Monrovia – A two-day dialogue on large scale land acquisitions in Liberia started Tuesday at a local restaurant in Sinkor.
Report by Edwin Genoway, Jr – [email protected]
The dialogue, which attracted representatives of civil society groups, government officials and people from communities across the country, is hosted by Rights and Resources Coalition in Liberia.
The Rights and Resources Initiative Coalition is a conglomeration of civil society groups including the Rights and Rice Foundation, Sustainable Development Institute, Foundation for Community Initiatives, Green Advocates, the Natural Resources Women Platform, and Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development, Alliance for Rural Democracy and Forest People Program, an international NGO.
The group is funded by the Rights + Resources Initiative (RRI), a US based NGO that consists of a broad spectrum of collaborative groups engaged in forest and land policy reform in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Ms. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, Rights and Resources Initiative Africa Program Director said the event marks the first time in five years that stakeholders from such a diverse range of sectors were convening to discuss emerging realities around large scare land acquisitions and its impacts on local communities’ tenure rights and livelihoods.
“It is my hope and the hope of RRI that this event will provide a space for open dialogue on land rights in Liberia-what they mean for investment, for sustainable development, and for economic growth and what they mean for Liberian people,” said Ms. Bandiaky-Badji.
She disclosed that there are risks associated with land, and land rights in Liberia, but there is also great potential for positive transformation. “And I hope we can seize that potential over the next two days,” she added.
Julie Weah, Executive Director of Foundation for Community Initiative said the coalition aims to seek the protection of community rights around land and natural resources.
Members of the coalition, according to her, work in different parts of the country with communities that are faced with issues and challenges that hinge on large scale land acquisition.
Weah indicated that the group is committed to addressing governance issues, proposing solution and supporting ongoing efforts regarding community rights and natural resources.
She explained that the dialogue will serve as a national discussion on the opportunities and challenges that has to do with large scale land acquisition, amidst the scale of land base concession.
Weah disclosed that presently, concession agreements affect over 40 percent of Liberia’s land space. “In many of these concession areas, we continue to witness conflicts, some of them being violent which are not good for the investment climate,” she noted.
She indicated that concession land related conflicts also show the critical and competing nature concerning land with respect to social and economic development.
She wants government and stakeholders to pay attention to conflicts at concession areas relating to land.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Governance Commission, Dr. Amos Sawyer disclosed that the Commission has initiated steps to ensure that the Legislature passes the Land Rights Act, the Local Government Act and the amendment in the Constitution before it goes for recess.
According to him, he has asked Vice President Joseph Boakai at a meeting to ensure that the legislation is passed into law before the lawmakers go for their annual break.
He said when the instruments are passed; it will influence and address a lot of things related to land rights in Liberia.
Meanwhile, a conglomeration of 18 Civil Society Organizations under the banner the CSO- Working Group on Land Rights and Reform in Liberia has issued a statement in Monrovia calling on the national legislature to expeditiously pass the 2014 version of the Land Rights bill which among others protects the customary rights of the people to their land.
The CSO- Working Group who commended President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and both Houses of the national legislature for their respective roles and support that led to the recent passage of the Land Authority Act, is at the same time pleading with the legislature to avail copy of the proposed Land Rights Act to the group for their input before it is finally passed.
In a statement released September 22, 2016 and read by a representative of the student body within the CSOs Mr. Forstina P. Gongbeh, the Civil Society Organizations explained that their request for the perusal of the proposed Land Rights Act is aimed at highlighting important provisions and areas that should be protected so as to reflect the principles of land and resource management reforms in the country.
Gongbeh, a student of the Stella Maris Polytechnic in Monrovia who intoned that the CSO-Working Group is opting to acquire copy of the draft Land Rights Act to ensure that provisions within the instrument remain unchanged until it is passed into law, noted that the CSOs do not want mistake that characterized the passage of the Land Authority Act to be repeated; saying the Land Authority Act was passed into law without the perusal of its provisions by the CSOs.
He emphasized that having access to the proposed Land Rights Act before its passage into law will put the CSOs in the better position to press for the implementation of provisions in the proposed Act that include protecting the expressed aspirations of the Liberian people and the preservation of the land tenure policy.
Mr. Gongbeh raised particular concerns about provisions in the proposed Act that include management of customary land, public land and large scare land holding.
He stressed that as enshrined in the Land Rights bill customary land should remain under the ownership of the community; public land should be the last category of land to be claimed after every other category is done with; and that claims to all large scale land must be legitimate in line with the bill.
The youthful Polytechnic student revealed that after a hectic exercise last Month, August that saw the CSOs collecting over 13, 000 signatures of citizens from the 15 political sub divisions of Liberia with a petition to the national legislature to protect the code principles of customary land rights, it would be a huge disappointment should the national legislature tamper with those code principles and undermine the provisions in the category of the customary land rights.
