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Liberia : Indicators

2010 > Tenure and land use

Tenure and land use

Is most forest land under a clear ownership title, so that (theoretically) it is possible to point to any part of the country’s forested land and establish clear ownership of that area?

There remains considerable confusion over ownership of forest land; a private versus public forest land debate continues. A significant percentage of forest land in Liberia is under titles and could be clearly identified. But the situation with forest land held under customary arrangement remains unclear.

It there an explicit current document which defines or describes land and forest tenure policy? If so, has it been used to inform the forest law and other norms (or has it been produced after the forest law)? Is it up-to-date or does it require revisions in the light of REDD, mining, tenure conflicts, or other threats and opportunities?  Read the report...

Is there a published policy on forest tenure?

The Public Land Law treats ‘unoccupied’ land as public land while the CRL treats land owned by individuals and groups through longstanding rules recognized by the community as private land whether or not the individual or group has a deed. The situation regarding ‘Forest tenure’ is unclear. There is no court ruling on this matter and until a case has been decided this lack of clarity will remain; unless some revisions are made to the law to clarify the situation. Read more...
Where private forestland ownership is possible within the Constitution and legal framework, can the ownership of each area of forest be publically accessed?  Read the report...

Is there a register of private forestland owners? Is it accessible to the public?

A significant percentage of forest land in Liberia is under titles and could be clearly identified.
These titles have not yet been collected into a single register, and no register is available to the public. Read more...
Does the law make a clear difference between owners and users of forests / forest products? If so, please explain it.  Read the report...

Is there a difference in law between ownership and use?

The Community Rights Law provides that all forest resources on community forest lands are owned by local communities while the NFRL 2006 state that all forest resources are ‘held in trust’ by the state. The CRL also grants FDA the powers to regulate the use of all forest resources regardless of their property status. Read more...
Is it codified and understood who has rights to timber, minerals, non-timber forest products, wildlife, water, carbon etc? Are all these types of product available to all, or is there some form of differentiation (for example, private forest owners can issue the right to log, but only the state can issue the right to mine; or only the state can issue the right to log, but local communities who own the land can issue the right to collect non-timber forest products).  Read the report...

Is the ownership of different forest products clear?

The right to timber on public land is held by the state. The right to timber on private land is held by the land owner. All commercial activities related to timber and non timber forest products are regulated by the state. Accessing NTFPs require the permission of the community from where the NTFPs would be harvested; even where the state has given permission. Read more...
Are there clear, documented, understood and accessible steps for resolving tenure conflicts?  Read the report...

Is there a dispute-settlement process for tenure conflicts?

There is no dispute settlement for conflicts arising from the implementation of the forestry law. In fact the law states that where the government has allocated forest use permit no one has the right to ‘block’ such use. Read more...
It is possible, at national or sub-national level, to view or obtain maps indicating forest ownership and current permit-holders for different forest use? So, for example, it is possible to calculate what proportion of forest land has documented title, or what proportion is under logging concessions? Are such maps digitised?  Read the report...

Are ownership and forest land use maps available?

FDA has digitised maps for all contract areas and protected areas. They are made available to the public on request; however there is a charge to access them. Read more...
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