Geocoded Natural Resource Concessions in Liberia

In partnership with the Concessions Working Group in Monrovia and with funding from Humanity United, AidData has developed a first-of-its-kind dataset of all known natural resource concessions granted to investors in Liberia from 2004 to 2015. We systematically categorized 557 concessions on 43 different dimensions, including the names and nationalities of the investors, the nature of the rights granted to these investors (exploratory or extractive), and the presence or absence of contractual commitments to undertake corporate social responsibility activities. This geocoded dataset release represents all concession licenses sourced, as of June 15, 2016, from the Liberian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI), the Mining Cadastre Administration System (MCAS), and the Liberia National Concessions Portal (LNCP), along with additional information collected using AidData's TUFF open-source data collection methodology. We also developed a novel, polygon-based (rather than point-based) geocoding methodology that identifies the specific tracts of land granted to investors to explore, develop, extract, or sell natural resources.To the extent possible, this dataset follows the guidance outlined by the Open Contracting Data Standard, v1.0., a core product of the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP).