Women Struggle to Participate in Forest Governance 15 Years After Law

December 22, 2021

Banner Imgae: Tenneh Sanii sitting under her kitchen in Kiawelahun village. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

By Emmanuel Sherman

FORNOR, Grand Cape Mount County – Tenneh Sanii, 46, is the only female member of the community forest development committee (CFDC), which represents villagers’ interest in a logging contract with Sun Yeun Logging Corporation. She often walks more than two hours from her Kiawelahun, a village to Fornor, where she and nine other members of the CFDC meet. They signed the contract in 2010 with the Chinese company to log on 5,000 hectares of forestland in the Garwula District on the border with Sierra Leone, known across the forestry industry as timber sales contract area 15 (TSC A15).

“I can go for a whole day or one week I leave [the children] with their big sister who can cook,” says Sanii a mother of six as she sits under the thatched kitchen in her home.

It is not just Fornor that women’s participation is low in forest governance. That is the case across all 23 communities affected by TSCs and forest management Contracts (FMCs), which cover forestlands between 50,000 and 400,000 hectares. Before the Liberian Civil War in 2003, communities—including women—did not participate in forestry though are the custodians of the forest. But the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006 changed that, giving women at least a slot in every community leadership. However, 15 years after the law, they still struggle to participate in forest governance.

Of the 230 members of community forests’ leaderships nationwide, just 52 or 23 percent are women, according to the National Union for Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC). Only one community leadership is headed by a woman, Ruth Milton. Just two other women Betty Tarwoe and Tupee Zolue are co-chairpersons of their respective leaderships. Four communities do not have a woman in their leadership.

Florence Dorley, a consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on forestry and natural resource management, says there are many reasons why women’s participation is low in a sector that contributes the third-highest revenue to Liberia in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

“A lot more awareness needs to be done and case study or evidence produced and presented to the communities on the positives in having women in forest governance and the natural resource sector at large,” says Dorley. “Sometimes the exclusion of women from natural resource administration and governance is unintentional and mostly influenced by culture, traditions and lack of knowledge and awareness on the implication and benefits to the women themselves and the communities.”

Joseph Madzvamuse, program manager at ActionAid Liberia, agrees with Dorley. He blames the dominance of males in African societies as a key reason for low women’s involvement.

Fornor, the headquarters of the community forest leadership on timber sales contract area 15 in Grand Cape Mount County. The DayLight/ Emmanuel Sherman

“Most of our societies and communities are patriarchal in Africa, largely dominated by men which is an issue. This does not give women the platform to be held,” says Madzvamuse.

“Women literacy network is another challenge.”

Loretta Pope-Kai, the executive director of the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), which advocates for gender equality in the extractive sector, does not disagree with Madzvamuse or Dorley. But she blames malpractices that have marred the forestry sector despite its reform.

In the last one and a half decades, the sector has witnessed huge violations like the Private Use Permit Scandal of 2012. Last month, a report found nearly US$2.5 million worth of logs were harvested outside a contract area in Grand Bassa, with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) not doing anything despite knowing about it two years ago.

“This is just going to scare away women from participating in forest governance matters and even occupying posts on governance bodies,” Kai told The DayLight at the time. “We are letting women down with all these violations and our failure to act in accordance with the law.”

Kai’s comments strike a chord with the situation in Fornor. Sun Yuen did not live up to the social agreement it signed with Sanii and other villagers for all the 11 years it held the forest. It failed to build roads, construct handpumps, and erect schools and clinics as it promised. The company also failed to live up to its contract with Lah, Fornor’s neighbor commonly called TSC-A16. Under the law, the FDA should have canceled the company’s contracts with those communities after its first year of inaction and a 90-day grace period. Furthermore, Sun Yeun should not have even had a TSC. The law restricts TSC companies to at least 51 percent Liberian shareholders. However, the company’s majority shareholder is Wei Zhang, a Chinese, according to its article of incorporation.

Kai and other campaigners are calling for robust actions to encourage women to participate in community forests’ elections, which are expected to be held next year. Under the law, elections—including for Sanii’s community forest leadership—should be held every five years for review and renegotiation of contracts.

Forestry contributed the third-highest revenue for the Liberian government in the fiscal year 2018/2019. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“Over the years, and the coming elections, we have done lots of things because analyzing the situation, we’ve gone back to communities, prioritizing women’s education, especially women training in forest governance,” says Andrew Zelemen, head of the secretariat of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC). Zelemen says the group worked with local and international non-governmental organizations and established a network of women across communities affected by TSCs and FMCs.

“We are doing that as a means to have them represent their communities,” Zelemen, whose own community leadership does not have a single woman, says. “We are very sure that this coming election they will participate.”

“We have designed interventions to ensure women have a space to discuss issues without any interference from their male counterparts to help them strategize how they can participate, says Madzvamuse. “At the community level, we have girls’ clubs, women’s clubs, mother’s clubs and women’s forums.”

Facing bad roads, long-distance walks, and a failed logging contract, Sanii still wants to continue working on her community forest’s leadership. Marbu Sheriff, her chairman wants to bring other women onboard.

Sheriff says, “I am talking to two other women from the nearby villages to be part of the CFDC.”

Dutch Bank Reaps US$375M from Deforestation, Rights Abuses in Liberia

December 21, 2021

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Banner Image: A cleared forestland in Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA -Dutch financial institution Rabobank received USD$375 million from investing in oil palm projects in Liberia, which are marred by deforestation and human rights violations, according to a new report by Global Witness.

Rabobank, a Dutch financial institution, generated dividends from its investment into Sinar Mas Group, an agribusiness and Food Company and chief investor into Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Golden Veroleum’s largest shareholder.

“The Government of Liberia must redirect harmful finance and promote community-based agriculture and forest management so that Liberians benefit directly from their natural resources,” said Danielle van Oijen, Friends of the Earth – Netherlands, who worked on the report. “The government must get hold of such money as a way of preventing deforestation across industrial plantations.”

The report found that as of July 2018, Rabobank had credited Sinar Mas US$150 million, according to an update provided last December by BankTrack, an international NGO that traces banks’ financing deals. The credited amount was given to GVL through Verdant Fund LP, its parent organization.

Rabobank and other banks from the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China netted $$1.74 billion in interest, dividends, and fees from financing agribusinesses groups that have destroyed tropical rain forests in Brazil, Southeast Asia and Africa since the Paris Climate Agreement. Its finances were invested into soy, beef, palm oil and pulp and paper, according to Global Witness. The credits have involved banks and asset managers whose firms have been accused of causing global climate emergency and placing a shattering cost for rural communities who depend on forests for survival.

An earlier report by Friend of the Earth – Netherlands found that GAR, in 2012 received US$90.8M from Rabobank and $152.21M the next year. The latter was given mainly for the operations of GAR. In 2017 and 2018, ABN AMRO provided a total of US$300.8M to GAR and its subsidiaries.

GAR and other multinational companies use a chain of financial structures to fund their subsidiaries with money they receive from Dutch banks while hiding their connections and avoiding direct liabilities. Over the last five years, GAR, Wilmar and Société Financière des caoutchoucs (SOCFIN) received different loan portfolios from Rabobank. The report comes as palm oil, the most frequently used vegetable oil in the world become a highly controversial commodity. In Indonesia, the headquartered country of GAR, Golden Veroleum’s biggest investor, rain forest there was destroyed and local farmers were chased off their land, according to farmland.org, a website, which tracks purchase and lease of farmland by companies globally.

“Enforcement is lacking and companies do not see the consequences of their harmful operations,” van Oijen said. “We call upon all financiers to immediately stop financing companies engaged in deforestation, pollution and human rights violations, and provide compensation and remedy to the victims and environment.”

Rabobank denied it is financing GVL activities in Liberia. “Loans are generally connected to specific activities and the subsidiary activities in Liberia are not financed by Rabobank,” Johan Verburg, senior policy advisor on risk, sustainability and climate, told The DayLight.

GVL has been frequently linked with deforestation and human rights abuses since it signed a 65-year concession agreement with the government of Liberia in 2010. The company secured 220,000 hectares for its oil palm production across communities in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland counties. But its operations have been tinted with deforestation, land-grab, and human rights violations.

On May 26, 2015, hundreds of Butaw youths demanding jobs and community development were beaten by heavily armed riot police on orders of the company, incarcerating several youths for over a year without trial. One person died from the violence, and several thousand worths of properties were damaged.

GVL has also been accused multiple times of carrying out numerous human rights abuses against workers, including community people. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global oil palm regulatory body, found the company guilty of committing human rights abuses, including forceful entry into traditional shrines. It found the company responsible for illegally encroaching on community lands outside of its concession area. GAR recently upheld the RSPO’s ruling, saying on its website, “There was no attempt to hide or deny the clearance of community land,” vowing GVL would not clear any additional land until it develops a sustainability plan for review by the HCSA.

Last yea0r, the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) report established GVL cut down trees across a thousand hectares of forests, habitat for endangered species and important wetlands. The report found GVL violated the land and cultural rights of local communities, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent.

Golden Veroleum said it would respond to the report. “GVL is working with RSPO and HCSA under their respective complaints systems and that we have previously responded to the allegations,” said Alphonso Kofi, its communication officer.

President Weah Violated Law By Accepting 1,500 Acres of Community Land

December 20, 2021

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Banner Image: President George Weah violated the Land Rights Act by accepting 1,500 acres of land in Gbi-Doru, Nimba County. Picture credit: The Analyst

By Varney Kamara

In 2020, the people of the Gbi-Doru District in Nimba County gave President George Weah 1,500 acres of land he is using for agricultural purposes
Despite being his maternal hometown, Weah violated the Land Rights Act of 2018, as the community does not meet legal requirements to transfer ownership of a portion of its ancestral land.

In February, the remote district petitioned Weah to grant them a district status and an official recognition of their tribe to end years of lack. Chiefs and elders The DayLight interviewed said it was the reason they gifted him the land.

A Legal expert said the President also violated the Code of Conduct, as accepting the land amounts to a conflict of interest

DORGBOR TOWN, Nimba County – President George Weah violated the Land Rights Act of 2018 when he accepted 1,500 acres of farmland from people in his maternal homeland in Nimba County, an investigation by The DayLight has found.

Chiefs and elders of Gbi-Doru in the Tappita District last year gifted Weah the land, the size of 1,136 football fields, which produced 550 bunches of rice last year, villagers said. It was not clear how much land the district has in total.

“When [Weah] leaves power, the land belongs to him because he is our son. He is our nephew and he’s controlling the whole nation,” said Foster Dorgbor, 41, Town Chief of Dorgbor Town, the closest community to the land. “He owns more than that. We are just testing him yet.

“You cannot have a hunter and don’t have soup in your house,” said Chief Dorgbor. “Our nephew is controlling the whole nation now, so we said ‘Let us draw his attention that he is from this side.’”

Having accepted the land, the President violated the milestone law, one of the first legal instruments he signed upon assuming office in 2018. Acclaimed worldwide for its recognition of customary land rights, the law lays out a legal process through which a community can transfer ownership of their land. A community must first identify itself as a landowning one, demarcate the boundaries with its neighbors, establish its members, draft bylaws, set up a community land development and management committee (CLDMC), and draft a land-use plan. Only the collective members of the community—including women and the youth—have the right “to approve the sale, lease or donation of customary land.” Gbi-Doru has not even started that process.

“Under the Land Rights Act, George Weah is entitled to possession and ownership of land in Gbi-Doru District for residential purposes, since he is a community member by virtue of Gbi-Doru being his maternal home district,” said a lawyer, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “However, if it is not for the purpose of taking title to a customary land as a residential area, the [law] forbids any act of purchase, holding or permanently alienating any portion of customary land until after the expiration of fifty years from the effective date of the [law].”

Residents told The DayLight they were unaware of the law.

“We don’t know anything about Land Rights [Act] here. No land rights activists have come here,” said Abednego Wlaryee, the town chief of Tiah’s Town, though he told The DayLight he was in River Cess County when Gbarsaw and Dorbor Clan completed the requirements to obtain its ancestral land ownership.

The Liberia Land Authority (LLA), which oversees the land sector and implementation of the law, did not respond to queries on the matter up to the time this story was published. We will update this article once it does.

‘Grant Us Independence’

The lawyer The DayLight interviewed said Weah was also liable for a conflict of interest, a violation of the Code of Conduct for all Public Officials and Employees of the Government of the Republic of Liberia. The law defines conflict of interest as “when a public official, contrary to official obligations and duties to act for the benefit of the public, exploits a relationship for personal benefit.”

“The argument could be that the 1,500 acres gift to the president by the Gbi-Doru community is well deserved because the community is his maternal home. The question then is: Why now and not before he was a president?” The lawyer said. “Obviously, if it was not but for his office, this gift could have never been a deal between the president and the people of Gbi-Doru. Evidentially, the President is using his office or official position to pursue his private interest, which is most likely to yield a conflict of interest.”

President George Weah speaks to the people of Gbi-Doru Administrative District, Nimba County on his visit there in February 2021. Picture Credit: FrontPage Africa

It was only a year after they gifted him the land that chiefs and elders of Gbi-Doru petitioned Weah to give the district a county status and make its language official on his visit there as part of a nationwide tour. The birthplace of Weah’s late mother, Anna Quayeweah, the district has been neglected by successive governments, lacking roads, schools, hospitals and other public utilities.

In the last decades, it has embarked upon campaigns to end its misery. First, to be returned to River Cess after a tax row in 1938 saw then-President Edwin James Barclay place the district under Nimba County. With the quest highly unlikely achievable, the district—which has a population of 7,744 people, according to the 2008 National Population and Housing Census—has turned its attention to a more ambitious goal.

“Please grant us independence, independence in the form and fashion of a county status. Please grant the Gbi Tribe an official and statutory recognition so that Gbi will be the 17^th official tribe of the Republic of Liberia,” their petition read at the time.

“We are left behind in the Republic of Liberia,” said Paramount Chief Saturday Thomas in an interview with The DayLight through an interpreter. “Our action was to tell the President we are Liberians and deserve attention. We need our own superintendent and representatives who will pay attention to us.”

Weah asked the chiefs and elders to be patient. “The Constitution gives you the right to such demand, but this can be done through an act of legislation,” Weah told residents at the time. “For too long you have complained, and it was prudent to listen and grant your desire in accordance with the law. I want you to exercise patience and engage relevant authorities, including the Legislature to grant this request.” He toured the controversial farmland, with pictures and videos of him brushing bushes going viral on Facebook.

Things have not worked as villagers expected. Farming activities on the land this year were interrupted by prolonged rainfall. And the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) halted a 22-bedroom-clinic project for not meeting the standard of a health facility, according to villagers in Dorgbor Town, where the construction is ongoing.

“LACE stopped the project and promised to get back to us when things are finalized,” Michael Teah, the youth chairman of the community and its representative of the project. LACE did not respond to queries for comments on the project.

A pile of blocks locals said were meant for a 22-bedroom clinic project initiated by President George Weah in Dorgbor Town, Gbi Doru. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

‘Elite land-grab’

The controversies over the land come at the time land rights campaigners are flagging a growing number of “elite land-grabs” in a state whose land history involves several battles with rural communities as far back as its establishment in the early 1820s. Last month, the Civil Society Land Rights Working Group (CSO-LRWG) criticized the Liberia Land Authority for being too slow to formulate regulations for the implementation of the law, three years after its creation. The group warned of countrywide land conflicts, calling on the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) to speed up the development of regulations to enforce the law.

“This is an important case that should trigger serious discussions about implementing the land rights law, starting with drafting regulations,” said Ali Kaba, one of the crafters of the law and now a Ph.D. scholar in development studies at the American University in Washington D.C.

“Elite land-grab undermines the intent of the Land Rights Act,” said Nora Bowier of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). “It worsens poverty as it deprives communities of their rights to a fair deal and economic benefits from their land and resources.”

The Executive Mansion declined to comment on the land matter. It recommended The DayLight to the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs, and Tourism, which, likewise, refused to comment on the matter.

The story is part of The DayLight’s Land-grab Reporting Series.

Dutch Banks Finance US$3.5 Billion in Deforestation Projects Affecting Liberia, Report Finds

December 13, 2021

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Banner Image: Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm nursery in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Gabriel Dixon

MONROVIA – Dutch banks ING Group, ABN AMRO and Rabobank have provided 3.1 billion Euros (nearly US$3.5 billion) in the last five years to agriculture projects that have led to deforestation and human rights violation around the world, including Liberia, a new report has found.

The report, Dutch financial sector European frontrunner in financing deforestation, released by Friend of the Earth -Netherlands and Profundo recently, found that Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP), the Cavalla Rubber Corporation (CRC), Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) and the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) all received Dutch investments through their parent companies to knock down the forest and take away land belonging to rural communities.

These multinational companies use a chain of financial structures to fund their subsidiaries with money they receive from Dutch banks while hiding their connections and avoiding direct liabilities. Over the last five years, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), Wilmar and Société Financière des caoutchoucs (SOCFIN) received different loan portfolios from the Dutch banks.

An earlier report by Friend of the Earth (FOE) found that GAR, in 2012 received US$90.8M from Rabobank and $152.21M the next year. The latter was given mainly for the operations of GAR. In 2017 and 2018, ABN AMRO provided a total of US$300.8M to GAR and its subsidiaries.

GVL is a subsidiary of GAR, a Singaporean multinational oil palm company that now has operations across 12 countries, including Liberia. GAR provides funding it receives from Dutch banks through the Verdant Funds to subsidiaries like Golden Veroleum Liberia.

MOPP and CRC are owned by Wilmar through SIFCA, a subsidiary of the company. Wilmar is also a Singaporean company that operates in the oil palm and rubber industries. SRC and LAC, on the other hand, are owned by SOCFIN, a Luxembourg multinational company whose primary activity involves managing palm oil and rubber plantations in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. The French Bolloré Group holds at least 38.8% of the shares of the company. The Bolloré Group received a loan from ABN AMRO to fund its operations and those of its auxiliary companies such as SOCFIN.

“Despite voluntary commitments of banks and declarations by the (Dutch) government, Dutch financing of companies linked to deforestation and human rights abuses continues, said Danielle van Oijen of Friend of the Earth-Netherlands. “Hence, we call for legal obligations for the financial sector and a shift of finance towards agro-ecology and community-based forest management.”

Evidence of Deforestation, Land-grab and Human Right Violations

Subsidiaries of multinational companies operating in Liberia are all been investigated and found liable for deforestation, land grab and human rights abuses.

In February this year, GVL was declared non-compliance with the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) by a panel set up by the High Carbon Stock Organization in a grievance filed by Friends of the Earth-Netherlands, Sustainable Development Institute, and Friend of the Earth-USA. HSCA Grievance Panel Report concluded that GVL was indeed guilty of deforestation and the destruction of biodiversity areas in Liberia.

In March 2018 the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international body that develops and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil, found GVL guilty of complaints filed by the people of Butaw, Tarjowon, Du, Wolee and Nyennee, and Numopoh through the Civil Society Organizations Oil Palm Working Group (CSO – OPWG) for taking away their land without free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), destruction of sacred sites, and deforestation. GVL also unlawfully dismissed workers for their involvement with communities aggrieved by the actions of the company in violation of both domestic and international labor laws.

GVL said it was now acting in compliance with international standards. “GVL is working with RSPO and HCSA under their respective complaints systems …,” said Alphonso Kofi, the company’s spokesman in an emailed response to The DayLight.

MOPP and CRC have been engaged in deforestation. Their operations have also led to mass forced removals and displacement of local communities in Pleebo-Sodoken District, Maryland County. In 2012, SIFCA security killed a man on its plantation. The company is also known for violating labor laws, including the illegal dismissal of pregnant employees.

SRC and LAC were accused of wrongfully taking away land belonging to local farming communities in Bong and Grand Bassa Counties. The two companies are also alleged to have been involved in bad labor practices and human rights abuses.

The companies did not respond to our queries for comments on the new report.

‘Disappointed’

Reacting to the report, Terry Panyonnoh, a local community rights advocate from Butaw, one of the communities affected in Sinoe County, felt “let down” by the Dutch Government and financial institutions. Panyonnoh was among several community rights advocates and who rallied the Dutch parliamentarians and financial institutions in October 2019 to halt their investment in projects linked to deforestation in their homelands.

“I am strongly disappointed in the government of the Netherlands after our visit and rally in 2019,” said Panyonnoh via Facebook. “I think we will mobilize and present a petition to the government of Liberia demanding the closure of companies engaged in deforestation and the abuse of human rights,” he concluded.

The report comes after global efforts by world leaders and international bodies, including financial institutions and agribusinesses to combat the impact and effect of climate change in the world. At the 26^th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), held in Glasgow, Scotland, world leaders sought to agree on how to step up global action to solve the climate crisis. A key issue among the objectives was to discuss measures to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. Liberia made a commitment to cut down on deforestation in the forestry and agriculture sectors.

Up to press time, The DayLight did not get replies from ING, ABN AMRO, or Rabobank. This story will be updated as soon as we receive responses from the banks and the companies.

LEITI Rallies for Women’s Input in Natural Resource Sector

December 3, 2021

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Banner Image: Miatta Pratt, a member of the Gola Konneh Community Forest displays meeting minutes she attends. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (LEITI) has embarked on the training for civil society organizations in Monrovia for the enhancement of women’s participation in the country’s natural resource sector.

Liberia has passed laws guaranteeing the participation of women in the country’s natural resource management, including the Land Rights Act of 2018, the Forestry Reform Law of 2006, and the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Land. However, only a few women participate in governance activities across the extractive sector, pushing stakeholders to rethink ways to increase their number.

“Women’s issues are national issues. They are societal problems,” said Cerue Konah, facilitator and gender specialist at the Carter Center, at a daylong training on Friday held at the LEITI headquarters in Monrovia. “This meeting is intended to give stronger voices to women in the national resource governance sector and hence, we must take actions such as reviewing the laws and policies to reflect our collective desire for change.”

Despite the laws, the patriarchal nature of the Liberian society has posed hindrances to women’s exerting their rights, according to a report by Client Earth, an international environmental law charity, last year. In order to guarantee enhanced women’s participation, it suggests a thorough analysis of the formulation of laws and policies on the environment, including regulations that strengthen these efforts.

“One of the ways for us to end marginalization against women is providing education,” said C. Mike Doryan, Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the chairman of the multi-stakeholder group (MSG), the LEITI’s board of directors. “Let’s look at the laws and policies and see how we can empower our women so that they can influence things in the society.”

Participants expressed their desire to work together in order to make women’s empowerment a reality.

“I expect that women’s voices will be strengthened in the natural resource sector of this country after this training,” said Teresa Viskinda, president of the Liberia Labor Congress (LLC. “I am also here to ensure that we take this message to all labor unions across this country.”

“My expectation is that this meeting will help to identify the role of the youths, especially young women, in managing the supply access to the state’s natural resources,” added Banica Elliot of the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY).

A banner at the training. Photo credit: LEITI

Tree Kills Man in Cape Mount

December 2, 2021

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Banner Image: A man squats next to the body of the late Joseph Galakpai. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

By Emmanuel Sherman

GOLA KONNEH – A man has died in a logging accident in Grand Cape Mount County.

Joseph Galakpai died on Saturday after a tree he was harvesting fell on him and killed him instantly in the Gola Konneh Community Forest operated by Akewa Group of Companies.

“I sent my town chief and everybody went there and buried the man,” said Momo Thomas, paramount chief of the Gola Konneh.

The late Galakpai had reportedly joined the Nigerian logging firm just two days before the unfortunate incident.

Logging is a dangerous occupation, involving huge trees and the use of equipment such as chainsaws.

In April earlier this year, a man was killed in Bong County after a tree he cut fell on him.

Communities threaten more Protests Over Land Rental Fees

December 2, 2021

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Banner Image: Representatives of communities protest before the Ministry of Finance in Monrovia. The DayLight/Theophilus Jackson

By William Selmah

MONROVIA – Representatives of forest communities across the country say they will stage more sit-in actions at the Finance Ministry to demand settlement of land rental arrears owed to them until their demands are met.

They reached an agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to call off the protest, with both sides agreeing to hold discussions tomorrow to reach a resolution.

“If we don’t hear from them, we will go back to the ministry again,” said Annie Jerrue, vice president for operations of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committees (NUCFDC), which spearheaded a protest last Wednesday at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in Monrovia.

The protestors held placards brandishing: “No pay, no logging,” and “FDA, LRA & MFDP, we want the land rental fees record.”

In October, the government paid the 23 forest communities over US$200,000 out of US$ 5.5 million it owes them as land rental fees from concessions operating in their forests. The amount represents 30 percent of all logging-related land rental fees paid by logging companies to be given to affected communities affected under the 2006 National Forestry Reform Law provides that.

The government has paid only US$2.8 million (instead of US$8.6 million) from US$27.7 million it has collected from loggers since the law came into force, according to a report by Forest Trends.

Andrew Zelemen, the coordinator of the NUCFDC said the discussion will be centered on how much the government has actually received from logging companies so that a payment plan can be reached. He added that it would also inform the communities’ engagement with the companies.

Last Wednesday’s protest was the third this year, and the third year in a row since the communities have staged such a strike in 2019.

Tubman and Firestone: The Tale of Land-grab and Human Rights Abuses

November 30, 2021

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Banner Image: Harvey Firestone left and Tubman Right. Picture credit: Indiana University

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA– Since 1952, Liberia has commemorated November 29, the birthday of former President William V.S. Tubman, as a national holiday. Throughout this period, Liberians from all walks of life join in huge pomp and pageantry. In Maryland County, Tubman’s birthplace, thousands of people there usually decorate themselves with palm leaves as the echoes of traditional drumming trumpet across communities. In Monrovia and elsewhere, public buildings and businesses are shut down. Tubman became famous for his policies on unification and the economy, which earned him a great depth of respect home and abroad. He died on July 23, 1971.

But not many know that the former President was a lawyer for Firestone Liberia, a company whose nearly century-old rubber operations witnessed a huge land-grab and some of the worst human rights abuses in global concession history. The DayLight takes a look at Tubman’s controversial relationship with the company as the country celebrates the 126th birth anniversary of its longest-serving president.

Born William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman in 1895 in the southeastern city of Harper, Maryland County, he began his political journey in 1912 as an assistant in a probate court, going to serve in Harper City as a councilman and teacher from 1914 and 1917. During this period, he read law. He was admitted into the Maryland County bar later in 1917 and appointed county attorney. Tubman became an attorney for Firestone in the 1920s. Firestone hired him, who was Senator at the time, and Edwin James Barclay, who was Secretary of State (Foreign Minister). Both men even traveled to Ohio, USA as part of the negotiation, according to Samuel P. Jackson in Rich Land Poor County: the Paradox of Poverty in Liberia. “The agreement did not require Firestone to provide education beyond the ninth grade for the children of plantation workers and, as a result, the system produced generations of tappers and low wage earners.”

The Firestone agreement, one of the worst concessions in human history, saw the company pen a 99-year contract with the government of Liberia for one million acres at the rate of six cents per acre. Hundreds of people, who had lived on the land for generations, were evicted. Villagers were pushed at the margins of the concession area, including what would become the Roberts International Airport (RIA) highway. If it were today, it would have been a violation of the Land Rights Act of 2018, the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the UNESCO’s 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Framework. Firestone is currently locked in a land dispute with Kpanyan over the 1926 land-grab dispute. Queezar, another community adjacent to the concession, which roughly translates in the Bassa language, “The educated people took our land,” is an everlasting lamentation of that human rights abuse. The Firestone agreement was extended in 2015 to 2046 after agreeing on an amendment with the government.

Liberian President William V.S. Tubman with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, North Portico, White House, October 19, 1961. Picture Credit: The White House

The 1926 deal did not prove only detrimental to villagers and workers. It did to the Liberian government as well. In the 1930s, Barclay, now the President, found himself in a stalemate with the very concessionaire whose deal he and Tubman had helped secure. The Great Depression of that decade brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy, and Firestone tried to persuade the United States government to compel Liberia to pay a US$5 million loan. The country had obtained the loan as part of the agreement. Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to interfere in Liberian internal affairs, writing in a memorandum to the State Department that, “At all times we should remember that (Harvey) Firestone went to Liberia at his own financial risk, and it is not the business of the State Department to pull his financial chestnut out of the fire except as a friend of the Liberian people.” In 1932, the Liberian Legislature passed the Moratorium Act, suspending payment of the Firestone loan until terms could be negotiated that were more in line with Liberia’s ability to pay. The U.S. suspended diplomatic relations but did not take further action. To date, there’s no record to show that the government paid back Firestone this money.

The loan had always been controversial, as Firestone had slipped in the agreement, which went on to be called clause “K,” in the last stages of the negotiation. It was the same as the US$8 million loan deal the Daniel E. Howard administration had obtained from the US government but was disapproved by Congress. Clause K had sparked protest in and outside the country.

The loan clause was only accepted after both parties saw the deal as necessary for their political economies. At the end of World War I, Great Britain—the leader of the global trade of rubber—decided to restrict the supply of the commodity on the world market. So, Firestone decided to come to Liberia to nullify Great Britain’s dominance of the global rubber market. Liberia’s tropical and very humid climate was an ideal area for growing rubber. It also found that Liberia had a cheap labor force, and the government too was eager to offer a concession in exchange for U.S. protection against colonial neighbors who were impatient to annex the country, a nation it helped establish in 1822. Moreover, Firestone wanted political control in Liberia to protect its long-term investment. Liberia owed more than US$1 million to British bankers. That was a safeguard to avoid the British direct meddling into Liberia’s internal affairs. Also, Firestone’s action was a strategic decision aimed at protecting its rubber production deal with the Liberian government. Similarly, the U.S. Government got interested and supported Firestone’s plans which included a promise to construct a major port. Firestone did not need a port to export the rubber from Liberia but merely proposed it to get the approval and support of the US State Department, which was particularly interested in a port on the West African coast as a station for naval use.

Tubman’s relationship with Firestone became even stronger when he became President of Liberia in 1944, defeating six candidates, including Clarence Lorenzo Simpson, his closest rival. While president, he owned the largest rubber plantation outside of Firestone, selling rubber to the company, a conflict of interest today under the Code of Conduct. His administration used martial law to recruit 300,000 casual laborers for Firestone—as per the agreement—up to the early 1960s. In fact, it even shut down a strike action on the plantation in 1950. It was only in 1962—after Portugal filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO)—that Liberia created a labor law that outlawed forced recruitment of workers. Up to the mid-2000s, the company’s workers lived in windowless houses, without running water and electricity. The administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the time demanded it improve the workers’ welfare. Its relationship with workers inspired agricultural labor unions across the country and the creation of the Decent Work Act of 2015.

The Tubman-supported forced recruitment of workers was reminiscent of the Fernando-Po Crisis, where natives were adopted from their homes and farms and sent to the Fernando Po in today’s Equatorial Guinea to work on plantations. The Fernando Po Crisis had led to the resignation of former President Charles Dunbar Burgess King and Vice President Allen Yancy in 1930, and brought to power Barclay and later Tubman. Firestone would go on to pay rebels to protect its investments and operations while the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) raged, killing thousands of people, according to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Liberia, Harbel, January 2006 Every week-day, hevea-tappers from the Firestone plantation must take care of 800 trees: dealing anti-parasitical treatments, tapping trees, collecting latex, and clearing brushwood. As they can’t cope with their daily quotas, numerous workers have to be helped by their family or by a friend, to whom they pay back money and rice. Liberia, Harbel, janvier 2006 Tous les jours de la semaine, les ouvriers de la plantation de Firestone doivent s’occuper de 800 arbres et en collecter le latex, leur administrer un traitement anti-parasitique et nettoyer les allées des buissons. Comme ils ne peuvent pas réaliser le travail qui leur est confier seul, ils se font aider par leur famille ou amis à qui ils reversent une partie de leur salaire. Michael Zumstein / Agence VU

Despite these gross human rights abuses associated with Tubman and Firestone, both of them play important roles in Liberian society.

Regarded as the “father of modern Liberia,” Tubman was responsible for enacting many reforms during his 27-year rule (1944–1971). His administration built public schools and gave women the right to participate in politics. Many public infrastructures were also built during his regime, including bridges that linked interior Liberia to urban settlements. Tubman’s legacy also includes his “Open Door Policy,” which increased foreign investment in Liberia. By the time of his death, Liberia could boast the largest commercial fleet in the world and the world’s largest rubber industry, making the country the envy of many other African nations.

Firestone, on the other hand, is one of the largest contributors to Liberia’s economy. One of the country’s largest employers—a little over 6,000 workers—the company said it has spent more than US$2 billion in the country since the end of the Liberian Civil War.

This story is a part of The DayLight’s Human Rights Reporting Series.

Ex-Pro Tempore’s Brother Claims 750 Acres of Community Land in Gbarpolu, Locals Say No

November 27, 2021

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Banner Image: A portion of the 750 acres of land Sylvester Jallah is claiming in Fallah Clan, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By James Harding Giahyue

Darkollie Sylvester Jallah, a brother of the former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, claims 750 acres of land in Fallah Clan, Gbarpolu County

He said his late father, the famed Paramount Chief Jallah Lone, gave him the land in the early 2000s

Residents of the clan disapprove of his ownership of the land, accusing him of using his family status to deny them of farmland

Campaign groups call on the government to investigate “elite land-grabs” they say are happening across the country.

FALLAH CLAN, Gbarpolu County – A brother of Armah Jallah, former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, is claiming ownership of 750 acres of land in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County.

Darkollie Sylvester Jallah lays claim to 500 acres of farmland in Fallah Clan and another 250 acres in Barma Clan in the Gungbeyah Chiefdom, bordering Bomi County. He has cultivated 124 acres of the land in Fallah Clan, farming vegetables, pigs and goats, with a workforce between 20 and 25 people. He said he has invested over US$6,000 so far on the land and plans to plant cocoa in the future.

However, local farmers challenge Jallah’s claims.

“The land that Sylvester Jallah is occupying was not given to him by the citizens… the way it supposed to be,” said David Morris, a resident of Fallah Clan.“He came on that land without the consent of the citizens of Fallah.”

“Sylvester and the Fallah [Clan] people are not friendly…, because of the way he forced himself on the land,” said Flomo Wolobah, 47, the founder of Ekki Village, the community at the forefront of the opposition of Jallah’s acquisition of the farmland. He said he and other villagers have little land left to farm.

Jallah said he got the land from Chief Jallah Lone, his father, in the early 2000s as a token after he advised the late legendary paramount chief of Bopolu to document his ownership of all the land in the district. He paid L$150 (US$1.61 today) to seal the deal.

“I am not afraid, I am a citizen and I am not doing anything wrong,” Jallah told The DayLight in an interview on Daryan Organic Farm on a rainy day in August marking its first anniversary. “I am doing a good investment here for the citizens to benefit, so it is not something to hide.”

Villagers accuse Slyvester Jallah of grabbing 750 acres of farmland in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/Henry Gboluma

‘Go to court’

In February last year, chiefs and elders of the Fallah Clan met with Jallah to discuss the dispute. In that meeting, he presented tribal certificates his father and district authorities had issued him for the land but the chiefs refused to recognize the document on the ground that they were “fake.”

Jallah then agreed to meet the elders the next month. However, more than a year on, that meeting has not been held. Efforts by Paramount Chief Dianah Johnson of Gungbeyah Chiefdom to reach a resolution have also not materialized.

“I am not going to argue with anybody on the land issue here,” Jallah told The DayLight. “Just go to the court and present your case then we can discuss it from there.” His tribal certificates appear to be altered, with erasure marks on the portion with his name and locations of the lands. (He allowed The DayLight to take pictures of the documents under the condition that we did not publish them).

The villagers The DayLight interviewed accused Jallah of using his family status to grab farmland belonging to the entire community.

“We don’t know his next plan of action,” said Morris. “Maybe the following year he will like to extend it to the Maher River.” The river separates Gbarpolu from Bomi.

“He feels that we don’t have the strength to fight him,” Wolobah added. “For him, he’s got money. For us, we are struggling. It is because his name is Jallah.”

The Former Pro Tempore, Jallah’s elder brother, also faces similar allegations from people in Fallah Clan over 850 acres of land in a place called Underwear Town, a portion of which he has a vast palm plantation. He denied any wrongdoing, saying, “The land there is for us by inheritance,” and that the people of Ekki Village were “strangers.”

The Jallahs are a household name in Gbarpolu County. The late Paramount Chief Lone, their father, was revered up to his death in 2011 for being a unifier and peacemaker. He served as head of the National Traditional Council of Liberia from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The Jallah Lone Medical Center, the largest hospital in the western county, is named after him. A representative of Bopolu told the then-Land Commission in 2012 that the late Lone and other chiefs controlled 790,982 acres of land in the District. The former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate helped establish Gbarpolu as a county in 2001 while serving as senator of Lofa County. He is the only person to serve as senator for two counties. The younger Jallah threads the family’s political path, too. He contested the 2017 elections for a seat in the House of Representatives, finishing fifth in the field of 10 contestants.

But the younger Jallah is adamant the plots of land in Fallah and Barma Clan have something to do with his family’s influence. “There are some misconceptions surrounding it,” he told me, “and some people want to politicize what we are trying to do.”

Flomo Wolobah of Fallah Clan is one of several villagers who challenges Sylvester Jallah’s claim to 750 acres of land in the Gungbeyah Chiefdom of Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The conflict between the villagers and the Jallahs is typical of how controversial tribal certificates are to Liberia’s land reform. The Land Rights Act of 2018 guarantees rural communities’ ownership. Previous statutes—a bevy of hinterland legislations between the 1900s and 1920s, the Aborigine Law of 1949, and the Public Land Act of 1952—granted them the only user’s rights. Chiefs and elders, who represented the communities in land matters, extended that right to third parties through certificates for the decades that proceeded. The exact number of those tribal certificates is unknown but could well be in their thousands.

Under the Land Rights Act, townspeople in Fallah and Barma Clan must approve Jallah’s ownership of the 750 acres before he gets a deed for the land. The law requires the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and the community in which the land in question is located to vet all tribal certificates related to that particular community. The developed portion of the land remains with the holders and the undeveloped is returned to the community. That process began in January earlier this year and should end in 2023.

“If the community says they don’t know about it, we can’t force them to say they know about it,” said Adams Manobah, chairman of the LLA told me in a mobile phone interview. “If you have a tribal certificate and you developed portion of the [land that tribal certificate represents]… the area that you developed is hundred percent for you on ground that the tribal certificate is good. If it is not good at all, then you don’t have any claim.

“On that ground, we can’t say you have the land. That is when you and the community will have to negotiate.”

Last week, the Civil Society Land Rights Working Group (CSO-LRWG) criticized the LLA for the slow pace of the implementation of the law. The law requires the government to conduct a confirmatory survey of all customary lands. That has not been done, even though some communities have already completed all other legal steps more than a year ago. The LLA has also not formulated the regulations, which should facilitate the implementation of the law. It has started the process but is expected not to be completed until the first quarter of next year, according to Manobah.

CSO-LRWG, a conglomerate of several nongovernmental organizations, called on the LLA to speed up the formulation of the regulations and investigate reports of current and former officials of government, and their relatives and business people grabbing community land.

“The CSO-LRWG has [witnessed] a huge surge in land-grabs by so-called elites of community customary land and some have degenerated into land conflicts and yet the Liberia Land Authority has not done much to properly investigate these land grabs and conflicts and bring them to an amicable settlement,” said Paul Larry George, chairman of the Associates for Rural Development (ARD), one of the organizations.

“The government has to pay serious attention to this thing,” said Alphonso Henries, the executive director of the Liberian Reform Movement.

“Elite land-grab undermines the intent of the Land Rights Act,” said Nora Bowier of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). “It worsens poverty as it deprives communities of their rights to a fair deal and economic benefits from their land and resources.”

The LLA did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for a response to the group’s assertions. We will update the story once it does.

Editor’s Note: This story is a part of The DayLight Land-grab Reporting Series. Additional Reporting by Henry Gboluma.

Illegal Logging Having Severe Impact on Women, Says CSO

November 20, 2021

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Banner Image: Mrs. Loretta Alethea Pope Kai. Photo credit: Foundation for Community Initiatives via Facebook

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – A civil society organization (CSO) has frowned on illegal logging across the country, saying such practice is having severe negative consequences on women across concession communities.

“A significant segment of our women rely on the income from farming in the forests, and the illicit cutting of logs basically undermines these activities,” said Loretta Alethea Pope Kai, executive director for the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), in an interview with The DayLight on Wednesday. “Illegal logging weakens everything about women and their relationship to forests. It threatens their health, safety, and their food security.”

Kai’s comments came in reaction to a recent report by a number of CSOs, which found that a logging company harvested approximately 14,000 cubic meters of logs outside its expired permit area in Grand Bassa County worth nearly US$2.5 million. The Timber Sales Contract Area 2 (TSC A2) permit had expired in 2012.

FCI, which advocates for women’s rights to land and participation in forest governance, is demanding the government takes concrete steps against illegal logging across concession communities and as a first step publishes the official report examining this clear case of illegal logging.

Women in Liberia are major users of forests and forest products, such as wood for fuel, medicinal plants and wild foods. Seventy percent of households income in Liberia comes from forests products, according to a World Bank report.

“These activities continue to make our women poor. Communities have been greatly affected by the destructive wave of deforestation caused by illegal logging activities, while the government continues to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in forest revenue,” Kai said.

The report called on the FDA to revoke the permit of the Tarpeh Timber Company (TTC), the company which holds the controversial concession, and Renaissance Group Incorporated (RGI) and Freedom Group Liberia (FGL), the two other companies associated with the concession. It also called on the government to prosecute anyone involved in the scandal, criticizing the Ministry of Justice for not having done so, more than a year after it started to investigate the matter.

“This is a clear mark of impunity,” Kai said. “Without strict adherence to the laws and regulations on fines and penalty, we cannot guarantee the benefits for rural women and girls from forest resources. We are compounding their poverty.”

TTC has been associated with logging outside of its concession area before, and, the report found, it appeared to deliberately risk a fine for greater profit. A 2009 UN Panel of Experts report found the company harvested timber outside of its concession area valued at least US$100,000, but was fined a meager US$2,000 or two percent of the value of the export.

And in 2018, the FDA fined RGI US$5,000 after it learned that the company had felled trees outside its concession area and later increased the fine to US$100,000 but did not confiscate the huge stockpile of illegally harvested logs.

“This is a huge governance issue here. This is just going to scare away women from participating in forest governance matters and even occupying posts on governance bodies,” Kai said, referring to the low number of women in community forest leadership. “We are letting women down with all these violations and our failure to act in accordance with the law.”

The FDA has been largely blamed for not performing its appropriate oversight function. By law, the FDA should publish all permits, data, and payments it receives periodically but has failed to do so.

It has also not responded to the publication of the CSO report more than one week since it was published.

“To show it is serious in addressing illegalities,” Kai said, “it must now publish the official investigation into this case of illegal logging and speedily implement its recommendations.”

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