Land Grabbing in Sierra Leone: Implications of Local Political Influence.

Abstract

Foreign companies have acquired vast land for bio-fuel crop plantations and agricultural investment in Saharan African countries, often referred to as "Land grabbing." This practice violates human rights, lacks indigenous consent, and has no social or environmental considerations. Large-scale land deals impact land rights, as investors obtain leases and clear land for industrial monoculture plantations, with limited inclusion of local land-owning families. This is a key development strategy of the Sierra Leone government. Large-scale land deals in Sierra Leone affect land rights, allowing investors to clear land for industrial monoculture plantations, limiting local land-owning families' inclusion and a key development strategy. This study aims to analyze the implications of land grabbing for local communities, focusing on issues like displacement, livelihood loss, environmental degradation, and social conflict. This study utilized a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design including both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. While existing relevant literature was synthesised into the research, data was collected from secondary data resources such as journals, research articles, and government reports on large-scale land deals in Sierra Leone via content analysis. Also, to capture in-depth local-level dynamics, key informant interviewees using purposive samples were selected, informed by the need to ensure the sample represented a cross-section of the population of interest, namely, the stakeholders involved on the different sides of civil society activism, the local elites, elders, youth, women, land-owning families, land leases and the grassroots activists. Resulting from gaps in and a sheer absence of a structured legal framework for land lease arrangement, Sierra Leone’s land governance institutions were ill-equipped to handle large-scale land deals. This further revealed the incapacity and impoverishment of the government in supplementing agricultural investments, thus, threatening the country’s food security. However, prioritising governance, regulatory structures, technical know-how, and coordination among key agencies might hold the key to identifying missed opportunities and effectively engaging with development partners, investors, donors and NGOs. Therefore, it is recommended that a structured legal framework for land lease arrangements is needed, allowing government and multinational corporations to increase coordination, inclusion, participation, and cooperation with land-owning families.

Keywords

• Land Deals
• Land grabbing
• Local elites
• Sierra Leone.