IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v153y2025ics0264837725000894.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community land governance in Liberia: Implications for tenure security and land concessions

Author

Listed:
  • Entwistle, Julia R.
  • Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Hanson

Abstract

Throughout rural Africa, the intersection of customary traditions and statutory governance has often led to overlapping jurisdictions and conflicts over community land rights. In Liberia, this dynamic is particularly evident in the rise of commercial land concessions. This article examines the Liberian government’s approach to community land rights and its impacts on land tenure security, especially in the context of these concessions. This study employs a discourse analysis of Liberian land use policies alongside qualitative data from in-depth interviews with community members living near large-scale plantations. Despite historical erosion of community land rights, Liberian communities have adapted statutory frameworks to strengthen tenure security. Ambiguous policies facilitated land concessions, but communities leveraged legal mechanisms to reclaim land. The 2018 Land Rights Act formalized community ownership, yet challenges remain, particularly regarding implementation and retroactive recognition of lost lands. Post-war concession expansion fueled tenure insecurity, though growing legal awareness and advocacy have empowered communities in land negotiations. This paper contributes to existing research by examining the dynamics of Liberian community land policy in relation to commercial land concessions and assessing community land tenure security in the post-Land Rights Act era.

Suggested Citation

  • Entwistle, Julia R. & Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Hanson, 2025. "Community land governance in Liberia: Implications for tenure security and land concessions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:153:y:2025:i:c:s0264837725000894
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837725000894
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107555?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hartman, Alexandra C. & Huntington, Heather & Marple-Cantrell, Kate & Greif, Adi & Stevens, Caleb, 2024. "Strengthening common property rights institutions in Liberia: Quasi-experimental evidence on customary governance and equity effects," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. David Brown, 2017. "Social dimensions of land rights reform in Liberia: Some unresolved issues and policy dilemmas," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 270-286, October.
    3. Elizabeth Louis & Tizai Mauto & My-Lan Dodd & Tasha Heidenrich & Peter Dolo & Emmanuel Urey, 2020. "Using a Gender-Responsive Land Rights Framework to Assess Youth Land Rights in Rural Liberia," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-22, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene, 2019. "Anatomy of women’s landlessness in the patrilineal customary land tenure systems of sub-Saharan Africa and a policy pathway," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 126-135.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:153:y:2025:i:c:s0264837725000894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.