It all began with the Société pour le Développement du Palmier à Huile or SODEPALM establishing and managing 3500 hectares of plantation in Liberia in the 1970s, building a 20 MT/Hr mill in the 1980s to produce palm oil. In 1989, Liberia descended into civil war, which raged on till 1997 followed by a second civil war beginning in 1999. The operations collapsed and the plantation was abandoned.

A peace building and community cohesion project, the Butaw Concession, saw the revival of the plantation in 2008 as more than 8000 hectares were permitted to be relaunched for cultivation by the Equatorial Oil Palm (EPO). A nursery was established and the first replanting began leading to 1300 hectares of planting between 2013-15 with Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) as a key shareholder.

LNPI’s Palm plantations began to proliferate. To ensure that critical environmental and social values which need to be preserved are identified and protected, land-use planning was initiated. Thus, two approaches to land use planning - HCV (High Conservation Value) and (HCS) High Carbon Stock - were adopted between 2015 and 2018. Consequently, the Butaw Concession’s planting size was reduced to 4000 hectares (of which 1300 hectares had already been planted).

Liberia Natural Produce Inc. (LNPI) was established in 2022 to manage the 8000+ hectares of the LFPI in the Butaw region. The company focuses on improving the oil palms while defending the HCV-designated sites and assisting in Liberia’s sustainable development. LNPI is dedicated to upgrading the existing 1300 hectares and replanting the remaining 2700 hectares following the New Planting Procedures (NPP) prescribed by the organic agricultural standards.