Bassa Officials Apply Illegal Logging MoU Despite FDA Rebuke

May 31, 2021

Banner Image: A portion of the newly paved road in Vambo, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Ojuku S. Kangar, Jr

BY Ojuku S.Kangar

VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – An illegal memorandum of understanding that will see a company pave a dirt road through two townships in District #2, Grand Bassa County, in exchange for logs, is proceeding despite the disapproval of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).

Last year, officials of the county signed the MoU with African Trades Entrepreneur Enterprise Incorporated. They agreed for the company to pave the 75-kilometer road through Vambo and Marloi and harvest logs within 1.5 meters on each side of the road. Representative Mary Karwor, Superintendent Janjay Baikpeh, District Superintendent Nancy Green, Commissioner Daniel Dayougar (Vambo) and Commissioner Amos Joe (Marloi) signed the MoU.

The FDA launched an inquest into the bogus deal as it breaches forestry laws and regulations. However, last month, the company and the county leadership moved ahead with the project, with about 60 percent already completed and the company poised to begin logging when the project reaches Noway Camp.

“The people of Vambo will pay for the dusty road construction with their natural resources,” Dayougar told The DayLight in an interview at his home in Jersey Town. “Operation should have started last year May and ended 2022 but did not due to Covid-19 outbreak. It starts 2021 and ends 2023.

District Superintendent Green told this reporter that there will be a mass meeting in the township to discuss the MoU before African Trade begins felling logs. That was exactly what Dayougar said July last year, which has yet to happen.

Vambo and Marloi are not authorized forest communities and cannot go into a logging agreement. Vambo has applied for community forest status but is still on boundary harmonization, the fifth stage of a rigorous, nine-step process to achieve that. Furthermore, African Trade has no record of logging in Liberia. The company gave away its only legal logging contract to Renew Forestry Group in Grand Bassa District B and C Community Forest, a deal that has plunged that community into continued chaos.

Atty. Gertrude Nyaley, the technical manager of the community forest department of the FDA, told the DayLight she knew nothing about the Vambo MoU. That was exactly what she said 10 months ago when FrontPage Africa broke the news of the illegal MoU. She said the FDA would lead a team of investigators to the township this week.

“This is an interesting development and speaks volumes to the continuous meddling in community forest activities by county authorities,” Nyaley said at the time. “This situation has plagued community forest activities across the country and complicates the work of the FDA.”

Baikpeh did not respond to email queries, follow-up messages and phone calls for comment on the matter. He did not also respond to Front Page Africa when they broke the story. However, he defended the bogus MoU on “Forest Hour” on Okay FM, arguing it would bring development to one of Bassa’s remotest communities.

Karwor also did not respond to mobile calls and follow-up messages on the deal. Effort by Varney Kamara, The DayLight’s legislative correspondent last week, did not also materialize. She did not also respond to FrontPage Africa last year when it sought her comment on the controversial deal.

Amos Sweegaye, African Trade’s CEO, eluded all attempts to be interviewed on the matter. He had agreed to speak to The DayLight on Friday at the FDA headquarters in Whein Town, Paynesville but called off the appointment in the last minute.

‘Dark Days’

Opposition to the MoU is rife in Vambo. Chiefs and elders said they did not make any inputs into the agreement and many have not even seen it. The parties to the deal agreed not to pay relocation package for residents whose houses and crops will be destroyed during the pavement.

“If the company feels it has government’s backing and look down upon us, it must enlarge the jail house at this time because many Vambo citizens will go to jail or die for their natural resources,” said Nathaniel Clark, the co-chairman of Vambo Development Association.

A log felled by the African Trades Entrepreneur Enterprises Inc. in Vambo, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Ojuku S. Kangar,

“We declared the deal bogus since last year because it has no royalty for the forest and its citizens,” said Ernest Gblorso, the chairman of the association. “The company will not dictate to us or force development on us.”

An attempt by workers of the company to go in the forest and start logging or mining without conveying a meeting with us… will be the beginning of dark days in Vambo territory,” said Elder Jacob Cee of Gbeewillie Town.

Dayougar said the people who are against the MoU “are those who are not residents or citizens of Vambo and do not want development.”

Vambo has no schools, clinics, safe drinking water and roads. People carry sick people and women in labor in hammock to the Buchanan highway, a five-hour walk. Farmers struggle to take the goods to the market. Many of the its children of school-going age have not sat in a classroom.

Some residents support the road construction, saying it will relieve their suffering.

“We are tired toting load on our heads every market day,” said Lacy Davis of Boe Town. “If the road had not come this year, I would have gone to my children in District #3 to live there because I am tired suffering.”

“We will ride regular motorbikes to go home because of the road,” said Ellen Brown of Togar Town. No more walking for hours.”

Seven Bomi Clans Seek Customary Land Ownership

May 31, 2021

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Banner Image: A view of Bola, Lower Tongay Clan, Bomi county. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon

BY William Q.Harmon

BEAFINA, Bomi—Seven clans in Bomi County have begun the process to legalize their customary ownership of their land.

Manoah, Zepeh, Upper Togay and Lower Togay of Senjeh District and Mannah Clan, Kpo Clan and Gorblah of Klay District made declarations for customary ownership of their lands, a requirement in the Land Rights Act of 2018.

“We, the people of the larger customary community of Manoah Clan, on this 25^th Day of May, 2021, do hereby declare ourselves as a land-owning community in the Republic of Liberia,” Manoah said in their declaration.

“We, the local leaders, including town chiefs, sub-chiefs, clan chiefs, dean elders, women and youth representatives of the community do hereby affix our signatures representing the authority vested in us by our people in fulfillment of the collective desire of our people to acquire deed for the land on which our forefathers and us have been residing for over two centuries ago,” the declaration of Mannah Clan read.

Self-identification is the first of a series of steps in customary land rights formalization, the most progressive part of the land rights law that has received praise across the world.

Chief Peter Seh reads the declaration on behalf of Mannah Clan. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon

Having self-identified, all seven clans now have legal ownership of their land, though they will have to complete all the legal steps in the law. They would now have to map their land and harmonize boundaries with their neighbors, develop bylaws and establish land governance bodies, and have the Liberia Land Authority conduct a confirmatory survey and register their deeds.

Elite Land-grab

A 2019 report by Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) found that a number of former and current officials of the Liberian government are grabbing rural communities’ lands in Bomi. It revealed that more than 9,000 acres of land in the Senjeh, Klay and Suehn-Mecca Districts.

Titus Zeogar of the Community Rights Support Facility Bomi County team leader, told townspeople their declaration help put an end to land-grab. “This formalization will protect the community against the powerful people you say are taking your land,” Zeogar told the declaration ceremony in Beafina, a town in Manoah.

Manoah and the other clans are underprivileged communities that form part of the 70 percent of Bomi’s 84,119 people who are subsistent farmers, according to the 2008 National Housing and Population Census. Their towns and villages lack basic social services and infrastructure. Now they wish to prioritize development, especially bridges, clinics and schools, when they gain ownership of their land.

“We are hoping to complete the process so that the government can allow us to take care of our own forest,” said Joseph Lawson, the clan chief of Manoah in an interview with The DayLight. “Our people have suffered too long and they have to benefit the resources that God has given us.”

Gbarpolu Clans Sign Agreements To Manage Their Forests

May 14, 2021

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Banner Image: A forest in Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

BY Wiliam Q. Harmon

PAYNESVILLE – For five years Tonglay and Normon craved to obtain the right to manage swathes of forest in the Kongbor District of Gbarpolu County.

Earlier this month, they achieved that dream.

Their signing of separate community forest agreements (CFMA) means they can now control what goes on in the combined 29,000 hectares of muggy, dense woodland.

“We are happy that the government has agreed to allow us to take care of our own forest and we will make sure that we do our best so that our people can enjoy the resources that are in their forests,” said Karimu Fofanah, the head of the body charged to conduct forest business for Tonglay, known in the forestry sector as of the community forestry management body (CFMB). “Our people have suffered a lot and with this initiative, we will ensure we bring development to our people.”

Boakai Kanneh, Fofana’s counterpart in Normon could not be reached.

Both communities had to complete a nine-step process in order to gain authorized forest community status. It includes a nonrefundable registration of US$250, harmonize boundaries with neighbors and prepare a forest management plan. The European Union (EU) and Rainforest Trust provided funding for the process.

Michael Garbo, the executive director of Society for Conservation of Nature Liberia (SCNL)—the nongovernmental organization that helped the community complete the process—termed the signing of the agreement a “dream come true.

“It is a great day today and it’s a great honor as well for donors who have been supporting us throughout the stages of this process,” Garbo told the signing ceremony at the FDA headquarters in Whein Town, Paynesville.

FDA’s managing director Mike Doryen admonished the communities to hold together and avoid confusion—urging them to also remain law-abiding and stop shielding people, especially elites, who want to use their community forests for self-aggrandizement.

Doryen warned anyone violating the forestry land will be prosecuted.

No contract yet

As authorized forest communities, Tonglay and Normon will now manage their forests for the next 15 years, with the FDA to review the agreement fifth and tenth year. They must give their consent to any person or company wanting to enter the forest under the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands. The law was a crucial part of the forest reform in postwar Liberia, giving locals their share of forest resources.

Fofana noted that no agreement has been reached with any company but the community was doing all it could to attract investors to the area. Tonglay and Norman are underdeveloped communities without roads up to date clinics and schools.

“We want to do first thing first and don’t want to jump the gun before we encounter problems ahead. We want to finish with all the required necessary steps before we start to invite investors,” Fofana said. “When we sign third party… we intend to prioritize infrastructural development, especially bridges, clinics and schools.”

Fourteen Dismissed GVL Workers Fight To Get Back Their Jobs

May 11, 2021

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A signboard welcoming visitors to the Butaw estate of GVL in Sinoe County. Harry Browne/The DayLight

Banner Image: A Golden Veroleum Liberia signboard in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By James Harding Giahyue

Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) dismissed 14 of its workers for their alleged involvement in a riot in Butaw in May 2015

The former employees lodged a complaint against the company for constructive dismissal and unfair labor practice with the Sinoe County Labor Office in February last year

GVL lawyers have failed to attend seven out of 10 pre-investigation hearings and case has been moved to a full investigation

Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and Friends of the Earth Netherlands accuses GVL of “trying to deny the dismissed workers justice”. Golden Agri Resources (GAR), GVL’s investors, denies the accusation

BUTAW, Sinoe County – Fourteen former workers of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), have challenged their dismissals by the company at the Sinoe County Labor Office, and are demanding reinstatement and retroactive pay or a payoff.

The former employees, mainly fieldworkers, were accused by the Indonesian company of participating in the infamous May 25, 2015 riot in Butaw, according to documents from the Labor Office on the case. The riot left one dead and over US$7,000 of the company’s properties destroyed. The former workers were all jailed without trial and released a year later. One inmate died in prison and another shortly after their release in 2016.

The 14 complainants are Sunday Okusu Sackor, Vincent Koon, Adolphus Tarpeh, Otis Chea, Franklin Duaryenneh, Luton Snohtee, Edwin Palay, Obie Karbah, Josephus Weagbah, Rufus Tiawroh, Titus Teah, Fred Henry and Samuel Yabbah and Erick Dayklee. They all worked in GVL’s palm plantation in Butaw. They are being represented by Atty. Sagie Kamara of the Heritage Partners and Associates Inc. (HPA).

They filed the “constructive dismissal and unfair labor practice” case on February 18 last year, more than four years after their release. In it, they allege they were verbally told of their dismissals and denied access to their workplaces, the case documents show.

“GVL has not only refused to permit us to return to work but refused to pay us our salaries and other benefits we are entitled to by virtue of the contracts of employment,” they say in the complaint.

“Allow us to resume work in our respective positions and places of assignment, pay us our salaries and other benefits for the period of our detention up to and including the date and time we are recalled,” they say in the complaint, adding they would accept a payoff.

GVL, Liberia’s largest oil palm company, holds 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Maryland and Grand Kru for 65 years in a 2010 deal worth US$1.6 billion. The company was reprimanded in 2018 by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)—the certification body for oil palm companies across the world—for land-grab and labor breaches.

NGOs Urge GVL Investors to Take Action

GVL’s legal team headed by Jones and Jones law firm and the company’s inhouse lawyer, Atty. Garpeh Wilson, has attended only three of 10 pre-investigation hearings, according to minutes of the proceedings The DayLight analyzed. Between October 22 last year—when the first hearing took place—to April 29—the last one—GVL has given an excuse for bad roads, asked for the recusal of the hearing officer Elwoods Monger, and denied it received the former workers’ complaint.

Some GVL employees at work in Butaw, Sinoe County. Harry Browne/The DayLight

The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and Friends of the Earth Netherlands, who are supporting the complainants in the case, have written Golden Agri Resources (GAR)—GVL’s majority shareholders—on the company’s alleged stalling of the proceedings.

“We are constrained to, however, draw your attention to the dilatory tactics being employed by your investee GVL to frustrate the ends of justice and deny members of the indigenous community their right to be heard as well as fair and fast trial,” the two nongovernmental organizations said in the letter to the world’s second largest palm oil company last week.

“Given that you have significant management of and other control over GVL, including the obligation for GVL to adhere to your social and environmental policy, we request your timely intervention to promote, protect and ensure the rights of customary communities and GVL workers,” it added. GAR prohibits firms it invests in from violating the rights of workers.

GAR, however, denies its Liberian subsidiary did anything wrong but said it was investigating the matter.

“Based on the information available to us right now, there is no evidence to confirm that GVL has intended to delay the legal proceedings,” said Dr. Götz Martin, the head of the Singaporean company’s sustainability implementation, in an email. “GVL is keen to seek an amicable solution with the complainants.”

An amicable solution might be possible but the case has been moved to full investigation. Christian Tababo, Sinoe County’s Labor Commissioner, has replaced Monger, who recused himself from the rest of the case. Once the Labor Office concludes its investigation, the matter could be moved to court.

The next hearing is yet to be announced.

Extractive Revenues Declined By 12 Percent Last Year Due to Coronavirus

May 11, 2021

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Banner Image:Iron ore being transported to the Port of Buchanan for export. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

BY Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Revenues generated from Liberia’s extractive industries in the first half of last year dropped by more than US$5 million due to the coronavirus pandemic, according in the latest report by the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).

The report, the 12^th by the agency since its establishment in 2007, found the Liberian government generated US$37,104,314 last year compared to US$42,240,233 in 2019. That is a fall of US$5,135,919 million or 12.16 percent.

The slump in income from the natural resource sector did not come as a surprise, however. The World Bank had projected Liberia’s GDP to contract by 2.6 due to the outbreak after it had earlier forecast a 1.6 percent growth. COVID-19 limited government’s revenue generating capacity as companies scaled down their works, and lockdown and travel restriction measures instilled to break the virus’ chain of transmission. All sectors—mining, oil/gas, forestry and agriculture—were affected.

“[The year] 2020 was a very difficult year for the rubber industry with very low sales prices and shut down of factories (tires manufacturers) during the 1st semester of 2020 affecting our long-term Contracts,” the report said about the rubber industry, adding “2021 seems to be positive oriented but a downturn of the rubber industry is still possible.”

The disease is already showing signs of ebbing in Liberia since the turn of this year. There are 67 active cases in the country as of May 9, according to the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL). And the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed Liberia as one of the 20 places safe to travel.

Liberia Generated More Revenue

The government received more extractive revenues within the 2018/19 fiscal year than last time around, according to LEITI report. The sector generated US$US79,632,411 in 2018/19, US$23 million higher than revenue generated within the 2017/18 period, according to the LEITI report. Of that amount, 88.55 percent represented direct revenues, while the others came from social and environmental payments companies paid, the report said.

The mining sector was the biggest contributor with US$42,596,473 (53.49%), followed by the agriculture US$26,009,261 (32.66%) and forestry US$8,148,559(10.23%). Oil/gas was the lowest with US$2,878,118 (3.61%).

ArcelorMittal was the biggest payer with US$19,090,748 (23.9%). It was followed by Firestone with US$14,648,794 (18.40%), Bea Mountain US$9,583,127 (12.03%) and China Union US$5,290,341 (6.64%) in second, third and fourth places, respectively. MNG Gold US$3,655,182 (4.5%), Golden Veroleum US$3,116,511 (3.9%) and Liberia Agricultural Company US$2,089,57 (2.62%) completed the seven-highest-contributor list in that order.

Monthly Archives: May 2021

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