An investigation into forest ownership and customary land ... - Fern

Chapter 5 – So which way forward
Clearest evidence of this logic at work is seen in frequently encountered intention
to set aside the most precious forestlands of community properties against any
cultivation, to confine slash and burn to already once-cleared or degraded areas.
This bodes well for forest conservation and for local retention of a resource
of enormous value to future livelihoods. The forest need not disappear into a
myriad of cleared lands.
The needed catalyst to this, FDA must have already seen in its offer of ground
rent, is for owners to be formally recognised as the owners of the values of their
land.
11. The challenges of achieving real change cannot be under-estimated
No matter how obvious reforms in approaches are, the difficulty of realising them
should not be underestimated. Delay in issue of new contracts is frustrating to
both the business community and a revenue-poor administration. There were
reasons over the last half century why rural Liberians lost rights to their land and
these drivers remain. This is tangible in the ambitions of the private sector, often
backed up by as ambitious international interests. Liberia would not be the first
modern administration to simply find it ‘inconvenient’ to recognise local forest
ownership. It is also a fact that governments are generically not well disposed to
surrender powers they have awarded themselves, at least not without popular
pressure.
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A more modern approach to economic development may help crystallise the
benefits of reform. This has its roots in rising awareness that the choice is not,
after all, between supporting the interests of people or the state, nor is it between
meeting either the demands of social justice or economic growth. The challenge
lies in a structural change to forest governance that integrates the two, enabling
the sector to offer a genuine strategy of development with growth. Recognising
communities as lawful owners of forests and necessarily equal partners in all
decisions and contracts as to how their properties are used is the route forward.
12. State-people relations in the mining sector should not be ignored
Finally, although not the subject of this study, implications for the mining sector
need brief comment. The currently different legal position of mineral ownership
must be observed. National ownership of minerals has a long constitutional
basis (1847). National ownership of forests does not. The reason stems from the
higher values of minerals, which governments much more routinely keep for
themselves. It also has to be acknowledged that with the exception of surface
gold and iron mining minerals have not featured prominently in rural life and