Liberia: Liberia Locals May Lose Land Rights To Palm Oil Industry

Mar 12, 2015 | John C. Cannon, Mongabay.com
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The rights of local and indigenous peoples aren’t being adequately protected in the drive for economic development, according to a report published in February by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a coalition of forest-oriented organizations. For a place like Liberia, reeling from both decades of persistent poverty and the recent Ebola epidemic that’s estimated, according to the World Bank, to have chipped hundreds of millions of dollars from the region’s economies (if not more), economic development seems critical at just about any cost.

“Our land can provide the foundation for this recovery, but only if we have the rights to it,” said Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor in a release from the RRI. “We need to protect our forests and rebuild our country, with a focus on our people first.” Siakor founded the Sustainable Development Institute, based in Liberia.