By J-Karba Williams
The Representative of European Union (EU) delegation to Liberia, Theodorus Kaspers has described Liberia’s passage of a Land Rights Act (LRA) as a big step forward to mitigating threat to its peace.
The EU says it will allow indigenous people and communities to not only use but to also own land.
The EU believes that a secured access to land and secured land tenure as well as use rights for men and women are vital for the economic development of the people.
More specifically, the EU says the Land Rights Act is a prerequisite for higher productivity of smallholder farmers.
“EU supports the government in promoting sustainable management of ecosystem and resources and considered it vital to secure the livelihoods of future generations,” the EU diplomat said.
The EU representative was speaking in Monrovia recently, when he delivered the keynote address at an Information Sharing Conference in Monrovia on the theme: Land Rights for Liberia with sub topic: “Promoting and Protecting Community Land Rights for National Development.”
It was organized by COFD with implementing partners: Development Education Network (DEN L) and Liberia Law Society (LIS).
Mr. Kaspers also commanded the government, the national legislature and civil society organizations for focusing on land Rights issues for the remarkable cooperation in passing land rights act, which he said is widely considered a good basis for implementation.
He noted that unsustainable farming practices deforestation along with climate change, are the main causes of land degradation on rural areas, saying the threat presented by land degradation adversely affects living conditions of the poorest in Liberia.
“A properly functioning system of land tenure further allows for private investment and for donor support in areas such as agriculture and sustainable land use,” he added.
Together with other development partners present at the conference, Mr. Kaspers said the EU has supported the land sector in Liberia since the foundation of the commission, most recently through grants given to CAFOD, SDI and Welthungerhilfe.
The EU diplomat further said the three organizations and their implementing partners have been actively promoting and protecting community land rights for national development.
One of the major achievements is the EU’s support to the Liberian civil society to advocate for the passage of the land rights act, while preparing the ground for its implementation in the field.
“The eight implementing partners have reached over 150 remote and marginalized communities and communities, specifically women and youth across 11 of the 15 sub-political divisions over the years,” he added.
“We hope that the exchanges today will enable the lessons learnt in the field to be taken into account by other actors and national counterparts. For the EU, the aim of today’s conference is to ensure the action we funded will set a precedent for good practices within Liberia and avoid duplication of already learnt lessons,” the EU diplomat concluded.
The European Union is a unique economic and political union between twenty-eight EU countries, combined to foster economic cooperation and likely to avoid conflict. What began as a purely economic union evolved into an organization spanning policy areas from climate, environment, health, external relations, security, justice and migration.