Written by Jacinta Fay & Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor | From The Ecologist

Liberia’s Jogbahn Clan is at the forefront of efforts to resist the grab of Indigenous Peoples’ land and forests for palm oil plantations. But according to the country’s President, they are only ‘harassing and extorting’ international investors.

“They refuse to talk to us about our land business. Because we are standing here, are we not people? We are somebody.”

So spoke Elder Chio Johnson defiantly looking through the tall iron gates of Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) / Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK’s) office in Grand Bassa County, Liberia.

His Jogbahn Clan had come to deliver a petition signed in solidarity by over 90,000 people to tell the UK and Malaysian palm oil companies that they must stop grabbing the Clan’s land. However the companies refused to speak with the community.

EPO also thwarted efforts to present the petition in London, when they refused a meeting. Attempts to doorstop their London premises proved futile – the office appears to exist only in the form of a brass plate.

A source of inspiration

Even though the companies refused to speak with the communities the story of their struggle is now known all over the world with signatories for the petition coming from across the globe.

Read more at The Ecologist