Biofuels investment projects in Maforki and Bureh Kasseh Maconteh (BKM) Chiefdoms in Port Loko District, Sierra Leone are contributing to food insufficiency, undermining the productive capacity of small-scale farmers, and increasing economic hardship in what is an already poor and food insecure district. The land lease agreements facilitating the biofuels projects have caused and compounded a complex range of problems for communities affected, including negative impacts on food, education, and economic hardship.

The reasons for the failure of the projects to deliver benefits for the local communities, including losses of productive land, drastically undervalued compensation and wages, and failures in the free, prior and informed consent of communities are explored below.  The brief recommends three key changes to address these problems.