Strengthening Social Cohesion in Sinoe County
The scale of violent uprisings in Liberia’s concession areas is becoming alarming with fights between Concessions and communities on one hand over land related issues, and community benefits from investment opportunities and inter-community struggle over land boundaries/ownership/tenure on the other. A sustained process of open dialogue between community and investors is required to facilitate effective communication, peaceful co-existence, and improve cohesion within project affected communities particularly Sinoe county.
As part of concrete efforts geared toward enhancing peace-building and social cohesion, the Governance Commission (GC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently sent a team to assess the issue of social cohesion in Sinoe County, with particular interest in the Butaw District. Why Butaw (some may ask)? Butaw District was identified because, among other issues, of the May 2015 conflict between the community and the Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) Company which led to vandalizing of the Concession’s property, and detention of some of Butaw youths.
The team members included Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, Jeremiah Witherspoon, McNeil Wilson and Janet Johnson of the GC, and Mahamed Boakai of UNDP. While in Sinoe (July 22-25, 2016), the team held consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders to discuss major contending issues and identify entry points for the project titled “strengthening social cohesion and building peace between communities and concessionaires”. Groups consulted were local political and administrative leaders of Sinoe including Superintendent Prosper Brown, the Assistant Superintendent for Development and four Statutory District Superintendents from Kpayahn, Tarjewohn, Juahzon, Jayday, representatives of Civil Society organizations (CSOs), Butaw citizens (60 plus people including traditional chiefs), the Management of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), and the Management of Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO).
The Team observed that the results of these land deals/transactions between local people and investors have been mixed across the country, and for the most part, regulatory issues have negatively affected the stability of contract and security of land for investors and local communities respectively. The results have been conflicts over land areas between communities wishing to lease land to investors on one hand, and between communities and investors over issues of employment, preservation of cultural sites, water resources, and social benefits to communities. The inability of both investors and communities to address these issues on a win-win basis have led to violent uprisings on plantation sites resulting to damages of millions of dollars’ worth of properties, and injuries to people.
Sinoe County has 17 districts, a population of 104,932 (2008 Census), and remains one of the least populous counties in Liberia. A significant portion of Liberia’s forests is located in Sinoe County making the County one of the premier producers of timber in the country. However, this has also been a source of numerous challenges the County continues to face, namely, land disputes over tenure and ownership, and inequitable distribution of the benefits. As a result, issues of trust and social cohesion again pose serious challenges to both production and social cohesion in the concession areas of Sinoe.
Taking into consideration the need to stabilize relations between communities and investors for the sake of empowering communities and maximizing social benefits of investments on their land, the Governance Commission, with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is implementing a local peace building and community cohesion pilot project in Sinoe County under the title “Strengthening Social Cohesion and Building Resilience through Communications and Community Dialogues in Sinoe County”. The project seeks to examine opportunities and entry points for strengthening trust and social cohesion amongst the communities, concessionaires and other local stakeholders. The project will draw from the lessons learned from the successful community engagement in responding to the crisis of Ebola, and the numerous crisis that have emerged out of the shaky relations between communities and concessions as was the case leading to the Butaw uprising of May 2015.
The President, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, recently asked the Sinoe Peace Initiative to look into some of the conflict issues and advise her accordingly. Major investors in the county, including Golden Veroleum (GVL) are expected to be an essential part of the pilot project through their participation in consultations and material support to community micro projects.
Major findings and Recommendations of the GC/UNDP Assessment Team
After the successful fact finding mission to Sinoe, the GC/UNDP Assessment Team came up with a report to include the following findings and recommendations.
a). That the signing of concession agreement are done without consultations with communities nor adequate information as to the benefits to communities; and that social responsibilities of investors (which are at the root of the problematic relationship between companies/concessions and the people) are not clearly spelt out. . In the case of the Golden Veroleum Liberia, both County Superintendent and local chiefs had no role to play in the negotiations over the land for investment project in Butaw.
b). Information on how the investment would benefit the people of Butaw, and Sinoe in general were not properly communicated. Promises of investment and social development of the community were also broadly passed on to communities without specific details. This created high expectations among community members.
Recommendations: the Team recommended that:
Recommendations: Sinoe presents an urgent case for land dispute resolution and boundary harmonization. a). An intra-county boundary harmonization and land dispute project is urgently needed in Sinoe County to stabilize relations between communities and ensure security of both land tenure and investments. b). Communities need mechanisms put in place to ensure that their land areas are surveyed, agree upon common boundaries and be given legal titles/deeds to private owners, under the Land Rights Policy of Liberia.
Recommendations:
The division among the people of Butaw will continue to undermine social stability and development of the area until measures are put in place to have a unified local organization. The division in Butaw is between two competing organizations – Ablorteh and the Butaw Welfare Development Association with both claiming the right to represent the people of Butaw. The lack of a functioning recognized traditional/statutory authority to ably represent the people’s interests led to the emergence of numerous organizations claiming leadership authority in Butaw. While it is recommended that these 2 organizations be replaced with traditional/statutory structures, their role in maintaining peace in Butaw and advancing better relations with the plantation is crucial. The division among the people has led to serious mistrust and continues to undermine their social cohesiveness. Tribal leaders and elders have all taken sides in this schism.
In Conclusion, the report emphasized that Land dispute has been a recurrent source of tension in both rural and urban communities in Liberia. The passage of the land rights act and demarcation of boundaries between customary communities, districts and counties are major concerns to citizens and investors in Sinoe County. “While we believe that these are also provisions of the land rights act, until these provisions are disseminated to the public - land disputes will continue to serve as a major factor for conflict in rural areas”.
Full text of the GC/UNDP Assessment Team to Sinoe County is on the GC website: www.governancecommissionlr.org.