Green Livelihood Alliance (GLA) 2.0, a program tackling deforestation, human rights abuses and activists’ safety and the lack of policies that drive smallholder farming, has been launched in Liberia.
Campaigners at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), who are implementing the five-year project, say GLA 2.0 will be implemented in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi.
These counties host the largest oil palm concessions and are hubs for illegal logging, infamous for elite land-grab and attacks on local activists.
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This threatens Liberia’s more than 40 percent of the Upper Guinea Forest undermines gains made in the forestry and land sector and undermines the country’s commitment to conserve 30 percent of its forest. And there have been land-related conflicts nationwide.
“This project… is timely,” said Wilfred Gray-Johnson, former commissioner of the Independent Human Rights Commission who launched the project. “Forest communities in several communities have been devastated by the impacts of industrial oil palm,” he added.
“The livelihood, culture and human rights of these communities remain under threat as the companies continue to expand.”