17102IIED. In Liberia, a Nobel Laureate’s Problem. ON Monday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated for a second term. She is often depicted in the press as a postwar leader successfully rebuilding a country destroyed by decades of conflict. For her many admirable accomplishments, she recently shared the Nobel Peace Prize. However, unbeknown to many outside Liberia, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s government may now be sowing the seeds of future conflict by handing over huge tracts of land to foreign investors and dispossessing rural Liberians.
Between 2006 and 2011, Mrs. More than a million people live in the regions where the palm-oil concessions were granted. In recent months, Sime Darby has begun developing its first 25,000 acres in Grand Cape Mount County in northwestern Liberia. In response, Sime Darby representatives traveled to the area on Jan. 6 and held meetings with villagers. The president then visited the villagers herself. Her administration must change the way it does business. Mrs. Chinese company demolishes Cambodian forest to build casino. Africa land deals lead to water giveaway | Global development. Passengers in a pirogue observe how Fulani herders cross the Niger river with their cattle on the outskirts of Mopti, Mali. Situated at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers, Mopti is the market centre for the region. Photograph: Florin Iorganda/Reuters Millions of people will lose access to traditional sources of water because of "land grabs" in Africa, according to a report on Monday that looks behind the scramble for farmland in Africa.
The report: Squeezing Africa dry: behind every land grab is a water grab, shows how land deals, covering millions of acres of fertile land, also pose a threat to Africa's fresh water systems. "If these land grabs are allowed to continue, Africa is heading for a hydrological suicide," said Henk Hobbelink, co-ordinator of Grain, a group that backs small farmers. Grain cites the Nile and Niger river basins as two examples of the "giveaway" of land and water rights. Rural Land Grabs.