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CONFLICT OR CONSENT? THE PLAM OIL SECTOR AT A CROSSROADS

Rubber was imported into the European market in crude bottles nearly four centuries after the discovery of America by Columbus. This raw material was used for manufacturing crude footwear, waterproof raincoat and other coverings. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of incubation in the history of rubber. Europeans considered rubber a curiosity and found no particular use for it. By the end of the eighteenth century four species of rubber-bearing plants had been identified and described (Hevea, H. brasiliensis and H. guianensis; one species of Castilla, C. elastica; and an Indian vine, Urceola elastica) | Member of Whistleblowers Union standing in front of Sime Darby s palm tree nursery in Grand Cape Mount Justin Kenrick Sime Darby oil palm and rubber plantation in Grand Cape Mount county Liberia 1. Introduction Sime Darby s oil palm and rubber concession in Grand Cape Mount county in northwest Liberia has come under sharp national and international focus after a complaint was submitted under the RSPO New Plantings Procedure NPP in November 2011. The complaint submitted by communities affected by the concession claimed that their Free Prior and Informed Consent FPIC had not been sought and that the destruction of their farmlands by the company in order to plant palm oil was leaving them destitute. Sime Darby s concession also includes land in the neighbouring counties of Bomi Gbarpolu and Bong. This case study based on field research conducted in February 2012 assesses the nature and extent of community involvement in the acquisition of land for Sime Darby s concession in Grand Cape Mount in particular with regard to whether the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent was respected.1 Liberia is known to have the best remaining examples of the Upper Guinea forest.2 Grand Cape Mount and neighbouring Gbarpolu contain one of the two remaining large forest areas in Liberia and land in and around Sime Darby s operations in Grand Cape Mount includes mixed shifting cultivation and forest. Liberia s natural resource governance and in particular the trades in diamonds and timber played a significant role in maintaining the fourteen-year armed conflict in Liberia and the region which led to the UN Security Council placing sanctions on timber diamonds and arms in 2003.3 Poor governance in relation to land and resources including corruption and bias along ethnic lines and government policy leading to a sudden rise in the price of food are seen as some of the key triggers for fourteen years of civil conflict which ended in 2003. The conflict caused over a quarter of a million .