Joe Pemagbi launching the report
A new baseline evaluation report by Search for Common Ground titled "Equitable land rights promotion in three districts of Sierra Leone" looks at land agreements gone into in Port Loko, Bombali and Pujehun districts with foreign investors.
Funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the report says there is insufficient engagement of people in those areas where large swathes of land have been given to companies such as ADDAX bio-energy and SOCFIN among others.
Giving a background to the report at its launch at the SFCG office in Freetown on Tuesday, lead researcher Saa Bandabla said that some 500,000 hectares of land - about seven percent of Sierra Leone territory, had been given out to companies with a Portuguese cassava and oil palm outfit, Quifel, the largest beneficiary with 126,000 hectares.
He said the report focused on 13 villages in the three districts, and complained that local MPs were generally reluctant to talk to them during their research.
Bandabla said their study showed that there was very low understanding on the part of the locals about agreements signed with these companies with 96% of respondents saying they had no knowledge of the land policy.
In what is said to pose a serious threat to stability in those areas surveyed, about 94% of respondents in Pujehun said they had heard about dispute with the companies of recent, with 70 % in Port Loko and 49% in Bombali saying the same.
Half of the people sampled said they were not consulted about the acquisition of their land with an even lower percentage (40) of the women having been consulted about it.
Paramount Chief come out for heavy criticism in that most of the land deals were negotiated by them without the knowledge let alone acquiescence of their people.
The report also shows that the relationship between the locals and the investors has not improved with 91% saying so in Pujehun, 73% in Port Loko and 92% in Bombali.
The Country Officer of OSIWA, Joe Pemagbi who launched the report, urged civil society to be the true watchdogs on behalf of the people. He accused the authorities of being in a state of denial over the negative impact of such land acquisitions on the masses.
Pemagbi said citizens must have a say in the distribution and sale of their land saying "these people are desperate to improve their livelihoods". He said it was unfair that such land leases were being signed without the full involvement and participation of the landowners who are sometimes taken advantage of. He said women's access to land "must be looked into and strengthened".
(C) Politico 15/05/14
