Published: November 24, 2025
Monrovia - The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), through its Community Land Protection Program (CLPP), has launched a two-week capacity-building initiative to strengthen grassroots land and forest governance across several counties. The training brings together 103 chairpersons, co-chairpersons, secretaries, treasurers, community assemblies, and leaders from 13 Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs) and Community Forest Management Bodies.
The sessions focus on building practical leadership and governance skills and enhancing participants' understanding of important legal frameworks, including the Community Rights Law of 2009 and the 2018 Land Rights Act.
According to SDI, the training aims to help community leaders understand their mandates, roles, and responsibilities in implementing community bylaws and land governance processes. Topics include leadership and team building, effective communication, collaboration, work-plan development, meeting documentation, gender mainstreaming, climate change awareness, and the Carbon Policy framework.
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Representatives from local government and traditional authorities, including chiefs, district commissioners, women's groups, and youth leaders, are actively participating in the sessions.
SDI used the forum to distribute simplified, user-friendly versions of the Land Rights Act, the Community Rights Law, and the Carbon Policy to promote greater community awareness and peer learning. Participants are expected to develop skills that enable them to manage customary land and forest resources more sustainably and to prepare a six-month work plan to guide their implementation activities.
The initiative follows a successful boundary harmonization process and confirmatory surveys conducted in five of the 13 targeted communities across Maryland, River Cess, and River Gee counties. These activities are part of a larger, ongoing effort to formalize and protect community land rights through participatory and transparent processes.
The larger project, funded by the International Land Tenure Facility, is being carried out under the theme 'Keeping the Promise: Expanding and Strengthening Community Land and Forest Governance for a Sustainable Future.' It includes Grand Bassa, River Cess, Sinoe, River Gee, Bong, Lofa, and Nimba counties and covers more than 683,000 hectares of land.
The latest round of training sessions opened in Gutuken Community on November 18-19 with 27 participants representing Newenken, Gbito-Fla-Fla, and Sellie Koyio communities in Maryland County.
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A significant development emerged when the newly appointed County Land Administrator of the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) joined the training and facilitated the resolution of a long-standing boundary dispute between Gbito-Fla-Fla's Rock Town and Tenken Town in Newenken.
Local and traditional leaders from both communities signed a commitment letter pledging to end the conflict within one week, a move SDI described as a major step toward stability, cooperation, and sustainable community land governance.
Organizers say the ongoing training reinforces SDI's commitment to strengthening community stewardship of land and forest resources. By combining leadership development, legal awareness, dispute resolution, and practical land-management training, SDI aims to ensure communities are better positioned to manage their customary territories and protect them for future generations.
