The Community Land Protection Programme’s (CLPP) goal is to proactively strengthen communities’ ability to protect, enforce and defend their land rights. The CLPP work for genuine protection for community and customary land tenure alongside recognition and respect for customary land rights as legally-enforceable ownership claims. It aims to ensure community control and inclusive authority over land and natural resources within their areas, with management and governance decisions made by the communities themselves.
The CLPP focuses on comprehensive community empowerment to ensure strong community capacity to realise and actualise their legal rights through good governance and administration at the community level that fosters equity, justice, fairness and accountability for leaders, community members, vulnerable groups, and external actors alike. It promotes community stewardship and sustainable land and natural resources management, with local communities consciously managing the land and resources in trust for the future generations. It also advocates for equitable investor-community partnerships that result in tangible land and natural resources benefits for communities, with communities fully empowered to: request and negotiate for benefits; manage these benefits equitably and justly; and take legal action should the benefits not be forthcoming.
Current activities of the CLPP include:
- Scaling-up community land protection activities throughout Liberia
- Expanding and strengthening a civil society and community actors protecting community land rights through knowledge sharing and facilitation
- Influencing national land policy and practice in Liberia
