Date of Award
Spring 6-12-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Geography
Organizational Unit
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Geography and the Environment
First Advisor
Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong
Second Advisor
Kristopher Kuzera
Third Advisor
Singume Muyeba
Fourth Advisor
Matthew Taylor
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Plantation agriculture, Foreign investment, Political ecology, Land concessions, Nutrition
Abstract
Large-scale land concessions have reshaped agrarian landscapes globally, yet their implications for community land tenure, livelihoods, and nutrition remain unevenly understood. This dissertation examines how plantation agriculture and foreign investment have transformed land access, labor relations, and food systems in Liberia, a country with one of the highest proportions of land under concession globally. Guided by a political ecology framework, the study employs a mixed-methods design integrating policy analysis, in-depth interviews, and household surveys across two palm oil concession sites. The findings show that ambiguous land policies historically facilitated dispossession, while recent legal reforms have enabled communities to strategically mobilize legal frameworks to strengthen tenure claims. At the same time, cycles of investment and divestment expose communities to enduring losses through privatization of commons and unfulfilled development promises. Quantitative and qualitative results further demonstrate that plantation wage-labor is associated with lower dietary diversity, driven by environmental change, declining access to subsistence foods, and wage precarity. Together, the findings show that land concessions restructure land, labor, and food systems through ongoing regimes of dispossession that extend beyond land loss to encompass nutritional vulnerability and livelihood insecurity.
Copyright Date
6-2026
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Julia Entwistle
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
188 pgs
File Size
2.2 MB
Recommended Citation
Entwistle, Julia, "The Palm Farm Next-Door: Land Concessions, Livelihoods, and Nutrition in Plantation-Adjacent Communities" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2710.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2710
Included in
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Food Studies Commons, Labor Relations Commons, Physical and Environmental Geography Commons, Political Science Commons, Public Policy Commons