YOUTH GLOW INC.
Programme 2027–2031
Green Livelihoods and Resilient Communities
Peace, land protection, skills and savings for Liberia’s forest communities, delivered through one model with four steps: PPSS.
Four steps, in order.
Each community moves from land conflict to a protected forest that earns its members an income they save and reinvest.
Peace
We settle land and boundary disputes before anything else, so no family risks its land by joining.
- Dialogue platforms with chiefs, elders, women, youth and landowners
- Mediation of land, boundary and concession disputes, with signed agreements
- Boundaries mapped by GPS and agreed on the ground
Protect
Communities secure legal rights to their forests and agree how to protect them.
- Free, prior and informed consent in every community
- Support through the FDA’s community forest steps
- Conservation agreements with no-clear and use zones; trained forest guards
Skill
Women and youth learn skills that pay, starting with business and money for everyone.
- Sustainable agriculture: cocoa, coffee and oil palm, with cassava and short-term crops
- Beekeeping and honey processing
- Community solar, buyer links and a producer cooperative
Save
Savings groups keep the gains and fund the next season.
- Village savings and loan groups, many led by women
- Digital records and mobile money
- Loans for seedlings, hives and equipment; each group trains a new one
How PPSS works
The whole programme in under four minutes.
From land disputes to protected forests, new skills and growing savings: how PPSS works year by year, who benefits, and where we aim to be by 2031.
How it flows
A cycle that pays for itself.
- Peace settles land disputes, so families can join without risk.
- Protect secures the forest by community agreement.
- Skill turns healthy land into income.
- Save keeps the gains. Savings are reinvested, and each group trains a new one.
What farmers grow
Sustainable agriculture is at the heart of the Skill step. Farmers learn in Farmer Field Schools, with shade trees, compost and natural pest control, and no chemical pesticides near hives.
Long-term tree crops
Cocoa, coffee and oil palm, grown with shade trees.
Short-term crops
Cassava, rice, vegetables, pepper and groundnut, for food and income while the tree crops mature.
Honey
Women- and youth-led beekeeping, with processing, labelling and links to buyers.
We plant only on land already farmed. No forest is cleared for oil palm or any other crop.
Where we work
We start in Nimba, around the East Nimba Nature Reserve, in Zortarpa, Yekepa Camp 4 and Sopea.
Two more Nimba communities join in 2028, more Bong communities from 2029, building on our work in David Dean’s Town, and Grand Bassa and Margibi from 2030. Our aim is to reach communities nationwide, starting with other forest counties facing the same pressures of poverty, forest loss and land conflict, including Gbarpolu, River Cess, Lofa, Grand Gedeh and Sinoe. Technology runs through every step: GPS and drone maps, satellite alerts for clearing, mobile data collection, and mobile money.
From Nimba and Bong to all of Liberia
Nimba and Bong today. Nationwide next.
We work in Nimba and Bong today, and our goal is to take PPSS nationwide. We scanned all 15 counties for the three pressures our work answers: rural poverty, forests under pressure, and land or concession conflict. The counties below show all three most clearly, so they come first as we expand.
Nimba
Zortarpa, Yekepa Camp 4 and Sopea, around the East Nimba Nature Reserve
Iron-ore concessions; Ganta land dispute (Executive Order 160, 2026)
81% without electricity
Bong
David Dean's Town
Forest landscape around an oil palm concession
63.0% multidimensionally poor; 90% without electricity
Grand Bassa
67.9% poor; 89% without electricity
Iron-ore railway and oil palm concessions
Gbarpolu
72.0% poor, 2nd highest
Dense forest; oil palm expansion; community-company land conflicts
River Cess
76.9% poor, highest in Liberia
Heavily forested; logging pressure
Lofa
62.9% poor
Forested border county; studied for land conflicts
Grand Gedeh
57.2% poor
Cocoa-driven clearing; contested land leases (2025–26)
Sinoe
62.2% poor
Sapo National Park; oil palm concession; rising land conflicts (2026)
Also a good fit: Grand Cape Mount, Bomi and Margibi. Poverty figures: LISGIS, 2022 Census, multidimensional poverty headcount by county. Land conflict: NRC land conflict study; UNDP; national press, 2025–26.
Over the project period, 2027 to 2031
Change builds year by year.
Each community moves through all four steps in about two years. Across the programme, new communities join every year.
- 2027
Make peace
First communities hold dialogues, settle disputes and map boundaries.
- 2028
Protect forests
Forest agreements are signed, and more communities join.
- 2029
Start to earn
Farms, hives and community solar bring the first income.
- 2030
Save and grow
Savings and loans grow, and groups train new groups.
- 2031
Communities lead
The model is ready for new forest counties.
Who benefits
The impact reaches far beyond one group.
Hover or tap a group to see what changes for them.
Where we aim to be by 2031
Indicative targets. Each project confirms its own after a baseline survey.
Built to spread
We are packaging PPSS so others can use it: an operations manual, training curricula, field forms, a mobile survey and a reporting workbook.
From 2028 we plan to share the toolkit openly and train partner facilitators. We want land and forest agencies, county development committees, companies and their community funds, and savings group networks to adopt it. Our ambition is 50 more communities using PPSS through others by 2031.
Let’s grow this together.
Fund a step, deliver PPSS with us, or bring the model to your communities.