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

Overview of Presentation

ContextLegal HistoryLand Governance IssuesRecommendations

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

Recommendations

Creation of Land Governance InstitutionLand Administration LawMulti-Stakeholder Working Group on

ConcessionsLand Use PolicyTransparency of land documents