WHEN: Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 12:30 - 2pm

WHERE: DUSP City Arena, 9-255

 This discussion will examine how dispossession and loss of land has taken hold for communities in Liberia and the Greater Boston region- from direct land grabs to processes of speculation- and the strategies communities are advancing to regain community control. Professor Brownell will speak to the work he has done to fight for the customary land and property rights of indigenous communities in Liberia and efforts he is currently leading to advance a global land tenure security index. Eliza will speak to the innovative approach to Community Land Trusts (CLTs) the network is building out and the different scales on which these efforts are taking hold- from neighborhood to municipal policy. *Speaker bios below*

SPEAKER BIOS  

Alfred Lahai Brownell Sr. is Founder/Lead Campaigner of Green Advocates International, Liberia’s first public interest environmental law and human rights organization, and a Distinguished scholar in Residence at Northeastern University Law School’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy. Alfred has been one of the lead campaigners advocating for the reform of Liberia’s land, extractive and natural resources sectors. He has provided legal support to local communities affected by natural resource extraction operations such as rubber and palm oil plantations and for many years also campaigned for the recognition of the customary land and property rights of indigenous communities throughout Liberia. Currently, Alfred is working with international land rights coalitions to spearhead establishment of a global land security index. Alfred holds a Bachelor of Science in General Agriculture from the University of Liberia, a magna cum laude JD/LL.B degree in law from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law of the University of Liberia, and an LL.M in Environment and Energy Law from the Tulane Law School, New Orleans, USA.

Eliza Parad, a Community Organizer at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), coordinates the Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network and together with it's land trust staff, provides Technical Assistance to emerging CLTs around Boston and beyond. The Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network supports current and emerging land trusts around resident-led planning efforts and long-term, collective control of land. The network works to promote the preservation of land for permanently affordable housing, community economic development, urban agriculture and open space. Eliza has been organizing since 2009 to prevent displacement, build resident power and advocate for affordable housing in Chelsea, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain and now Roxbury. At DSNI she is focused on engaging residents to impact development and get community control over public land.