Liberia’s water-relevant laws are fragmented across several agencies and there are no effective implementation and enforcement mechanisms (DAI 2008; UNDP and EPA 2006). Results in Liberia serve as a good example. In practice, however, rural people are moving into the forest and establishing new farms (Wily 2007). Indigenous lands are regulated in accordance with customary rules (which do not vary dramatically between the different groups) as administered by tribal authorities. Women have very little participation in the mining sector, comprising only 7.6% of the labor force compared to 92.4% for men, or more than nine men hired to every one woman (Kinder and Stanger 2008). An undetermined portion of County Liberia remains under the control of the indigenous population (Wily 2007). The law also provides spouses with equal rights to be members of land owning communities, an important safeguard for … is can raise transactions costs — due, for example, to the complexity of the The most basic distinction in communities under chiguraf-gwoses tenure is the division of the land of the village into farmland and pastureland. Achieving agriculture-led food security through knowledge sharing, A global knowledge portal for climate change & development practitioners, USAID's knowledge sharing platform focused on land tenure and property rights, A collaborative learning community of development professionals, USAID’s sharing platform for resources on sustainable urban development. The Property Rights and Alluvial Diamond Development (PRADD) program focuses on clarifying and formalizing the land tenure rights for alluvial diamond miners. In a watershed moment for land rights in Liberia and across Africa, President George Weah on Sept. 19 signed into law a land reform bill that extends land rights to millions of rural Liberians. Addressing gender divisions of land ownership is also essential to improving rural livelihoods. The Aborigines Law limited the ability of tribes to sell their land, except by public land sales. About one-third of the population lives in rural areas and depends on forests for farmland, animal protein (bushmeat), timber, traditional medicines, energy (wood-derived domestic fuels), and healthy watersheds for fish and clean water. Key sector reforms were introduced – all forest concessions were cancelled; rubber concessions were renegotiated; a Land Commission was established in 2009 to set policy for customary ownership and tenure security, improved land-administration and development of land resources; Liberia is adhering to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme for rough diamonds; a committee on ethnic disputes has been created; and forestry laws were revised in an effort to balance commercial exploitation, community forestry and forest conservation. The Community Forestry Management Body is appointed by the Community Assembly which is composed of county legislators. As a result, women’s rights to land and other property are often less secure than those of men. The biggest threats to Liberia’s forests are uncontrolled logging and the expansion of land for agricultural purposes (including shifting cultivation). Customary systems are based on the values of a particular social group, and it is these values which confer legitimacy on local decision-making. Land issues contributed to the devastating Liberian Civil War (1989 – 2003) and, though the conflict ended fourteen years ago, security of tenure has not been achieved for most rural dwellers. Although water supply is abundant, clean water has become a scarce resource as a result of pollution and the destruction of water supply systems during the war. There are three areas to consider when initiating land reform: information problems, rights, and markets. (Wily 2007). Today, the dual tenure system and bias towards the statutory system continues to divide the indigenous people from the urban-based Americo-Liberian elites. Ramsar sites are wetlands of international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology (Ramsar Convention) for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific and recreational value (DAI 2008). Liberia’s forests represent the largest remaining remnant of the Upper Guinea forest of West Africa (about 42% of total). Specific Land Tenure System. … Tribes seem to have more than usufruct but less than fee simple. Feudal land tenure is a system of mutual obligations under which a royal or noble personage granted a fiefdom — some degree of interest in the use or revenues of a given parcel of land — in exchange for a claim on services such as military service or simply maintenance of the land in which the lord continued to have an interest. The report presents an analysis of critical implications of the findings of the study and Half were owners of their land (49 %), but other tenure systems were common, including borrowing the land from family or neighbors (15%), accessing land granted by the town chief (14%), and rental (9%). Before 1990, the mineral sector contributed more than 65% of export earnings and approximately 25% of GDP, mainly from iron-ore mining. In many places, it is not clear who owns what land, how long they have used the land, or if they have any formal claim to the land.8 Cataloging land use rights is a critical first step in the reform process because it docum… Under the new law, communities will have specifically defined and state-proclaimed communal forests which they can use only on a non-commercial basis (Lomax 2008; Wily 2007). o Liberia has had two … Contradictions between customary and statutory tenure systems. Liberia maintains a dual land tenure system with unclear terms of ownership for both private and customary lands. Other minerals include rutile, clay, kyanite and silica sand. USAID investments include technical assistance for land-policy reforms and for budget management in the mining sector, swampland rehabilitation, and the development of community forestry. Liberia’s land rights and land tenure status is under revision and in 2014, a revised and updated Land Rights Act (LRA) was developed and submitted by the former Land Commission of Liberia (presently the Liberia Land Authority). The Act includes stronger protections for women’s land rights, including provisions for women’s participation on local land management committees. Only 4% of rural households and 25% of urban households have access to safe drinking water. Latest land sector news delivered to your inbox. The usufruct rights may be short-term (as for food-crop farms) or long-term, even passed down several generations (e.g., houses, tree farms), but never mature into ownership. Liberia has six major rivers: the Mano, Lofa, St. Paul, St. John, Cestos and Cavalla Rivers. There is a dualistic system of land tenure – one based on statutory law and another based on customary law. FigureÔ: Discontinuity in Liberia’s Land Tenure Regimes Tenure System Boundary 40-miles from Coast ... Land deals under the customary system require negotiating with local au-thorities under vague laws. This would ensure that the LRCFP would make a real difference in the lives of indigenous communities and all other Liberians. This effectively took away community access to the resource even on the community’s own lands. The majority of proposed sites for the resumption of logging and the creation of additional conservation areas are within these various collective deeds (Lomax 2008; Wily 2007). The 1905 Hinterland Law (last amended in 1949) recognized customary ownership, not just usufruct rights, with respect to the Hinterlands. The Government Diamond Office assures compliance with the Kimberly Process. There is also exploration for uranium and petroleum. The Governance Commission, established for Liberia’s post-conflict reconstruction, is spearheading land policy reform for the country. The reforms needed to create a land governance system that equally protects the rights of men and women; How Liberia’s unique history of settlement by former American slaves shaped the development of dual system of rights and laws; Customary practices in Liberia that affect women’s land rights; The fifth multi-stakeholders workshop on the implementation of voluntary guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land, which is been held under the theme: ‘Effective Tenure Governance for Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Food Security in Liberia.’ The activity brought together stakeholders in the land and fisheries sector to brainstorm for the two-day on the way forward for the … Johnson Sirleaf Plays Musical Chairs: Liberia's Superficial Reshuffle? The land rights clarification process is complemented by training and technical support in alternative livelihoods strategies for economic development. In effect, they had to buy back their lands from the government to acquire legal ownership. Longstanding ethnic tensions rooted in land claims, particularly between the Mandingo and the Mano and Gio ethnic groups (Nimba County), and the Mandingo and Loma (Lofa County), threaten to become a flashpoint as Mandingo refugees returning from neighboring Guinea find their lands and properties seized by the other ethnic groups. In the Liberian hinterland, indigenous Africans use their own customary systems, which are … Statutory laws were introduced into Liberia in the 1820s by Americo-Liberian, “Congo”, and Caribbean settlers – freed slaves who moved to Liberia under the auspices of American-based resettlement societies. Environmental issues include tropical rainforest deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw sewage. Liberia is administratively divided into 15 counties. It has also contributed to conflict, as indigenous communities lost their food and livelihood source and an important lynchpin of their cultural heritage. The chief administrator for lands in this category is the President who has the power to issue deeds for conveyance to individuals. The National Forestry Reform Law provides that all forest resources belong to the state, except forest resources located in communal forests, and forest resources developed on private or deeded land through artificial regeneration. There are two different statutes for tribal land under the Hinterlands Rules and other laws: Tribal Reserves and Communal Holdings. Yacoub El Hillo, Deputy Special Representative of UN Secretary-General (DSRSG) and UN Coordination, says there is an urgent need for Liberia to restructure its land tenure system because the reform will help in the consolidation of peace and continuation of stability and prosperity in Liberia. It also lays down the requirements for the expropriation of land (eminent domain), and has a general provision on the treatment of exclusive marital property (GOL Constitution 1986). Today, only 56% of female-headed households own land, compared with 68% of male-headed households, and almost double the number of men (33%) compared to women (16%) owned land in 2006 (WFP data). Over two-thirds of respondents reported having access to land (69%), and 93% of those said the land had clear boundaries. State policy (established by the Americo-Liberian political elite) evolved from recognizing customary ownership as full ownership rights, whether formally titled or not, to merely recognizing usufruct rights of possession and use of undocumented customary claims. The conflict between this law and the New Mining Law is recognized but has yet to be addressed by the government (GOL Public Procurement and Concessions Act 2005). USAID supported the Integrated Inland Valley Swamp Rehabilitation and Development Project, which provided employment for ex-combatants in the rehabilitation and development of fish ponds and rice paddies. Yet the Government faces huge challenges, including the need to jumpstart the economy. Proj ID LR-Liberia Land Administration Project-1525893 -- P162893; Topics … Liberia Land Authority The Liberia Land Authority (LLA) is a product of the policy, legal and institutional reform of the land sector of Liberia led by the erstwhile Land Commission. Small-scale alluvial diamond mining continued in Liberia under the UN sanctions regime. The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the export of rough diamonds from Liberia in 2001, after confirming that diamonds (labeled conflict diamonds) were being used to fund the civil war and were implicated in destabilizing incursions into Sierra Leone. Obviously, resolution of the issues will take some time. Customary power structures – the control of land resources by tribal elders or big men – has resulted in generational conflict, as rural youth (especially males) with little prospect of accessing land are marginalized and exploited for their labor. Recognition of possession is not enough; it is the ownership of the land that needs to be entrenched. The declaration of Gbedin Wetlands as a Ramsar site has caused conflict between the government and local communities, due to lack of prior information and consultation, and an unclear boundary for the Ramsar site (DAI 2008). There is no basis in the law for doing this, but it is a good example of more individualized rights being recognized on tribal lands. The millions of rural Liberians who currently do not have formalized land are. 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