Banner Image: Elders of Gbi-Doru District, Nimba County, stage a sleep-in protest at the headquarters of the Forestry Development Authority in Paynesville in 2019. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – Rural communities in Liberia affected by large-scale logging concession will on Tuesday begin a weeklong sit-in protest at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for more than US$5.5 million the government owes them in land rental fees, their union said on Sunday.
MONROVIA – Rural communities in Liberia affected by large-scale logging concession will on Tuesday begin a weeklong sit-in protest at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for more than US$5.5 million the government owes them in land rental fees, their union said on Sunday.
“We are calling on the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to ensure that communities affected by logging operations in Liberia get their just benefits, especially the 30 percent shares of land rental fees paid by logging companies to the government of Liberia,” the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committee (NUCFDC) said.
The union called on the Ministry of Finance to make sure it apportions at least US$2 million into the next national budget whose hearings are ongoing at the Legislature.
The government’s failure to pay communities their share of land rental fees is a violation of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006. The law mandates the government to transfer 30 percent of land rental fees logging companies pay to communities for development purposes.
But the NUCFDC said that has not happened since the fiscal year 2015/2016. The government has paid only US$2.6 million since the law came into being and still owes communities over US$5.5 million from the US$27.7 million it has collected from loggers ever since.
The outstanding amount also undermines Liberia’s Volunteer Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union, which calls for fair sharing of timber resources. It also contravenes the community pillar of the country’s forestry reform, which ended decades in which rural areas did not benefit from forest resources and had no say in forest governance. The peak of that marginalization happened during Liberia’s bloody 14-year civil war, which saw warring factions use logging proceeds to fund their wars.
The planned protest this week would make it the third year in a row that the union has taken action for the payment. It has petitioned the Legislature in the last two years but to no avail. The union said in the release it had contacted the Ministry of Finance and the Forestry Development Authority but got no redress.
“It is still regrettable that the government is yet to do anything in addressing this issue of communities receiving their share of land rental fees as required by law,” the union said.
The Ministry of Finance did not respond to queries for comment on the matter.
It represents 23 community forestry development committees (CFDCs) within seven forest management contract (FMC) and nine timber sale contract (TSC) areas in Lofa, Gbarpolu, River Cess, Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, River Gee, Grand Kru, Maryland, Grand Bassa and Grand Cape Mount. FMC covers forests between 50,000 and 400,000 hectares; while TSC falls within forestlands of not more than 5,000 hectares.
Forestry is one the biggest contributors to the Liberian budget, with the sector generating US$8,148,559 10.23% of total revenue in the 2018/2019 period, according to the Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (LEITI).
