, focusing on determining the most relevant environmental predictors and most appropriate scale for species-habitat relationship. The study included other scaling variables not used in previous studies. They also used the suitability map t conduct chimp-habitat connectivity analysis as well as Circuitscape, a tool for connectivity prediction.
The study calls for the need for multiscale investigations.
‘Not possible to bring back chimpanzees’
Liberia holds the largest portion (42 percent) of the Upper Guinea Forest, West Africa’s biggest remaining rainforests and a global biodiversity hotspot. It has committed to protecting 30 percent of its forest, and it is a part of the Good Growth Partnership and the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa. However, it has leased more than a million hectares of forestland to logging companies, covering more than 1.5 million hectares. Palm oil concessions also cover approximately 690,000 hectares and mining more than 113,256 hectares. A recent study by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) revealed that Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), the country’s largest palm oil company, destroyed carbon-rich forests of more than 1,000 hectares.
Logging is the third-largest contributor to Liberia’s revenue in 2018/2019, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Frazier said the country, which relies heavily on extractive industries, must find a balance with its conservation responsibilities and commitments. “In other words, the areas and the resource the chimpanzees need the most (primary forest) are the same areas and resource that have extraction value for others,” Frazier said. “In these situations, prioritizing conservation is likely to be the only way to ensure the protection of western chimpanzee habitat. Once the primary forest is gone, the land will no longer have the same value for either the chimpanzees or the logging companies. And while it will be possible to grow trees in other places, it may not be possible to bring back the chimpanzees.”
The study finds timber and palm oil concessions overlap with several important corridors for chimpanzee habitat and movement more than mining and rubber. Also, Liberia’s Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development focuses on infrastructure that could also overlap with regions study identified.
Blamah Goll, the technical manager for conservation at the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) said the government of Liberia needed to spend more money on protected areas and ecotourism.
“On the line of policy [the government] is doing well. Allocating funding is a challenge,” Goll told The DayLight in a mobile phone interview. All of over US$2.9 million allocated to the FDA in the current national budget is for salaries and other recurring costs.
“Even money for protected areas comes from development partners,” Gold added. “So, the national government needs to set aside money for protected areas, even if it is one or two every year.”
Banner Image: Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Golden Veroleum Liberia has failed to implement more than 50 percent of the memoranda of understanding (MoUs) it signed with communities in Sinoe County, according to a new report by Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and its Dutch partner Friends of the Earth Netherlands.
In 2014, GVL signed MoU with Tartweh-Drapoh, Numopoh, and Nitrian, promising to provide the communities jobs, education, training and social development. Despite giving out more than 15,000 hectares of their land in exchange for these social benefits, GVL has failed to fulfill its part of the agreement, the report said.
“GVL has failed to provide benefits for communities. It has structurally failed to provide benefits and live up to commitments to communities since 2014,” said James Otto, the coordinator of SDI’s community rights and corporate governance program at a news conference on Thursday in Duarzon, Margibi County. “GVL operation in Liberia has not been anything but sustainable. It has failed to comply with findings from complaints from affected communities.
“The lack of compliance has also contributed to human rights abuses in the country.”
Alphonso Kofi, GVL’s spokesman, told this reporter the company would respond to the report soon.
Out of 181 promises Golden Veroleum made to communities within the MoUs, the report said the company has only implemented 49 of those commitments. It broke 90 of them and has partially fulfilled 35. SDI and Friends of the Earth said they could not tell what happened with seven of the promises.
Some of the unfulfilled promises include jobs and communities’ out-growers programs, the most violated portion of all the MoU it signed with Tartweh-Drapoh, Numopoh and Nitrian.
“We’ll continue to press on the national government to ensure that communities get their just benefits from their natural resources but the government must do its part,” Otto said. “We are asking the government to do so because GVL is shifting the blame on the government.” He disclosed SDI is going to present the new findings to the legislature which has a constitutional obligation to approve and review concessions in the country.
SDI’s Wilfred Gray-Johnson and Program Coordinator James Otto at a news conference on Wednesday. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Previous reports have found GVL liable for violating MoUs it reached with communities.
Between 2015 and 2017, GVL signed MoUs with Butaw, Tartweh and Tarjuowon for over 28,000 hectares of land, 2,600 hectares in Butaw, 7,000 Tartweh and 19,000 hectares in Tarjuowon. The MoUs mandate GVL to employ one person per six hectares. That has never been done. In Butaw, for instance, it has hired less than half of the number of residents it agreed to employ.
In April 2017, a report by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)—the global watchdog for the oil palm sector—found GVL violated 16 MoUs it signed with communities between 2013 and 2015.
GVL’s concession mandates it to follow the RSPO’s principles. It is a member of the global certification scheme through its parent company Golden Agri Resources (GAR), the world’s second-largest palm oil multinational. The RSPO reprimanded the company for land-grab a year after that report and ordered it to negotiate with the communities on employment opportunities and other issues. GVL would pull out of the RSPO only to reenter shortly after.
Even more recently, an investigation by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) last year found the company cleared carbon-rich forests in the Liberian southeast. In 2016, oil palm companies agreed to comply with the HCSA’s “no deforestation” standard.
Danielle van Oijen, a lead campaigner at Friends of the Earth Netherlands, called on financiers of GVL’s parent company GAR to stop their investment in the firm.
“This has to stop,” van Oijen said in a press statement. “Benefits from natural resources should go to the Liberian people, not to shareholders in faraway countries.”
GVL is currently renegotiating MoUs with communities to expand its plantation. it signed a 65-year concession agreement with the Liberian government in 2010, leasing 220,000 hectares of land in Grand Kru, Maryland, River Cess, River Gee and Sinoe, the largest palm oil concession in the country.
A schoolboy walks on a road in Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Banner Image: A schoolboy walks on a road on Golden Veroleum Liberia’s plantation in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Ali Kaba
The Land Rights Law (LRL), enacted on the 23rd of August 2018, was an impressive feat. It recognizes the land rights of all Liberians, especially rural communities who have historically been subject to mere user rights on their ancestral lands. The LRL protects the rights of communities to their claimed customary areas as their lawful property – “with or without deed”.
This provision places an estimated 70% or more of the country under customary ownership. Each community may formalize this through registration and issue of a community land deed by the Liberian Land Authority (LLA). In contrast, private owners do not obtain recognition of ownership without formal titles or documented agreements they obtain from a community.
So far, 120 communities have been helped by civil society organizations to identify their respective customary lands, harmonize borders with neighbors, and elect a land management team – all requirements for formalizing their customary ownership. These claims cover at least 1.5 million hectares, or more than ten percent of all Liberia’s lands. Still, none of these CSOs supported communities have been issued the promised customary title deeds.
Meanwhile, interviews with members of civil society groups, confirmed by the LLA, suggest that some communities have received “customary deeds.” However, what remains unclear, and troubling is where, how, and when these deeds were issued. At the same time, reputable civil society organizations such as the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) are encountering reports in communities suggesting that chiefs and elders are offering customary land to national elites – without the consent of the community, a violation of a fundamental principle of the Land Rights Law. Are these reports an indication of “illegal” land grabbing in rural communities?
A youth from Gbarsaw Clan in River Cess told one of the authors, “Some of our chiefs and elders are giving large [parcels] of lands to big people in government and other elites from Monrovia without consulting us. We find out about this when they enclose their land, plant permanent tree crops, and demarcate ‘their land’ – and often in our common areas”. It is disturbing that there are no public records of these dealings, and it is unclear how much land has been deeded or offered to national elites.
According to Liz Alden Wily, an international land tenure specialist, “‘a land rush’ for customary lands is not unusual when property law reforms recognize these lands as lawfully owned by communities and registrable as their collective property. The rush does not only affect fertile lands but valuable forest and mineral-bearing rangelands. “Elites, and governments themselves have been used to treating millions of hectares of their peoples’ community lands as ‘unowned’ or as de facto government lands and are often part of the rush”. She cites cases in Kenya where military, livestock, and forest sectors, and some devolved county governments are “laying claim to community lands as public lands prior to formal registration by affected communities, making it doubly hard for communities to secure their properties”.
Why do we see this trend in Liberia? Many causes can be identified. One is serious underfunding and capacity of the key supervisory institution, the Liberia Land Authority (LLA). It remains deprived of resources, money, and technical expertise, suggesting weak administrative and political will lie behind this. The sheer cost of launching a national titling program for customary lands may also have genuinely taken the Government by surprise, to which they have not yet adjusted. Or perhaps they do not wish to divert funds to this need, which may curtail their own rural land interests.
Over-centralization of authority is also a factor. All land-related decisions and resources are still heavily concentrated in Monrovia. The lack of devolved offices outside of Monrovia adds to the inability to learn about challenges and unlawful events as they arise. Even more, pressing is a lack of transparency in titling processes and inadequate grievance redress mechanisms. Consequently, there are serious concerns over the way land administration is currently structured, which leaves customary lands vulnerable to national elite control.
A Surge in Private Land Formalization is adding to pressures on customary lands. Over the past decade, media reports and civil society engagement have raised public awareness about large-scale foreign land acquisitions. However, recent reports from national CSOs and local communities, as well as a 2020 study by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), suggest that national elites and local investors are driving current trends of land acquisitions and evictions in Liberia. In the current climate, it is alarming to see speculative investments in farms, forests, and mineral-rich lands without a regulatory framework protecting local communities.
The role of chiefs and elders in customary land use and management remains unclear. Elders and chiefs have always guided land use and management in Liberia. However, the nature of their guidance under the current legal landscape is ambiguous in the absence of a standardized regulation. This ambiguity allows some chiefs to allocate land based on their preferences. For example, elders/chiefs who lack all the information about the current law, especially those who wish to use land as a negotiation offer to please elites or politicians for wealth or political consideration, may end up donating land to these elites without a careful evaluation.
The role of CSOs in a changing environment: Recent evidence suggests that CSOs’ engagement with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) on substantial areas like producing relevant regulations to implement the law and commitments to a transparent partnership have significantly slowed down. Also notable is the lack of a clear engagement framework within civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage the LLA. For example, it is unclear how CSOs will be accommodated in ongoing partnerships with the LLA as implementation partners and advocacy groups. Many of the key CSOs currently working in the land sector are implementing the land rights law with the government (LLA) while also leading advocacy campaigns to ensure fairness, human rights, and transparency. These CSOs have experience managing such tension (collaboration and advocacy) with government agencies, but it remains a delicate balance for CSOs implementing projects that require the LLA’s validation.
Meanwhile, the LLA believes that its actions are legitimate, given that local and international partners are working with them on projects. This seemingly simple gap undermines the role of a vibrant civil society by limiting the intensity, timing, and cohesion of CSOs in combating abuses in the land sector. Clearly, best practice would insist that CSOs play an active monitoring and advocacy role, holding power holders to account.
So, what could turn the tide in favor of customary land? First, the legislature (through the national budget) and international partners must support the country’s land authority and associated land administrative agencies, including the courts, to address their institutional deficiencies related to land administration. For example, staff at the LLA – particularly its customary unit – could be given training, resources, and managerial authority to assist communities and NGOs in implementing and managing customary land formalization activities. However, supporting these agencies must be tied to holding government officials accountable – a role CSOs are best suited to play.
Second, CSOs must assist the government from a distance – setting clear boundaries so that organizations directly implementing projects with the government can do so effectively while maintaining enough independence to call out bad practices. Such a boundary should be structured as a relationship of support and advocacy for the community. In this line, the CSOs Working Group on Land Rights Reform (CSO-WGLLR) and the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) must ensure that organizations critical of government agents and power brokers can do their work with protection. NCSCL and CSO-WGLRR should work with national institutions such as legislators, courts, the Human Rights Commission, and transnational groups working on human rights issues and environmental protection to provide moral and legal protections for these groups.
At the same time, international partners, including on-ground implementers, must support local civil society groups with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. For example, international organizations implementing the land rights law can guide their efforts by working with local CSOs to promote awareness, transparency, and support communities to set up and train their land management committees.
CSOs should also develop a robust monitoring and reporting framework to systematically track and report illegal land transfers. An illegal land transfer can be contested in court. A good example of this is the Private Use Permit (PUP) case, which saw over 20% of the country’s forest land illegally transferred to local and national elites. CSOs successfully challenged the PUPs, resulting in their cancellation and the prosecution of unscrupulous government officials. Clearly, civil society and community-based organizations are better suited to build on their relationships and knowledge of local power dynamics to implement the land rights law in an inclusive, transparent manner.
In the absence of these interventions, Liberia’s impressive Land Rights Law (LRL) could be used as a tool for elite land capture, resulting in a vicious circle of national and international land grabs. Like the state-led land grabs of the 1920s and 1950s and the alarming expansion of foreign concessions in the mid-2000s, communities in Liberia currently face what seems like elite-driven land grabs. Failure to develop clear progressive regulations and safeguard for CSOs and communities will not produce better results than in the past. It will only preserve or deepen inequalities and result in continued human rights abuses and environmental violations.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent the position of The DayLight.
[1] By Ali D. Kaba and Sahr Nouwah. Ali and Sarh played a significant role in the 2018 land rights law campaign. The article is based on firsthand accounts of Ali’s visit to Liberia, including interviews with civil society leaders and community youth. For more information, you can contact Ali Kaba at badara113@gmail.com.
Top: Men work at a palm oil mill formerly owned by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) now run by Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) without the approval of the Liberian government or the consent of local people. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
SHAMPAY CAMP – Liberia National Produce Incorporated (LNPI), an oil palm company that encroached on an abandoned palm plantation in Sanquin District, Sinoe County about a year ago, continues to run the facility despite not meeting legal requirements, including the consent of the local landowners.
In 2022, LNPI purchased the 8,400-hectare palm plantation in the Sanquin District for about US$445,000 from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had abandoned the facility three years earlier. However, LNPI has not regularized the takeover to operate. A DayLight investigation in August found that the company forced residents out of the plantation with the aid of armed police officers.
Now two months after the investigation, LNPI continues to operate the facility. New evidence and interviews conducted by The DayLight show that LNPI is not compliant with several Liberian laws and international best practices.
This supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s claim that it was unaware of LNPI’s operations. Legally, the Inter-ministerial Concession Committee, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bureau of Concessions and the National Investment Commission (NIC), approves takeovers.
The DayLight has seen a copy of the LNPI draft concession agreement, without key signatures, including then-President George Weah and then-Minister of Finance Samuel Tweah’s.
In a September response to The DayLight’s queries, NIC appeared to corroborate the Ministry of Agriculture’s statement. “The Government of Liberia… provided consent to the transfer, contingent upon the new buyer’s commitment to resuscitate the plantation and ensure compliance with all applicable taxes and regulations under [the] Liberian law,” wrote the Executive Director of the NIC Melvin Sheriff.
Evidence of LNPI’s operations is aplenty. The DayLight witnessed workers active at a palm mill the company renovated, with smoke rising from the facility overhead. Fresh brushing spots along the main road to the Shampay Camp, where workers of the defunct Butaw Oil Palm Company lived. A giant-wheeled transporter plied the road.
Before announcing the takeover, LNPI secured an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year.
With the help of armed police, LNPI has forced camp dwellers out of the plantation and allegedly seized their personal belongings. Nestled between hills and forests, Shampay Camp once thrived and served as a palm oil hub. People in and out of the area exploit the plantation to produce palm oil.
“We are living in hell here. They always make us scared. They took my freedom mill machine and spoiled it. We have no space to breathe,” said Fatu Sheriff, an elderly woman.
“One man from the company came to my house. He told me that if I did not stop buying and selling oil on the camp, he would order the security to beat me and take me away from the camp by force,” Sheriff added.
“Then, I looked in his face and told him that if he wanted to, he should go ahead and kill me, but I was not taking one foot from my house to go anywhere.”
Smoke billows from a palm oil mill in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Sheriff’s comments and others The DayLight heard validate townspeople the newspaper interviewed in June this year. LNPI did not return emailed queries in response to issues in this story.
LNPI proposes that locals allow the company to operate. In the document, seen by The DayLight, LNPI proposes to pay benefits to the community, including a monthly payment of US$1,000 to the community development fund, rental fees, and engaging in community development. Once these conditions are satisfied, the agreement allows for the company to operate without “any disturbance or embarrassment.”
“This is manually agreed by the parties that the monthly payments are an advance on any community’s obligations the company needs to pay once the concession agreement has been approved by the Government of Liberia,” reads the proposed MoU.
The local community rejects the proposed MoU.
“The company is operating on our land without authorization,” said Ericson Pyne, a youth leader in Tarsue Chiefdom. “We have repeatedly asked them to show us the concession agreement, but they have refused.”
The Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah sides with the LNPI despite its glaring illegitimacy. In a letter to the Tarsue Chiefdom last month, Nyensuah urged locals to let the company operate.
“The Taruse community having received benefits under the now expired MoU from LNPI, the community lacks the standing to question the legitimacy of LNPI. The community can renew or renegotiate another MoU through the Office of the Superintendent,” read Nyensuah’s letter. Locals had filed a complaint with the Superintendent’s Office, expressing dissatisfaction over the company’s failure to present its concession agreement.
The people of Tarsue Chiefdom in Sanquin District, Sinoe County are unaware of the operations of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI). The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Nyensuah’s comments are not based on facts. In the MoU he referenced, the Tarsue Chiefdom did not empower the company to run the plantation. Instead, it granted LNPI the sole right to purchase palm oil from locals.
‘Organic palm oil’
LNPI’s involvement with the plantation violates the Land Rights Act and the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a watchdog writing rules for the global oil palm industry.
Both the law and the RSPO rules recognize ancestral land ownership and communities’ right to consent to projects intended for their lands. Liberia created the law in 2018 and adopted the RSPO rules three years later. This means they were not nonexistent when EPO took over the plantation from Liberia Forest Produce Incorporated in 2008.
James Otto, a lead campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), urges LNPI to inform the community of its intent to operate on their land and obtain a concession agreement.
“The company needs to have a well-designed concession negotiation through the FPIC process,” said Otto, whose NGO helped lodge the successful complaint against GVL in 2013 for communities. “The company needs to provide all the proper information to the community.
“There should be a formal lease agreement between the company and the landowners before the company starts operation,” added Otto.
LNPI is noncompliant with the Beneficial Ownership Regulation, which requires businesses in Liberia to declare their beneficial owners or the human beings who own them. This rule helps combat everything from money laundering to terrorist financing.
LNPI is a subsidiary of Konnex Investments Limited, with 51 percent of the company’s shares. The remaining 49 percent unsubscribed, according to LNPI’s articles of incorporation. However, the Liberia Business Registry said it did not have a list of the company’s owners, violating the regulation.
Also, there is no record of Konnex Investments Ltd. on the official public registry of all British firms. Konnex is not on OCCRP aleph, operated by the Organized Crimes and Corruption Reporting Project, one of the world’s largest public databases of companies.
A screenshot of a LinkedIn post of Uday Pilani, Konnex Investments Ltd.’s owner, claiming to be RSPO-complaint, producing organic palm oil and uplifting indigenous communities.
In a LinkedIn post last year, Uday Pilani, LNPI’s chairman per its website, identified himself as the owner of Konnex Investments Ltd. Pilani claims that the company uplifts indigenous communities, is RSPO-complaint and produces organic palm oil.
But the claims are the exact opposite of the company’s activities.
LNPI deceived locals into signing an MoU likely to gain control of the plantation before informing them about its takeover. It even violated the terms of the deceptive deal by extending it by several months.
That conduct breaks the RSPO’s first rule that requires oil palm companies to operate ethically and transparently. Because of the breach of that rule, the RSPO ordered Golden Veroleum Liberia to renegotiate an MoU with Tarjuwon, Butaw, and other areas after it was found GVL guilty of disrespecting those communities’ right to consent.
Then Pilani’s organic palm claim is not consistent with the definition of the phrase. Organic palm oil production involves sustainable farming that is environmentally responsible, socially equitable, economically viable, and prevents deforestation while protecting workers’ rights and the welfare of local communities, according to the RSPO. In contrast, LNPI’s activities undermine the descriptions of organic palm oil.
The Ministry of Justice, which negotiates concessions agreements, said it was investigating LNPI’s operations.
Top: The Chairman of the Liberia Land Authority Adams Manobah speaks at the Second Land Conference in Ganta, Nimba County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By James Harding Giahyue
GANTA, Nimba County – The Liberia Land Authority has refuted a claim by Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), suggesting the government had settled a boundary dispute between two communities in Sinoe County.
In a recent report to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which regulates the oil palm industry worldwide, GVL claimed the Land Authority had “decided” on the conflict between the Du-Wolee Nyennue Township and the Numopoh District.
“The communication session on the result to both communities will be [carried] out in [the fourth quarter] of 2024 with new government officials,” GVL said in the report.
But in an interview with The DayLight on the margins of the just-ended Land Conference in Ganta, Nimba County, the Chairman of the Land Authority Adams Manobah rejected GVL’s assertions. Manobah said the Land Authority had conducted meetings with the two communities but was far from an outcome.
“We have not done that yet,” said Manobah.
“The last solution we have is to go back and do the surveying and establish the boundary between the two communities,” Manobah added.
“We are still waiting for the concession to provide the support so that we can have a definitive line between the two communities.”
GVL’s palm plantation covers thousands of hectares in Sinoe, Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee and River Cess. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Manobah’s comments confirmed those of representatives of one of the communities. Augustine Jerbo and Daddy Nyenswah, two community leaders in Du-Wolee Nyennue, want the Land Authority to conduct the survey and end the impasse.
“This thing needs to come to an end,” said Nyenswah.
The RSPO had ordered GVL not to develop the 463-hectare land and to work with the Liberian government to resolve the issue in 2018. The order was part of the watchdog’s decision against the company for developing farmlands without locals’ consent.
GVL reports quarterly to the RSPO on the status of its implementation of the decision, over six years after the deadline.
[Additional reporting by Esau J. Farr, Derick Snyder and Matenneh Keita]
The Green Livelihoods Alliance provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.
Top: The University of Liberia is graduating about 2,600 students this month. Lux Radio/ Isaiah Joseph Gbainhea
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – The University of Liberia is graduating some 2,600 students this year for the skilled labor market—perhaps, including Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). However, they may have to settle for unskilled jobs like two alumni of the university and another school.
The two individuals have bachelor’s degrees but worked as casual laborers with GVL. Their tasks include cutting grass with handheld tools to plant palm trees in the Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom, Kpanyan District, Sinoe County.
“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” said Lawrence Doe, a 2018 general agriculture graduate of the University of Liberia, in a phone interview. Doe worked for GVL as a casual laborer for six weeks in 2020.
“For me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe added.
Another graduate worked for over a year as a casual laborer before GVL assigned him an office post. The DayLight is not identifying the worker to protect him/her from reprisal.
The newspaper obtained copies of the fieldworker graduates’ diplomas and verified their stories with Nunu Broh, the chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee. Odune Dumbar, a leader in Tartweh-Drapoh, a chiefdom in the Kpayan District and hometown of Doe and the unidentified worker.
Broh, Dumbar and other community leaders had encouraged the two individuals to take the jobs as a stepping stone for top offers.
The unidentified worker stayed there for over a year and finally got a deserving job. For his part, Doe found a decent job and left the company.
Golden Veroleum Liberia hires university graduates as casual laborers at its palm plantation. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
No employment amid vacancies
Liberia signed a 65-year concession agreement with GVL, covering 220,000 hectares of ancestral land in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.
The 2010 agreement obligates the company to employ skilled Liberians from in and out of its concession areas.
GVL has long violated that provision, prompting criticism from then-Vice President Joseph Boakai in 2015. GVL welcomed the criticism but outlined its supposed employment history.
Amid its skilled employment obligations, evidence shows GVL has vacancies for such workers.
Earlier this year, an environmental audit report found that GVL had a vacancy for a health and safety staff at its palm oil mill in Sinoe’s Tarjuwon District.
The company has yet to hire graduates for a new clinic in Tartweh-Drapoh despite a protest there last year. Letters between GVL and Tartweh—obtained by The DayLight—suggest GVL has several vacancies for human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer and assistant manager, etc.
GVL denies employing graduates as unskilled laborers. “This is not to the knowledge of GVL,” said spokesman Alphonso Kofi in an email. “We will be glad if you provide some names…” The DayLight provided Lawrence Doe and has not heard back from Kofi.
Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.
Top: A GVL fieldworker at work in 2023.The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Esau J. Farr
TARTWEH-DRAPOH, Sinoe County – During a visit to Indonesia in 2015, then-Vice President Joseph Boakai urged Golden Veroleum Liberia to employ qualified Liberians in senior managerial positions. GVL welcomed Boakai’s comments while outlining its assumed employment history.
Nearly 10 years on, and Boakai at the helm of Liberia’s leadership, GVL is yet to fulfill that promise, including to Tartweh-Drapoh, one of its landowning, affected communities.
In 2014, Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom signed an MoU with GVL for 8,011 hectares of farmland in the Kpanyan District. The MoU was part of the GVL’s 65-year concession agreement with Liberia, covering 220,000 hectares in southeastern and southcentral Liberia. The agreement requires GVL to train and hire citizens of the landowning communities for top-level employment.
But GVL has failed to live up to the terms of the MoU. Tartweh-Drapoh citizens are only employed as fieldworkers, some of them university graduates.
This led to a protest in May last year. Residents stopped work at the plantation and prevented all GVL’s vehicles from plying routes in the chiefdom.
GVL then scheduled a meeting with citizens to hear their concerns. The parties signed a resolution in which GVL agreed to hire Tartweh-Drapoh citizens in senior positions in a month, among other things.
One document shows that the chiefdom submitted 10 names for as many senior managerial positions as possible. Some of the posts include human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer, assistant manager and chief of security.
Two days later, Tartweh-Drapoh submitted five names for the human resource officer job upon the request of GVL.
Nunu Broh, chairman, Tartweh Agricultural Committee. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Gbarngo Quenah, a sustainability officer, requested individuals to apply and present qualification documents. In some cases, university graduates had to present high school papers, which—The DayLight has seen evidence—was done.
However, since then, none of the applicants have been hired, though GVL had said it would fast-track their employment. Earlier this month, GVL failed to open a clinic meant to be staffed by Tartweh-Drapoh residents per the resolution.
“I feel bad nobody has been hired by GVL,” said Nunu Broh, Chairman of the Tratweh-Drapoh agricultural committee. “Anytime they (GVL) go to management meeting, there can be nobody to represent the community.”
‘Abuse to education’
The DayLight interviewed two Tartweh-Drapoh graduates who, evidence shows, GVL employed as fieldworkers.
Some GVL fieldworkers in Grand Kru in 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
One of the graduate fieldworkers, who preferred anonymity due to fear of reprisal, said over a year his job was to clear thick, combative bushes to plant palm trees.
Lawrence Doe, the other graduate fieldworker, performed the same task for about six weeks in 2020. A 2018 general agriculture alumnus of the University of Liberia, Doe had been advised by the elders of Tartweh-Drapoh to accept the job to get a supervisor post. But that never happened, and he left and found another job.
“And for me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe said.
“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” Doe added. Broh and Odune Dumbar, a prominent Tartweh-Dropoh citizen, corroborated his and the other man’s story.
In an email response to The DayLight’s queries, GVL claims that the Tartweh-Drapoh MoU does not guarantee residents top posts.
But that response contradicts the MoU. The document gives the chiefdom first preference when senior positions are vacant. It says, “In the case, GVL has vacancies for… junior and senior managerial posts in the concession area, the qualified citizens of the communities shall be considered for said employment…”
GVL has a concession with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Gee and River Cesss. New Narratives/Harry Browne
Furthermore, there is evidence of such vacancies in Tartweh-Drapoh. In 2020, GVL laid off nearly 450 staff, including 28 in the chiefdom, who have not been reinstated or replaced. And the communication exchanges related to last year’s resolution prove vacancies exist.
Also, in the email, GVL claims it has senior managers from Tartweh-Drapoh. “Some are currently serving in key decision-making positions, ranging from the human resource, agronomy, transport, community affairs, health, etc.,” the company said without presenting evidence.
Like in the case of the MoU, the evidence does not support GVL’s employment comments. Again, the resolution-related exchanges show that there are vacancies in all those areas.
Quenah, the sustainability officer with oversight of the chiefdom, confirmed that in a communication in May last year. “We acknowledge your communication… submitting to the sustainability five [Tartweh-Drapoh] sons for the position of [Human Resource] officer,” her letter read.
Tartweh residents said they would hold a meeting to discuss the chiefdom’s next course of action. Meanwhile, President Boakai did not mention jobs on his visit to Indonesia for the Indonesia-Africa Forum earlier this month, rather investment in Liberia.
Green Livelihoods Alliance provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.
