Banner Image: Ariel view of a portion of the Palm Bay Estate of Equatorial Palm Oil’s (EPO) covering 6,400 hectares of land in Jogbahn Clan in District No.4, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – Campaigners from civil society organizations in Liberia on Thursday received training on the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi), a new tool for advocacy in the agriculture and forestry sectors.
AFi was introduced in 2019 by a host of international nongovernmental organizations, including Proforest, Rainforest Alliance and the Meridian Institute. Combining international and local laws, policies, principles and best practices, it provides a standard for civil society’s advocacy for agriculture and forest-related companies to produce sustainably. It aims to reduce private sector-related deforestation and foster strict adherence to respect for human rights and secure benefit for local communities where these firms operate.
Campaigners at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI)—which organized the one-day training workshop alongside Proforest Ghana—said it will help land and forest rights groups monitor companies and ensure they comply with social, environmental and economic standards.
“This is very important to us as civil society organizations,” said James Otto, who heads SDI’s community rights and corporate governance program, told participants at the opening of the daylong event. “This is going to be a build-on training so that the framework is actually implemented in Liberia.”
“This is our opportunity in Liberia to understand what [AFi] is and see the linkages with our own efforts that we are making already, and see who we are going to take it and apply it in Liberia,” said Silas Siakor, one of the facilitators of the event
Siakor said coronavirus posed some challenges to the new initiative as it was established in the same year of the pandemic but momentum for the tool has started to take off. “The idea is really to drive stakeholders to take the concept and work with it,” he added.
Liberia has made significant strides to ensure its natural resources are managed in a sustainable manner since the end of a brutal 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003. It began with the reform of the country’s forestry sector a year later. The country created a new land law in 2018 that recognizes customary land ownership, has national policies on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It has its own oil palm strategy
On top of that, the country has already signed onto a horde of international principles. They include the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights, efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+), and the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA).
Nana Darko Cobbina, the training facilitator from Proforest, said AFi does not duplicate those efforts. It complements them and links the forestry and agriculture sectors.
“The framework aims to bring greater clarity, consistency, effectiveness, and accountability for supply chain commitments and their implementation and monitoring,” Cobbina told participants. “It embeds common approaches and good practices in standards, tools, policies, and initiatives for responsible production and trade.”
Banner Image: A GVL Signboard in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – A case involving 14 dismissed workers of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) and the company has been transferred to Monrovia from Sinoe County, an important stage in the parties’ efforts to reach an out-of-court settlement.
GVL had requested the transfer of the case. It said that the Elwood Monger, who was hearing the matter, recused himself as he had already been retired as labor officials of the county.
“I therefore advise that based on their request and attached documents, the case be [transferred to] Monrovia with all relevant documents for adjudication,” a communication to Sinoe County’s Labor Office from the office of the regional labor affairs in Monrovia read.
In February last year, 14 former workers of GVL filed a complaint at the Labor office in Sinoe County. In their grievance, the workers accused GVL of constructive dismissal and unfair labor practice.
Butaw, Sinoe County, the setting of a 2015 riot in which at least one person died. The DayLight/Harry Browne
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. 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 workers allege in their complaint 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.
Employees affected by the sacking include 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).
The dismissals have also triggered angry reaction from human rights and civil society groups. 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.
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 latest dispute is just one of several bad labor cases that have engulfed the company’s 11-yearf operation in Liberia. In 2018, GVL was reprimanded by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)—the certification body for oil palm companies across the world—for land-grab and labor breaches.
Transferring the case to Monrovia, one of three regions in Liberia’s southeast where GVL operates its oil palm concession, is a major twist in attempts aimed at amicably resolving the matter.
The company’s legal team headed by Jones and Jones law firm and the company’s in house 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.
The matter, which is at the conference stage could result to an amicable resolution or lead to a lawsuit , depending on the outcome of the labor officials’ investigation.
A GVL signboard in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Banner Image: A Golden Veroleum Liberia signboard in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – One of the three reasons Golden Veroelum Liberia (GVL) gave to lay off 440 people last year was illegal, an investigation by The DayLight has uncovered.
GVL said the layoffs were due to high cost of road repairs in addition to the impacts of coronavirus pandemic and the slump in the palm oil prices on the world market. It said it had to take the action.
But this is violation. GVL’s concession agreement with the Liberian Government mandates the company “to construct, install, maintain, and or repair, at its own expense, infrastructure within the concession area, and additional areas.”
The agreement also added that “The investor (GVL) shall only be responsible for ongoing maintenance or repair of any such infrastructure in the developed areas and to the extent specified in the approval of [the] government.”
The company’s action came as Liberia battled its first wave of the pandemic. At the time of the layoffs, the country recorded 626 cases and 34 deaths, according to the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL). They also came at a time when the prices of palm oil fell to US$103.87 a ton or 16.34 percent on the world market, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for the global commodity.
Majority of employees affected by the redundancies were fieldworkers who received between $115 and $130 as monthly wages. They came from Tartweh, Tarjuowon, Butaw, Kabada, and Wadabo, in Liberia’s southeastern Sinoe and Grand Kru counties.
Both GVL and the Ministry of Public works—the government agency responsible for infrastructure—eluded several attempts for an interview. This reporter sent emailed queries on the matter, and made follow up phone calls and text messages to the company and the ministry but got no reply.
However, GVL, said earlier this year it had spent up to US$2.4 million on road repairs during the coronavirus pandemic last year. “Our production has also dropped from twice a month to just once monthly,” GVL Vice for Strategy and Stakeholders’ affairs Elvis Morris, told FrontPage Africa at the time.
A schoolboy walks on a road in Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Laying off workers over road maintenance also violates a 2019 memorandum of understanding it signed with the Liberian government. GVL agreed in that MoU to rehabilitate a 277 kilometer lateral road connecting Pleebo in Maryland and Tarjuowon in Sinoe.
The layoffs increased poverty in many households in the two affected counites. Of the total number of workers that were laid off, 80 came from Butaw, 125 in Tarjuowon, 81 in Kpanyan, 54 in Wedabo, 34 in Garaway, 24 in Soroken, 16 in Kabada and 28 in Tartweh.
Between 2015 and 2017, GVL also breached MoUs it signed with communities, locals on whose land the company expanded its plantation. It has failed to provide jobs and development as it promised in those documents. That violation was captured in an April 2017 report by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the global watchdog for the oil palm sector. GVL’s concession mandates it to follow the RSPO’s principles, the only oil palm concession in Liberia that has that clause. It is a member of the certification scheme through its parent company Golden Agri Resources (GAR), the world’s second-largest palm oil company. The RSPO later reprimanded the company for land-grab a year after the report and ordered it to negotiate with the communities on employment opportunities and other issues. GVL would pull out of the RSPO only to reenter shortly after.
GVL, Liberia’s biggest oil palm company, signed a 65-year concession agreement with the Liberian government in 2010, leasing 220,000 hectares of land in Grand Kru, Maryland, River Cess, River Gee and Sinoe, the largest palm oil concession in the country. But people living in these areas had no say in the concession agreement. In 2015, a riot between residents of Butaw and armed police left at least one dead, scores of people injured and over US$700,000 properties destroyed.
This story is a part of The DayLight’s Human Rights Reporting Series.
A schoolboy walks on a road in Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Banner Image: A schoolboy walks on a road on Golden Veroleum Liberia’s plantation in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Ali Kaba
The Land Rights Law (LRL), enacted on the 23rd of August 2018, was an impressive feat. It recognizes the land rights of all Liberians, especially rural communities who have historically been subject to mere user rights on their ancestral lands. The LRL protects the rights of communities to their claimed customary areas as their lawful property – “with or without deed”.
This provision places an estimated 70% or more of the country under customary ownership. Each community may formalize this through registration and issue of a community land deed by the Liberian Land Authority (LLA). In contrast, private owners do not obtain recognition of ownership without formal titles or documented agreements they obtain from a community.
So far, 120 communities have been helped by civil society organizations to identify their respective customary lands, harmonize borders with neighbors, and elect a land management team – all requirements for formalizing their customary ownership. These claims cover at least 1.5 million hectares, or more than ten percent of all Liberia’s lands. Still, none of these CSOs supported communities have been issued the promised customary title deeds.
Meanwhile, interviews with members of civil society groups, confirmed by the LLA, suggest that some communities have received “customary deeds.” However, what remains unclear, and troubling is where, how, and when these deeds were issued. At the same time, reputable civil society organizations such as the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) are encountering reports in communities suggesting that chiefs and elders are offering customary land to national elites – without the consent of the community, a violation of a fundamental principle of the Land Rights Law. Are these reports an indication of “illegal” land grabbing in rural communities?
A youth from Gbarsaw Clan in River Cess told one of the authors, “Some of our chiefs and elders are giving large [parcels] of lands to big people in government and other elites from Monrovia without consulting us. We find out about this when they enclose their land, plant permanent tree crops, and demarcate ‘their land’ – and often in our common areas”. It is disturbing that there are no public records of these dealings, and it is unclear how much land has been deeded or offered to national elites.
According to Liz Alden Wily, an international land tenure specialist, “‘a land rush’ for customary lands is not unusual when property law reforms recognize these lands as lawfully owned by communities and registrable as their collective property. The rush does not only affect fertile lands but valuable forest and mineral-bearing rangelands. “Elites, and governments themselves have been used to treating millions of hectares of their peoples’ community lands as ‘unowned’ or as de facto government lands and are often part of the rush”. She cites cases in Kenya where military, livestock, and forest sectors, and some devolved county governments are “laying claim to community lands as public lands prior to formal registration by affected communities, making it doubly hard for communities to secure their properties”.
Why do we see this trend in Liberia? Many causes can be identified. One is serious underfunding and capacity of the key supervisory institution, the Liberia Land Authority (LLA). It remains deprived of resources, money, and technical expertise, suggesting weak administrative and political will lie behind this. The sheer cost of launching a national titling program for customary lands may also have genuinely taken the Government by surprise, to which they have not yet adjusted. Or perhaps they do not wish to divert funds to this need, which may curtail their own rural land interests.
Over-centralization of authority is also a factor. All land-related decisions and resources are still heavily concentrated in Monrovia. The lack of devolved offices outside of Monrovia adds to the inability to learn about challenges and unlawful events as they arise. Even more, pressing is a lack of transparency in titling processes and inadequate grievance redress mechanisms. Consequently, there are serious concerns over the way land administration is currently structured, which leaves customary lands vulnerable to national elite control.
A Surge in Private Land Formalization is adding to pressures on customary lands. Over the past decade, media reports and civil society engagement have raised public awareness about large-scale foreign land acquisitions. However, recent reports from national CSOs and local communities, as well as a 2020 study by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), suggest that national elites and local investors are driving current trends of land acquisitions and evictions in Liberia. In the current climate, it is alarming to see speculative investments in farms, forests, and mineral-rich lands without a regulatory framework protecting local communities.
The role of chiefs and elders in customary land use and management remains unclear. Elders and chiefs have always guided land use and management in Liberia. However, the nature of their guidance under the current legal landscape is ambiguous in the absence of a standardized regulation. This ambiguity allows some chiefs to allocate land based on their preferences. For example, elders/chiefs who lack all the information about the current law, especially those who wish to use land as a negotiation offer to please elites or politicians for wealth or political consideration, may end up donating land to these elites without a careful evaluation.
The role of CSOs in a changing environment: Recent evidence suggests that CSOs’ engagement with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) on substantial areas like producing relevant regulations to implement the law and commitments to a transparent partnership have significantly slowed down. Also notable is the lack of a clear engagement framework within civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage the LLA. For example, it is unclear how CSOs will be accommodated in ongoing partnerships with the LLA as implementation partners and advocacy groups. Many of the key CSOs currently working in the land sector are implementing the land rights law with the government (LLA) while also leading advocacy campaigns to ensure fairness, human rights, and transparency. These CSOs have experience managing such tension (collaboration and advocacy) with government agencies, but it remains a delicate balance for CSOs implementing projects that require the LLA’s validation.
Meanwhile, the LLA believes that its actions are legitimate, given that local and international partners are working with them on projects. This seemingly simple gap undermines the role of a vibrant civil society by limiting the intensity, timing, and cohesion of CSOs in combating abuses in the land sector. Clearly, best practice would insist that CSOs play an active monitoring and advocacy role, holding power holders to account.
So, what could turn the tide in favor of customary land? First, the legislature (through the national budget) and international partners must support the country’s land authority and associated land administrative agencies, including the courts, to address their institutional deficiencies related to land administration. For example, staff at the LLA – particularly its customary unit – could be given training, resources, and managerial authority to assist communities and NGOs in implementing and managing customary land formalization activities. However, supporting these agencies must be tied to holding government officials accountable – a role CSOs are best suited to play.
Second, CSOs must assist the government from a distance – setting clear boundaries so that organizations directly implementing projects with the government can do so effectively while maintaining enough independence to call out bad practices. Such a boundary should be structured as a relationship of support and advocacy for the community. In this line, the CSOs Working Group on Land Rights Reform (CSO-WGLLR) and the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) must ensure that organizations critical of government agents and power brokers can do their work with protection. NCSCL and CSO-WGLRR should work with national institutions such as legislators, courts, the Human Rights Commission, and transnational groups working on human rights issues and environmental protection to provide moral and legal protections for these groups.
At the same time, international partners, including on-ground implementers, must support local civil society groups with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. For example, international organizations implementing the land rights law can guide their efforts by working with local CSOs to promote awareness, transparency, and support communities to set up and train their land management committees.
CSOs should also develop a robust monitoring and reporting framework to systematically track and report illegal land transfers. An illegal land transfer can be contested in court. A good example of this is the Private Use Permit (PUP) case, which saw over 20% of the country’s forest land illegally transferred to local and national elites. CSOs successfully challenged the PUPs, resulting in their cancellation and the prosecution of unscrupulous government officials. Clearly, civil society and community-based organizations are better suited to build on their relationships and knowledge of local power dynamics to implement the land rights law in an inclusive, transparent manner.
In the absence of these interventions, Liberia’s impressive Land Rights Law (LRL) could be used as a tool for elite land capture, resulting in a vicious circle of national and international land grabs. Like the state-led land grabs of the 1920s and 1950s and the alarming expansion of foreign concessions in the mid-2000s, communities in Liberia currently face what seems like elite-driven land grabs. Failure to develop clear progressive regulations and safeguard for CSOs and communities will not produce better results than in the past. It will only preserve or deepen inequalities and result in continued human rights abuses and environmental violations.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent the position of The DayLight.
[1] By Ali D. Kaba and Sahr Nouwah. Ali and Sarh played a significant role in the 2018 land rights law campaign. The article is based on firsthand accounts of Ali’s visit to Liberia, including interviews with civil society leaders and community youth. For more information, you can contact Ali Kaba at badara113@gmail.com.
Loretta Pope Kai, the chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Banner Image: Loretta Pope Kai, the chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – The National Civil Society Council of Liberia is calling for the Liberian government to outsource the management of its coronavirus-testing information system amid reports of bribery and extortion by healthcare workers.
The council urges the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) to reveal and penalize medical personnel who have corrupted the compromised the country’s fight against the deadly virus. Liberia has recorded 148 coronavirus deaths from 5,396 cases as of July 26.
NPHIL said in a recent Facebook post it was reviewing its testing and result-processing methods as it believes some of its staff were engaged in fraud. It said the workers were swapping COVID-positive samples.
Loretta Pope Kai, the chairperson of the council, said in a news release on Sunday that such fraud was “ungodly, uncivilized and abominable,” calling for an overhaul of the testing system.
“To this effect, the National Civil Society Council of Liberia is requesting the government of Liberia to immediately outsource the testing processes to a more professional and trusted group like the WHO, so as to save our people from dying unnecessarily,” Mrs. Kai said. “We no longer have a modicum of trust and an iota of belief in those handling the testing and result processes.”
COVID testing is done at a number of locations in Monrovia and other places, including the Roberts International Airport and in Congo Town. People’s information are stored on smart devices and results sent to their mobile phones. But there have been issues about the effectiveness of that system.
The council—the largest conglomerate of civil campaign groups and grassroots organizations—urged the government to select a firm with a better technology and track record to handle test information.
“This will contribute to the accuracy of the results from the beginning to the end of the process,” she said. “This, the council believes, will give Liberians and our international friends and partners confidence in the handling of the COVID-19 situation here in Liberia.” She added the new information technology company will help restore the country’s reputation in the in the fight against the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 4 million people worldwide from over 194 million cases so far.
‘Enemies of the state’
But the council criticized NPHIL for not revealing the names of healthcare workers who are involved in the COVID-testing fraud.
A policeman washes his hands in Monrovia to prevent coronavirus. The DayLight/Harry Browne
“To the health of the nation, there should be no sacred cows,” Mrs. Kai said. “We are even appalled that since then, the NPHIL and the government have yet to release the names and identities of those involved in this conspiracy against the state.
“Those involved in this unwholesome practice are the real enemies of the state, who we must make an example of,” she added.
Liberia has been hardly hit by a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warning its citizens not to travel to the country late last month. Between the end of May and now, the country has recorded 63 deaths. Its number of cases has also increased by 3,254. A staggering 219 of those cases were recorded on July 3 alone, the highest daily surge of the virus since the pandemic started here early last year.
Farmers in Jogbahn Clan in District Number Four, Grand Bassa, discuss their crops compensation dispute with Equatorial Palm Oil. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Banner Image: Farmers in Jogbahn Clan, Grand Bassa County, discuss their dispute with Equatorial Palm Oil over a 2016 crops compensation deal. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
JOGBAHN CLAN, Grand Bassa – In 2013, Sime Darby paid Boima Sandemani, a fairly looking middle-aged farmer in Zodua, Grand Cape Mount County, US$3,735 for his 83 rubber trees. The Malaysian company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the community to expand on their land.
Three years later and over a hundred miles away in Jogbahn Clan, Grand Bassa, Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) reached a similar agreement with farmers there. Rufus Giaque, a man roughly the same age as Sandemani, received US$1,688.81 for his 175 rubber trees, 1,024 sugar canes and 101 banana shrubs. EPO had reached an agreement with the farmers to expand its plantation on their farmland.
Though Giaque had more crops on his farm, it turned out Sandemani received more money than him. The Cape Mount farmer was paid US$45 for each of his rubber trees, while Giaque was paid just US$6 for his, US$.054 for his sugarcane sticks and US$0.85 for his banana shrubs. In fact, Zodua received US$1.34 million, while Jogbahn got only US$244,597.
The reason for the drastic disparity was largely because in 2014—during the height of the Ebola epidemic—the Ministry of Agriculture reduced the prices for crops compensation. A mature rubber tree was reduced from US$97.92 to US$6. A stick of developed sugarcane was reduced from US$0.54 a stick to US$6 for an acre. A banana tree was reduced from US$1.69 to US$3 for several shrubs. The ministry said at the time that the reduction was meant to help develop the country. “This action has been taken in furtherance of the Agenda for Transformation for the effective development of the agriculture sector with reference to the Millennium Development Goals and pushing the post-2015 development agenda,” the ministry said in a public notice released on June 6, 2014.
But that reduction is the crust of a conflict between Giaque and other farmers in Jogbahn Clan, and EPO. The farmers allege they were tricked and harassed into accepting the new prices for the compensation of their crops. They say EPO negotiated with them for the compensation based on the old prices but paid them the new ones.
“That was the motivational force that made us to agree,” says G. Hillary Gbah, one of the farmers. “I was happy because I had about 4,006 trees. I did my calculation it was nearly $400,000 that was something that could make my life suitable. So I agreed.” Gbah received $20,000.
EPO and the Grand Bassa office of the Ministry of Agriculture, which coordinated the compensation deal, deny cheating or harassing the District Number Four farmers.
Ariel view of a portion of Equatorial Palm Oil’s plantation, which covers 6,400 hectares of land in Jogbahn Clan, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“That’s false and misleading,” says Joyce Kolvah, the Grand Bassa agriculture coordinator in an interview with The DayLight. “I think that day they wanted the money.”
“It is not true,” says Jasvinder Singh, EPO’s compliance manager, dismissing the farmers’ accusation. “They all agreed with the new prices.
“As far as the company is concerned, we don’t owe anything.”
The farmers are threatening to lodge a complaint with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the global watchdog for the oil palm industry. They are demanding EPO pays them retroactively at the old prices for crop compensation.
If that complaint is lodged, it will be the second time the RSPO to look into a matter involving Jogbahn Clan and the EPO. The community first filed a land-grab complaint with the RSPO in 2016 over EPO’s replanting exercise in 2014 but the global oil palm certification scheme cleared it of the accusation. Gmenee, Kampala, Wesseh Village, Paye Town and Morb Town—where Giaque and the other farmers come from—were not part of the 2016 RSPO complaint. Unlike their neighbors, they welcomed EPO to acquire their land, making way for the eventually controversial payments.
EPO is a member of the RSPO through its majority shareholder (62.86%), Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK), one of the world’s oldest and largest oil palm multinational corporations. RSPO rules mandate its members to adhere to key international laws and conventions applicable to the production of palm oil, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. That standard includes paying tenants and sharecroppers “adequate payments for crops,” which the farmers here allege did not happen.
James Otto, a campaigner with the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), blames the ministry for the crisis. “The government should be raising the price of these crops commodities in the way to address the economic situation in our country…other than dropping the price,” says Otto. “By lowering the price, the government lowers its own standards.”
Ambulah Mamey, a Liberian agriculture development practitioner, based in the United States, agrees with Ott. “Any government that is concerned more about its people than astronomical profit motive of large corporations would use the fair value of the farmland to reasonably compensate land users, not to hugely discount the value of crops on their farms,” Mamey tells me.
The crisis, however, could be settled away from the RSPO. SDI is mediating between the farmers and the company for common ground.
“We have got a final MoU to be presented to the company (EPO) by the communities,” Otto tells The DayLight. “This will trigger the process of engagement and dialogues between the communities and the company.”
A villager walks in Equatorial Palm Oil’s plantation in Jogbahn Clan, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
This report is a part of The DayLight Human Rights Reporting Series.
James Otto, Facilitator of Community Rights Support Facility speaking about the online repository on Thursday. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
CONGO TOWN – An online repository of information about land, forest and investment in Liberia has been launched, a move its creator says will help meet challenges in the formalization of customary land rights in Liberia.
The Land Info Shop website allows civil society groups in the land and forestry sector to access strategies and tools in guiding communities to legalize their land ownership. It allows nongovernmental organizations to share their experiences with other land rights campaigners about their communities. It will also serve as a repository for land, forestry, natural resources laws, regulations, reports and other documents.
The Community Rights Support Facility (CRSF) created the website. CRSF began its work in 2020 and is currently aiding seven communities in Bomi County to legalize their land ownership. It received funding for the public repository from the Dutch NGO, Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH).
“It will help land campaigners make the necessary interventions in communities without duplicating efforts already made by other civil society organizations,” said James Otto, a campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), at the launch of the repository on Thursday. “It will address the gaps in communities on customary land rights formalization processes.”
‘A Bank for Information’
Liberia’s Land Rights Act of 2018 recognizes rural communities’ collective right to own their ancestral lands but not until they formalize their ownership. Some 55 communities now legally own their land, covering a million hectares or a little over 11 percent of Liberia’s landmass. However, many other communities are still unaware the law exists. They need the support of the government and civil society groups to legalize their ownership.
Loretta Pope-Kai, the chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia speaks at the launch of www.landinfoshop.crsflr.org, which contains land and forest-related information. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Loretta Pope-Kai, the chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, the website can help campaigners help those communities. She said the website would help save time, money and energy for land rights advocates, government agencies and investors.
“A consolidated system for information-sharing is very important,” Mrs. Pope-Kai said, performing the launch of the repository. “A country wanting to use the land as an economic factor either for tourism, food production or other production of raw materials will have to invest in its information machinery.
“This is a great area for visibility; it will serve as an archive or a bank for information.”
Mrs. Pope-Kai praised CRSF for linking land rights to forestry, a move she said would help mitigate conflict between communities’ land governance structures established under the Land Rights Act and their counterparts under the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands.
“I am also calling on partners to ensure that this website is supported beyond three years,” she said in reference to the time CRSF has paid to keep the site running. “It is more important for Liberia as we implement the Land Rights Act, which has been hailed as progressive and responsive to national needs.”
Firestone plantation at Division 26, Margibi County. Varney Kamara/The Daylight. June 17, 2021
Top: A signboard welcoming people to the headquarters of Firestone Liberia. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
HARBEL, Margibi County – Six months after Firestone sacked Moses Flomo without severance pay after nearly three decades of service, he suffered a severe injury while performing a menial job at a farm in Totota, Bong County.
Doctors had to cut some flesh from his buttocks to stitch his injured, left knee. Having recovered fully, Flomo, 54, has been stuck at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia for more than a month now. Why? He cannot foot his medical bill of L$200,000 (US$1,176).
“If Firestone had not sacked me, or even if they had given me my benefit, I wouldn’t have ended up in a hospital,” Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview inside his hospital ward. “All my suffering… has gone in vain. I don’t know how I will leave this hospital.”
Flomo was among 24 workers Firestone sacked in July 2019 after a fire they started in their gardens spread over scores of rubber trees on the company’s plantation in Margibi County in May that year.
The dismissed workers, who served the company between nine and 30 years, are challenging their dismissal. They sued the company at the Civil Law Court in Monrovia for wrongful dismissal less than two weeks into their sacking.
Firestone says its investigation found the former workers were not authorized to burn their farm, though the company was aware they had a garden and cut a 50-foot fire boundary. “You did not obtain permission from your bosses before burning your garden, which resulted in 12 rubber trees being affected, thereby leaving two of the affected rubber trees dead at the location,” Flomo’s July 8, 2019 dismissal letter, seen by The DayLight, read. Firestone alleges that its action violated the Decent Work Act of 2015, which allows companies to dismiss employees who “carelessly or intentionally destroyed” their properties.
Dismissed Firestone worker Moses Flomo sits at the John F. Kennedy Medical (JFK) in Monrovia. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
The Firestone Workers Union (FAWUL), which leads the lawsuit for Flomo and the other workers, has a different version of the incident. FAWUL says its investigation showed that no rubber tree was destroyed despite being “scorched,” adding Firestone is still tapping the trees in question. The DayLight’s investigation shows that the rubber trees in the middle of the dispute in Division 35 are currently being tapped. This reporter saw tapping marks and rubber cups fastened to the controversial trees, with latex in them.
FAWUL also alleges that Firestone sacked the workers without its knowledge. “All warnings, suspension and dismissals will be read and explained to the offending employee in the presence of the Union representatives,” reads the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Firestone and the workers. “The shop steward/union representatives will witness with his/her signature.”
The case has been moved to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Kakata. In August last year, the Civil Law Court in Monrovia transferred the case there over jurisdiction. The Monrovia court had ordered the transfer to Margibi since it was where Flomo and the other workers were dismissed. FAWUL had asked the court to make a declaratory judgment, which happens when a party does not dispute an allegation against it. But Judge Yamie Gbeisay denied that request. Gbeisay also rejected Firestone’s petition to dismiss the case in the September 11, 2019 ruling.
Final augments into the case ended in March but the ruling has not been handed down. Judge Koboi Nuta, who now presides over it, refused to give The DayLight the case filings, which are public documents. We managed to obtain it elsewhere.
“I will be strongly disappointed if my people lose this case,” says Allen Attoh Wreh, the representative of Margibi District #3. “I am fully on the side of my people because the dismissal was not the right decision here.”
Evicted in the Rain
Flomo and other workers were evicted from their plantation homes less than a month after their dismissal, despite the Margibi court’s disapproval at the time.
“It was raining heavily when armed men arrived. They threw my proprieties outside of my house,” recalls Moses Tokpah, who worked as a rubber tapper. “I am left with nothing. I cannot afford to feed my family.”
Firestone denies any wrongdoing, adding the dismissals were legal. The company had warned the employees against setting fire in the area as it was close to its plantation, and the weather was windy, according to Patrick Honnah, Firestone’s communications manager. He did not show any proof of prior warning. “The group of employees disregarded the warnings and set fires…,” says Honnah in an emailed interview.
The disputed dismissals came four months after Firestone announced it would lay off 800 workers or 13 percent of its workforce. The company said the job cuts were overhead-cost-related losses due to a slump in the prices of rubber and low production, linked to the Liberian Civil War. It cut the planned layoffs to 374 workers last year.
Firestone is one of Liberia’s leading employers, with more than 6,000 employees, almost entirely Liberians. The House of Representatives was furious that the proposed redundancies would have taken bread from the mouths of thousands of Liberians. The company—owned by Japan’s Bridgestone Corporation and is the world’s single-largest natural rubber producing company—stood firm on its decision.
These episodes have created an atmosphere of fear throughout Firestone’s 45 divisions, according to Rodennick Bongorlee, the president of the Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWUL). A truck driver around the same time Flomo was fired, Firestone dismissed a truck driver over drunkenness, though the volume he consumed did not breach its policy. FAWUL intervened and he was allowed back to work.
“The… workers on the plantation are nervous that they, too, can be fired at any time,” Bongorlee says. “We’ll fight this case. We’ll not rest until our people get justice.”
This June 17, 2021 picture shows some of the controversial trees at the center of the wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Firestone. The Daylight/Varney Kamara
The current unfolding at Firestone Natural Rubber Company, LLC resembles the company’s complicated history.
In 1926, it signed a 99-year deal by the government of Liberia to lease a million acres at a price of six cents per acre, regarded as one of the worst concessions in human history. The parties amended the agreement in 2008, to extend it to 2046.
Not long after that, it was involved in forced recruitment of workers, leading to the resignation of President Charles D.B. King, according to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in its report in 2009.
In 1990—the same year Flomo was employed— Firestone gave rebels US$2 million annually for protection to continue its operations while the war was ongoing, the TRC said. Those findings were corroborated in a 2014 report by ProPublica on the company’s wartime dealings.
In the mid-2000s, it was soaked in allegations of workers sleeping in windowless buildings, child labor and other work-related issues. It denied those allegations but began making improvements beginning in 2007.
And last month, over 200 retirees won their lawsuit against Firestone and the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP) over pension benefits.
Firestone plantation at Division 26, Margibi County. Varney Kamara/The Daylight. June 17, 2021
Still, on his hospital ward, Flomo does not intend to work with Firestone again. The lawsuit he and his colleagues filed two years ago demands reinstatement.
“I only want my severance pay for all these years I labored,” says the father of seven, sitting in a red plastic chair in short trousers with large scars on his thighs and left knee. His 29 years of service could earn him more than US$3,000. “I purposed in my heart that I will build a three-bedroom house in Kakata upon receiving my pension money.”
This story is part of The DayLight’s Human Rights Reporting Series.
A pile of logs in Korninga, Gbarpolu County, left to rot as part of the Private Use Permit (PUP) Scandal of 2013. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Banner Image: A pile of logs left to rot as part of infamous private use permit scandal of 2013 that rocked the Liberian forestry sector. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Ojuku S. Kangar
MONROVIA – A panel of 12 legal experts from around the world have arrived at a definition of “ecocide,” a step closer in the quest of campaigners and environmentalists to make it the fifth international crime.
The panel, convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation of the Netherlands, defined ecocide as an “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
It comes as the world tackles climate change, with global calls for action against actions detrimental to the world and its people, including deforestation in the Amazon and global plastic pollution.
The definition of the term rings a bell in Liberia, a country with a long history of land-grab, concession-related human rights abuses and a deadly civil war fueled by lust for forest resources.
Advocate for ecocide placed it alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crime of aggression if member-states of the International Criminal Court adopt it. It will require one of the court’s 123 member-states, including Liberia, to formally request consideration of a fifth crime within the court’s jurisdiction. That process could take years to be finalized. It would also be the first new international crime since the 1940s when Nazi leaders were prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials.
“This is an historic moment. This expert panel came together in direct response to a growing political appetite for real answers to the climate and ecological crisis,” said Jojo Mehta, chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation. “The moment is right – the world is waking up to the danger we are facing if we continue along our current trajectory.”
“I welcome this definition, as it makes the term ecocide more concrete and clear, it also makes it a lot easier for me as a politician and a lawmaker to find support for criminalization of it,” said Rebecka Le Moine, member of Swedish Parliament, who initially approached the Stop Ecocide Foundation with a request for a definition of ecocide.
The keywords simplified by the 12 panels from its definition include, “wanton,” which they defined as “reckless disregard for damage, which would be clearly excessive in relation to the social and economic benefits, anticipated.” “Severe” means damage, which involves very serious adverse changes, disruption or harm to any element of the environment, including grave impacts on human life or natural, cultural or economic resources.” “Widespread” means damage, which extends beyond a limited geographic area, crosses state boundaries; or is suffered by an entire ecosystem or species or a large member of human beings.” “Long-term” means damage, which is irreversible or which cannot be redressed through natural recovery within a reasonable period of time, and Environment means the earth, its biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, as well as outer space.”
The panel included Senegalese lawyer Dior Fall Sow (co-chair); human rights attorney and author Philippe Sands (co-chair); Kate Mackintosh, executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights, UCLA School of Law; and Richard J, Rogers, a partner at Global Diligence and executive director of Climate Counsel (U.K.). Members included Alex Whiting, a former International Criminal Court prosecutions coordinator and professor at Harvard Law School, and Valérie Cabanes, an International jurist and human rights expert from France.
Solway Mining has been exploring Mount Delton beginning 2020. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon
Banner Image:Solway Mining has been exploring Mount Delton beginning 2020. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon
BY William Q. Harmon
Russian-Liberian company Solway Mining Incorporated is not living up to a memorandum of understanding with Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo authorized forest communities in Nimba County
Solway owes the communities two years of health and education payments, which by law should be at least two percent of its budget this and last year
The communities do not know the amount they are owed as Solway has refused to disclose the budgets
Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo changed their conservation management plans to “multiple use” to allow Solway explore iron ore on Mt. Blei and Mt. Delton. They are now threatening to pull out of the agreement if the company continues to dishonor it.
Solway Mining has been exploring Mount Delton beginning in 2020. The DayLight/William
ZOLOWEE, Nimba County – When Solway Mining Incorporated finally signed a memorandum of understanding with Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo in June last year, it brought an end to a yearlong legal battle with the leaders of the two forest communties.
The MoU meant the company was now free to explore for iron for three years in the combined 222 hectares of montane, muggy forestlands in the Gbehley-Geh, Yarmein and Sehyi districts of Nimba County. The communities had to change their forest management plans from conservation to “multiple use” for the exploration to go on.
But tension is brewing again as Solway has failed to live up to its side of the agreement. The Liberian-Russian company has not paid the communities portion of its budget since last year as mandated by law. It has made other promises it has not fulfilled.
“We need this money and the company should start doing all it can to begin payment,” said Ericson Flomo, chief officer of Sehyi ko-doo’s community forest management body. “Some of our people fear that Solway has given us the money and we have eaten it.”
None of Blei and Sehyi Kod-oo know how much the company owes them because they have not seen the budget is. The Ministry of Mines and Energy has not told them and the company is not willing to tell them either. Solway had said last year it had a US$13 million budget for the project in the area. If that is the case, the company owes the communities US$260,000 at least for that year. Its failure to pay the fund is a breach of the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000. The law mandates mining companies granted exploration licenses to give at least two percent of their operational budget to project-affected communities.
“This does not show good dealings and openness from the company to us as a community,” says Saye Thompson, the chief officer of Blei. “Their budget supposed to be public information that we could access easily but this has not been so though we continue to inquire persistently.”
“We were working with people who were helping us to keep our forests. Since we had a change of heart and accepted Solway here, they should not treat us like children,” said Oretha Nahn, the secretary of Sehyi Ko-doo. “What belongs to us should be given us if we are to work together smoothly.”
The company denied any wrongdoing, blaming Thomson and Ericson for the delayed payments.
“The communities have refused to engage the company after countless invitations,” Solway’s operation officer, Ben Davis, told The DayLight in an interview. “We have been giving the communities guidance on how to get the money, but their leadership has not been cooperating.
“We are not compelled by any law to make known our budget. If the communities want it they can go to the Ministry of Mines. It is the institution of government that approves our budget, so it has the budget,” Davies added. He did not answer queries for comments on other aspects of MoU.
The Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy did not respond to queries for comment on the matter. This reporter emailed Assistant Minister for Exploration Rexford Sartuh but did not get a response. That was followed by text messages, phone calls and three visits to the ministry’s Capitol Hill headquarters, which also did not materialize.
Solway’s failure to pay Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo does not only breach the mining law. It flouts the MoU, too. The company agreed in the MoU to pay the fees towards health and education directly into the communities’ account. Furthermore, it has violated and the MoU in other ways. It has failed to support its reforestation programs, provide safe drinking water, and fund maintenance and administration works of the leadership of the two community forests. It has also failed to support forest guards and make payment for trees it felled while paving a road into the humid forestlands.
Solway headquarters in Sanniquillie, Nimba County. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon
Solway’s relationship with the communities has always been tense, even from the very beginning. Solway began work in the forests without the consent of the communities, a violation of the Community Rights Law (CRL) of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands that created the idea of community forestry. The communities sued Solway at the Sanniquillie Magisterial Court. The court halted the company’s work on two occasions and fined it US$3,000 for illegal entry in line with the law.
That was not the end of the controversy, though. Solway’s arrival shattered the communities’ conservation plans, with rebukes from the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and civil society organizations alike. Before the company came, the community received support from national and international partners such as ArcelorMittal, the United
States Forest Service and USAID. The communities’ conservation program was also a part of Liberia’s countrywide move to conserve its portion (42 percent) of the Upper Guinea Forest, one of 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. “It was the first time for a community to scrap its forest management plan for “multiple use” to accommodate mining in 10 years of the Community Rights Law.
“We are disappointed in the way the Ministry of Mines and Energy handled things,” FDA’s Managing Director C. Mike Doryen said then. “We think it has the propensity of discouraging our donors from making any more investments in the conservation area of our country.”
“The communities cannot operate their community forests under the CRL by allowing mining under the forest,” said Jonathan Yiah of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). “If this trend continues, community forest management in Liberia will be greatly undermined.”
The Ministry of Mines and Energy refuted those criticisms, claiming that the mining law does not recognize community forests. “[The communities] have their right to their land but when it comes to the issuance of mineral rights in Liberia, we don’t consider them,” Sartuh said at the time. “They believe that we should ask them before we issue license. We should not.”
Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo had come a long way with their conservation projects. They were two of the first authorized forest communities in Liberia, established in 2011. Their conservation programs were hailed across the forestry sector as they are adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve. The reserve is home to endangered and endemic species such as the Nimba Toad, Nimba Flycatcher and the West African Chimpanzee. Ivory Coast and Guinea have also created conservation parks on their sides of the Nimba Range on which Blei and Delton are located.
A road in Zolowee leading to Solway’s operations site. The DayLight/William Harmon
Solway’s exploration deal also stirred controversy among the company, the government of Liberia and ArcelorMittal. The London Stock Exchange-listed company—accused Solway—a company owned by Estonian multimillionaire, Aleksandr Bronstein—of encroaching on its concession. “Solway Mining Inc… has unlawfully entered upon and engaged in exploration activities in an area overlapping the concession area in Nimba County granted by the Government of Liberia… to AML pursuant to the mineral development agreement,” ArcelorMittal, Liberia’s biggest taxpayer, said in a letter in June last year. Both the government and Solway denied that claim.
So far, Solway has fulfilled a few clauses of the MoU. It has started an agricultural program for townswomen and recruited scores of local young people into its workforce. It has also paid US$20,000 as land rental fees for two years.
But the communities say that is not enough. “If Solway is not financially capable to pay our people well, run the biodiversity programs, pay our forest guards amongst other support,” they said in a letter to the FDA in January, “it would be fair enough for you to say it so that we call off the MoU without delay.”
