It is Gawoula district, Grande Cape Mount, and women and children are seen chasing Sime Darby tractors just to collect the cassava to feed their families as the heavy machines clear the land.

Back in Sannii Town, farmers who would normally be engaged in farming activities are seen idly sitting as their land has been purchased by Sime Darby, a multi million dollars Malaysian company; thus leaving nearby community dwellers without the slightest form of employment while women and children scavenge for anything eatable in the fields being cleared.

Hawa, a 21 year-old resident of Sannii Town say their lives were better before the commencement of Sime Darby’s operations in the county: “We use to make our own farm and cut our rice to eat, but Sime Darby has cleared the entire bush.” She and the other women collect what little cassava remains in order to make dumboy to eat.

In 2009, Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Inc. signed a sixty-three years agreement with the Government of Liberia to develop 220,000 hectares of land for the purpose of palm oil and rubber cultivation in Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu and Bong counties.

According to Sime Darby and the Liberian government, the deal will increase employment {which is a part of the government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy}, institute massive development to Western Liberia and benefit communities through the construction of schools and other social service.

However, Cape Mountainans {who are largely farmers} are complaining of the manner in which their lands were taken from them and claim that promises of development from Sime Darby are yet to come to past.

But in a FrontPageAfrica interview, Alfred Quojani, spokesperson of affected communities maintains that in awarding the contract to Sime Darby, proper grassroots consultation was not undertaken by the Liberian government: “Awarding sixty-three years contract is too much.”

According to Quojani, the cash compensation stipulated in the agreement between Sime Darby and the Liberian government was never transparent: “They [Sime Darby] were the ones counting our crops in the absence of government.

So they gave us what they felt was enough for us,” noting that Sime Darby’s land clearing venture violates the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA’s) on the protection of wet and swamp lands.

Famatta Gray who is a resident of medina town complained like others and say she would farm and fish prior to the commencement of Sime Darby’s operations; but she currently buys and patch up hand-me-down clothes into bed sheets for sale to keep her family alive:

“Today am home because I do not have goods. We were not buying rice and vegetables before; now, a cup of rice costs L$25.00; Life for me is difficult now than even before.”

Jebbeh Kamara, 28, is a mother of six children who lives in Sannii town. According to her, she was always engaged in farming and fishing which have been stalled by the Malaysian company:

“They have closed all the small rivers and swamps we used to fish from. I’m doing nothing right now; my farm used to give me money when I would sell my cassava and farina. We want government to talk to Sime Darby to give us back some portion our land.”

Mustapha Fobuai who hails from Tiemo has worked as a Sime Darby contractor for more than one year but bemoans the unusually low wages and salaries which can hardly sustain his four kids: “After taxes and school fees, I’m left with only US$50.00 monthly as take home salary.”

Ironically, not everyone in Grand Cape Mount County is totally unsatisfied with Sime Darby’s operations in western Liberia. Bawo Kerkula says he earns US$5.00 daily and is quite satisfied with his compensation. According to him “Sime Darby is doing well for its employees.”

According to him: “The Company needs to address the land issue affecting the people so that both the company and the locals can be satisfied with the land business. The locals need land to farm because most of them do not have the requisite skills to gain an employment.”

Sannii town chief Abraham Turay, 36, expressed his prior awareness of Sime Darby’s operations, but said he was dead unaware of the fact that land belonging to the locals would be overtaken by Sime Darby:

“Am not happy with the way they took our lands, how do they expect us to farm?” Before Sime Derby came to Cape Mount, other companies were here-like BF Goodrich and Guthrie; but they never took all our lands. Farm lands were left for us; I do not know why Sime Darby is doing this.”

This is not the first time that a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project has created controversy in Liberia as in recent years, the United Nations and other NGOs have produced numerous studies and reports suggesting that some projects affect communities in ways that are extremely unsatisfactory.

According to a January 2012 report by Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution, ‘Liberia has experienced a number of high profile, even violent incidents related to these issues.’

The report also pinpointed the November 2007 incidents which resulted to the death of the foreign manager of the Belgian owned Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) was shot and killed by indigenous people upset with the company’s expansion plans. And in March 2011, there was a mass demonstration near the Putu concession which resulted to the death of two people and required the deployment of the Liberian National Police’s Emergency Respond Unit (ERU).

The Vice Chairman of Liberia’s Land Commission, Walter Wisner confirmed that the government entered into an agreement with Sime Darby to cultivate land in the four counties and added that the agreement states that within twelve months, the Ministries of Agriculture and Land, Mines and Energy would have demarcated the land in the counties; a part of the agreement which have been fulfilled.

The Act of legislation which created the Land Commission mandates the Commission to call line ministries to deal with complex issue such as the Sime Darby case.

According to Wisner, on February 21, 2012, his office met with representatives from affected communities before meeting the Sime Darby management during which he raised a number of serious issues including Sime Darby’s continuous planting of palm trees, the disposal of livelihoods and the unauthorized withdrawal of a letter from the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil).

Wisner said Land Commission Chairman Cecil Brandy told Sime Darby to stop all new clearings of land until the demarcation is done by the Ministries of Agriculture and Land, Mines and Energy, adding that this was necessary to win the confidence of the people while they and Sime Darby are in dispute over the land: “We told the management of Sime Darby to only clear Guthrie lands, which is not in dispute and that there be no new clearing outside Guthrie land.”

According to him, the problem with Sime Darby and the communities stems from that fact that the locals expected the Malaysian company to stop its clearings at the same point the Guthrie management stopped, but Sime Darby wants otherwise.

Silas Siakor has long watched government’s dealings with Sime Darby with great worries. According to the Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI), there are two issues to be looked at before one starts to talk about the social and economic impacts of the Sime Darby contract.

First is how the contract came to be allocated and the content of the contract, which Siakor argued, is being overlooked by the media; and secondly, civil society’s demands needs to be addressed.

Siakor argues that the contract was negotiated without prior consultation with the locals of the affected areas: “They had no prior knowledge about government agreements with Sime Darby to use their land.”

According to Siakor, the contract was concluded based on misinformation as those who carved it stayed in Monrovia and accessed maps of Liberia and told the Malaysian Company to choose where they would prefer to have their plantations as there are now signs that central government is feeling the pressure from the locals concerning the deal.

Bomi County Senator Sando Johnson recently held a news conference and responded to public complaints: “I can only compel the people of Sime Darby plantation to live up to the social side of the agreement the company entered into with the Liberian government. But for me as a Senator, I have no right or power to cancel that contract.”

Responding to a set of questions from FPA, the plantation’s management said the company has held several meetings with the Liberian government and the locals through the Land Commission in order to resolve the land issues: “So far, no agreement has been reached for land within our concession areas to be returned to communities.”

“We are continuously working with the government to seek sustainable solution to improving the livelihood issues of the Liberian people,” the response indicates.

According to the response: “Sime Darby employs over 2,700 permanent workers and over 700 contract workers and promises once fully planted and operational, to provide up to thirty five thousand jobs for Liberians.”

The Management also calls attention to three operational clinics in their concession areas as well as free medical services for its employees, contractors and their dependants as well as residents from towns and villages within concession area.

According to recommendations from Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution, most of “Liberia’s modern concessions are relatively new. It is in this period–the period in which the people of Liberia and Sime Darby currently find themselves–that respectful, mutually beneficial relationships can be established between projects and affected communities.

This can happen by governments and multinational corporations ensuring that local indigenous communities have the right to free, prior and informed consent in foreign direct investment negotiations and that they are offered clear explanations of the timetables for job creation and skills requirement for management positions.

Finally, fair and adequate compensation must be given to people to ensure prosperous livelihoods as there is still time for Sime Darby’s dealings with the Government of Liberia and its people to take shape in a manner that benefits all involved. Such measures, as those mentioned above should be taken to ensure that that happens,” the recommendation states.