Managing Agricultural, Mining and Forestry Concessions to Improve Revenues and Minimize

Conflicts: the Liberia System

ICGFM DC Forum Luncheon September 7, 2016

Bob Reschke

Vice President for Programs, IBI

The USAID-Governance and Economic Management Support (GEMS) Project was implemented to increase human and institutional capacity in Government of Liberia Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs).

The USAID-GEMS project had five objectives: Objective 4: Management of natural resource concessions is

more efficient, effective, and transparent through the introduction of management and oversight tools including the utilization of automated ICT-based systems.

Concessions, specifically natural resources concessions, are large parcels that the government leases to investors or “concessionaires” first for exploration of a specific natural resource on specific terms and conditions, then for exploitation of the natural resource

Examples: Mining, Forestry, Oil, Gas, Agriculture Specific Land Parcel, Start Date, End Date Terms and Conditions Obligations

Concessions

Minimize Issuance of Overlapping Concessions Avoiding Conflict Increasing Revenue Improving Planning

Multiple MACs Decentralized Paper-Based System Concessions Information Management Systems (CIMS)

Launched September 17, 2015 Document and Workflow Management Store and Process Tabular Report Data

National Concessions Cadastre

Enable full compliance with key Government of Liberia statutory and policy mandates.

Provide data resources and information technology tools for use

by Concession-Related Entities to carry out their work in an efficient and effective manner.

Simplify required concession planning activities and the review

of concession applications.

Provide information and tools for evaluation of geographic conflicts among concession areas and for examining and resolving questions of land rights associated with existing or proposed concession areas.

CIMS Benefits to the Government of Liberia

Support environmental and social impact analysis and overall environmental protection.

Provide a resource for more effective monitoring of concessions

and ensuring compliance with Government of Liberia laws and all terms of concession agreements.

Allow access to Concession-related information by Government

of Liberia MACs, concessionaires, local officials, and the general public to promote transparency and data sharing.

Streamline the review and approval process.

CIMS Benefits to the Government of Liberia

Overlapping Concessions Map

Queries come in various forms – users want information, but the formats in which they want the information vary with requester and request.

CIMS provides flexibility in responding to requests.

Benefits of CIMS Data Integration

Lists of Various Types – Documents, Concessions, etc.-- online and hard copy

Charts

Summary Statistics –

Cross-Tabulations

Number of active concessions per sector (Forestry / Agriculture / Mining);

Number of EPA permits per sector (Forestry / - Agriculture /

Mining); Number of active forest concessions expiring next year; Number of CFMA applications that FDA received this year; Number of active concessions in Nimba county

Key Information (Attribute searches)

Number of agriculture concessions in Nimba county; Number of forest concessions in Nimba county; Number of active FMC;

Export the search result to: MS Excel, PDF and View in Map

Key Information (Attribute searches)

CIMS Sample Document Search

CIMS Sample Company Search

Code Name Type Commodities Status Start Date Expiry Date AreaAC-01 Sime Darby Agriculture Oil Palm Active 30-Apr-09 29-Apr-72 310,000 HaAC-02 Golden Veroleum Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-10 31-Jul-60 350,000 HaAC-02 Golden Veroleum Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-10 31-Jul-60 350,000 HaAC-02 Golden Veroleum Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-10 31-Jul-60 350,000 HaAC-02 Golden Veroleum Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-10 31-Jul-60 350,000 HaAC-02 Golden Veroleum Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-10 31-Jul-60 350,000 HaAC-03 Liberian Forest Agriculture Oil Palm Active 21-Dec-07 20-Dec-57 8,000 HaAC-04 LIBINCO Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Sep-08 31-Jul-48 14,000 HaAC-05 Maryland Agriculture Oil Palm Active 1-Aug-11 31-Jul-45 8,800 HaAC-06 Firestone Agriculture Rubber Active 12-Apr-05 31-Dec-41 48,000 HaAC-07 Liberia Agriculture Agriculture Rubber Active 1-Jan-66 1-Jan-36 125,000 HaAC-08 COCOPA Agriculture Rubber Active 1-Jan-49 1-Jan-29 71,000 HaAC-09 Cavalla Agriculture Rubber Active 1-Jan-84 1-Jan-18 8,000 HaAC-10 Salala Agriculture Rubber Active 1-Jan-59 8,800 HaAC-11 Sinoe Agriculture Rubber Active 1-Jan-53 1-Jan-33 241,000 Ha

List of Agricultural Concessions

Concession by County Comparison Chart

FMCs and TSCs by County and StatusCounty Active Inactive Total

Bong 3 0 3Gbarpolu 1 1 2Gr. Bassa 2 0 2Gr. Cape Mt 0 6 6Gr. Gedeh 3 0 3Grand Kru 1 0 1Lofa 1 0 1Maryland 1 0 1Nimba 1 0 1River Cess 3 0 3River Gee 2 0 2Sinoe 3 0 3

Total 21 7 28

Forestry Concessions by Status and County

Line_AgencyJan-16 Apr-16 Jul-16 Oct-16 Total

FDA 83 83 83 83 332MoA 33 33 33 33 132

Total 116 116 116 116 464

Date_Due

Aging Report Numbers of Actions Time Period and Line Agency

“Map Reference” Shows the Area of the Concession in the Different Counties of Liberia Transparency and Accountability Conflict Avoidance Resource/Revenue Sharing

Local Community Empowerment

Forest Development Authority Community Application Process to Gain

Concession Approval Rights within their Jurisdictions Authority to Seek Concessionaires Main Actors in the Concession Process and

Primary Beneficiaries

Community Forestry Management Agreements (CFMAs)

CIMS Sustainability Depends on MAC Leaders

“Champion” in NBC Director General Ciata Bishop

Technical Sustainability Planned During GEMS

MAC “Super Users” and CIMS Administrators

What about Electricity?

…and Connectivity?

…and the Money??

Sustainability

CIMS Provides Enhanced Efficiency and Transparency to the

Critical Liberian Concessions Sector

CIMS Allows For Effective Resource Planning

CIMS Mitigates Conflict

CIMS Generates Revenue for the Government while Allowing

for Community Empowerment and Resource Mobilization

CIMS is Sustainable

Conclusions

Thank You

Questions?