Lessons from the Field: Holding Leaders Accountable in Land Transactions
Publisher: NAMATI: Innovations in Legal Empowerment
Author(s): Ali Kaba and Chelsea Keyser
Date: 2015
Topics: Governance, Land
Countries: Liberia
Liberia currently has one of the highest land concession rates in Africa. Between 2004 and 2009, the Liberian government either granted or renegotiated land and forestry concessions totaling 1.6 million hectares – over 7% of the total national land area. Today, even with a moratorium on public land sale in place, private investors continue to seek and acquire land concessions throughout the country: in 2010 alone, more than 661,000 hectares were granted to two foreign corporations for palm oil production.
A recent 2012 report found that “land allocated to rubber, oil palm and forestry concessions covers approximately 2,546,406 hectares, or approximately 25% of the country.” By January 2013, another study estimated that over 5.1 million hectares (almost 54% of Liberia’s landmass) had been granted or promised to investors through concessions agreements, 5 million hectares of which were allotted to transnational corporations
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In addition, vast amounts of land are being acquired by Liberian investors and local elites at unprecedented rates; such acquisitions often happen quietly and are not accounted for in national estimates. Because of their low-profile, it is especially difficult for communities and civil society to hold domestic investors accountable to requirements for community participation in land transaction decisions. Elites and domestic investors are often coercive, such as when an investor claims he or she is related to the community or when feared former soldiers or guerrilla fighters intimidate leaders and community members into agreeing to give them land.