SUSTAINING PEACE OR CONFLICT
An analysis of the effects of sustainable natural resource management efforts
on durable peace building in the Liberian Gola Forest area.
Sustaining peace or conflict: An analysis of the effects of
sustainable natural resource management efforts on
durable peace building in the Liberian Gola Forest area.
A thesis submitted to the Network On Humanitarian Action in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the European Master in International Humanitarian Action
Anna Booij1 s1987283
Supervision:
Prof. Dr. Joost Herman
Chair Globalisation Studies and Humanitarian Action University of Groningen
The Netherlands
March 2014
Cover picture: Truck on the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia, January 2012 (Anna Booij)
CONTENTS
1 I INTRODUCTION ... 8
1.1 Problem definition & research questions ... 8
1.2 Methodology ... 9
2 I THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 15
2.1 Inclusive human security ... 16
2.2 Root causes of conflict ... 18
2.2.1 Levels of analysis ... 18
2.2.2 Greed versus horizontal inequalities ... 19
2.2.3 Social contract and state weakness ... 21
2.2.4 Ethnicity & communal conflict ... 22
2.2.5 From negative to positive peace ... 23
2.3 Vulnerability and entitlements ... 24
2.3.1 Expanded entitlements ... 25
2.3.2 Differential vulnerability ... 26
2.4 Natural resource management: state versus community ... 28
2.4.1 Sources of legitimacy ... 29
2.4.2 Developmentalism and local brokers ... 30
2.4.3 Exploring local potential ... 31
2.5 Combining theory ... 34
3 I WHO IS LIVING IN THE FOREST? ... 35
4 I HUMAN SECURITY IN THE GOLA FOREST ... 47
4.1 Economic security ... 48
4.1.1 Artisanal mining & external companies ... 48
4.1.2 Education ... 52
4.1.3 Physical & financial infrastructure ... 54
4.1.4 Land rights and access... 56
4.2 Food security ... 60
4.2.1 Subsistence food production ... 60
4.2.2 Markets & prices ... 61
4.3 Health security ... 62
4.3.2 Access to health care ... 63
4.4 Environmental security ... 64
4.4.1 Customary regulation ... 64
4.4.2 Tradition & culture ... 67
4.5 Political security ... 68
4.5.1 Legitimacy & development ... 68
4.5.2 Top-down resource management ... 69
4.5.3 Involving local institutions ... 73
4.6 Personal security ... 74
4.6.1 Security sector reform & reintegration ... 75
4.6.2 Statutory & customary law enforcement ... 77
4.6.3 Protection of women & children ... 80
4.7 Community security ... 81
4.7.1 Context of civil wars ... 82
4.7.2 Reproducing social cohesion ... 83
4.7.3 Ethnic & religious differentiation ... 86
4.8 Human security and entitlement struggles ... 88
5 | CONCLUSION... 90
REFERENCES ... 96
ABSTRACT
Booij, A. H. (2013). “Sustaining peace or conflict: An analysis of the effects of sustainable natural resource management efforts on durable peace building in the Liberian Gola Forest area.”. MA thesis submitted to the Network Of Humanitarian Action
Natural resources played a central role in the protracted violent conflict in Liberia. A durable peace building and post-conflict reconstruction process, therefore, requires attention for conflict-sensitive natural resource management. The EU-funded Across the River Transboundary Peace Park for Sierra Leone and Liberia (ARTP) was initiated to make peace building and sustainable natural resource management two mutually reinforcing efforts by establishing national parks in the Gola Forest area alongside development projects to enhance local living conditions. Whereas significant progress can be observed in Sierra Leone, limited headway has been made in the Liberian Gola Forest where ARTP-related activities are obstructed by hostile attitudes among local communities. Local communities feel that they are structurally inhibited from exercising legitimate and effective command over the entitlement sets needed to safeguard their livelihoods and well-being, i.e. their human security. The conflict potential stemming from these feelings of relative deprivation is further enhanced by the current plans for the establishment of a national park in the Liberian Gola Forest. Inclusive community consultations must be facilitated to establish a clearer understanding of local differential vulnerability that needs to be addressed, and to increase the communities’ willingness to actively participate in the process of designing feasible and sustainable natural resource management strategies that will strengthen rather than hamper peace building.
1 I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem definition & research questions
The Across the River Transboundary Peace Park (ARTP) in the Gola Forest area on the border between post-conflict Sierra Leone and Liberia was initiated in 2009 with the goal of making sustainable natural resource management and peace building two mutually reinforcing efforts. The Gola Forest area is facing various challenges, among which degradation of unique biodiversity in one of the last relatively in-tact areas of the Upper Guinea Rainforest and a potentially problematic presence of artisanal gold and diamond miners among which presumably many former combatants. On the Sierra Leonean side of the border, programming under the ARTP initiative started already on an extensive scale in 2010. However, the process on the Liberian side has been slow, due to various challenges including hostile attitudes among local communities that fear nature conservation efforts will threaten their livelihoods and well-being. In-depth analysis is needed of whether the currently planned sustainable natural resource management efforts in the Liberian Gola Forest area create conflict potential that needs to be mitigated in order to realise the envisioned mutually reinforcing conservation and peace building goals.
In order for durable peace building to take place in a post-conflict setting, the primary prerequisite of security must be met. Traditionally, security has been defined as freedom from aggression. However, the more inclusive concept of “human security” is gaining recognition in the realms of international development and humanitarian action. By taking the framework of human security as starting point, the focus of peace building efforts shifts from the sole prevention of direct violence towards addressing the issues of structural violence that lie at the heart of renewed conflict potential. Realising durable peace through ensuring human security requires that local populations are included in the decision-making procedures that concern them and that determine their long-term freedom of “chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression” as well as of “sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of daily life” (UNDP in Paris, 2001: 89). Liberia has not experienced large scale violence since 2003. However, intergroup tensions remain very much present in society today. In the Gola Forest area, these tensions become particularly apparent as competition over natural resources comes into play.
identification of human security issues that could escalate over time. This leads me to the following research questions:
To what extent does natural resource management affect durable peace building in the Liberian Gola Forest area through its interaction with differential vulnerability among local communities in the key areas of human security?
1. What vulnerabilities can be identified among local communities with regard to economic, food, health, environmental, political, personal and community security?
2. What resource-related entitlement struggles lead to these human security threats? 3. What root causes of violent conflict can be identified in these human security threats?
By combining theoretical analysis and field-based experiences from the areas of conflict studies and natural resource management, a practical conflict-sensitive framework for action arises, identifying the pitfalls and possibilities for inclusive sustainable natural resource management that contributes to peace building in the complex context of the Liberian Gola Forest area.
1.2 Methodology
In this research, I will explore whether the current sustainable natural resource management efforts in the Gola Forest area in Liberia at present contribute to peace building or rather nurture the conflict-prone relations and processes that led Liberia into war in the first place. For this purpose, I will analyse the different elements of local human security to see how (lack of) command over entitlements at the local level creates differential vulnerability and, thereby, can undermine the peace building process. In order for Liberia to continue on a path of durable reconstruction, it is essential that a conflict-sensitive approach based on inclusive human security is applied to establish sustainable natural resource management in areas like the Gola Forest. The theoretical framework will be explained in more detail in Chapter 2.
visits to the forest area for further community consultations), quantitative data for the socio-economic survey could only be collected in 27 of the 67 communities targeted in the area, as the other communities or (at a higher administrative level) clans showed hostile sentiments towards the research team and refused to participate.
Figure 1. Map of villages included in survey (Bulte et al., 2012: 4)
Table 1. Villages included in survey
Village name Code County Chiefdom Clan Household
Survey
Community survey
SLC 13111 Gbarpolu Zuie Zuie 15 1
Tima village 13112 Gbarpolu Zuie Zuie 16 1
Zuie 13113 Gbarpolu Zuie Zuie 15 1
Nomo 13231 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Nomo 15 1
Smith 13232 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Nomo 9 1
ULC 13233 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Nomo 15 1
Wango 13234 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Nomo 8 1
Money camp 13241 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 10 1
Boakai camp 13242 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 3 1
Kangoma camp 13243 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 2 1
Monkey Dunya 13244 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 7 1
Tonglay 13245 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 10 1
Sokpo1 13246 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 5 1
Daniel camp 13247 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 10 1
Kumgbor 13248 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 15 1
Sonah Creek2 13249 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 6 1
Thomas camp 13250 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 3 1
Umaru camp2, 3 13251 Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay 2 1
Butter Hill 26005 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 15 1
Camp Israel 26007 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 15 1
Fula Camp 26012 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 15 1
Fornor 26016 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 30 1
Green Bar City 26019 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 11 1
Gohn Bah Dondo 26020 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 5 1
Kawelahun 26028 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 15 1
Mafapeya 26031 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 9 1
Soso Camp 26036 Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo 24 1
Gbanjui4 No data Grand Cape Mount -- Sokpo -- --
Camp Alpha4 No data Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay -- --
Nyorkor5 No data Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay -- --
Longlay5 No data Gbarpolu Jaweijah Tongay -- --
TOTAL 305 27
Note: (1) new village, (2) GPS data missing, (3) village location is moved, new GPS data taken, (4) no permission, (5) deserted
(adjusted from Bulte et al., 2012: 5)
interested parties present. This community survey took approximately three hours to complete. It includes modules on village demographics, infrastructure and facilities, market access, farming practices in the village, community bylaws and institutions, communal experiences during the war, conflicts and attitudes towards nature conservation. A household survey was conducted with 15 randomly selected households in each village (Bulte et al., 2012: 5): “When the enumerators arrived in a village, they assigned a number to each household in the village. A drawing was then held to decide the 15 random households that would be interviewed. If there were less than 15 households in a village, all were surveyed. Interviews were conducted in private and the interviewees were given an assurance that their answers would be anonymous.” This survey tended to take approximately two hours, but lasted in some cases up to four hours, depending on i.a. the level of understanding of the respondent and the respondent’s other activities that he/she wished to complete in the same timeframe. The household survey includes modules on “farming practices and productivity, household expenditures, labour allocation, events involving the family during the war, public offenses, access to credit, attitudes towards conservation, and social capital” (ibid.).
A team of twelve research assistants was selected and trained to implement the survey. Nine local research assistants were selected from a pool of undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Liberia in Monrovia. Selection criteria included performance during the training, ability to speak languages of local tribes as well as Liberian English, area of origin to ensure a team with mixed backgrounds, and willingness to work in difficult field conditions (ibid.). These difficult field conditions involved extensive walking distances, long distance from health facilities in case of emergency, and extreme weather conditions due to the approaching rainy season. In addition to the nine ‘new’ Liberian research assistants, three research assistants from Sierra Leone were hired who had previous experience with similar research in the Sierra Leonean Gola Forest area.
Training the research assistants and pre-testing the survey was more time-consuming than originally planned, but this was time well-spent as explained in the summary report: “Prior to the implementation, the research team spent a lot of effort to train the research assistants (during a three week intensive training) and pre-test the surveys to minimise various common biases such as interviewer compliance bias. We implemented two pilot tests in Latia (Grand Cape Mount County) and Kumgbor (Gbarpolu County). During both training and pilot testing we took special care to stress the importance of confidentiality and the importance of proper behaviour of the research assistants in local communities. Each research assistants signed a contract detailing remuneration, working conditions, responsibilities and expectations, before the field work commenced.”
Team Leader informs the village’s elders about their presence and explains the procedures of administrating the questionnaire to the community in the community gathering.”. This could, however, not prevent some communities and clans from denying access to their area. A positive development worth mentioning is that by now several of these ‘hostile’ communities have granted access for future activities, because they saw the benefits that participating communities were reaping from (e.g. microcredit) programmes carried out by ARTP as follow-up of this socio-economic survey.
The data collected for this baseline are unique for several reasons, as the summary report emphasises (Bulte et al., 2012: 6-7): “First, detailed household data covering a large number of villages and respondents in a developing country are rare, especially for post-conflict countries. Second, the quality of the data is high, as non-response rates were low; virtually none of the randomly selected households refused to take part in the interviews, and item non-response was low as well (however for some attitudinal questions respondents said ‘don’t know’). Similarly, village members actively participated in the focus group sessions, and indicated that the surveys were well understood and communicated.”. Moreover, many of the preventable mistakes and inconsistencies that often come along with the different steps of survey research could be prevented as I was physically present to monitor the stages of the research. First, me and my colleague from Sierra Leone selected the research assistants, trained them, tested the questionnaires, and adjusting them to the local context where necessary. In the implementation phase, I joined one of the two research teams when they carried out the community surveys and household surveys in the villages, and revised the data they wrote down to intercept any remaining mistakes. Unfortunately, I could not carry out the focus group discussions and interviews I had planned in the field to add further qualitative data to the research, as the coordinators of the research felt that the local security situation did not allow for these additional (and perhaps more sensitive) activities. This restriction did, however, give me more time to, on the one hand, revise the questionnaires that the research assistants completed every day and on the other hand to carry out informal interviews with different individuals in the communities that I visited, be present at community meetings, and process all these observations as additional qualitative material to the quantitative survey data. As these interviews had to keep the appearance of a friendly interested conversation, and my presence at the community meetings had to stay as low-key as possible, I could not make recordings or transcriptions of the output. Where possible I took notes and made sure to write down as much as possible of the information gathered right after interviews or meetings. Once back in Monrovia, I created the data entry forms and dictionaries in CSPRo and I supervised the entering of the data by the data entry clerks, cross-checking each entered questionnaire with the provided answers of the respondents on paper.
2 I THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In order for durable peace to be established in a post-conflict setting, the primary prerequisite of security must be met. Traditionally, security has been defined as freedom from aggression. However, the more inclusive concept of “human security” is gaining recognition in the realms of international development and humanitarian action. By taking the framework of human security as starting point, the focus of peace building efforts shifts from the sole prevention of direct violence towards addressing the issues of structural violence that often lie at the heart of renewed conflict potential. Addressing structural violence in the various areas of human security, to establish freedom of “chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression” as well as of “sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of daily life” (UNDP in Paris, 2001: 89) on the long term, requires that local populations are included in the decision-making procedures that concern them. Over the past decade the awareness has grown that natural resources, or more importantly the flawed or absent management thereof, are an important factor in conflicts as well as peace building. Competition over natural resources takes place when a certain resource is scarce. As Homer-Dixon (1994; 1999) points out, environmental scarcity is not a sole cause of violence, but violence is rather “a product of interactions between scarcity and a number of other factors, such as inequality, migration and the functioning of social institutions” (Burns, 2000: 76). Consequently, interactions between the social and the ecological world have to be considered. The interaction between environment and social, economic, or institutional processes is essential in establishing the kind of inclusive and locally adjusted management of natural resources that enables durable peace and development. Whereas before only the environmentalists paid attention to natural resource management, now academics and practitioners, including multilateral actors like the World Bank and the United Nations, realise they need to invest in tackling environment-related issues in order to ensure peaceful and stable economic growth (Bruch et al., 2009). An important debate in this respect is who should (or should not) be in charge of the management of natural resources. Two main actors – African states and local communities – both have their comparative advantages and challenges when it comes to the successful management of natural resources in an inclusive way that ensures the conservation of these resources as well as durable and peaceful development in the long term.
The inclusive concept of human security constitutes a structural framework ensuring attention for all key elements of local livelihoods and well-being. Exploration of theoretical debates on the root causes of violent conflict allows me to identify indicators for local conflict potential that might materialise if no precautions are made. These root causes become particularly apparent when analysing local vulnerability and struggles over entitlements that shape (gaps in) local human security. As forest-related resources are key to local livelihoods and well-being, I will add a concise analysis of the opportunities and challenges of natural resource management by two main actors, namely African states and local communities. The theoretical framework that is set out in this chapter will be applied to the Gola Forest case, which will be introduced in more detail in the next chapter. In the four theoretical sections below, brief previews will already be provided of how the various theoretical debates facilitate analysis of the Liberian Gola Forest setting.
2.1 Inclusive human security
subsequently reproducing them, may be the fastest pathway to an actual relapse into violence in a region that has been prone to violent conflict up to date.
The fact that human security encompasses a wide range of developmental issues of economic, social, political, and environmental nature has proven useful for gathering different governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to tackle intertwined issues that used to lie in exclusive realms of action (Paris, 2001:88). However, it also strongly diminishes the concept’s practical use for both research and policy making efforts, as it is in many cases simply too broad to lead to specific conclusions. Therefore, Paris (2001) explores different efforts to further operationalise ‘human security’ for both research and policymaking. One of these operationalisation efforts, the approach of King and Murray (2000), seems interesting for the purposes of this research, as it focuses specifically on those elements of human insecurity that strongly correlate with violent conflict.
The five indicators of well-being that King and Murray identify to measure human security of individuals and groups are poverty, health, education, political freedom, and democracy. When these five aspects are encroached upon, the risk on physical violence increases. This approach entails three problems. First, physical violence, which Murray and King see as a consequence of a lack of human security, largely coincides with two other areas of human security from the definition by UNDP, namely personal and community security. As Paris (2001: 95) explains, this division made by King and Murray between human security indicators (as factors contributing to violent conflict) and physical violence (as a consequence when these indicators are not fulfilled) is a rather artificial one, because people’s sense of security first and foremost depends on their freedom from physical harm. Second, King and Murray fail to explain the exact nature of why the indicators that they identify would lead to the occurrence of physical violence (ibid.). Conflict theory can shed some further light on this relation, as will be shown in this research. This leads to the third problem, namely that the only element of the original human security definition that is not included in the approach of King and Murray as either cause or effect is ‘environmental security’. However, as mentioned before and will be explained further, environmental issues can play a particularly central role in both creating and mitigating potential conflict. Therefore, environmental security cannot be excluded from the analysis. These attempts to narrow the broad concept of ‘human security’ down for analytical purposes would restrain the insights to be gained in essentially intertwined issues in this complex context.
2.2 Root causes of conflict
The root causes and dynamics of protracted social conflict often linger in post-conflict societies. To ensure that the activities in the public or private realm do not – willingly or unwillingly - increase the risk on a relapse into violence, the different forms in which these causes and dynamics reproduce themselves in the context of the Liberian Gola Forest area need to be identified and analysed. This analysis provides an essential foundation for the conflict-sensitive approach that is required in the programmes working towards rebuilding the nation. To create an inclusive framework of analysis of the root causes of conflict, I will combine (1) the model of Azar on preconditions and process factors of violent conflict, (2) the model of Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall on the causes of conflict on different spatial levels, and (3) the model of Stewart and Brown on the key categories of motivations for conflict. Subsequently, I will take a closer look at three important debates that took place over the past two decades around ‘greed versus grievance’, the issue of social contract and state failure, and the dynamics of ethnicity in conflict.
2.2.1 Levels of analysis
The theory of ‘protracted social conflict’ by Edward Azar has been influential in the area of conflict analysis. Azar distinguished between preconditions that facilitate conflict and process factors or conflict dynamics that determine how a conflict evolves (Ramsbotham et al., 2005). The preconditions are of particular interest as these give an indication of potential risk factors for conflict in the Liberian Gola Forest. Even though violent conflict is not on-going in the area, the process factors are relevant too as they refer to the interactions between the different conflict parties and the level of freedom of manoeuvre they experience to explore non-violent solutions. Stewart and Brown (2007) present an interesting and widely applicable framework for analysing the root causes of conflict. Five main focus areas are identified, namely: (1) group motivations driven by horizontal inequalities; (2) private motivations like greed; (3) failure of social contract; (4) environmental scarcity; and (5) potential enrichment through conflict. Even though these root causes are highly interlinked, they provide a valuable structure for analysis for the Gola Forest context. While Stewart and Brown take a horizontal perspective in their analysis of the different categories of root causes that violent conflict can have, Ramsbotham et al. (2005) take a vertical perspective in their model by looking at the sources of conflict at different levels, ranging from the elite/individual and local level to the national, regional, and international level.
Ramsbotham et al. is subdivided in social, economic, and political sources of conflict. The social sources correspond with the communal content aspect in Azar’s model: social identity groups have to develop their identity before they can act and react as one coherent group. The economic sources correspond mainly with what Azar calls ‘deprivation of basis needs’: when people’s needs in the areas of security, development, politics, and identity are not met, this may lead to discontent and (in combination with other factors) eventually to violence. The political sources correspond with Azar’s notion of the role of governance in conflict: states that face a lack of coercive and infrastructural capacity, and little legitimacy, are more prone to conflict than states that are not considered to be weak, failed or fragile. Stewart and Brown emphasise that both environmental scarcity and potential enrichment from conflict are important reasons why regional actors and the international community are increasingly involved in intrastate conflicts such as Liberia’s civil wars. Ramsbotham et al. similarly indicate that environmental constraints are important root causes for conflict on the global level, especially considering the fact that these constraints will most likely only increase as pressure on available resources like water and oil rises. These sources of conflict on the regional and global level are referred to by Azar as ‘international linkages’.
The correspondence between these different models points towards an inclusive analytical overview of potential root causes of violence that need to be taken into account in the Gola Forest context (see table 2). Within this framework, three key debates relevant for this context can be highlighted. First, the ‘greed versus grievances’ debate, which contrasts elite motivations of accumulation of wealth and power with group motivations based on relative deprivation. Second, the discussion on social contract and state failure, which provides further inside in the relation between weak states and violent conflict. And third, the contested role of ethnicity as root cause of or instrument in violent conflict will be discussed.
2.2.2 Greed versus horizontal inequalities
In the 1990s a debate arose about whether the structural deprivation of people, with grievances as a consequence, or people's outright avariciousness was the cause of violent conflict: the 'greed versus grievances’ debate (Ramsbotham et al., 2005: 84-89). Greed plays an important role in violent conflict, as both its initiation and continuation demands financial feasibility for certain actors. This feasibility not seldomly arises from the fact that violent conflict can secure and sustain access to specific natural resources for certain actors. The economic gains that arise are often captured by elites that mobilise group grievances to continue violence.
Table 2. Levels of analysis for contemporary conflict sources
Ramsbotham, Woodhouse & Miall:
LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
Azar:
CONFLICT DYNAMICS & PRECONDITIONS
Stewart & Brown:
PRIVATE & GROUP MOTIVATIONS
Elite/individual & conflict party level
Process factors or conflict dynamics Private motivations like elite’s ‘greed’ and individual’s rational choice: Elites try to make violence a rational choice for individuals by creating group identities, often along ethnic lines through emphasising ‘horizontal
inequalities’ (= exclusions on the state level)
Environmental scarcity Potential enrichment State level:
– social sources of conflict
Preconditions: – ‘communal content’
Group motivations resulting from social exclusion
Failure of social contract due to social weaknesses on state level Environmental scarcity
Potential enrichment State level:
– economic sources of conflict
Preconditions:
– ‘deprivation of basic needs’ (security, development, political access, identity)
Group motivations resulting from economic exclusion
Failure of social contract due to economic weaknesses on state level
Environmental scarcity Potential enrichment State level:
– political sources of conflict
Preconditions:
– role of states: lack of coercive and infrastructural capacity, and little legitimacy more prone to conflict than states not considered
weak/fragile/failed
Group motivations resulting from political exclusion
Failure of social contract due to political weaknesses on state level Environmental scarcity
Potential enrichment
Regional level Preconditions:
– international linkages
Environmental scarcity Potential enrichment International level
(i.a. increased involvement in internal conflicts due to environmental constraints)
Preconditions:
– international linkages
certain groups must feel restricted in their opportunities to raise their demands peacefully because of political and economic obstacles. As will become clear later on, the foundations for these preconditions are laid in the Liberian Gola Forest context.
2.2.3 Social contract and state weakness
One of the main reasons for violent conflict to arise at the state level is the so-called failure of social contract (Stewart and Brown, 2007; Rotberg, 2003). ‘Social contract’ represents the idea of the state that a government should protect civil liberties, provide basic social services, and, above all, should safeguard security, in exchange for popular support. When this social contract cannot be fulfilled by a government, citizens are deprived from their social, economic, and political basic needs. A particularly conflict-prone situation arises when this deprivation concerns only specific segments of society as this creates the before-mentioned horizontal inequalities. Whether violence will actually materialise depends largely on the strength of the state (Urdal, 2004: 5): “A state characterised by notorious instability and disintegration, a feature often referred to as state weakness, is more likely to offer opportunities for violence than a stark and authoritarian state (Goldstone, 2001; Homer-Dixon and Blitt, 1998).”.
State building is a challenging effort in post-colonial African contexts, but essential in creating a stable and safe nation (Ayoob, 2007). Ayoob identifies four processes that hinder state building in what he calls the ‘Third World’. Due to (1) forced high-speed state formation, (2) a colonial heritage of unprepared administrations, (3) increasing international interference, and (4) personal interests of ruling domestic elites, the process of state making is fundamentally hindered, leaving space for political factions and ethnic groups to challenge state power and authority. The resulting conflict further erodes the state’s capabilities of maintaining order and providing security. Consequently, citizens do not feel safe anymore, and turn to those same factions (or even criminal gangs) for security, reinforcing the negative spiral of state weakness.
Rotberg (2003) distinguishes three types of weak states: the collapsed, failed, and weak state. Being in one category is not a static position. Due to human agency, states evolve from one to the other, for the better or the worse. In many cases, the ruling elite play an important role in this humanly induced process. Ayoob (2007) also mentions this role of the ruling elite, but he puts greater emphasis on the agency of international actors in state failure and conflict, which is a relevant perspective for the case of Liberia. Due to the increased international linkages and cross-border interests, as explained by Stewart and Brown, the concept of social contract on the international level becomes of increasing interest. In this light, further analysis is needed of the (continued) role of the multilateral United Nations mission and bilateral aid from the United States in Liberia.
state in ensuring human security for its constituents. A further theoretical perspective on issues of state legitimacy and authority (and its implications for the case of Liberia) will be discussed in the section on legitimation of state and community governance over natural resources.
2.2.4 Ethnicity & communal conflict
In analyses from the 1990s onward, a basic interpretation of civil wars was that these were fought neighbour-against-neighbour. The question that rose was how it is possible that neighbours turn into enemies. Ethnicity plays a central role in this ‘neighbour-against-neighbour’ thesis. Three academic perspectives will be used to shed further light on whether neighbours could turn into enemies (again?) in the Gola Forest area.
In Ignatieff’s (1998) view, civil wars are neighbour-against-neighbour conflicts, because of the construction of nationalist identities. In his explanation of how neighbours become enemies, Ignatieff (1998) distinguishes four stages: the collapse of state power, the rise of fear, the rise of nationalist paranoia, and eventually war. After a state that facilitated an interethnic society collapses, the ethnic groups living within society develop Hobbesian - that is politically constructed (Robin, 2004) - fears towards one another, which might be prompted by elites. Security dilemmas arise, people increasingly pull back into their own group for protection, and masks of nationalist identities are constructed through Freud’s ‘narcissism of minor differences’ (Ignatieff, 1998: 48): because the differences between the ethnic groups are so small, they have to be expressed aggressively. In this way, intragroup differences can be annihilated, while (mainly symbolic) intergroup differences are emphasised. Ignatieff tries to disclose the effects of these stages on the human level, that is on the two ‘levels of consciousness’ each person has, namely (1) one determined by political propaganda, the ‘nationalist myth’, and (2) one constituted of personal experience. The national identity, that is constructed to legitimise the abuse and killing of others, becomes increasingly dominant. Despite the structural ‘overvaluing’ of the own identity, and the ‘autistic’ way of dealing with others by not seeing them as human beings, the fit between the personal and the national identity remains imperfect. This identity friction is the only expedient for reconciliation.
According to Lake and Rothchild (1996), competing communal interests about for example resources and political control are not enough to trigger violence, because violence is not a rational choice. In their view, ethnic conflict is mainly caused by collective ‘fears of the future, lived through the past’. These fears are, like Ignatieff mentions, based on security dilemmas, which lead to severe strategic dilemmas, both between and within groups. The intergroup dilemmas mentioned are (1) information failure, (2) problems of credible commitment, and (3) security dilemmas. The main intragroup dilemma is social mobilisation and polarisation, caused by so-called ‘ethnic activists’ and ‘political entrepreneurs’. This polarisation is further increased by what the authors call ‘non-rational’ factors, namely political memories and myths, and emotions. All this leads to what the authors call a ‘failure of ethnic contract’. The increasing social construction of ethnic groups through inter- and intragroup strategic dilemmas leads to far-reaching involvement of individuals and groups throughout society. Although the authors do not mention it explicitly, they seem to support the neighbour-against-neighbour perspective.
Understanding the extent to which these ethnicity-related tendencies are or have been part of the Liberian Gola Forest context is relevant to provide further insight in whether ethnic diversity could potentially be mobilised for conflict. It is beyond the scope of this research to provide an inclusive overview of the ethnic relations in the area, but some primary points of attention and further investigation will be identified.
2.2.5 From negative to positive peace
In order to identify which (often resource-related) processes entail conflict potential at the local level, I will look at the differential vulnerability picture and entitlement distribution in the Liberian Gola Forest area. Analysing the extent to which local social actors at present can exercise legitimate and effective command over their entitlements provides a valuable indication of whether a resort to violence could by some be considered a ‘feasible’ option.
2.3 Vulnerability and entitlements
Vulnerability is a concept that finds its roots in environmental sciences. While political and social scientists increasingly acknowledge the importance of environmental issues in their research and policy recommendations, a similar shift has taken place on the side of the environmental scientists. Attention has been shifting, from impacts on and adaptability of natural resources or ecosystems and only subsequently addressing consequences for human well-being, to a focus on the adaptability of individuals and social groups to cope with and adapt to any external stress placed on their livelihoods and well-being (Adger and Kelly, 1999: 253; Downing et al., 2005: 19). Vulnerability is no longer seen as an environmental or otherwise given, but as embedded in social and economic structures and processes of ownership and exchange (Leary and Beresford, 2009: 126).
To gain further insight in the processes and relations that shape vulnerability, Bohle et al. (1994) identify three dimensions of vulnerability’s causal structure, namely human ecology, expanded entitlements (which is discussed below), and political economy (Leary and Beresford, 2009: 128): The starting point of human ecology is that vulnerability is shaped by the relations between nature and society (1) by the way in which humans interact with and transform nature to derive goods, services, and livelihoods, (2) by the risks and threats emanate from these interactions and transformations, and (3) by the properties of ecosystems and society that govern the interactions and transformations. The theory around expanded entitlements refers to vulnerability being dependent on commodity bundles (Sen) and a wider set of social entitlements like empowerment and enfranchisement through which access to entitlements is secured, fought over, and contested. Political economy, in turn, takes a macro-scale perspective and emphasises the influence of processes of accumulation and distribution of the society in which entitlements are embedded. These three dimensions (see figure 2) will be taken into account when analysing the vulnerability of social actors in the local context of Gola Forest, with a specific focus on expanded entitlements to get a clearer picture of conflict potential at the local level.
Figure 2. Dimensions shaping vulnerability
2.3.1 Expanded entitlements
The key notion of entitlement theory as originally presented by Sen (1981) is that processes like famine and poverty are not a matter of absolute scarcity, but rather of competing and changing ownership patterns that enable people to exercise command over certain bundles of commodities that provide for their basic needs. Social actors have specific ‘endowments’, referring to the rights, resources, and services they have at their disposal, like own land, labour power, and access to credit facilities. These endowments can be utilised in different ways to transfer them into a range of alternative bundles of commodities (‘entitlements’). As Leary and Beresford (2009: 126) explain: A person can, for example, use his or her endowments to “produce food for direct consumption, produce other commodities for sale in the market, or sell his or her labour for wages. The income from the sale of commodities and labour can then be exchanged for food and other commodities.”. Sen refers to these alternatives sets of utilities at the ‘entitlement set’, which equals the budget constraint or opportunity set in the economic theory of household production and consumption (ibid.).
In accordance with this non-static perspective on entitlements, Leach et al. (1999) define ‘entitlements’ as the alternative sets of utilities derived from specific goods and services (‘endowments’) over which social actors have (1) legitimate and (2) effective command and which are instrumental in achieving well-being. Legitimate command in this sense entails “command sanctioned by a statutory system” as well as “command sanctioned by customary rights of access, use or control, and other social norms” (Leach et al., 1999: 233). In traditional African contexts, these two sources of legitimacy often conflict, as is also the case in the Gola Forest area as will become clear later on. Effective command depends on two issues, namely the extent to which claims over specific goods and services are contested or determined by existing power relations, and the extent to which social actors “are able to mobilise some endowments (e.g., capital, labour) that are necessary in order to make effective use of others (e.g., land)” (ibid.). As Leach et al. already recognise, conflict arises when different endowments and entitlements are conflicting, as this means that some of the social actors cannot realise their capabilities and are thereby impeded in sustaining or improving their well-being. From the micro to the macro-level, institutions play an important role in determining (the distribution of) both endowments and entitlements.
In the context of Liberian Gola Forest I do not only want to look at the extent to which people can produce actual commodities for consumption or sale, but I also want to gain further insight in the ways in which people manage (or fail) to secure other ‘social entitlements’ like empowerment and enfranchisement. These social entitlements are central in the way in which local actors secure, fight over, or contest access to ‘traditional’ entitlements to production and consumption (Leary and Beresford, 2009). I will, therefore, not only look at economic, political, or societal processes as shaping factors of ‘traditional’ entitlements, but make these processes object of study themselves at the local level to analyse how they are tied to actors’ social endowments. When social actors cannot utilise their endowments and entitlements to enhance their capabilities, this means that they have limited options of coping with stresses on their livelihoods, i.e. they are ‘vulnerable’. According to entitlement theory, social actors’ vulnerability can change in two ways (ibid.): On the one hand, endowments can collapse or expand as e.g. the value of land or labour changes. On the other hand, the ‘exchange entitlement mapping’ (Sen, 1981), also referred to as ‘architecture of entitlements’ (Kelly and Adger, 2000), can shift, leaving a social actor with endowments that either do or do not constitute an entitlement set that can fulfil all basic needs.
2.3.2 Differential vulnerability
a ‘state of vulnerability’ is therefore a complicated effort requiring attention for several key attributes. Downing et al. (2005) identify six characteristics of vulnerability that need to be taken into account, namely its (1) differential exposure among different actors, (2) dynamic nature in time, (3) organisation by actors (4) who are part of social networks, (5) multiple geographical scales, and (6) multiple shaping stressors.
Differential exposure | Vulnerability is ‘the differential exposure to stresses experienced or anticipated by different exposure units’. The impact of the same process differs between different social actors and systems. The ‘exposure units’ differ per scenario and need to be identified together with what they are exposed to, how the exposure can be measured with indicators, and how a general profile can be generated for the different exposure units. An important point for attention is that it is not only exposure to actually experienced stresses but also anticipated stresses that influences vulnerability (Downing et al., 2005: 4-8). The main social actor at risk in the Gola Forest context is the local population currently living in the area, as their livelihoods and well-being are directly impacted by the planned establishment of a national park. Therefore, in the next chapter a descriptive overview will be given of the general demographics and livelihood characteristics of the local population in the Liberian Gola Forest area. As will become clear in chapter 4, specific attention is needed for the differential exposure among different groups within local communities, like women, youth, and ‘strangers’.
Dynamic in time | A certain state of vulnerability is not static but rather ‘constantly changing on a variety of inter-linked time scales’. Gradually changing trends (often at macro scale) as well as sudden high-impact shocks may fundamentally alter socio-economic conditions at the macro and micro level. Understanding environmental and socio-institutional processes is essential to gain insight into the causes, effects, and opportunities for mitigation of the dynamic processes harming local livelihoods and well-being (Downing et al., 2005: 9). Whereas Downing et al. focus primarily on economic and environmental processes, a wider perspective is needed in the Gola Forest case that includes both an analysis of the present-day context and past processes that led to previous (violent) conflict. This wider perspective is needed to inform an inclusive conflict-sensitive path towards sustainable and peaceful post-conflict reconstruction.
between environment-related processes like nature conservation and continued seasonal rains and other aspects of vulnerability such as access to markets, credit systems, or health and welfare systems.
Social networks | Analysing social networks is essential for assessing vulnerability as it sheds light on how different human, institutional and ecological/geophysical actors communicate and resolve conflicts by negotiation (Downing et al., 2005). These networks often transcend the narrow geophysical boundaries of a certain context, in this case the Liberian Gola Forest area. Different networks with each their own ‘spatial logic and boundaries’ are connected into coupled systems. As Liberia is, and has been for centuries, highly centralised around Monrovia (Richards et al., 2005), with Monrovia functioning as hub for any means and matters (ranging from financial and political to educational and social) coming from or going to Liberia’s country side, important coupled systems to take into account are those between actors and systems in the Gola Forest area and in Monrovia.
Multiple geographical scales | Vulnerability is constructed simultaneously on more than one scale from the local to the global level. Changes on these different scales determine impacts at the local level and influence which coping mechanisms can be employed by social actors. When e.g. a household is able to diversify its livelihood assets and activities, chances increase that it can successfully mitigate any negative effects of trends and shock on the national or international level (Downing et al., 2005). As will be explained further, the influence of international actors and regionally mobile populations on local vulnerability requires specific attention.
Multiple stressors | Integrated vulnerability comprises multiple stresses on peoples, places, and systems. Just like poverty is no longer understood as a simple economic threshold, but as “multiple attributes of entitlement (e.g., employment, welfare), access (e.g., health infrastructure, markets), and health (e.g., disease burden, infant mortality)”, the multiple attributes of vulnerability need to be recognised as well (Downing et al., 2005: 17). By using the concept of human security as basis for the structural framework of this research, the key attributes determining the livelihood and well-being of the local population in the Gola Forest area come to the fore. In this way, the human security framework enables a more inclusive understanding of specific simultaneous stresses and coping mechanisms employed at the local level in the Liberian Gola Forest context.
In remote forest areas, like the Liberian Gola Forest area, differential vulnerability in terms of local livelihoods and well-being can be expected to be fundamentally tied to forest-related endowments. This makes the question who has control over the management of these resources sensitive. In the next section, I will discuss the debate regarding top-down versus bottom-up natural resource management, which further explicates the role of governance in proper natural resource management to strengthen local human security and thereby durable peace building. 2.4 Natural resource management: state versus community
on the role of governance to ensure proper natural resource management that strengthens local livelihoods and wellbeing. Over the past years, attention has been shifting towards natural resource management led by local communities rather than by national governments. Some of the key debates underlying this shift towards community-based natural resource management will be discussed in this section, including debates around the sources of legitimacy and the concepts of state and community. Natural resource management cannot be successful when fully dependent on the use of coercion from the state level, especially in the African context where implementing capacity is often limited. This makes legitimacy and the way in which it can be attained by different institutions important subjects of study. African states have since long been struggling with legitimacy issues due to high dependence on external actors, developmentalism and its accompanying brokers surpassing central authorities. Subsequently, community-based management is an increasingly attractive alternative for efficient and effective natural resource management. However, community-based management in turn also has fundamental obstacles that need to be overcome, possibly in cooperation with national authorities. Exploring these different debates facilitates the identification of opportunities and pitfalls that come with (a combination of) state-led and community-based natural resource management in the Liberian Gola Forest case.
2.4.1 Sources of legitimacy
When looking at the ways in which governing institutions gain legitimacy, three partly overlapping processes can be identified from the theories of Lund (2006), Bodansky (1999), and Bierschenk et al. (2002). First, legitimacy can be gained through its foundation in a legitimate government discourse (or by means of contrasting with an illegitimate government discourse). Bodansky refers to this as legitimacy derived from ‘the origin of power’. Second, legitimacy can be derived from well-founded decision-making procedures. Finally, legitimacy can be brought about by effective fulfilment of local needs.
interest, which on the local level is the welfare in communities. As African states are often incapable of fulfilling their social contract, local institutions can rather easily attain legitimacy depending on the extent to which they are able to attract assistance from development agencies or foreign private investors. Bierschenk et al. emphasise the central role of “development brokers” in this process of attracting assistance. As the rule of law is not sufficiently effective as a source of legitimacy (Ghai, 1986), the personal attributes of brokers and the ways in which they can effectively utilise their leverage to fulfil the needs of the local population is an important alternative source of legitimacy (Bierschenk et al., 2002). It is for example the charisma of a broker and his/her instrumental use of e.g. private developmentalism that provides him/her with legitimacy to exercise power. Thus, legitimacy is not gained by using the discourse of the state, but rather by mastering the discourses of development agencies (and private companies in the case of Liberia) on the one hand and that of local people on the other hand, and letting them coincide. All in all, the question of legitimacy does not revolve around the charisma of one leader or the unifying power of one political party as claimed by Ghai (1986), but rather entails patron-client relations from the local to the national level as well as overlapping networks between the state, civil society, private enterprises, and local institutions (Bierschenk et al., 2002).
The different sources of legitimacy need to be placed in the context of effective use of discourse. Lund (2006) emphasises discourses, and specifically their use in conflicts, as a way of legitimation of ‘twilight institutions’. Those institutions are not necessarily public institutions, but they use the language and the codes of the state to legitimise their actions. This is referred to by Lund as ‘leakage of meaning’. Alternatively, these institutions can also gain legitimacy by positioning themselves as being completely different from the state: more local, less bureaucratic, and so on (ibid.). Making use of strong discourses by adopting certain language and codes or, on the contrary, contrasting with illegitimate discourses are two processes that can both be identified in the Gola Forest context. As also indicated by Lund, the nature of twilight institutions becomes particularly manifest when conflict arises. The planned establishment of a national park in the area constitutes such a conflictual case in which different discourses become increasingly visible and adopting of and contrasting with specifically government discourses can be recognised (see chapter 5).
2.4.2 Developmentalism and local brokers
When the state falls short in social service provision, fulfilling the needs of the local population becomes an even more important means by which local institutions can attain legitimacy (Bierschenk et al., 2002). So-called ‘development brokers’ are central in this process, as they are the ones that are able to represent the local needs on the one hand and translate them in a way which coincides with the demands of development agencies on the other. The amount of success these brokers harvest is measured by the amount of assistance they can transfer to the local communities they seem to represent. The legitimacy of the brokers depends on the trust they get from both sides of the interface: the local communities and the development organisations. To get this trust, brokers need several competences: they need to master the (cultural) languages, rules and codes of both parties, they need organisational skills, skills to present a desirable image, negotiation skills, skills to set up a project, and skills to directly access donors.
The position of brokers within their context is not fixed, as explained by Bierschenk et al., but can improve or deteriorate over time. If they fail to fulfil the local needs, or if their own interests are too evident in the view of the local people, they might lose their position, and new brokers can replace them. This change in positions makes the network very flexible. Therefore, the extent to which local institutions are able to fulfil local needs, through attracting assistance of different sorts, varies over time and with that the legitimacy of those institutions varies.
2.4.3 Exploring local potential
While African states show significant deficits when it comes to natural resource management, local communities are increasingly considered as appropriate stewards. Community-based natural resource management has apparent inherent advantages, but it should not be seen as panacea. Using the intertwined concepts of state, legitimacy, and rule of law, Agrawal and Gibson (1999) shed some useful light on the potential for local communities to fill the gap that African states leave when it comes to legitimacy and implementing capacity with regard to natural resource management. As explained by Agrawal and Gibson, the heavy hand of the central state used to be seen as the only way to sustain natural resources. During the last decades is has become clear that the capacity of the state to reach sustainable management of natural resources through coercive means is limited. This failure has affected the legitimacy of the state in two ways. In the first place, the state was not able to exercise its authority. Authority and legitimacy go hand in hand and cannot survive without each other. In the second place, the fact that the outcomes were not desirable decreases the legitimacy of the state. The historical development of the concept “community” shows that it is seen as something opposite from the modern state. It is seen as something traditional, based on homogeneous small units with shared norms. Positioning communities in this way affects their legitimacy as much as failure of the state does.
natural resources will be relatively large compared to the central government. And, as mentioned before, authority and legitimacy go together. On the other hand communities are able to make decisions based on collective consensus, because interaction is easier. This fairness of the process of decision-making would also increase legitimacy according to Bodansky (1999). Although this is a common view, it does not coincide with reality. In reality communities are in many cases too small to control and manage a geographically spread natural resource effectively. Also, in many cases there is not only one community which puts a claim on a certain natural resource. Different communities compete with each other, which makes collective decision-making much more difficult. Both aspects are likely to result in failure (‘non-desirable effects’), and therefore decrease the legitimacy of communities as managing entity. Second, in the popular view, communities are conceived as being homogeneous. This is supposed to lead to cooperative solutions and to reduce hierarchical interactions. Therefore, it would increase legitimacy in the same way as in the case of ‘small spatial units’. However, reality shows that this relation is not so clear. Moreover, the hierarchical structures that exist within communities have to be noted, as well as the different interests that various actors have. Third, communities were seen as having common norms and interests. Those common norms were seen as though they were in complete agreement with norms needed for sustainable resource management. The fact that these norms were internalised, increased the legitimacy of these norms. This can be explained from the perspective of Comaroff and Comaroff (1992) on hegemony and ideology. Norms that are entirely internalised can be seen as a hegemony: they are not questioned by the members of a community and thereby they are seen as legitimate. Although it might be that the norms are internalised, this does not mean that the content of these norms coincides with norms related to sustainable management of natural resources.
In short, it could be said that there exists an idea of communities, in the same way as there exists an idea of the state, as explained by Abrams (1988). Certain perceived features of communities might give the idea that communities are rather legitimate management units, but the reality is less straightforward and requires proper investigation at the community level to see how communities and decision-making processes within communities function in practice. Agrawal and Gibson (1999) do this by focusing on institutions. According to them, institutions shape interactions between people, and between people and nature, through a set of formal and informal norms and rules. In their view, a clear understanding is required of who has the authority to make rules, implement rules and settle disputes. Who possesses this authority and in what ways these three activities are executed depends on processes at local level, on external influences, and on institutions at all levels. According to Agrawal and Gibson, all three activities should be exercised by the community.
legitimacy of the communities is based on the rule of law, instead of having its basis in erroneous notions about the features of communities. The fact that the authors focus on institutional structures and on the inequalities and power struggles is useful. However, the solution is not as straightforward as presented, as the rule of law may be misused by local elites to serve their interests. To overcome the second problem of insufficient capacity at the community level, cooperation between the state and communities could be a valuable option. Agrawal and Gibson suggest a model in which the state delivers material, technical, and financial resources, and some assistance in solving disputes. The neutrality of this assistance by the state is essential to not put additional strain on complex power relations at the local level, but the extent to which this neutrality can be achieved in practice is debatable.
Whether natural resource management can be carried out in a sustainable way, and thus supports or hampers peace building, depends on the legitimacy that the implementing authority has among the local population of an area. As explained, the legitimacy of this authority (be it state or local institutions) is on the one hand closely linked to the extent to which people feel that the ‘system’ is securing their basic needs, and on the other hand dependent on the level to which people feel included or appropriately represented in the decision-making procedures that concern them. Natural resource management in itself does not lead to violent conflict, but when it is tied to non-inclusive patterns of human security an differential vulnerability this can create feelings of relative deprivation entailing conflict potential. When not mitigated, this conflict (potential) obstructs peace building and, in turn, has a negative impact on human security and natural resource management.
2.5 Combining theory
In this research, I will analyse the relation between natural resource management and durable peace building in the Liberian Gola Forest through the framework of human security. For each field of human security, I will identify to what extent local communities can exercise legitimate and effective command over the endowments and entitlements they need for safeguarding their livelihoods and wellbeing. When this legitimate and effective command is insufficient for local communities as a whole, or for certain social groups, to guarantee their security in the different areas of human security, they are considered ‘vulnerable’. Vulnerability is both cause and effect of people being deprived of their basic human needs and rights, and of access to the decision-making procedures to change their situation. Objective deprivation, i.e. being poor in itself, is not likely to lead to violence. However, relative deprivation related to differential vulnerability of certain geographical or social segments of society can create a fertile breeding ground for violence. When combined with other root causes of conflict, such as the formation of group identities and the inability of the state to fulfil basic needs or establish its legitimacy, horizontal inequalities can be mobilised for violence. Understanding local patterns of vulnerability in the key areas of human security, and the processes and relations that are shaping these, is therefore essential to inform the sustainable natural resource management in the Gola Forest area that is a prerequisite for durable peace building.
3 I WHO IS LIVING IN THE FOREST?
Gola Forest is a remote and difficultly accessible area on the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia. The area has been highly impacted during the civil wars in both countries and structural reconstruction efforts by government institutions or NGOs remain limited up to date. Consequently, the accessibility (or even presence) of local services is poor. Only few communities have own schools or clinics and most inhabitants of the area have to cover vast walking distances to reach the nearest facilities or the vehicle road that connects them to the County headquarters and Monrovia.
Historically, the Gola Forest area has been sparsely populated. Due to the war and changing economic circumstances, like the depletion of old or discovery of new gold and diamond deposits, the nature of many settlements in the area has not been stable. In terms of demographics, local communities are characterised by a young and predominantly male population, consisting of equal portions of Christians and Muslims. Although the more stable communities have a population of mixed ethnic backgrounds, the smaller transient communities tend to be more homogeneous. Overall, the living conditions in the communities in the Liberian Gola Forest area are poor, with the majority of people living in makeshift houses without access to amenities such as electricity and latrines or basic social services.
The map below from 1947 (figure 4), on which the Gola Forest area is indicated as ‘commercial forest’, illustrates how sparsely populated the area has been historically. Note that the village Zui indicated on the map coincides with the village Zuie from the sample of this research. Accordingly, the intended Gola Forest National Park is positioned on the map to the left of the ‘trail’ running from Yangaia to Zui.
