F.a: Enhancing Community Based Decision Making on Customary Land, Natural Resources, and Livelihood: A Pilot P

General

Within the project, an initial workshop with the two local communities involved will take place, SDI's existing land mapping guides will be updated, the communities' land use and natural resources will be mapped, the communities' land use norms will be doc umented, their awareness of how to tackle investors interested in land acquisition will be increased, communication material and radio programmes will be produced. Finally, the lessons learnt during the project will be analysed and shared with national and international decision-makers. Liberia is one of the African countries, which has granted most land concessions to the national elite and foreign investors, 25% of its land area. The land is used for industrial agriculture as well as forestry and mining i ndustries, for instance rubber and oil palm plantations. Consequences include forced displacement of local communities, environmental damage, human rights violations, livelihood uncertainty and land conflicts. Therefore, communities lack legal advice, info rmation on the consequences of contracting their lands, and ways to get investors to respect the contracts made. The aim of the project is to gather best practices on how to support communities to protect their traditional lands, resources, livelihoods and cultures. By increasing the capacity of the communities, the aim is to raise awareness of their land governance strategies. In addition, the aim is to ensure participatory, responsible and informed decision-making of the communities when deciding on their land and resource management. They will also be supported in negotiating and reaching a fair compensation on investments regarding their lands. The project will be implemented with two local communities in the River Cess county (approximately 7,000 commun ity members). The communities are mostly members of the forest dependent Bassa tribe. Typical livelihoods are related to agriculture, fishing, hunting, traditional medicine, artisan mining and non-timber forest products (rattan).