Supporting effective land use planning in Liberia

Held in Monrovia, the one-day technical sensitisation course covered some key land use planning approaches and tools: High Conservation Values (HCV), High Carbon Stock (HCS) and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Approximately 70 Liberians attended the course which was held the day before the Liberia’s TFA 2020 Africa Palm Oil Initiative Second National Workshop (you can read about Ghana's Second National Workshop here).

The course included presentations on the importance of improved, integrated land-use planning, and the role these three tools can play therein.

David Hoyle from Proforest led a session of HCV, Chris Kidd of the Forest People's Programme (FPP) delivered the FPIC module, and Gerome Topka of The Forest Trust (TFT) presented on the HCS-Approach. David Hoyle also covered the integration of HCV with HCS and the on-going HCS convergence process.

The event attracted a mixture of public sector, private sector, civil society and community groups. Importantly, 16 community representatives were in attendance coming from the 8 counties where large palm oil concessions are being found. Delegates from the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy of Liberia (MLME), Conservation International (CI), the Word Resources Institute (WRI) and the Forest People’s Programme (FPP) – as well as a number of palm oil companies. 

“Liberia has played a leading role in the TFA 2020’s Africa Palm Oil Initiative..."

David Hoyle, Proforest Associate Director, said, “Liberia has played a leading role in the TFA 2020’s Africa Palm Oil Initiative by developing a national set of principles and an action plan governing sustainable palm oil production in the country. The effective use of these three approaches and tools - HCV, HCS and FPIC - will be critical in supporting the implementation of this plan by ensuring robust and joined-up land use planning.”

Read more about Proforest's work coordinating TFA 2020's Africa Palm Oil Initiative.