- With one year delay, the International Finance Corporation has submitted its response to an investigation of human rights violations at a rubber project in Liberia to the World Bank’s board.
- While the case was pending, Socfin, the Belgian parent company of Salala Rubber Corporation, sold the plantation, creating uncertainty over its commitment to taking responsibility for failures identified by the IFC’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman.
- Affected communities and civil society in Liberia say the IFC has watered down recommendations from its ombudsman and fear the change of ownership will prevent accountability.
More than a year late, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has finally submitted its response to an investigation that found evidence of grave human rights violations at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) that it helps fund in Liberia.
The IFC, established to fund private sector development in poor countries, loaned $10 million to SRC to rehabilitate and expand its plantations in 2007. Affected communities filed a complaint with the finance institution’s independent grievance body, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, alleging failure to prevent abuses by SRC.
Communities living in and around the Salala rubber plantation accuse SRC, owned and operated by Belgian multinational Socfin from 2007 until 2024, of land grabbing, sexual harassment of workers, pollution of water bodies, and the destruction of sacred sites and graves. Years of complaints raised directly with SRC’s management, local and national governments in Liberia, and the parent company in Belgium failed to win redress, forcing the communities to take their grievances to the CAO.
Since the CAO investigation was completed in December 2023, the IFC has asked for multiple deadline extensions to submit a required management report and action plan (MAP) outlining the measures it will take together with SRC to address the ombudsman’s findings.
“We are hoping that the action points of the MAP will be carried out so that community tension can ease,” said Windor Smith, a member of the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), which works on land and customary rights issues with rural communities.
For civil society groups supporting affected communities, the IFC’s delay is no coincidence. Paul Larry George, also from ARD, said the CAO’s recommendations included compensation for lost crops, which, if adopted by the IFC, could set an unwanted precedent for the finance institution in other cases where communities have faced losses in connection with its investments.
“The IFC is intentionally delaying the MAP. It has not been transparent in the whole process of handling community issues and environmental impacts since 2007,” George told Mongabay.
The CAO’s investigation report and a final version of the MAP will only be published after approval by the World Bank’s board, currently expected in March 2025. As chair of ARD, one of the groups that supported communities file their complaint, George has seen both. He told Mongabay that the IFC has watered down many of the strong recommendations made by the ombudsman. “We think this will give way to continued grievances of the communities on the plantation.”

In June 2024, riots broke out at Salala after workers protested against working conditions under Socfin, and the search for redress became more complex when Socfin announced the sale of Salala to a Liberian investment company, Jeety Rubber LLC, shortly afterward.
It’s unclear whether the responsibility to implement the remedial actions in the action plan will lie with Socfin or SRC’s new owner.
“It is a big concern if the new buyer is going to implement the action plan and process the measures. It is very worrisome for the communities who have been waiting for years,” said ARD’s Smith, speaking to Mongabay from a field visit to Margibi county where Salala is located. She said tensions around the plantation remain under the new management, with some workers reporting they hadn’t received their full wages, and civil society groups facing intimidation by company security.
Neither the IFC nor Jeety responded to Mongabay’s requests for comment. Socfin had not responded at the time of publication, but their comment will be added once it’s available.
In a letter published after the sale of the plantation last August, Socfin said it remains fully committed to implementing corrective measures at Salala during a transitional period of one year after the sale. However, the letter referred not to the CAO report, but to the findings of an investigation Socfin itself commissioned, conducted by the Switzerland-headquartered Earthworm Foundation, which confirmed most of the allegations raised with the IFC’s ombudsman.
Recommendations made by Earthworm included strengthening the reporting mechanism for sexual harassment incidents, developing a crop compensation procedure together with affected communities, and working more closely with communities to address and resolve their grievances. It’s not clear if Socfin’s stated commitment also applies to the IFC’s overdue action plan.
The Salala case, filed in 2019, has dragged on longer than any other since the IFC’s watchdog was established in 1999 as a way for communities affected by World Bank Group projects to seek remedy for rights violations. The ombudsman took three years to finalize its investigation in December 2023. The IFC should have responded within 50 business days, but missed this and two further deadlines before requesting a six-month extension in July 2024.
CAO spokesperson Emily Horgan offered no explanation for the delays: “There is no comment CAO can make at this stage of the process. IFC’s Management Action Plan is pending consideration by the Board.”
While hopes for finding remedy through the World Bank fade, civil society organizations in Liberia are anticipating the outcome of a lawsuit filed against Salala in the local courts. The case, lodged by Liberian human rights organization Green Advocates, seeks recognition for communities in Margibi county as the rightful owners of the land where the Salala plantation is located. A recent interim judgment ordered a “confirmatory survey” to measure the extent of land in contention, which is currently being prepared by the Liberian Land Authority.
Banner image : Samuel Binda, a resident of Jorkporlorsue, at the site where his grandparents are buried. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.
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