For the first time, northwestern Liberia has a single land use plan supporting sustainable commodity production. promoting greater engagement of women and strengthening smallholder participation in supply chains.
Community-based frontline conservationists, around half of them women, now support protection of some of Africa’s richest biodiversity, including elephant and chimpanzee habitats under threat from logging, mining, agriculture, and climate change.
Resource centers fully rooted in local communities are supporting capacity building partners across the landscape, and key demo sites for climate-smart agriculture are set to be launched over the coming months.
Operating under the umbrella of the World Bank-led Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by Conservation International, the 2.5-million-hectare conservation project addresses the interrelated challenges of land fragmentation, market access, and limited agricultural support.
To learn about their work in driving sustainable landscape practices in the northwest of the country, the FOLUR Global Platform team sat down with Liberia Country Project managers Global Environment Facility (GEF) Portfolio Senior Manager David Diggs, and Laureen Cheruiyot, Africa manager for the Conservation International-GEF Project Agency.
Q: What's the most significant achievement of your conservation project?
A: Our multi-stakeholder platform is revolutionary. It provides a structured approach to resolving community issues, with a step-by-step escalation process that gives local communities a real voice in project implementation. We have developed the first comprehensive national land use plan in Liberia. We created multiple levels of plans - national, landscape-wide, and nine specific community clusters - which is unprecedented in the country. The land-use plan was validated in January, and training will begin next month for local people to learn how to use and actualize it. We expect that within the next six months communities will be making use of the plan.
Q: How are you engaging women in the project?
A: We're intentionally recruiting women as frontline conservationists to patrol the landscape, aiming to have 78 women in these roles – about half of all frontline conservationists. We've also identified gender champions in communities and ensured women's voices are heard in key decision-making meetings. We ensure that women’s voices are heard, and that their participation is felt. Each town has a “gender champion” through whom we can convey gender messages to communities. These approaches have been quite useful in improving women’s participation in the project in comparison with other projects in the past. They’re helping women get really fully involved. We’ve made significant progress.
Q: Tell us about the resource centers and your partnership with the private sector.
A: Project initiatives provide both technical training and seedlings to local farmers. They support our Community Resource Centers and help smallholder farmers improve agricultural practices. The resource centers offer capacity building initiatives, transmit agricultural knowledge and land use planning techniques. The private sector partnership is invaluable – providing technical requirements for a demonstration site we are establishing such as seedlings, for example. Having a private sector group working in the landscape and leveraging their technical expertise is another good approach that projects can benefit from. It makes a lot of sense and offers a big advantage when you have different stakeholders, including private sector, government, civil society engaged in collaborations.
Q: What Cocoa Value Chain Improvements are underway?
A: We’re trying to connect with other actors in the cocoa value chain to see how we can increase seedlings and technical extension services to local farmers to improve their production. The idea is also to get seedlings for these local farmers. Cocoa production through the climate smart approach will include intercropping to improve yields. Through the climate smart agriculture demonstration site, we train farmers on how to manage cocoa, which is impacted by diseases and elements that can reduce production.
Q: What challenges have you encountered?
A: Major challenges include limited land expansion, poor market access for farmers, and agricultural produce "leakage" to neighboring countries. We're addressing these through strategic partnerships and comprehensive planning.
Q: How are you supporting local farmers?
A: We're working to improve value chains, connect farmers to markets, and provide technical support for crop production. We're also training farmers in climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land use.
Q: What is the ultimate goal of the project?
A: We aim to create a sustainable model of conservation and community development that can be replicated in other regions. By bringing together private sector, government, and local communities, we're showing a new approach to environmental and economic challenges. We’re also aiming to bring further private sector players on board to ensure sustainability and long-term impact while improving the value chain. Toward that goal, we hosted a recent Business Symposium to encourage more private sector actors to get involved. Other related activities involve identifying companies in the landscape that adhere to various sustainability standards and certification schemes that link small producers to bigger markets.
Moving forward, the project is accelerating its impact: delivering benefit packages to local communities, establishing more resources centers to build capacity at the landscape level, identifying climate-smart agriculture demonstration sites and training local communities to implement the land use plan.
The project team envisions a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable landscape in Northwest Liberia where there is a clear model for integrated landscape management that can be replicated across the country, demonstrating how inclusive governance, sustainable finance, and community empowerment can drive lasting positive change.
