(Ecofin Agency) - Owner of multiple oil palm plantations in Sierra Leone, the Société financière des caoutchoucs (Socfin) has angered local producers who claim that “some of its investment is taking place in the form of land grabbing”. The producers formed the Malen Affected Land Owners and Users Association (MALOA) to fight against Socfin.

“We want investors. What we are against is people coming to take all of our resources, taking all of our land without our consent,” said spokesperson of MALOA, Shiaka Sama.

Locals feel they are cheated. “In 2011, Socfin secured a 50-year lease for 6,500 fectares of prime farmland for rubber and oil palm plantations in the malen Chiefdrom. The project promised local populations full compensation for lost land, development investments and jobs,” Sama said adding that none of these promises had been fulfilled.

Though landholders received a compensation of $177 per acre, tensions still remain. Some of them said they were forced into signing and others just complain that the compensation is too insignificant.

For initiating protests, activists have been fined and threatened with prison yet they continue.

Souha Touré