PHOTO: L – R: Chiefs Francis Gongar – Zolowee Town; Comfort Gbaye – Zortapa Town; Mark G. Geh Sr – Yolowee Town; Paye G. Kahn – Suakarzue Town; Suah Zaah – Gbapa Town; Abraham Vayah – Bassa Village Town and Felecia Lablah – Gbobayee Town after the signing ceremony in Nimba
Monrovia: “We want to protect our lands for future generation and get our due benefit from [Foreign] concession companies that are now showing interest to invest in our communities. we (also) want to live in harmony with our neighbors and be assured of socio-economic good when we have documents that support our claims to our lands.” The voice of female Town Chief Comfort Gbaye, of Zortapa Town, Nimba County.
Chief Comfort Gbaye was speaking at the occasion for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between more than six communities linked to the Blei Community Forest climaxing the process for Community Self Identification authorized under the 2018 Liberia Land rights Act (LRA). The program was held on November 28, 2020 in city of Sanniquelle, Nimba County to formalize arrangements to work together along with their neighboring communities to identify and secure their customary land rights.
Local and indigenous communities have for decades faced challenges to secure, gain recognition and formalize their land rights which have led to resource-based violence across many agriculture, forestry and mining concessions in Liberia resulting in heightened tension between community members and concession holders on the one hand and community members and government on the other.
It has also contributed to the worsening poverty situation of marginal and vulnerable forest-dependent peoples mostly in the rural areas, threatening the food security, religion, culture, customs and livelihoods of rural communities at the same time precipitating series of conflicts, contest, complaints, grievances and protests.
From Grand Cape Mount to Grand Gedeh; from Sinoe to Grand Bassa; from Margibi to Maryland; from Bong to Nimba counties – there are cries that concession companies have dispossessed indigenous people of the lands they depend upon for farming and their livelihood.
With the passage of the Land Rights Act, indigenous peoples were delivered the tool and the legal authority to seek recognition, secure and formalize their customary forest lands and natural resources.
To strengthen their quest for self-determination, Green Advocates International (GAI), a public interest environmental law, human and rights organization is supporting more than six communities in Nimba County to mobilize primary communities around the Blei forest area to engage in “Community Self Identification (CSI)” to secure their lands. The process of self-identifying is the first step in supporting customary tenure recognition as stipulated under the Land Rights Act 2018.
GAI secured a grant from USAID through Tetra Tech to carry out a project titled, “Supporting Customary Tenure Recognition in Nimba County.” This grant is part of a larger USAID funded project called Liberia Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG), which provides technical assistance services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, and resilience.
The primary communities targeted by the grant are: Bassa Village, Gbapa, Gbobayee, Suakarzue, Yolowee, Zolowee and Zortapa. The seven communities met on November 28, 2020 in the administrative hall of Sanniquelle to formalize arrangements to work together along with their neighbors to identify and secure their lands. During the program, Sanniquellie City Mayor, Mariam Kamara-Sendolo was excited about the gathering as she made welcome remarks.
Green Advocates International Project Manager in charge of the USAID Tetra Tech supported pilot intervention, John Nimly Brownell said that the grant covers a period of fifteen months under the Integrated Land and Resource Governance scheme of the USAID Tetra Tech supported pilot. Providing an overview of the activities that preceded the signing of the memorandum of understanding, John said at the inception stage of the project, Green Advocates International organized series of community based targeted entry actions step which were necessary to debrief all relevant actors in the process to get their buy-in for the roll out.
In the interest of a transparent and participatory approach to the project, he said further meetings were held in each of the seven primary and neighboring communities to deepen the understanding of the community members about issues relative to community self-identification, land and resource governance structures, boundary harmonization / demarcation and the ultimate goal of securing deeds at the climax of the project, main streaming gender and factoring in women during the stakeholders mapping process.
He emphasized that two trained and equipped community animators (male and female) were deployed in each of the targeted towns, to educate their respective communities on land rights to set process in motion. This decision was to fill gaps in knowledge transmission. Communities were also trained on the legal frameworks relative to land rights, gender, customary and inheritance rights.
This action led to the nomination and training of fourteen Interim Community Coordinators, (ICC) to serve as liaison between their respective communities and Green Advocates International, until at the latter stage, when the land governance structure will be formally institutionalized for all primary targeted communities.
To strengthen the harmonization safeguard of the scheme, Community Land Boundary Committees comprising of two women, two youth and two men respectively were also set up in each town by community members without hitches.
In the process of Community Self Identification towards the acquisition of deeds, critical decisions were taken with some towns agreeing to merge. This means the merged towns of Bassa village and Gbapa, have agreed to be referred to as “Gbassa” in obtaining one land deed at the end of the process.
“For the fact that we have agreed to join Bassa Village as one community means that we are fully prepared to get our customary land deed,” said Suah Zaah, Gbapa Town Chief. While Chief Abraham Vayah of Bassa Village said: “…I would like to say a big thank you to GAI and the LLA for this project. Bassa Village is ready for peace in order to get her customary land deed.”
The communities of Gbobayee and Suakarzue will similarly join to acquire land deeds to be referred to as “Gbosua-Gbeleyee- Blein.”
Chief Paye Kahn of Suakarzue pointed out that: “Since 2019 up to presence Green Advocates has been working with us. Today we have come to sign a memorandum of understanding as the first step that we want to get deed for our customary land. The people of Suakarzue are happy to form part of this historic event.”
Chief Felecia Lablah of Gbobayee Town was also full of praise for Green Advocates for their efforts to secure their inheritance. “… The people of Gbobayee are very happy to go through the entire process without confusion because we want to get our customary land deed.”
The signing of the MOU climaxes Community Self-Identification phase of the methodology of the Liberian Land Authority six steps in acquiring customary land deeds. Signatories of the seven Blei Communities MoU from the towns included the Town Chiefs, Chairlady, Youth Chair, Sub-unit Chief, ICC Members. In addition, local leaders that signed were the District Commissioners and County Land Authority as well as customary leaders that included Paramount Chiefs and Clan Chiefs.
The next step according to the Guidelines on Community-Self Identification under the Land Rights Act (LRA) will be facilitating the communities on the process of drafting their bye-laws. This approach will accommodate customary and national laws within the by-laws. Institutional arrangements and governance structures will be set-up for the governance and management of the communities’ customary land and natural resources referred to as called the Community Land Development Management Committee (CLDMC) which would replace the current interim committees.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by two Nimba lawmakers. Representative Prince Tokpa of District #2, asked an open question as to whether the decisions have been communicated to the people; to which the people pointed to the stakeholder’s compositions and arrangements which incorporates youths, chiefs, women and elders that represented the wider community in building consensus on the decision reached to self-identify and opt for customary land deed. The right of women to land inheritance was also stressed as something that must not be ignored.
The other Lawmaker, Joseph Nyan Somwarbi of District #3 remarked: “This should be a pilot project but we think Green Advocates should be magnanimous enough to extend to other communities in the county.” He lamented the fact that the state has been ignoring local concerns “by signing land agreement that ignore prior informed consent of locals, which must not be the trend anymore.”
He described the project idea as “a brilliant initiative that will ensure that potential investors will sit with the people to negotiate for concession deals rather than the government doing it on your behalf.”
He however cautioned that those to be installed in the Land Governance Committees must be people of integrity. “They must not be people that will subvert the good intentions of this process.”
The Chairman of the Lands Authority Atty J. Adams Manobah, Sr. clarified concerns: “The decision to join towns is voluntary and applies to the project objective of securing customary land deeds. However, that must NOT in any way alter existing laws that relate to political and administrative boundary delimitations.” He warned: “If there would arise any contention about the arrangement, then there is bound to be an LLA review of the process for harmony to thrive.”
Joining other speakers who lauded the effort of Green Advocates International for making the signing of the MoU possible, the County Land Administrator, Eddie Beangar, declared that: “If such as system that is about to be put in place was considered in the past, the problems associated with the ArcelorMittal concession agreement would have been averted.”
The project is being implemented in collaboration with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and entails community empowerment, including provision of legal education regarding rights and responsibilities in the context of decentralized land management via the Land Rights Act (LRA) of 2018. It also involves the documentation and formalization of community natural resource governance structures, including cataloguing, discussing; amending and adopting rules for community land and natural resource management. The project also support establishing bylaws for community land administration; electing an accountable governing body to manage community lands and natural resources; boundary harmonization and addressing conflict resolution, including a comprehensive mapping of community land and negotiation with neighbors (to define the limits of community land) and finally pursuing legal registration through completing government land registration procedures for communal lands.
The process for Community Self Identification as mandated under the LRA was designed to correct the historical wrongs of successive Liberian governments grabbing the customary land rights of indigenous peoples without their consent.
According to the LRA, the existence, validity and enforceability of the Ownership of Customary Land shall not be affected because of the lack of title deeds or documents or prior registration if there is evidence, including oral testimony of the existence of a longstanding relationship or ties with the Community and the Customary Land as witnessed or testified to by neighboring communities.