By Joseph O. Sayon
Regional Actors in the Oil Palm sector of West Africa have concluded a two-day dialogue to help improve the sector taking into consideration community engagement with Oil Palm Companies, benefit sharing and other factors that will engender community driven smallholder oil palm development in the Sub-region.
As part of efforts to develop the sector, Civil Society Actors who attended the dialogue, adapted a resolution with a commitment and recommendation to their respective Governments.
“We, the delegates, attending this dialogue commit ourselves to act collectively to foster community rights in the region. In this regard the delegates at the conference commit to the following”:
”The commitment from the two-day dialogue calls for the establishment of a sub-regional platform that brings civil society actors from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia under the umbrella of the Mano River Union Platform on Community Rights and Oil Palm Plantation Development that will come together once every year to share experiences and develop joint actions to promote, protect and advance community rights in the sector and Engagement with the Africa Community Rights Network to strengthen collaboration among CSOs in the region”.
“It also seeks to establish channels of communication including emails, WhatsApp and Messenger, for information sharing in real-time and strengthening solidarity, Support community driven smallholder oil palm development that respects community rights, deliver inclusive and sustainable benefits, and maintains ecological integrity as well as ensure that Civil society organizations be vigilant in their advocacy for community rights and the environment”.
In the recommendations, “the delegates call on states, governments and the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil to take the following actions that would promote the development of the Oil palm sector of the region”.
The recommendation emphasized the importance for Community rights, at all times, be at the center of natural resource governance and management, especially those related to land lease agreements and discourage further expansion of large scale mono-culture;
“It also calls on government and the RSPO to ensure that existing oil palm companies respect the collective rights of customary land owners and users and operate in a way that enables communities to secure benefits from their land resource and promote the issue of access to information through robust monitoring and reporting of oil palm companies’ compliance to national laws and international standards such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil”
“The recommendation further seeks to ensure that women and other marginalized people have their rights respected including access and equal participation in natural resource management with specific focus on land”.
The two-day event was attended by Civil Society Actors from Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon and other part of the world including the United Kingdom. It was organized in Liberia by the Sustainable Development Institute(SDI) with support from the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.
