Africa is a continual target of land-grabbing. Big international corporations are snatching up farmland. A group in Sierra Leone fights for justice.
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00:00Sierra Leone in West Africa is rich in natural resources, and yet it's still one of the
00:11poorest countries in the world.
00:14We have a lot of companies embarking on large scale mining or agriculture.
00:18They use us as a working tool, from there they drop us, they can't fulfil our promise.
00:25But as corporations scramble for the country's riches, people in Sierra Leone are fighting
00:31back.
00:32We make sure we put the law in the hands of the communities.
00:37A group of paralegals in Sierra Leone is trying to change the way land deals are made and
00:43shift the power into local hands.
00:48Abdullahi Tomi is a paralegal at the organisation NAMETI.
01:07While they're not fully qualified lawyers, Tomi and his team are trained to conduct legal
01:12research and support communities in negotiations with investors.
01:18In Sierra Leone we have a city of lawyers, and even the lawyers, the majority of them
01:23are in the city.
01:26Our work is to make sure that communities access justice.
01:31As paralegals we go out to communities to make sure that we help them to understand
01:37the law, to use the law, and at the end of the day we are able to shape the law.
01:44Tomi and his team are on their way to Bont on Cherbro Island in Sierra Leone's remote
01:50south.
01:51Unlike many lawyers in the city, Tomi and his fellow paralegals work in rural communities
01:57that are often only accessible on foot, by motorbike or boat.
02:01It's rarely an easy journey.
02:03The bridge, it got broken last year and there was a serious challenge in terms of getting
02:14over.
02:15This ferry is used to ferry people across.
02:21Driving through the country they often see the effects of land grabbing by multinational
02:25companies.
02:27So what are those deals with the corporations about and why are they such a problem?
02:34For years now, selling and leasing land has been one of the government's main strategies
02:37for development.
02:38A study by the University of Lagos found an estimated 2 million hectares of arable land
02:44in Sierra Leone out of 5.4 million are leased to foreign companies, nearly 40%.
02:51These deals are often done without any participation by the local community.
02:56We have witnessed a lot of companies embarking on large scale mining or agriculture and some
03:03of these corporate institutions are also very difficult to deal with when it comes
03:07to compliance.
03:09This lack of compliance can have extreme consequences.
03:13There was a community here, the operations of the company destroyed their water source
03:19and as a result there was need for the community to be relocated to another place.
03:27Mining activities are devastating to the environment.
03:33We begin to engage communities to see how they can take steps to make sure that their
03:38environment is protected.
03:40The team is headed to Bont.
03:45From here boats are the only means of transport.
03:52Tami and his team pass through the Cherbro River estuary.
03:56Mangrove forests line the route on either side.
04:04The journey takes another hour by speedboat.
04:14Bont's architecture is a reminder of Sierra Leone's past as a British colony.
04:19Back then the British claimed and extracted the minerals.
04:22Now international corporations have taken over.
04:26The company that plans to invest in the Bont region is called West Africa Blue, known locally
04:32as the Africa Conservation Initiative or ACI.
04:35They're interested in the mangrove forests.
04:39So what value do the mangroves hold for the company?
04:43ACI plans to lease the mangroves for their ability to store carbon.
04:48Their business model is to work with communities to reduce deforestation by identifying and
04:54managing conservation areas and shifting to more sustainable harvesting practices.
04:59The lower rates of deforestation can be quantified and sold to companies as carbon credits.
05:07We'll learn more about how that all works later.
05:14Tami and the team travel to one of the many communities in negotiations with ACI over
05:19mangrove forests.
05:21Namati has been supporting communities in developing their own rules or bylaws for protecting
05:27and using the mangroves, which provide a livelihood for many here.
05:33Upon arrival, they are greeted by local leader and fisherman Potomac Farmer.
05:38He explains some ways the mangroves are essential to life here.
05:45We use mangroves to build our houses.
05:47We cut them to smoke dry our fish.
05:55When you get to these communities, they have given up because they have nowhere to make
06:02their complaints or to have their grievances redressed.
06:07So how are the paralegals helping the communities?
06:10The Namati team and the community members gather in the shade of palm trees.
06:17The first thing we do, we make sure we put the law in the hands of the communities.
06:23Provide legal education on basic tenure rights.
06:28We don't tell them we'll provide all the answers, we tell them, OK, we'll work with you to get
06:34the answers.
06:35In a country with over 20 spoken languages, this kind of community participation is only
06:43possible if the paralegals are able to communicate in the local language.
06:50Paralegal Dauda Golia was born in Bond.
06:52You must know the traditions and culture of the people to be able to work there, because
06:57each of these communities you visit, they have their own customs, they have their own
07:01traditions to follow.
07:03This community-centred approach has been reinforced by laws that took effect in 2022.
07:09They require any land agreement to first pass review by village communities, like this one.
07:16We ask them to suggest laws that they think is fitting for them and laws that will not
07:23further destroy the mangroves.
07:26By creating these bylaws, communities can collectively set their own priorities before
07:31negotiating an agreement with a big company.
07:38We need to see the development before we start implementing the laws.
07:44This is the first time Potomac's farmer and his community have had legal counselling.
07:49Namiti is a non-profit funded by grants and donations.
07:53The support they provide is free of charge.
07:57Before, you could only get a lawyer if you had a lot of money.
08:00And no one here knew they even had rights.
08:05Back to the African Conservation Initiative.
08:07Who are they and how do carbon credits work?
08:12ACI is holding a training session on how to build cooking stoves that use less wood.
08:18The company introduces what are called alternative livelihood projects to encourage ways of living
08:24that reduce mangrove deforestation.
08:31Sean Fitzpatrick is ACI's technical lead.
08:36You know, I'm a satellite analyst, so I've seen all the different countries around and
08:40Sierra Leone, they're blessed.
08:43They're lucky to have this big forest of mangroves still here.
08:47Fitzpatrick explains how preserving this precious resource can be turned into profit.
08:53So if we have a thousand hectares of mangrove that have been cleared every year for the
08:58past six to ten years, and now we come and we do some conservation, we bring alternative
09:05livelihoods and next year only 500 hectares were deforested, we can say, okay, that extra
09:12500 hectares is equivalent to exactly this many tons of carbon dioxide emissions that
09:18would have gone into the atmosphere if they had not been conserved.
09:22Companies are interested in buying to offset their own carbon footprint.
09:27Some locals are sceptical of ACI's business model.
09:33How does it affect local fishers?
09:36Nearby, we meet up with Emanuele Pange, who relies on the mangroves for his livelihood.
09:41Unless I go to the bush and cut mangrove, come with it and sell, so that I am able to
09:48earn my daily bread.
09:50Did you see the oyster?
09:52It's the sun.
09:53One source of his income is harvesting oysters from the mangrove roots.
09:57Later he sells them for 70 cents a kilo.
10:02For the carbon storage to work, and for the carbon credits to be internationally verified,
10:06ACI needs the rate of the deforestation of the mangroves to be slowed down.
10:12Pange is willing to make changes, but he needs support, for example, the means to keep his
10:16fish fresh so it can be sold at the market.
10:20We can stop, but the only thing you can do for us, we need coal rooms, we need electricity,
10:27then we need transportation.
10:31Pange is scarred by a lifetime of hearing false promises, of watching corporations come
10:36and extract wealth from his land with no benefits to locals like him.
10:40You just see them passing in the country, in your own town.
10:45You can be a stranger in your own land, because the power is from above.
10:51So that is why we are suffering.
10:54This feeling of powerlessness is exactly what Namati tries to address.
11:02Tami believes the deal with ACI is different from many others he's seen because of the
11:07community's greater participation.
11:11The difference here is that at the onset of everything, we have started engaging community
11:19members.
11:20They have a say, they have a voice, they participate in land acquisition processes.
11:29This makes me happy because these people tell me about my rights, so I am not just going
11:36to let someone take over my own land without a proper agreement.
11:43The next stage of the negotiations is the benefit-sharing agreement.
11:47This will decide how the profits from the carbon credits are to be divided up.
11:53ACI plans to expand from 10,000 hectares to 74,000.
11:59Experts estimate that the deal could generate millions of euros in the coming decades.
12:08The company has promised that half of the revenue will go to the local communities.
12:15Together with Namati, the community wants to make sure this time, these promises are
12:19kept.