Liberia Must Learn to Honor the Rights of Rural Residents to Manage Their Own Land

Aug 29, 2016 | Alioune Tine
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Liberia, the first African country to declare itself a republic and one of three African nations to take part in the establishment and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, is on the brink of its own landmark achievement in human rights. Internal peace and security is within sight, an amazing vision after the recent Ebola epidemic devastated a country still scarred by decades of civil war.

However, the current economic model of transferring land to foreign investors on a massive scale fails to acknowledge the rights of rural communities to collectively own and manage their territories. These foreign investments rarely deliver their promise of shared economic development, and instead impoverish the very people they claim to help. Some 40% of Liberia is under concessions for logging, oil and mining. While these lands may appear empty on government maps, they are home to millions. A recent analysis by the Munden Group of 237 mining and agriculture concessions in Liberia found that all had established communities in their midst. The ancestors of the people in these rural communities have lived on and farmed this land since before Liberia became a republic in 1847.