Post on 16-Dec-2015
Lessons Learned for the Future *
100 Years of Community Land Rights in Liberia
*Most of the research for this paper was done under the auspices of the Liberian Land Commission in 2011-2012. Responsibility for the contents and presentation of findings and recommendations of this paper rests solely with the authors.
Paul De Wit, hInterland LdaCaleb Stevens, World Resources Institute
Background and Context
Land Use RightPotentially to be issued
(has)
Agricultural Concessions –AGRIC 1,140,408.00
Forest Management Contracts - FMC 2,270,097.00
Timber Sale Contracts - TSC 230,000.00
Community Forest Management Agreements – CFMA
194,102.00
Mining Concessions – MIN 113,256.00
Private Use Permits – PUP
2.239.630,00 Protected Areas – PA
1.037.865,00 Total % of Liberian Land Mass
7.225.358,00
75.33%
AGRIC
FMC
TSC
CFMA
MIN
PUP
PA
Other
PRESENT + PIPELINE
Legal History of Formal Recognition of Community Land in Liberia
1876: First statutory recognition of community land
1905: Public Land Grant Deeds and Aboriginal Land Grant Deeds Created
1956 and 1973: Public Lands Law
Dynamics of Community Land Ownership
PUPs Intent: Individual Fee Simple Deeds Only Actual: Community Fee Simple Deeds
Community Land Institutions Pre-1956 Fee Simple Community Deeds
Mostly issued to chiefdoms PUPs from 2009 onwards
Issued to various institutions
Community Land Rights in Today’s Liberia
FDA data 2007
(hectares)
FDA PUP data 2010-2012 (hectares)
Total
(hectares)
Public Land Sale Deeds
844,188 156,500 1,000,688
Aboriginal Land Grant Deeds
422,728 1,609,530 2,032,258
Total 3,032,946 hectares or 31.6% of Liberia´s land mass
Land Use Planning in the Forestry Sector
Designating Land for Different Forest Uses in 2006-2007 Assumption land was public land Not evidence-based Protected Areas overlapped with fee simple deeded
community land Allocation of Forest Management Contracts
Land must be public land 1,069,485 hectares allocated for FMCs are on deeded
community land
Land Use Planning in the Agricultural Sector
Agricultural concessions granted on piece-meal basis
Government contracts that land is unencumbered by either customary or statutory land rights
Land Use Planning in the Agricultural Sector
Blue = Golden Veroleum Concession in Sinoe County
Yellow = Fee Simple Deeded Community Land
Yellow Stripe = Overlap
Land and Natural Resource Administration
Irregularities related to PUPs Validation of deeds by the Ministry of Lands, Mines,
and Energy (MLME) “Certifications of correction” issued by MLME Surveyors altered metes and bounds on deeds
Land and Natural Resource Governance by Communities
Dubious community institutions created for PUPs District Forest Management Committees
PUPs issued without community institutions District Commissioners and Chiefs issued PUPs
Elite Capture Case of Geetroh Community Forest Management
Organization