Sierra Leone: Strengthening land rights

DW (English)

Africa is a continual target of land-grabbing. Big international corporations are snatching up farmland. A group in Sierra Leone fights for justice.

Transcript

00:00Sierra Leone in West Africa is rich in natural resources, and yet it's still one of the

00:11poorest countries in the world.

00:14We have a lot of companies embarking on large scale mining or agriculture.

00:18They use us as a working tool, from there they drop us, they can't fulfil our promise.

00:25But as corporations scramble for the country's riches, people in Sierra Leone are fighting

00:31back.

00:32We make sure we put the law in the hands of the communities.

00:37A group of paralegals in Sierra Leone is trying to change the way land deals are made and

00:43shift the power into local hands.

00:48Abdullahi Tomi is a paralegal at the organisation NAMETI.

01:07While they're not fully qualified lawyers, Tomi and his team are trained to conduct legal

01:12research and support communities in negotiations with investors.

01:18In Sierra Leone we have a city of lawyers, and even the lawyers, the majority of them

01:23are in the city.

01:26Our work is to make sure that communities access justice.

01:31As paralegals we go out to communities to make sure that we help them to understand

01:37the law, to use the law, and at the end of the day we are able to shape the law.

01:44Tomi and his team are on their way to Bont on Cherbro Island in Sierra Leone's remote

01:50south.

01:51Unlike many lawyers in the city, Tomi and his fellow paralegals work in rural communities

01:57that are often only accessible on foot, by motorbike or boat.

02:01It's rarely an easy journey.

02:03The bridge, it got broken last year and there was a serious challenge in terms of getting

02:14over.

02:15This ferry is used to ferry people across.

02:21Driving through the country they often see the effects of land grabbing by multinational

02:25companies.

02:27So what are those deals with the corporations about and why are they such a problem?

02:34For years now, selling and leasing land has been one of the government's main strategies

02:37for development.

02:38A study by the University of Lagos found an estimated 2 million hectares of arable land

02:44in Sierra Leone out of 5.4 million are leased to foreign companies, nearly 40%.

02:51These deals are often done without any participation by the local community.

02:56We have witnessed a lot of companies embarking on large scale mining or agriculture and some

03:03of these corporate institutions are also very difficult to deal with when it comes

03:07to compliance.

03:09This lack of compliance can have extreme consequences.

03:13There was a community here, the operations of the company destroyed their water source

03:19and as a result there was need for the community to be relocated to another place.

03:27Mining activities are devastating to the environment.

03:33We begin to engage communities to see how they can take steps to make sure that their

03:38environment is protected.

03:40The team is headed to Bont.

03:45From here boats are the only means of transport.

03:52Tami and his team pass through the Cherbro River estuary.

03:56Mangrove forests line the route on either side.

04:04The journey takes another hour by speedboat.

04:14Bont's architecture is a reminder of Sierra Leone's past as a British colony.

04:19Back then the British claimed and extracted the minerals.

04:22Now international corporations have taken over.

04:26The company that plans to invest in the Bont region is called West Africa Blue, known locally

04:32as the Africa Conservation Initiative or ACI.

04:35They're interested in the mangrove forests.

04:39So what value do the mangroves hold for the company?

04:43ACI plans to lease the mangroves for their ability to store carbon.

04:48Their business model is to work with communities to reduce deforestation by identifying and

04:54managing conservation areas and shifting to more sustainable harvesting practices.

04:59The lower rates of deforestation can be quantified and sold to companies as carbon credits.

05:07We'll learn more about how that all works later.

05:14Tami and the team travel to one of the many communities in negotiations with ACI over

05:19mangrove forests.

05:21Namati has been supporting communities in developing their own rules or bylaws for protecting

05:27and using the mangroves, which provide a livelihood for many here.

05:33Upon arrival, they are greeted by local leader and fisherman Potomac Farmer.

05:38He explains some ways the mangroves are essential to life here.

05:45We use mangroves to build our houses.

05:47We cut them to smoke dry our fish.

05:55When you get to these communities, they have given up because they have nowhere to make

06:02their complaints or to have their grievances redressed.

06:07So how are the paralegals helping the communities?

06:10The Namati team and the community members gather in the shade of palm trees.

06:17The first thing we do, we make sure we put the law in the hands of the communities.

06:23Provide legal education on basic tenure rights.

06:28We don't tell them we'll provide all the answers, we tell them, OK, we'll work with you to get

06:34the answers.

06:35In a country with over 20 spoken languages, this kind of community participation is only

06:43possible if the paralegals are able to communicate in the local language.

06:50Paralegal Dauda Golia was born in Bond.

06:52You must know the traditions and culture of the people to be able to work there, because

06:57each of these communities you visit, they have their own customs, they have their own

07:01traditions to follow.

07:03This community-centred approach has been reinforced by laws that took effect in 2022.

07:09They require any land agreement to first pass review by village communities, like this one.

07:16We ask them to suggest laws that they think is fitting for them and laws that will not

07:23further destroy the mangroves.

07:26By creating these bylaws, communities can collectively set their own priorities before

07:31negotiating an agreement with a big company.

07:38We need to see the development before we start implementing the laws.

07:44This is the first time Potomac's farmer and his community have had legal counselling.

07:49Namiti is a non-profit funded by grants and donations.

07:53The support they provide is free of charge.

07:57Before, you could only get a lawyer if you had a lot of money.

08:00And no one here knew they even had rights.

08:05Back to the African Conservation Initiative.

08:07Who are they and how do carbon credits work?

08:12ACI is holding a training session on how to build cooking stoves that use less wood.

08:18The company introduces what are called alternative livelihood projects to encourage ways of living

08:24that reduce mangrove deforestation.

08:31Sean Fitzpatrick is ACI's technical lead.

08:36You know, I'm a satellite analyst, so I've seen all the different countries around and

08:40Sierra Leone, they're blessed.

08:43They're lucky to have this big forest of mangroves still here.

08:47Fitzpatrick explains how preserving this precious resource can be turned into profit.

08:53So if we have a thousand hectares of mangrove that have been cleared every year for the

08:58past six to ten years, and now we come and we do some conservation, we bring alternative

09:05livelihoods and next year only 500 hectares were deforested, we can say, okay, that extra

09:12500 hectares is equivalent to exactly this many tons of carbon dioxide emissions that

09:18would have gone into the atmosphere if they had not been conserved.

09:22Companies are interested in buying to offset their own carbon footprint.

09:27Some locals are sceptical of ACI's business model.

09:33How does it affect local fishers?

09:36Nearby, we meet up with Emanuele Pange, who relies on the mangroves for his livelihood.

09:41Unless I go to the bush and cut mangrove, come with it and sell, so that I am able to

09:48earn my daily bread.

09:50Did you see the oyster?

09:52It's the sun.

09:53One source of his income is harvesting oysters from the mangrove roots.

09:57Later he sells them for 70 cents a kilo.

10:02For the carbon storage to work, and for the carbon credits to be internationally verified,

10:06ACI needs the rate of the deforestation of the mangroves to be slowed down.

10:12Pange is willing to make changes, but he needs support, for example, the means to keep his

10:16fish fresh so it can be sold at the market.

10:20We can stop, but the only thing you can do for us, we need coal rooms, we need electricity,

10:27then we need transportation.

10:31Pange is scarred by a lifetime of hearing false promises, of watching corporations come

10:36and extract wealth from his land with no benefits to locals like him.

10:40You just see them passing in the country, in your own town.

10:45You can be a stranger in your own land, because the power is from above.

10:51So that is why we are suffering.

10:54This feeling of powerlessness is exactly what Namati tries to address.

11:02Tami believes the deal with ACI is different from many others he's seen because of the

11:07community's greater participation.

11:11The difference here is that at the onset of everything, we have started engaging community

11:19members.

11:20They have a say, they have a voice, they participate in land acquisition processes.

11:29This makes me happy because these people tell me about my rights, so I am not just going

11:36to let someone take over my own land without a proper agreement.

11:43The next stage of the negotiations is the benefit-sharing agreement.

11:47This will decide how the profits from the carbon credits are to be divided up.

11:53ACI plans to expand from 10,000 hectares to 74,000.

11:59Experts estimate that the deal could generate millions of euros in the coming decades.

12:08The company has promised that half of the revenue will go to the local communities.

12:15Together with Namati, the community wants to make sure this time, these promises are

12:19kept.

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