In Pictures: The impact of Liberia's land grab
Thousands of ancestral farming plots across Africa have been handed over to corporate interests, usually for forestry, mining or agri-business, and it is having a massive impact on the lives of Liberian farmers.
A worker trims the tops off of palm seedlings in the nursery area of the Sime Darby plantation northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012. Because of a delay in developing new planting areas, these seedlings have been growing longer than they should, and would be too unwieldy to transplant if not trimmed first.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A woman walks through an area near her village of Nimba Point northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012. Until recently this area was forest and farmland, but is now planted with palm seedlings; part of the 220,000 hectare palm oil plantation run there by Malaysian company, Sime Darby. Residents are adjusting from an agriculture based economy to a wage economy, although contracts concerning compensation are still being disputed.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A young man wearing a Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey pushes himself across a body of water at the new Sime Darby community complex built for employees of their palm oil operations northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Children follow an elder between two schools at a community called Nimba Point on April 25, 2012. The area surrounding this community has been given by the Liberian government as a concession to Sime Darby for the production of palm oil. The school on the right is an old school, and the one on the left is the new one, provided by Sime Darby. Residents complain that the new school is poorly made and is already falling apart after one year of use. They would like to see a new school built using materials similar to their old school.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Children in the village of Senii, northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012. This isolated community has been completely surrounded by a portion of Sime Darby's 220,000 hectare palm oil plantation. A village elder says that the communities cassava fields were plowed under by Sime Darby crews clearing the land.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Wooden tablets with Koranic verses rest in an open-air school room adjacent to where children play in the village of Senii, northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Huge swaths of forest that have been cleared for the 220,000 hectare palm oil plantation run by Sime Darby northwest of Monrovia, Liberia.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Ibraham Turay, the Senii village chief, stands where his village's cassava fields once flourished. He says their crops were destroyed by crews clearing land for the Sime Darby palm oil plantation.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
This image shows a very small part of the clear cutting that has been done by the Malaysian company Sime Darby northwest of Monrovia, Liberia on April 25, 2012. The company owns concessions to 220,000 hectares of land that will be used for the production of palm oil. Communities in the area are not happy with the payments made to individuals, and/or communities, and are suffering in many cases because the clear cutting has isolated communities, destroyed crops, and destroyed, or polluted water sourcesPeter Power/The Globe and Mail