Compensations and Customary Rights in the Context of the Concessionaire Companies: An Economic Approach

The present report deals with the question of how to compensate rural communities affected by the operations of concessionaire companies in Liberia. Addressing this concern requires that we successively look at the three following issues: (1) how communities are being informed and involved in the process of negotiation leading to concession agreements; (2) how to design the concession agreements so that affected communities are effectively compensated and share in the benefits thereby generated; and (3) how customary land rights need to be adjusted and formalised to provide as much efficiency and equity as possible. The first three sections of this report address each of these issues. A final section summarises our main recommendations.