10/08/2012 (Liberian Observer) - A new report on the operations of Sime Darby, a Malaysian oil company in western Liberia, says the company may be violating the terms of its concession agreement regarding environmental protection but needs to do a better job of maintaining good relations with community members inside its concession zone.

Tensions are high, and despite assurances to researchers by local youth leaders in Bomi County that resistance to the company’s operations will be “non-violent,” they claimed that it would nonetheless be “fierce,” said the report released by the Center for International Conflict Resolution of the Columbia University - School of International and Public Affairs.

“This resistance became a reality in December 2011, when local riots over the Company’s conduct resulted in the seizing of Sime Darby’s construction equipment and the eventual dismissal of 700 contractors,” said the report, entitled: Smell-no-Taste.

Responding to these events, President Johnson-Sirleaf visited the plantation and asked indigenous people living in Project-Affected Communities (PACs) to respect the government’s sovereignty over concessionaire relations and trust that Foreign Direct Investment projects will eventually produce economic benefits for the country.

According to the report, communities in Bomi and Gbarpolu Counties have seen the circumstances in Grand Cape Mount County, where towns and villages have dealt with profound cultural changes, a loss of access to traditional sacred sites, and the effects of food scarcity without any concurrent benefits of development or widespread employment. It said community residents are fearful that they will be subjected to similar treatment.

Sime Darby, which holds a lease agreement with the government to clear a 220,000-hectare concession to the northwest of Monrovia in Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, and Gbarpolu counties, will have to negotiate with the communities in a much different manner – a point that the company apparently acknowledges given that it recently initiated new discussions with PACs after recent unrest among workers and community members in its area of operations.214

Focus group discussions and town hall meetings conducted by researchers in the area of Sime Darby’s operations were emotional, with many speakers expressing a high degree of suspicion and discontent towards the company.215

Moreover, the report argued, it is not enough to simply inform indigenous communities about the nature of their corporate operations and solicit their consent. “Due to the severity of the impact that Sime Darby has had on the communities where it presently operates, it should offer adequate compensation to villages whose way of life has been damaged by its operations,” the report recommends.

Merely paying farmers for one harvest’s worth of crops is not enough; while iron ore concessions place stress on local farmers inside exclusionary zones, their impact is not nearly as comprehensive as that of the clear-cutting of forests that occurs in the course of palm oil development.

“The technique employed by Sime Darby of leaving villages with a minimal encirclement of forest and then forcing them to cease utilizing traditional farming methods is a clear path to food insecurity for those villages; forcing an already poor rural population into increased hunger is a practice that no responsible company should be associated with,” said the report.

Compensation does not need to be entirely financial. The company can set up out grower programs, train farmers on alternate methods of crop cultivation, provide impacted communities with economic opportunities other than farming or direct employment, and allow communities in undeveloped areas to negotiate the fair use of adequate land for crop cultivation inside the plantation area.

Rather than view the 44,000 hectares that the concession agreement sets aside for the out-grower program as a single tract of land, the report said, the company could allow towns that fall within its plantation operations to cultivate palm trees along with other food crops in the areas adjacent to their residences.

“This form of “intercropping” would allow PACs to ensure they can continue to cultivate food while still allowing Sime Darby to purchase palm products from farmers once the trees become productive,”

By interacting with traditional tribal leadership institutions in forums that are comfortable for indigenous peoples in the area, the report said, Sime Darby may be able to begin repairing its damaged reputation in the area and avoid social unrest and other forms of tension between the company and those who live in its concession area.

The report pointed out that threats to the company are becoming routine, and some PAC interviewees described the rising anger as likely leading to some form of mass demonstrations.

The researchers said they experienced the frustration with Sime Darby in a vivid manner: participants in one Bomi County town hall interview inaccurately thought that the meeting would be with Sime Darby management representatives, and a number of participants walked on foot for hours for the chance to express their grievances to the company.

The tension level was immediately apparent to the researchers, who were confronted with a group of extremely angry residents who only became calm once they realized the true nature of the meeting. Sime Darby acknowledges that its investment is risky; it is exacerbating that risk through its behavior. “It is not too late for the company to reestablish good relations with PACs within its operational zone,” says the report.

To do that, however, the report said the company should: Institute a moratorium on further expansion until it has an adequate plan to ensure farmers and communities do not experience food scarcity as a result of its operations; enter into negotiations with indigenous peoples who live inside the areas where the company intends to expand its operations and solicit their free, prior, and informed consent for those operations; immediately subject its Liberian operations to independent the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification and auditing, with the aim of becoming compliant; allocate resources to the development of a well-managed out grower program that allows PACs to remain on their traditional lands and intercrop palm trees with traditional Liberian food products.

The report the company must also assist villages in the development of tilapia ponds to balance out the loss of fish protein from drained swamps; determine whether it has made the requisite payments to the County Development Contribution and Rubber Development Fund and ensure that funds are disbursed for the benefit of those affected by its operations; publicize its plans to select its five nominees for the management board of the County Development Contribution and ensure they are drawn from a representative pool of civil society and indigenous community leaders from PACs; ensure that the County Development Contribution management board directly solicits input from PACs on what their development priorities are so that project selection is done on a “bottom-up” basis; investigate allegations of solicitation on the part of managers in exchange for employment; institute a structure for regular, participatory, transparent meetings with local community members where dialogue can take place regarding the impacts of its operations on local areas; and hire community liaisons directly from the PACs so that there are accountable.

Prior to the signing of the concession agreement, the Sime Darby plantation area was leased by Guthrie, a rubber company that was forced to leave in 2000 by rebel combatants who controlled the plantation until the United Nations peacekeeping force negotiated their departure in 2005.

Sime Darby’s concession agreement, signed in 2009, is for a length of 63 years. In the first phase of its operations, the company plans on clearing and planting over 120,000 hectares by the year 2020.The project currently employs 1,700 people, 1,000 of which are former employees of the rubber plantation who are continuing to tap the former Guthrie rubber trees until the time when Sime Darby is able to clear them and plant palm trees.