Challenges for implementing zero deforestation commitments in a highly forested country: perspectives from Liberia's palm oil sector
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Halting deforestation is essential to address climate change and biodiversity loss. However, in highly forested, low-income countries like Liberia, “zero deforestation” commitments (ZDCs) adopted by companies may restrict agricultural expansion that has been promoted in national strategies to alleviate poverty. In such situations, examining contrasting perspectives among stakeholders is important to inform ZDCs’ implementation. Here, we applied Critical Systems Heuristics in 94 interviews to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on, and thereby develop a systematic understanding of, ZDCs in Liberia’s concession-based palm oil sector. We found that regulatory, institutional, and political factors that were needed to support commitments’ implementation were missing. Concessions had initially been allocated without communities’ consent being adequately obtained, and oil palm expansion had subsequently been stalled by zero deforestation. This produced a situation where communities that lost farmland to oil palm were reluctant to allow further expansion, while communities in forest areas were frustrated by a lack of promised oil palm expansion. Consequently, although limited oil palm expansion suggests ZDCs were effective after they were adopted, this was perceived to have come at the expense of anticipated improvements in community welfare, with community members in highly forested areas feeling deprived of development. We argue that neither the complete development of Liberia’s oil palm concessions nor limited development with zero deforestation will necessarily improve communities’ welfare without reforming the concession system to promote community-led, deforestation-free agricultural development. This requires public governance reforms, novel mechanisms for agricultural investment, and the localisation of international standards to facilitate zero deforestation in smallholder agriculture.
Date Issued
2025-01-01
Date Acceptance
2024-10-02
Citation
World Development, 2025, 185
ISSN
0305-750X
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
World Development
Volume
185
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106803
Subjects
Business & Economics
Conservation
Development Studies
Economics
LAND
Palm oil
Poverty alleviation
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Social Sciences
Supply chains
SUPPLY-CHAIN INITIATIVES
SUSTAINABILITY
Systems thinking
TROPICAL FOREST
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
106803
Date Publish Online
2024-10-23