On Monday 13 November 2017, a group of civil society organizations and other key players converged at Namati office on Murray Town Road to discuss a draft land pledge targeting political candidates and politicians.
The draft pledge highlighted the failure of regulation and laws on the reality of climate change. Inaction at various levels has made the nation more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As a result, the land, the life and future are now under threat.
The draft pledge is set with recommendations for government and political party’s candidates in the upcoming elections to; reclaim and reforest all protected areas within the Freetown Peninsula and strictly prohibit all forms of encroachment.
The head of projects on Land Governance at Welthungerhilfe (WHH), Imarana Sowa, said the pledge is trying to prohibit mining or large scale agricultural investments in forested areas thereby supporting community based afforestation and conservation.
Sowa said the draft talks about protecting coastal areas by preventing illegal sand mining and other harmful exploitation of sand-based minerals and coastal resources and establish community based oversight to demonstrate direct ownership.
The draft recommendations focuses on allowing firms to engage in mining or agriculture if the people are who have customary rights to the land, not merely the chief, to give free prior, and informed consent. The draft is also trying to ensure genuine community participation in determining the terms under which a mining or agriculture company will operate.
The draft pledge, “Wi land Na wi fyucho” which means, “Our land, our future,” highlighted fears that, the alarming rates of unrestrained depletion of the forests, wetland and coastlines. The draft alleged that between 1975 and 2013 the country has lost 30% of its forest cover as a result of mining, large scale agricultural activities which according to the pledge, have displaced hundreds of families, destroyed farm land and poison waters.
John Momoh from the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMLD), said land is a critical issues that needs proper use and management especially in communities where large scale multinational companies have used farm lands, reserve forests thereby undermining the livelihood source of such communities.
He said if the pledge is properly implemented it will ensure that the public, and in particular the communities directly affected, have full access to key information related to mining or agriculture projects. He said as citizens of Sierra Leone, they are committed to work with the government to secure their land and their future stating that, land if not properly looks after has the tendency of damaging the future of tenure in this part of the world.
MK/14/11/17
By Mohamed Kabba
@chikakabba
Wednesday November 15, 2017.
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