The community of Tartweh-Dropoh in Sinoe County is expected to get additional fees from Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), after a recent mapping process by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), Liberia Land Authority (LLA), National Bureau of Concession (NBC), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the Tartweh-Dropoh Community Mapping Team, and GVL’s own mapping team revealed that the company occupies more land than initially documented in 2014.
The palm oil company earlier reported in 2014 that it had cleared and planted on 2,195 hectares of land for oil palm development. Still, the mapping exercise in December 2024 from the five (5) divisions of the company showed that it has cleared 2,568 hectares of land from the Tartweh-Dropoh community land.
This means the company currently occupies an additional three hundred and seventy-three (373) hectares of the community’s land that was not reported in its 2020 data.
In the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the company signed with the community, it mandated itself to pay US$5.00 per hectare annually to the community Development Fund account. The MOU also stated that the company will pay US$1.25 for the undeveloped land it occupies.
The additional 373 hectares of land identified through mapping will increase the amount of fees the company deposits into Tartweh Dropoh’s Community Development Fund account. It can be recalled that the effort to map GVL’s Tartweh Estate began in 2021 when the Tartweh Dropoh community wrote SDI to help them remap their land that was cleared by GVL in 2014 for palm oil development.
In the letter to SDI, the community said it didn’t trust the figure provided to them by GVL and called for a participatory mapping. Based on the community’s request, SDI helped the community with funding support from the Green Livelihood Alliance (GLA) Forest for a Just Future Program.
Sampson M. Williams, the National Program Assistant of the Community Rights and Corporate Governance Program (CRCGP) at SDI, who works directly with communities regarding such said, “The result indicated on the map will help the community get the money and royalties from the oil palm concession giant.”
Filled with excitement after the presentation of the map to the community by the Liberia Land Authority (LLA), Mr. Williams also said “Not only that the community will get their money and royalties, but it will improve the livelihoods of the community, promote development at the local level, as well as enhance transparency and accountability especially where the community is in the process of renegotiating a permanent deal with GVL.”
Dee Kanmoh, the head of the agriculture committee, on behalf of his community, thanked SDI and all stakeholders that making them to be aware of the actual hectares of land occupied by the company.
However, Mr. Kanmoh urged the company to honor the MOU it signed with them and pay what is due for the land it occupies now that it’s been confirmed through participatory mapping.
Meanwhile, Golden Veroleum Liberia is yet to make an official statement regarding the matter. But in adherence to the 2018 Land Rights Act (LRA) and the GVL-Community MOU, the government of Liberia, through its relevant authorities, has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that the community rights are protected and that the company operates legally.