Banner Image: SCNL team and local daily hires repairing a damaged bridge on the Komgba Highway in Gbarpolu County. Friday, August 27, 2021. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
KUMGBOR, Gbarpolu County – In order to ensure easy access to the Gola National Park and create free movement of goods and services, a nongovernmental organization, Society for the Conservation of Nation of Liberia (SCNL), has begun repairing and reconstructing damaged bridges along the reserve.
“It is our expectation that after this project, locals in the community will also have smooth travels and increased commercial activities in the area,” said Michael Tarie, SCNL’s program manager in an interview with The DayLight. “The road has been extremely deplorable. Bridges are down. Cars can no longer ply it. Business people are getting stuck daily.”
The overall goal of the road rehabilitation project is to ensure that the park is protected, and that people have the chance to commute freely between Monrovia and Kongba district, Tarie said.
Barely a month ago—SCNL, an NGO, which helped establish the park—began repair works on seven bridges linking the Bomi Wood town to communities in Kumgbor. The total cost of the 21-kilometer stretch of dirt road project, which is expected to be completed in two months, is US$20,000. When finished, the road is expected to benefit thousands of citizens from Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, and Gbarpolu Counties. The rehabilitation has seen the mobilization of 26 daily hires, who are involved in roadside brushing and reconstruction of damaged bridges.
SCNL newly reconstructed brige on the Kumgbor highway in Gbarpolu County. Friday, August 27, 2021. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
“We are asking other [civil society] groups to join in these road repair works. The more we fix community roads, the better our environment would become, and the better it would be safe for all of us,” Taire said. The European Union and Rainforest Trust are partnering with the SCNL for the project.
The road repair works come in the wake of heavy rainfall, which leaves rural communities inaccessible yearly. Kumgbor is one of the biggest and remotest towns within Kongba District. It roads are dangerous, full of rough terrains for moving vehicles. It is full of steep and wet hills with potholes scattered on the yellowish-brown ground.
“We are really suffering here. We want other NGOs to come and join the SCNL to help fix our roads, said Alex Musa, a community leader. “The Government, too, must step in. It has forgotten us for a very long time.”
The Gola National Park, an 88,000-hectare forest. Created by an Act of legislation in 2016, Gola National Park is recognized as one of the most important forests in West Africa. It has over 60 different plant and animal species, including pygmy hippopotamus, African forest elephant, zebra duiker, chimpanzee, Diana monkey and western red colobus.
Banner Image: An ArcelorMittal locomotive leaves the Port of Buchanan for Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Ojuku S. Kangar, Jr.
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – A group, Bassa Untied Front for Positive Change (BASUFOC), has given ArcelorMittal an 11-day ultimatum to fulfill the portion of its concession agreement that relates to the county, which the steel giant has violated.
“We are calling on the entire citizenry to engage ArcelorMittal to tell her that we are tired,” lead advocate for the BASUFOC Du-Ben Cleon, said during a press conference held in the county. “We have given Arcelor Mittal from August 20 to 31 to fulfill the MDA, or else there will be a citizens’ action.” Cleon did not say what action the group would take.
“For any reason, ArcelorMittal decide to ride on the hospitality of the people as a weakness, the people will take a very strong citizens’ action,” Cleon added.
The group made an array of recommendations to the company for the benefit of people in Bassa, including 15 scholarships, more jobs at the technical, top management and security levels. Additionally, it called for the rehabilitation of the company’s residential area known locally as the loop. “We want to caution ArcelorMittal to take keen note of how the residential compound in the loop is gradually getting damaged by creeping forest, and lack of care,” Cleon said. The concession agreement obligates the company to carry out such a project.
In a statement on Wednesday, ArcelorMittal denied the group’s claims, saying “The issues raised by the group include serious misrepresentation of the facts.
“ArcelorMittal Liberia is a company that takes our commitments and corporate social responsibility seriously in partnership with support from company employees, government, and community stakeholders,” it said in the statement. “As a law-abiding corporate citizen, ArcelorMittal Liberia is open to civil engagement and encourages anyone or groups with interest or concerns about operations to use a civil and legal channel.”
‘There is no impact’
ArcelorMittal signed a 25-year mineral development agreement (MDA). It has operated for 16 years already. The concession agreement mandates the company to contribute US$3 million a year to the county social development fund for Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa Counties, which covers its life-of-mine to US$75 million for development and improvement of the lives of local people in the concession area. But the group said that ArcelorMittal has not made the full payment.
“This amount should have been US$3 million,” the group said. It urged ArcelorMittal to “ensure that affected communities receive their allotment every year in terms of projects and that the balance of US$2 million-plus be disbursed.”
BASUFOC—a conglomerate of students and marketers—accused the company of infringing on the rights of its members, and breaching health, education, security, employment, and safety guidelines enshrined within its mineral development agreement (MDA).
“Since the signing of the MDA, the construction or provision of secondary education in the concession area has remained evasive,” the group said. “As one of the custodian counties of the concessionaire that owns the seaport, which allows ArcelorMittal to sell her ore has been marginalized in terms of employment of its citizens and residents, needless to mention in strategic administrative, technical and managerial positions as spelled out in the MDA.”
The group also said that Liberia’s highest taxpayer has failed on the safety and security concession agreement. Last year June, one of the company’s locomotives derailed in a town in Nimba County. Such rail accidents contributed to a fall in the company’s production and shipment of crude iron ore, according to its midyear report. Production fell from 7.3 metric tons in the first quarter of this year to 4.9 metric tons of ore in the second quarter. Ore shipment also slumped within the same period from 7.4 metric tons to 4.6 metric tons.
“ArcelorMittal’s lack of safety is glaring and evidenced on the railroad,” the group said, demanding the company to “strengthen [its] safety installations on the railroad to meet international standards and [prevent] continuous derailment of locomotives.”
BASUFOC said ArcelorMittal also defaulted on its concessional obligation to train Liberians, hire their services and buy their materials. It cited Barccoline, a community close to Port of Buchanan, where the company ships its iron ore. The company has employed no one in the community’s 12 villages and towns, according to residents.
Barccoline is one of the communities in Grand Bassa affected by ArcelorMittal’s concession. The DayLight/Ojuku S. Kangar
“Since 2012, ArcelorMittal has not done anything for this community that l have seen,” said Christian Yankoon, general secretary of the seafront community in an interview with The DayLight. “Their coming in Liberia should have impacted affected communities, but there is no impact [here]. For us, we are benefitting nothing.”
“Arcelor Mittal should have harnessed the potential of the Barccoline fishing industry so they can sell to the company,” Cleon said. “By doing this, the company would have transformed the community.”
ArcelorMittal Liberia has invested over $1.7 billion in the country. It is Liberia’s largest taxpayer, with the Luxembourg-headquartered steel manufacturer contributing over US$19 million to the country’s revenue in the fiscal year 2018/2019, according to the Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (LEITI) in its latest report. The company plans to begin expanding its mine facilities beginning this dry season to increase its production to 15 metric tons per year as of the fourth quarter of 2023 worth US$800 million.
The previous version of this story has been edited to reflect ArcelorMittal’s response to the group. It has also been corrected for US$840,000 instead of US$840 social development fund.
Banner Image: A technician uses a motorized tiller on swampland in Foya, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
FOYA City, Lofa County – In an unprecedented move, local farmers, landowning communities, county officials, investors and nongovernmental organizations are implementing an agreement to combat climate change, tackle deforestation, improve food security, and strengthen land tenure and governance in Foya District – all at the same time.
The Foya Statutory District Production Protection and Inclusion Compact (PPI) is an agreement among Foya District, the Agriculture Infrastructure and Investment Company (AIIC), three local farmers’ cooperatives, the Community Rights Support Facility and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) of the Netherlands. This is the first time such a deal has been sealed in Liberia, a country whose concession history dates as far back as the 1920s.
“We now have the foundation, and we must build on that foundation. That requires commitment from you, the people,” said Silas Siakor, the country representative of IDH, the convener of the pact, during the memorandum of understanding ceremony recently. “The only benefit we will from here today is if we implement the agreement.”
“This is the first of its kind to integrate the local communities into the decision-making, planning and implementation process of a project,” said Clarence Sandie, Foya District’s Statutory Superintendent at the ceremony.
“I am so thrilled by this compact,” said Moses Sonjor, Assistant Statutory Superintendent for Development.
The agreement follows a 2019 resolution of the parties to improve sustainable agriculture production, protect the district’s remaining forest, protect its water sources, ensure the participation of locals in the governance of natural resources—including women and the youth—and secure the ancestral land ownership of the district’s six clans, guaranteed in the Land Rights Act of 2018. Its signatories include county and local authorities, chiefs and leaders of the district’s landowning communities.
From the Forest to the Lowland
A once productive agricultural community and a pillar of Lofa County’s breadbasket status, Foya has seen that profile disappear gradually, beginning in the last three decades. The Liberian Civil War destroyed the district’s farming facilities. A significant portion of the district’s forest has been lost to poor farming methods, leaving a huge portion of savannah grassland towards both the Sierra Leonean and Guinea borders. The region experiences bushfire every year and its rivers are drying up. This year, it witnessed rare flooding after a river overflowed its banks, washing away some houses, local officials said.
To reverse this downturn, parties to the compact have agreed to embark on lowland, mechanized farming, engage in planting and replanting of trees, and each party has set roles and responsibilities. These measures coincide with the district’s fire law, which punishes violators with a prison term and a fine.
The compact is in line with Liberia’s pledge to conserve 30 percent of its forest, and supports the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement to, among other things, increase the size of its forest through reforestation of degraded land. It contributes towards the achievement of agriculture production and sustainable management of natural resources pillar of the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.
IDH’s Country Representative Silas Siakor turns over the Foya Production Protection Inclusion Compact to Statutory Superintendent Clarence Sandie. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Persuading farmers to leave the forest and go to the swamp is a key component of the compact. It involves farmers from Intofowar—the oldest cooperative in Liberia— Maliando and Rural Women Multipurpose Farmers’ Cooperative Societies. They get seedings from Agricultural Infrastructural and Development Company. IDH invests in the company, which tills the soil for the farmers using power tillers, and offers planting advice. Harvesting three times a year—as compared to once previously—farmers are expected to increase their yield from 2.2 to 4.5 metric tons of rice, said Mohammed Kamara, the chief executive officer of the company. The agreement targets 10,000 farmers with an average of a hectare per household, Kamara added.
In return, the company will purchase the rice and pound it at its giant-size mill in the district, bag and sell it. Some 1,000 farmers are benefiting from that portion of the compact, which currently covers 20 out of 80 hectares it targets, according to Robert Kettor, the project manager of the compact. Three of nine prewar irrigation dams have been repaired and water channels to supply water to the lowland constructed.
“It is a win-win situation and kind of creating the market linkages for them,” said Kamara in an interview with The DayLight after the signing of the pact. “The lowland has more benefits in terms of yield compared to that of the upland. I think the project’s goal and objective are to have a sustainability plan for the communities, most especially those that are producing rice.”
The price of imported rice is also playing a part, said Sonjor. A 50-kilogram bag of rice previously sold for LD$1,500 ((US$9) and is now LD$3,500 (US$20). “More people are consuming locally produced rice,” Sonjor added.
Lowland farming is being revitalized in Foya, Lofa County as part of the Foya Production Protection and Inclusion Compact. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The compact also focuses on the forest, aiming to rid the district of savannah grass. Theobroma, a cocoa firm, has provided thousands of seedings of the tree crops to farmers. They will plant them in areas overtaken by the savannah. There are thousands of seedlings of palm, fruit and shade trees for the production of cocoa. The farmers are expected to harvest the corps in three years and sell it to the cocoa firm, according to the arrangement.
“We teach them how to plant cocoa. A lot of the community don’t have the capacity to stand against the savannah,” Kafumba Kenneth, project coordinator for Teogbroma, told The DayLight. “We want to establish facts about growing cocoa in the savannah. Once that is established, we can now scale up and start to think about how much we made and how much the community made.”
Technically, the compact started three years ago with a participatory land-use plan for the district. IDH worked with local authorities and communities to put together the land use plan. Using satellite images and studying its soil, the NGO identified the border region’s land was suitable for agriculture: palm, rubber, vegetables, rice and sugarcane.
After that, IDH supported the Social Entrepreneurs for Development (SESDev) to guide the district’s clans in obtaining legal rights to their lands. They are now poised to receive their customary land deeds soon, according to Siakor as he presented all six communities with their article of incorporation and business registration. IDH is now supporting another civil society group the Community Rights Support Facility to work with them on current and future land-related deals. The general concept is to put the community in a position to make good choices for itself, void of influence from outside, Siakor said. It is typical of the model of IDH that promotes community-centered sustainable partnership with civil society, the government and the private sector.
Sandie foresees a brighter future for Foya. “The project allows our dead dream to surface,” he said. “I think we, in the not-too-distant future, we will regain our status as the breadbasket of Liberia.”
This rice mill in Foya, Lofa County was rehabilitated under the Production Protection and Inclusion Compact. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Balagwalazu Town, Bluyeama Clan, Zorzor District, Lofa County. Saturday, 14 August 2021. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
BALAGWALAZU, Lofa County – A forest community in Zorzor, Lofa County and a logging company have agreed to amend their current agreement to adopt a new template for their logging agreement, the first time a commercial use contract will be used with the participation of all stakeholders in the forestry sector.
The Bluyeama Community Forest and Sing Africa officially accepted to adopt contract commonly referred to as CUC in the sector. Unlike the current third-party agreement between the parties, it spells out specific timelines on the implementation of community project, payments of land rental and harvesting fees.
Bluyeama and Sing Africa signed their agreement in 2015 but have had a frosty relationship. The company has shipped logs from the forestland covering 49,444 hectares since November 2018 but has failed to pay the community its share of its forest resources. Both community and the company blame the stalemate on the vagueness their current agreement. The new contract is expected to clear those ambiguities, detail clauses and sets the stage for proper implementation of terms and conditions.
“This is different from the past, because it is the first time the people of Bluyeama are having the opportunity to make demands and make changes in the community forest contract with Sing Africa,” said Alexander Songu, chairman of the Bluyeama forest governance structure in an interview with The DayLight at the end of the event for the revision of the document. “We are confident of this contract because I see the parties speaking here with honesty and commitment to the process.”
“It’s true that we have defaulted in the past but we are very hopeful of delivering to the community,” Sing Africa’s Chief Executive Officer G.R. Kuwaor said.
The new template is intended to be a standard for communities-loggers deals. It is already being used in some communities but the Bluyeama will be the first time civil society actors will participate in its signing.
This is reflected in the proposed Bluyeama-Sing-Africa contract, which has 30 pages as compared to the parties’ current five-page agreement. And the new template has the support of all parties in the forestry sector, including the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), civil society and legal experts.
Delegates review the Bluyeama-Sing-Africa Commercial Use Contract in Balagwalazu, Lofa County. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Under the proposed arrangement, Sing Africa agreed to construct the road from Balagwalazu to Womai, a major town in the Bluyeama Clan, from this month to November. The company has also agreed to build a clinic in Womai between October 2022 and June 2023. In addition to these commitments, it accepted to refurbish the Balagwalazu Health Center, a major medical facility in that area.
But it did not agree to construct a bridge over the Via River. Locals had hoped that the bridge would link the clan to other parts of Lofa County and open up a major commercial route. In the meantime, an assessment is now being carried out for an alternative bridge over a smaller river.
More than 150 people attended the revision of the Bluyeama CUC, including William Tamba Kamba, the Superintendent of Lofa County.
James Tellewoyan, Manager of Organization Development and Capacity Building of the Multi-Stakeholder Forest Governance and Accountability Project (MFGAP), praised the parties for the tentative agreement.
“Having community people participating in matters that have to do with their own benefits was very good for forest sector governance in Liberia,” Telewoyan told The DayLight in an interview, following the revision. “They were allowed to freely express what they had in mind about the CUC agreement, and I was impressed about this.”
In the next two weeks, parties to the contract are to meet in Balagwalazu to finalize discussions on the new terms of agreement. The CUC signing date is now set for the first week in September.
Banner Image:The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Ojuku S. Kangar, Jr
MONROVIA– The Government of Liberia has agreed to pay communities affected by large-scale logging concessions US$200,000, just around a tenth of what they demanded before calling off their protest two weeks ago.
“The government’s action shows commitment. It agreed to immediately pay US$200,000 against the [US$5.5] million arrear, money it collected from logging companies,” said Nora Bowier, the chairperson of the National Benefits Sharing Trust Board (NBSTB), which collects the funds for the communities and oversees its expenditure.
“The government has instructed the Central Bank of Liberia to open a separate account for the money to be deposited. It will not be placed in the government’s consolidated account,” Bowier added.
The government also agreed to compile a report on all arrears due affected communities and said the amount would be included in the 2021/2022 fiscal national budget, according to Andrew Zelemen, the head of secretariat of the National Union of Communities Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC).
The lack of payment of community benefits violates the law. The 2006 National Forestry Law of Liberia mandates 30 percent shares of all land rental fees large-scale logging companies to be paid to communities. 2015 was the last time the government paid some of the money to affected communities, according to NUCFDC.
The government has paid only US$1.6 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.
Banner Image: Logs on a field in the Bluyeama Clan of Zorzor District, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – Laurent Delahousse, the European Ambassador accredited to Liberia, has urged the country to manage its forest sustainably or lose it forever.
Liberia has the biggest portion (42 percent) of the Upper Guinea Forests—one of the world’s largest rainforests—but has seen it gradually disappear in the last decade due to unsustainable logging, agriculture and mining.
“If things continue the way they are, I think in 10 or 15 years, there will be no forest left in Liberia, or at least not the forest that can bring the kind of revenue,” said Delahousse at the launch of a European Union direct grant (EUD) project to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations in monitoring the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). “This is an exceptional treasure that you inherited from your parents that you need to leave to your kids in an even better situation.”
Liberia and the EU—one of the biggest purchasers of Liberian timbers—signed the VPA in 2009 as part of a sweeping wave of reform across the West African country’s forestry sector after its civil war. The trade pact is to ensure that Liberia produces and exports legal timbers through strong forest governance and law enforcement.
Laurent Delahousse, Ambassador of the European Union to Liberia with a mask. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
But Liberia frequently violates the agreement, from a private use permit scandal that rocked the country in 2012 to a recent report that found the government owes community affected large-scale logging contracts US$5.5 million from land rental fees. Communities are a pillar of forestry reform in Liberia, assisting with governance management and monitoring. Two weeks ago, they protested for the fees, with the government on Thursday committing to pay around a tenth of the US$2.2 million they demanded.
Delahousse did not mention any of the crises in particular—which also violate national forestry laws—but offered an advice. “Proper system to manage forest for the benefit of all Liberians have already been put in place.” If these procedures are not implemented, the forest will still be cut but it will be for the interest of a few individual, and not for the common interest of Liberia.
“And the forest will not bring contribution to the development of Liberia… and the forest will disappear very quickly.”
The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Mike Doryen, who spoken earlier on and launched the 15-month project, had promised to pay communities their benefits.
“The problem here is when the money gets there (government’s coffers), it becomes a bit difficult at times to get it to the communities,” he said. “It is a compliance issue also.”
Doryen announced an impending moratorium on the harvesting of cotton tree (ceiba pentandra) as part of the cleanup measures. He said the FDA would be responding to the “indiscriminate” felling of the tree species whose wood (commonly called wide-wide) is used for construction. It also serves as habitat for bats and other species.
“We will take that decision to the board [of directors of the FDA] but by the first of September we will no longer allow the harvesting of cotton tree for any purpose,” Doryen said. He added that the FDA was working on the chainsaw union’s regulations to also curtail illegal logging.
How does the project work
Six national and international civil society groups are implementing the “Strengthening the Capacity of the Civil Society for the implementation of the VPA” EUD project worth US$555,555.
The Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), Sustainable Development Institute, Fern, National Union of Community Forestry Management Body, National Union of Community Development Committee and the Liberia Forest Media Watch will work in Lofa, Bassa, Margibi, Sinoe and River Cess.
They will work with the governance structures of forest communities in building the capacity of stakeholders in the forestry sector to implement the VPA and monitor and review the progress of forest governance in those counties.
“The activities contributing to this outcome will focus on the effective implementation of the newly established complaints mechanism, the inclusion of [community forest management agreement] in the VPA legality matrix and the monitoring of it so that infractions and irregularities can be addressed,” said Loretta Pope Kai, the executive director of FCI.
Delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the project has already taken off, Mrs. Kai told the launch. She said her group and other implementing partners had conducted needs assessments for targeted communities and held financial training for staff of the project.
She said the project would ensure communities affected by large-scale logging concessions get their benefits.
Banner Image:A wall of the fence of the headquarters of Mano Palm Oil Industry in Bomi County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Emmanuel Sherman
BALLAH TOWN, Grand Cape Mount County – Communities affected by Mano Palm Oil Industries’ plantation have demanded payment of cultural damages agreed by its predecessor Sime Darby.
Sime Darby agreed to pay US$99,999.99 once every six years after a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) report in 2014 found it destroyed communities’ farmlands, ancestral graveyards, shrines, and sacred sites. The full amount after 60 years would amount to US$1 million.
Having paid the first batch of the fund in 2015, the Malaysian company left the country in 2019, turning over its concession to Mano. However, three years since that takeover, Mano is yet to pay the damages.
“We want the full amount of the money to be paid,” Said Alex Balo, Grand Cape Mount County coordinator of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia in a mobile interview with The DayLight on Monday. “If they cannot accept the demands of the people, we will protest and shut down the company’s operations.
“Maybe that’s the only language they can hear.”
Before Sime Darby’s departure, it deposited US$66,666.64 into Mano’s coffers for four years (2016-2019). Mano should add another US$33,333.32 and give the full amount to 17 project-affected communities, according to the RSPO report. But the company only wants to pay what Sime Darby left, demanding a new agreement with villagers.
“Our first objective as a new company was for SDPL to execute liabilities to communities and employees to enable us to offer new employments with new terms and conditions and to also sign new [agreements] with communities,” said Adama Seh, corporate communications manager at Mano. “Therefore, like severance benefits paid, the money towards intergeneration cultural endowment funds was [Sime Darby’s] obligation and paid by them.” He said Mano would work with the National Bureau of Concessions (NBC) to derive a new agreement that will indicate what Mano will be pay, “to reflect current realities and our company’s name.”
Amadu Fahnbulleh, an executive of the project affected communities (PAC)—which manages the cultural endowment fund and represents the communities’ interest—said they were not willing to accept part payment. “There must be a definite time and position on the payment of the money,” Fahnbulleh said in an interview in Ballah Town, which hosts the office of the PAC.
Sime Darby’s payment of the intergenerational cultural endowment fund was meant to address its clearing of the communities’ sacred sites and burial grounds in 2011. It followed demarcation and participatory mapping of 3,352 hectares at US$6 per hectare of all 17 communities.
The Malaysian company had signed a 63-year agreement with Liberia covering 220,000 hectares of land in the northwestern part of the country. Locals played no role in the agreement, which set the stage for protest and the complaint to the oil palm global watchdog.
Unlike its predecessor Sime Darby, Mano is not a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the global watchdog of the oil palm industry. However, several national and international laws and protocols call for companies’ recognition of cultural rights, including Liberia’s Land Rights Act of 2018, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the 2001 UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity.
Recently, there was a riot in the Behsoa community in the Senjeh District of Bomi County after police officers allegedly ransacked a Sande bush in search of “stolen” palm nuts and mills.
Banner Image: A fisherman receives a fishing net in exchange for his plastic net. The DayLight/NaFAA
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – A group of fishermen in Grand Bassa County has received several thread nets in exchange for their rubber ones as part of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), as part of its to rid the fisheries sector of plastic-thread nets, harmful to the marine environment and banned under the Liberian law.
“Fishermen are cardinal to the growth and development of the Liberian Fisheries sector, therefore the government has seen the need to bring in the free thread nets for distribution across Liberia as a way of empowering you,” said NaFAA’s Director General for Technical Services William Boeh told a beachside ceremony in Buchanan over the weekend.
Boeh disclosed that fishermen would shortly benefit from the free distribution of the motorized engines. He added that fishmongers would also stand to benefit from free solar freezers and other needed items that would afford them an opportunity to reduce post-harvest losses.
Liberia’s marine ecosystem is one of the largest in the sub-region, with coastline 350 miles long and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 246,000 km2.
Banner Image: Senjeh District Head Zoe Ma Jebbeh Bigboy in an interview with the DayLight on Friday, August 6, 2021. The DayLight/Derrick Snyder
By Varney Kamara
BEHSAO, Bomi County – Traditional leaders in Bomi are threatening to take action against police and security guards of Mano Palm Oil Plantation Investment (MPOI) who allegedly ransacked a Sande shrine last week, sparking a riot in the western countryside.
The police and company guards had stormed the Sande bush in search of stolen palm nuts, according to Ma Jebbeh Bigboy, the head Zoe of the shrine. The incident occurred in Behsao in the Senjeh District. It is considered a sacrilege for men to enter a Sande school, with violators often punished harshly.
“They came and saw things they were not to see,” Bigboy told The DayLight. “The consequence of this is death. If we do not make sacrifices for this, people will die, including me.”
Bigboy demanded that Mano underwrites the expenses for the sacrifice to appease the spirits of the shrine. She listed three tins of red oil, three tins of liquor, three bags of rice, a white sheep and one roll of white cloth as items the company must provide for the sacrifice.
Upon the shrine incident, angry citizens began to riot, vandalizing one of the company’s security booths.
“The angry crowd came and put me outside of the booth. I ran in the bush for safety,” said Mano’s security guard Murphy Billy underneath the damaged cubicle with torn roof and shattered windows.
Billy said he watched the townsmen rioters chase after other security guards.
“I didn’t see any red palms with them. I only saw the crowd running behind them,” he added.
A number of townspeople were arrested and taken to custody after the riot subsided, according to people The DayLight interviewed.
Mano’s security that the rioters damaged. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Local police authorities denied that their men entered the shrine. A police officer who only identified himself as OPS Morris at a deport in Gbah Jarkeh told this reporter he did not know of the arrests. He promised a week ago to me with details on the alleged arrest but failed to do so as of Monday. He, however, confirmed receiving a complaint about the destruction of the security booth.
Adama Seh, head of corporate communication at Mano said the company was “investigating and will find a peaceful way out” in an interview with The DayLight.
Konah Harris, clan chief of Senjeh, told The DayLight the county’s traditional leaders were also investigating the crisis.
Mano succeeded Sime Darby in a takeover in 2019. Prior to the takeover, it had been involved in the purchase of crude palm oil and exporting it to various destinations across West Africa, according to its website. The group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mano Manufacturing Co, which is principally involved in the manufacturing of soap, bleach and detergents.
Last week’s riot in Behsao is not the first plantation-related incident in Grand Cape Mount County. In October 2011, Sime Darby destroyed crops and culturally significant sites such as graveyards and shrines. Villagers from Bomi and Grand Cape Mount County presented a formal complaint to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on violation of their human and cultural rights. The report found Sime Darby liable for not acquiring the constant of communities before expanding on their land. The company agreed to pay the villagers US$1 million within 60 years, with 99,999.99 every six years.
Unlike Sime Darby, Mano is not a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the global watchdog of the oil palm industry. However, several national and international laws and protocols call for companies’ recognition of cultural rights, including Liberia’s Land Rights Act of 2018, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the 2001 UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity.
“This is a violation of the rights of communities. It violates local and international treaties which speak for the protection of people across communities where oil palm concessions are in Liberia,” said Richard Sam, a regional coordinator with the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) in an interview with the DayLight.
People gather around a police vehicle after the riot, which started after police and security guards allegedly ransacked a Sande bush in Behsao, Bomi County. The DayLight/Timby Dashboard
This story has been updated with additional paragraphs and changes to lines in the previous version.
Banner Image: Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Golden Veroleum Liberia has failed to implement more than 50 percent of the memoranda of understanding (MoUs) it signed with communities in Sinoe County, according to a new report by Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and its Dutch partner Friends of the Earth Netherlands.
In 2014, GVL signed MoU with Tartweh-Drapoh, Numopoh, and Nitrian, promising to provide the communities jobs, education, training and social development. Despite giving out more than 15,000 hectares of their land in exchange for these social benefits, GVL has failed to fulfill its part of the agreement, the report said.
“GVL has failed to provide benefits for communities. It has structurally failed to provide benefits and live up to commitments to communities since 2014,” said James Otto, the coordinator of SDI’s community rights and corporate governance program at a news conference on Thursday in Duarzon, Margibi County. “GVL operation in Liberia has not been anything but sustainable. It has failed to comply with findings from complaints from affected communities.
“The lack of compliance has also contributed to human rights abuses in the country.”
Alphonso Kofi, GVL’s spokesman, told this reporter the company would respond to the report soon.
Out of 181 promises Golden Veroleum made to communities within the MoUs, the report said the company has only implemented 49 of those commitments. It broke 90 of them and has partially fulfilled 35. SDI and Friends of the Earth said they could not tell what happened with seven of the promises.
Some of the unfulfilled promises include jobs and communities’ out-growers programs, the most violated portion of all the MoU it signed with Tartweh-Drapoh, Numopoh and Nitrian.
“We’ll continue to press on the national government to ensure that communities get their just benefits from their natural resources but the government must do its part,” Otto said. “We are asking the government to do so because GVL is shifting the blame on the government.” He disclosed SDI is going to present the new findings to the legislature which has a constitutional obligation to approve and review concessions in the country.
SDI’s Wilfred Gray-Johnson and Program Coordinator James Otto at a news conference on Wednesday. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Previous reports have found GVL liable for violating MoUs it reached with communities.
Between 2015 and 2017, GVL signed MoUs with Butaw, Tartweh and Tarjuowon for over 28,000 hectares of land, 2,600 hectares in Butaw, 7,000 Tartweh and 19,000 hectares in Tarjuowon. The MoUs mandate GVL to employ one person per six hectares. That has never been done. In Butaw, for instance, it has hired less than half of the number of residents it agreed to employ.
In April 2017, a report by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)—the global watchdog for the oil palm sector—found GVL violated 16 MoUs it signed with communities between 2013 and 2015.
GVL’s concession mandates it to follow the RSPO’s principles. It is a member of the global certification scheme through its parent company Golden Agri Resources (GAR), the world’s second-largest palm oil multinational. The RSPO reprimanded the company for land-grab a year after that 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.
Even more recently, an investigation by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) last year found the company cleared carbon-rich forests in the Liberian southeast. In 2016, oil palm companies agreed to comply with the HCSA’s “no deforestation” standard.
Danielle van Oijen, a lead campaigner at Friends of the Earth Netherlands, called on financiers of GVL’s parent company GAR to stop their investment in the firm.
“This has to stop,” van Oijen said in a press statement. “Benefits from natural resources should go to the Liberian people, not to shareholders in faraway countries.”
GVL is currently renegotiating MoUs with communities to expand its plantation. it 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.
