For the Indigenous communities living near the Salala rubber plantation in Liberia, life is a daily struggle. The milky latex extracted from the rubber trees is sold to the largest tyres manufacturers in the world, and it is the 4th most exported product in the country. For local people, though, it has brought no benefit. On the contrary, it has led to loss of livelihood, destruction of sacred sites, pollution, and gender-based violence.
In 2008, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) gave a $10 million loan to Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC), which is owned by Socfin, a French-Belgian agribusiness giant with a long history of human rights violations across its plantations in West Africa.
In the lush hills of Margibi and Bong counties, Salala has a concession of over 4500 hectares. Only a few Indigenous and traditional communities own formal land titles in Liberia. In 2008, when Salala’s bulldozers showed up to further expand the plantation, the Kpelle Indigenous communities could not legally challenge it. But they were ready to peacefully resist, to speak out, and to defend their rights.
In 2019, 22 communities – represented by local NGOs Green Advocates International, Alliance for Rural Democracy, Natural Resource Women Platform, and the Yeagbamah National Congress for Human Rights – filed a formal complaint with the IFC. They raised concerns related to land grabbing and forced evictions, lack of consultation, loss of livelihood, labor rights violations, water pollution, gender-based violence, and threats of reprisals and intimidation.
The investigation has dragged on for years and it is still ongoing, despite evidence of serious violations.
Many women working at the plantation have reported cases of sexual harassment. SRC contractors have been asking them sexual favors in exchange for hiring them or raising their pay, and they have dismissed them or withheld their salary when they refused to have sex with them. Also security guards have harassed them. In some cases, they even threatened to kill them. Local activists have faced reprisals for speaking out. Some were forced to flee, fearing for their lives.
In May 2023, the community submitted a petition to the IFC. In the letter, they argue the bank failed to apply its safeguards on Indigenous Peoples, refusing to recognize that the project impacts the traditional way of life, the culture, the sacred sites, and the livelihood of the local Kpelle peoples. The community is calling on the bank to respect their rights as Indigenous Peoples, and to provide justice and access to remedy.
Read more:
- “At a rubber plantation in Liberia, history repeats in a fight over land” – Mongabay
- “Liberia: 22 Affected Communities Petition IFC over SRC’s Environmental Harms” – Liberian Observer
- “Rubbed out” – Global Witness
- “Socfin/Bolloré Plantations: Rising Profits, Ongoing Repression” – Oakland Institute