Sime Darby oil palm and rubber plantation 12 in Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia Tom Lomax, Justin Kenrick and Alfred Brownell Introduction Darby’s gross concession area. This case study, based on field research conducted Sime Darby’s oil palm and rubber in February 2012, assesses the nature concession in Grand Cape Mount county and extent of community involvement in in northwest Liberia has come under the acquisition of land for Sime Darby’s sharp national and international focus concession in Grand Cape Mount, in after a complaint was submitted under the particular with regard to whether the right RSPO New Plantings Procedure (NPP) in to Free, Prior and Informed Consent was November 2011. The complaint, submitted respected.1 See page 315 for Sime Darby’s by communities affected by the concession, own map of the new plantings area and claimed that their Free, Prior and Informed affected towns in Grand Cape Mount Consent (FPIC) had not been sought, and county. that the destruction of their farmlands by the company in order to plant palm oil Liberia is known to have the best remaining was leaving them destitute. Sime Darby’s examples of the ‘Upper Guinea’ forest.2 concession also includes land in the Grand Cape Mount and neighbouring neighbouring counties of Bomi, Gbarpolu Gbarpolu contain one of the two remaining and Bong – see opposite for map of Sime large forest areas in Liberia, and land in and around Sime Darby’s operations in Grand Cape Mount includes mixed shifting n Remains of an abandoned house in Sime Darby’s cultivation and forest. Liberia’s natural palm oil plantation. A nearby well and remnants of resource governance, and in particular the sugar cane, banana plants and lime trees growing trades in diamonds and timber, played a between the young oil palm trees evidence previous significant role in maintaining the fourteen- community use and occupation / Tom Lomax year armed conflict in Liberia and the region, 302 Conflict or consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads which led to the UN Security Council n Map of Sime Darby Concession 311,187 Hectares placing sanctions on timber, diamonds and Located in Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Bong & arms in 2003.3 Poor governance in relation Gbarpolu Counties / Government of Liberia’s Ministry to land and resources, including corruption of Agriculture and bias along ethnic lines, and government policy leading to a sudden rise in the price of food are seen as some of the key triggers war (including ex-combatants), as well as for fourteen years of civil conflict which economic migrants such as those seeking ended in 2003. The conflict caused over a employment from Sime Darby. quarter of a million deaths and led to more than 1.3 million people being displaced The largest settlements in the area are from their homes.4 known as towns, with a collection of towns making up a clan. The affected area comprises eighteen towns in the The communities and their historical Garwula District who are all part of the relationship to the land and customary Vai ‘Manobah’ clan. Traditional land norms use practices and settlement patterns are dynamic and change over time. Some The principal ethnic group among the areas, for example, have been impacted by affected communities in the Grand Cape the development of the BF Goodrich rubber Mount is the ‘Vai’, one of the sixteen plantation in 1954, now incorporated into principal tribal groups in Liberia.5 These Sime Darby’s concession area. groups are distinct from the descendants of freed slaves from the United States of The affected towns and villages and America who settled in Liberia in the early adjacent communities engage in multiple nineteenth century under the initiative and overlapping land uses. As well as of colonisation societies set up for this shifting agriculture for subsistence food purpose. The affected communities also crops (eg cassava, rice, okra, ‘bitter ball’- include individuals from other parts of a kind of aubergine, peppers, maize etc.), Liberia and from other ethnic groups, families will often also grow cash crops (eg who have moved into the area as a result sugar cane, cocoa, rubber, oranges, mango, of internal displacement from the civil avocado, kola nut and native oil palm). Sime Darby, Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia 303 Cash crops are planted by community Vai communities are generally tolerant of members to meet future cash needs, for incomers from other ethnic groups, who example as a kind of pension/insurance learn the Vai language, and over time come for when they are unable to do the more to be considered as members of the same heavy work of growing cassava etc., and/or community. In contrast, this was not the case as an inheritance that can benefit the next for incomers seeking employment at the generations (‘my grandfather planted the Sime Darby plantation. The perception was mango trees for me’). Communities use the that ‘outsiders’ made up a disproportionate cash earned from selling cash crops to pay number of permanent Sime Darby for school fees, health care and other items employees, and that local communities that need to be bought. were frequently only able to get casual ‘day labour’, and even then only for limited Hunting and gathering are also very periods. In addition, local community important for food, building materials members reported that Sime Darby were and fuel. Wet lands are used for fishing contracting truck drivers from the ethnic and for gathering crayfish, for growing Mandingo community (also known as seasonal crops of rice and maize, and for Mandinka) from outside the affected area.6 gathering rattan and roofing materials. It They also disliked the fact that senior was reported that before the clearing by Liberian Sime Darby staff commuted from Sime Darby, bush-meat from the forested Monrovia to and from the plantation area, areas was so plentiful that there was a and did not live amongst the community. surplus. Forested areas also provide poles for building houses, wild fruits, edible nuts and tubers, traditional medicines, and State institutions and customary wood for fuel and charcoal, the latter being governance in Grand Cape Mount used or sold. county Particular forested areas are also set aside as The affected area is a mix of undeeded sacred forests, for ritual use by secret male customary land, concession areas and or female societies. In one town visited deeded land. It is understood that some of for this study, for example, a holy woman the towns or villages in the vicinity have referred to as a ‘zoe’ spoke of one such acquired tribal certificates for some of their sacred forest for women and girls where land, but that undeeded customary lands men were forbidden from entering. One make up the majority of the affected area. important use of this area was as a birthing The immediate day-to-day governance of place where women were assisted in their these areas is managed by the communities labours by the zoe. Sacred forests are also themselves. Customary governance occurs vital in passing on cultural knowledge such at various levels, ranging from the local as practical and social skills, including the village chief, to the Town Head, Clan Head Vai’s unique script. and then Paramount Chief. Paramount Chiefs preside over the chiefdom or district, While some of the land has some form of which are usually composed of at least two deed or tribal certificate, most does not and or more clans. There are six Paramount is instead under customary tenure. These Chiefs in Grand Cape Mount county. Two areas, including forest land, wetlands and Paramount Chief jurisdictional areas (the swamplands, are mostly owned and used districts of Garwula and Gola Konneh collectively by the local towns. Decisions respectively) lie within Sime Darby’s over land are referred to village chiefs operational areas. The Traditional Council and councils and in some cases involve is a body composed of chiefs and traditional consultations with the whole community. elders, as well as the holy women, zoes. The Adjacent to the affected area is the former leadership of the tribes is structured in such BF Goodrich/Guthrie rubber concession. a way that the chief is similar to a king but 304 Conflict or consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads presides over a Council made of elders, zoes, not been formalised in some way, they are women, youths, and skilled individuals such considered ‘public land’, with communities as hunters, healers and lead farmers. holding only usufruct/possessory rights, but not proprietary rights.7 The government The non-customary, formal local authorities therefore concludes that this land is available operate at the district level, county level, for state allocation of long-leaseholds to and then at central government level. There third parties eg for large-scale agricultural are also local senators and legislators who concessions such as Sime Darby’s.8 represent the administrative sub-units, or counties. Each of the fifteen counties in The Public Lands Law does not define Liberia elects two Senators who represent ‘public lands’, but implicitly considers that county. There are two senators and public lands as being owned by the four representatives in the Grand Cape government, since the law is concerned Mount county. In terms of land, the highest with the mechanisms by which public land authority in the district is the District is acquired from the government.9 However, Land Commissioner, above whom lies the the Land Registration Law states that except County Land Commissioner and the County