InFocus
The future activities of Kuala Lumpur-based Sime Darby, one of the most prominent in a club of new, high-profile investors committed to long-term projects in Liberia, are meant ... Read more »
Plantation Blues in Liberia, February 2012
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Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaA woman and her daughter search for firewood in a place that once was once forest and farmland. Liberia's western region of Grand Cape Mount County was fiercely contested during the country's civil war. Today, it is the site of a different kind of confrontation. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaPalm grows on former forest land. In 2009, the Liberian government awarded 220,000 hectares to Sime Darby - a Malaysian conglomerate - as part of a 63-year concession agreement. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaSime Darby's billboard on the way to one of its plantations in western Liberia. Liberias lead campaigner on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative accuses incoming corporations of duping Liberians with billboard campaigns and empty slogans while falling far short on their production and employment promises. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaEstate houses being built for Sime Darby's workers. The company's activities in Liberia are meant to revitalize the country's oil palm sector, providing billions in government revenue, and creating 35,000 jobs. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaJournalists interview local residents who say the company forced them from their land without providing adequate compensation, There is no work here now, everybody is just sitting down, says farmer Fakamoh Touray. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaA field recently cleared of forest to make way for palm oil and rubber plantations. Sime Darby has strongly denied allegations of land grabbing, arguing that its Liberian concession area is "mostly abandoned agricultural land." -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaIn October 2011, community leaders in western Liberia wrote to a global association that acts as a forum for different stakeholders in the palm oil sector. They accused Sime Darby of mishandling sacred sites, destroying crops and forcefully displacing local people. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaA latrine for a local village. Sime Darby's holdings stretch across four counties, but environmental groups say the company has done little to engage with local communities. Sime Darby has strongly denied the charges made against it. It has stressed its commitment to sustainable agriculture and its regular and direct engagement with communities, adherence to national laws and regulations, environmental stewardship and the use of best agricultural practices. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaResidents of Grand Cape Mount County consult with environmental lawyer Alfred Brownel, who heads the Green Advocates organization. An expanding environmental lobby in Liberia is working to highlight the wider implications of plantation ventures. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaPreparing cassava, a local staple. Villagers say they were ordered to stop planting in areas that were to be used by the company, and that in some cases farmers were compensated with a single bag of rice. -
Credit: Boakai Fofana/allAfricaCommotion erupted just before a meeting with government officials who had gone to help resolve tensions between Sime Darby and residents of the county. Accused of blocking a proper dialogue between communities and company, the government has talked of reviewing compensation deals.
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