This brief aims to ensure that policy makers are well informed about the realities of industrial agriculture in Liberia. With a focus on palm oil plantations, it brings together national civil society experience of the problems rural communities are facing as they try to protect their lands and livelihoods and provides an outline of the policy process and recommendations so far in Liberia.

The brief outlines the arguments that underpin the need for the development of a legal framework to regulate the industrial agriculture sector, and seeks to recommend solutions that could avoid overlap of concessions or other conflicts over land. Indeed the UN and the Government of Liberia acknowledge in their 2017 Liberia Peace Building Plan that “land disputes, corruption, boundary disputes and concession related tensions continue to be the main triggers of violence”. A robust and enforced legal framework will also ensure that communities impacted by industrial agriculture receive their rightful benefits, and that the Government of Liberia is able to collect the correct revenues and benefit in terms of development and employment objectives being met.

The launch of the report was covered by Front Page Africa.