Fog forms over a forest in Zorzor, Lofa. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Conservation groups on Tuesday introduced a new software aimed at assisting forest monitors preserve protected areas across protected areas in Liberia.
Known as the integrated management effectiveness tool (IMET), the global biodiversity monitoring software meant to improve conservation across protected areas in the Gola forest and other national parks is a three-year transboundary project to be implemented in Liberia and Sierra Leone. More than 20 forest technicians from various conservation groups across the country are participating in the training, which ends Friday. Trainees are expected to be deployed across the park two months from now, where they would make full use of the new technology.
IMET software is crucial for safeguarding critical biodiversity and habitats, providing many benefits to human well-being and wildlife, according to the organizers of the seminar. The new forest tool guides rangers to provide more significant perspectives on their management of the forest, which is crucial to poor, populous countries. The software can be programmed on a laptop.
Introduced in 2014 across Central and West Africa, IMET has already recorded great successes in Burundi and Kenya. Nigeria and Ghana are now making preparations to adopt it. The forest innovation has also been weaved into nature preservation programs in nations across the Caribbean and the Pacific.
“IMET is a tool used to collect data, to integrate data, and to analyze data that are important to the management of protected forest areas,” Nzigiyimpa Lemidas, IMET’s coach and facilitator at the training, said. “IMET has a management context, planning, and resource components. It is meant for managers to make the right decisions and to identify priorities.”
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), which helped organize the training, welcomed the introduction of the technology in Libera.
“It’s the best tool around the world in terms of conservation, protection of wildlife and the management of protected areas,” Marcus Garbo, Executive Director of the group, said. “It’s a global tracking tool to determine threats in the Gola forest, and will serve as a dashboard for conservation groups across Liberia.”
The introduction of the technology comes at a time when campaigners and partners are harnessing and mending concerted efforts in thwarting activities that threaten the safety of the park. Established by an act of Legislation in 2018, the Gola National Park of Liberia, s home to endangered and endemic species. It covers 88,000 hectares of forest land, extending into Sierra Leone. However, the park faces constant threats from illegal hunting and mining.
“We want to put Gola at the pride of Africa,” Alade Adeleke, Country Program Manager of the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (RSPB), an English based charitable organization partnering with the SCNL and other conservation groups to implement the US$3 million European Union-sponsored IMET project. “This is only possible by training young people the technology to track illegal activities across the forest. This is also part of international efforts to control global warming and climate change.”
Authorities at the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which has oversight over the country’s forests, expressed enthusiasm about the new forest software.
“This is a new eye-opener for us,” Blama Goll, technical manager of the department of conservation at the FDA. “This is about checking on your strength, weaknesses and improving on those weaknesses. It will help to positively impact law enforcement and the ecosystem, natural resource governance and biodiversity.”
Folks at the Liberia Land Authority (LLA), which oversees land tenure, management, and governance in the country, showed a similar spirit about the initiative. “The training will help us at the LLA to be very effective in formalizing customary lands, especially in the land use plan,” said Martha Summerville, Gender Community Development Officer, LLA.
The Fair Bank Guide will be published today, but many Dutch financiers are still far from sustainable, according to the cry for help from James G. Otto, program leader Friends of the Earth Liberia, partner of Milieudefensie.
Banner Image: A road passes through Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Dutch banks and insurers still finance industrial plantations on a large scale in my country, Liberia. There is no such thing as fair and sustainable banking. These palm oil plantations swallow up the last remaining large tracts of Upper Guinea’s rainforest.
Millions of compatriots have lost their livelihoods because they live off the forest and land. That is why I ask the Dutch government to make these companies and financiers responsible for the environmental damage and human rights violations in Liberia and elsewhere.
Backed by financiers such as Robeco, Rabobank, ABN Amro, FMO (the Dutch development bank) and insurer NN Group, companies have managed to gain access to more than 750,000 hectares – almost five times the province of Utrecht – of our country. The locals have never given permission to use the land, which has often been in the family for generations, for plantations. The land and forest from which they were driven provided their livelihood. Villagers no longer have living space, we can no longer feed our families.
Working with dangerous pesticides
If one of us gets a job on the plantations, we have to work with dangerous pesticides. The working conditions are terrible and the wages are too little to live on. A group of 16 villagers was thrown in jail for more than a year as they protested the confiscation of their land. Farmers who reclaim land are criminalized. Drinking water is being polluted and communities, depending on forests, are losing their source of income.
We have written to and met the Dutch financiers in recent years. They have been told about the destructive consequences of their funding. But they didn’t hear us. Some, such as pension fund PGGM, have renounced controversial companies, others, including Robeco and Rabobank, are not taking any action. Not even after clear evidence of human rights violations and deforestation.
Apparently, they don’t change on their own, this has been going on for over twenty years. The Dutch government must therefore put a stop to this destructive financing. This autumn there is an opportunity to arrange this through the Responsible and Sustainable International Business Act. Create a law that holds companies and the financial sector accountable for human rights violations and environmental damage here and elsewhere.
This opinion was first published by Trouw on October 25, 2021.
Banner Image: Smallholder palm oil producers use a handheld mill to make oil in Foya, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA J-Palm Liberia (JPL) and an international foundation have formed a partnership to improve access for 7,500 smallholder oil palm producers in rural Liberia to more efficient processing technologies and markets.
The partnership with Whole Planet Foundation (WPF) will develop the wild dura palm value chain, the majority of which is unharvested, poorly processed, and unlinked to high-value export markets, according to a press release issued on Monday. J-Palm Liberia works to boost incomes and empower smallholder oil palm processors in rural communities by installing mini-mills in villages, reducing processing time by 90 percent and improving palm oil yield from fruit processed by wild fruit collectors from between 50-100 percent. WPF is a private operating, nonprofit organization that is dedicated to poverty alleviation, aims to empower the world’s poorest people with microcredit in places where it sources products.
“We started J-Palm primarily as a vehicle to improve the livelihoods of Liberia’s smallholder palm oil producers. This partnership with Whole Planet Foundation will enable us to scale our work to impact thousands of smallholder farmers and their families,” said Mahmud Johnson, Founder/ CEO of J-Palm Liberia in a press release on Monday. “We are extremely excited and honored to be partnering with the Foundation on this initiative, and look forward to beginning implementation.”
Palm is indigenous to West Africa and is radically different from the trees found on plantations in Southeast Asia or Latin America. Growing wild in Liberia, the majority of dura palm fruit goes unharvested, and the fruit that is harvested is processed by hand. Without investments into processing equipment, smallholders in Liberia are currently bypassed by global palm demand, which instead promotes palm from industrial plantations that can cause huge environmental degradation.
J-Palm purchases the palm kernels from palm harvesters, which were previously discarded as a waste product, transporting them to a central mill to produce palm kernel oil. This oil is currently undergoing organic certification, and once achieved J-Palm plans to export to the US – where purchasers will be able to know exactly which harvesters have produced their oil, through full blockchain traceability that J-Palm is implementing within its supply chain, according to the release.
This partnership will enable J-Palm to construct an additional 30 processing sites in Bong County, to enable 7,500 smallholder farmers to produce and trade their oils more efficiently, the release added. The Whole Planet Foundation financing will also create a pathway for J-Palm to turn over ownership of the machines to the smallholder farmers over a specific period of time, based on mutually agreed targets between J-Palm and the farmers.
“The Foundation is proud to support J-Palm Liberia and the impact our partnership will create in Liberia where the entrepreneurial spirit is strong,” Joy Stoddard, Development and Outreach Director of Whole Planet Foundation said in the release.“A partner like J-Palm Liberia is the key to emboldening that spirit with expert support for smallholder farmers and their families who are working hard to escape poverty.”
In 2019, J-Palm formed a partnership with Pacha Soap, a US-based manufacturer of all-natural soaps and bath products. Pacha’s soaps are sold nationwide in Whole Foods in the US. In 2022, Pacha Soap will have bars of soap in Whole Foods Market stores with J-Palm’s wild harvest palm kernel oil as part of the soap base. Fundamentally, this enables J-Palm Liberia to increase incomes for smallholders and to continue to invest in further mini-mills to reach more smallholders.
In 2020, J-Palm received a grant from the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to fund the construction of 20 processing sites for smallholder oil palm producers in Bong County, Liberia. The USADF grant also funds the construction of a new Palm Kernel Oil processing factory, as well as equipment such as a generator, trucks, and processing tools.
The Whole Planet Foundation funds will further expand the project to an additional 30 communities, making for a total of 50 communities. This partnership with the Foundation proves that development financing from organizations such as USADF has the potential to catalyze additional investments from other partners, making it more viable to deliver solutions to under-resourced communities.
Banner Image: Mano’s headquarters in Gbah, Bomi County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
GAYAH HILL, Bomi County – In August earlier this year, a student of the Mano Plantation High School was allegedly raped by a motorcyclist while taking her to school. The bike taxi rider ran away after people from a nearby village approached the place he allegedly committed the crime, according to the student whose name The DayLight has not revealed her name for fear of stigmatization.
“He covered my mouth with his right hand and dragged me in the bush, and started having sex with me,” she says in an interview with The DayLight about the incident, which took place between Karkpo Village and Gayah Hill in Zebeh Clan. A medical report from doctors at the Government Hospital in Tubmanburg, seen by The DayLight, shows injury marks on the woman’s private part.
Police in Bomi say they are investigating the incident.
The DayLight learned of the student’s ordeal and several issues related to Mano Palm Oil Industries Limited (MPOI) from our coverage of a riot in Behsao, Bomi County after police officers and the company’s guards stormed a Sande bush in search of suspected stolen palm nuts. Our investigation of that story revealed several controversies at the plantation, including its takeover from Sime Darby in 2019, indebtedness to communities and failure to implement its legally binding social responsibilities.
The Behsao riot took place in the same month as the student’s alleged rape incident. Villagers in the town—Known to produce some of Liberia’s best cultural icons, from the late Peter Ballah to Fatu Gayflor—had accused Mano of vandalizing the Sande bush. Scores of townspeople were arrested and briefly detained over the melee.
“They came and saw things they were not to see,” Senjeh District’s head Zoe Jebbeh Bigboy told The DayLight at the time. “The consequence of this is death. If we do not make sacrifices for this, people will die, including me.”
Jebbeh Bigboy, the chief Zoe of Behsao, speaks with anger after police and Mano guards ransacked a Sande bush in the area. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Bigboy and the villagers here demand Mano makes available rice, cane juice (liquor), white sheep, red oil, and kola nuts for a sacrifice to appease the spirits of the shrine. It is considered taboo for men to enter a Sande bush.
Mano does not take responsibility for the riot but promises to resolve the matter. “We are aware that there was a Sande’ bush incident, but we are trying to settle this matter peacefully,” says Adama Seh, its public relations manager.
The Behsao episode mirrors Mano’s failure to pay affected communities in the Garwula District of Grand Cape Mount County their cultural endowment fund the company inherited from Sime Darby. In 2014, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm sector, found Sime Darby guilty of destroying communities’ farmlands, ancestral graveyards, and shrines in the Manobala Clan. The RSPO report instructed Sime Darby to pay US$1 million in 60 years as compensation for the damages to affected communities. The company agreed to pay the amount in 10 six-year installments. The Malaysian company completed the first installment and left portion of the second before turning over the concession. Mano paid US$66,000 of the arrears in February earlier this year as part of the second installment but owe US$32,000.
“We want the full amount of the money to be paid,” Alex Balo, Grand Cape Mount County coordinator of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia told The DayLight in a mobile interview in August. “If they cannot accept the demands of the people, we will protest and shut down the company’s operations.”
Mano insists it cannot make further payment unless a memorandum of agreement (MoA) the communities signed with Sime Darby is revisited to reflect its name.
“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,” Seh told The DayLight also in August, adding the new agreement would “reflect current realities and our company’s name.”
This violates Mano’s takeover deal with Sime Darby in which it pledged its readiness to handle all Sime Darby’s existing obligations to employees and local communities.
Communities also have qualms with Mano’s takeover deal.
Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, the world’s largest oil palm planter, sold its palm plantation to Mano Palm Oil Industries Limited (MPOI) On 16 January last year. The company had announced the deal a month earlier due to US$35 million losses in 2018 and 2019, and pressure from environmental campaigners against deforestation. Under the deal, MPOI will pay Sime Darby Plantation Bhd in eight years in quarterly installments that will depend on the price of crude palm oil (CPO) and Mano’s production next year. Payments will begin in 2023, according to a Sime Darby statement on the deal.
The 63-year agreement, which was signed in 2009, is expected to see Mano produce crude palm oil across 220,000 hectares of land in Bomi, Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount counties. Mano is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mano Manufacturing Company (MANCO), which specializes in the production of soap, bleach and detergents, has been involved in the purchase of crude palm oil and exporting it to various destinations across West Africa.
But affected communities did not participate in the deal, and this is fueling tension. Unlike Sime Darby, Mano has not publicly unveiled itself to locals, with townspeople saying they do not know how much the takeover is worth. The Legislature was also not involved in the takeover. The company has promised to organize an event to formally unveil itself to the community but does not say when.
“Nearly everything about Mano is in secrecy,” says Winston Pyne, chairman of the Progressive Advocacy Movement (PAM), a local pressure group in Senjeh District, Bomi County. “I think the Legislature should call for a probe into how Mano really took over because there’s nothing the community knows about its board members and shareholders.”
Police arrest rioters in Behsao, Bomi County. Photo credit: TIMBY
James Otto of Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) blames the government for the stalemate at the plantation. “The government should have been more open and transparent in this process,” Ottos says. “It should have held a broad-based consultation with communities involving all the different issues because the land belongs to the communities.
“The government’s inaction to be transparent has created a vacuum between the company and the communities. It must do more to avoid the company mistreating the people,” he adds.
Cllr. Negbalee Warner of the Heritage Associates and Partners (HPA) says it is legal for communities not to participate in takeovers but it is not wrong for the government to have communities involved in such deals.
Mano has also not respected the terms of its community social benefits payment in accordance with the concession agreement. The affected communities have not received that contribution for 11 years. It has failed to provide community roads, schools, clinics, and other things that it is under obligation to provide.
“We have become slaves on our own land,” says Pyne.
Mano refutes this accusation, saying it cannot take responsibility for the payment. “The money is there but we have not made it available because the National Bureau of Concession (NBC) has not set up the 10-man committee that is supposed to manage this escrow account,” says Seh.
His comments are a misinterpretation of the concession agreement. The law mandates the setting up of a 10-man management team whose members must be selected by surrounding communities, the government and the company. The agreement mandates the payment of US$5 per hectare of land within the developed areas to be used for projects. Prior to the turning over of its concession to Mano, Sime Darby had already developed 10,300 hectares of land. This means that Mano owes affected communities US$566,500 for the 11 years.
Project-affected communities also accused the company of not paying one percent of its annual oil sales to the communities for nine years (2013-2021). Mano’s targeted rate of production last year was 25,000 tons of crude palm oil and the company is targeting 33,000 tons this year, according to its website. One percent of its gross annual production means the company is indebted to the communities for US$2,250 for the period.
Mano denies that, too.
“Mano has not presented this fund because the Legislature has not set up the management committee for us to deposit this fund,” Seh says.
Seh wrongly cites the concession agreement. Known as the oil palm development fund (OPDF), it says Mano shall contribute one percent as its annual gross sales of oil palm products accrued at the end of each year, and that a body that comprises locals, government officials and the company. It does not specifically say lawmakers as he claims.
In Zoduah, aggrieved citizens say Mano has squashed a memorandum of understanding they signed with Sime Darby in 2009. They accused Mano of neglecting the agreement and authorized the Sime Darby at the time to acquire 5,000 hectares of land in the area in exchange for jobs, roads, clinics and schools. Those promises have not been fulfilled, a twist of fate for a community that craved for the deal back then, warning off land rights campaigners.
“The community is not gaining from this agreement,” Phillip Zoduah, spokesperson of the Zoduah Land Committee (ZLC), tells me. “Mano has pushed back everything to square one. We don’t see the roads, the schools, and health centers that it promised our people.”
Mano did not respond to queries for comment on the accusation.
Locals in Zoduah also say the company has canceled a previous monthly meeting Sime Darby put in place to resolve disputes.
“Nothing is really in place and everything is just confusing at the moment,” says Zoduah of the ZLC.
Mano says the meetings had been delayed because most of its representatives in the discussions are on administrative leave.
Back in Gaya Hill, Mano is being criticized for the administration of its school system. The alleged victim blames the company for her ordeal. She had decided to take a motorcycle because the school bus did not turn out that day.
“I feel bad every day that breaks,” she tells me with a trembling voice, bowing her head. “I believe this was not going to happen to me if the bus came for us.”
Vai Kai Gray, principal of the school, agrees with her.
“The arrangement is such that one bus takes the students from Gaya Hill to Mary Camp, and then another bus takes them from May Camp to the school’s campus but we have always had a problem with buses breaking down on the road,” says Gray. It is a sad story for a school system that was one of the best in Liberia, with 1,700 students, 121 teachers, a functional library, laboratory, and performed well in the West African exams.
“We have had cases where buses have broken down, leading to the suspension of classes for days,” Gray adds.
Mano did not respond to our request for an interview on this matter.
The police, meanwhile, are still on their manhunt for the suspect. “The alleged rapist has not been identified,” Sgt. Samuel Patrick Kwakye, head of the women and children protection section at the police station in Gbah, tells me, “and is still on the run.”
This story is a part of The DayLight’s Human Rights Reporting Series
Banner Image: An ex-worker of GVL receives his severance pay after a settlement with the company earlier this month. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
GREENVILLE, Sinoe County – Sixteen former workers of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) have received their severance benefits after they reached a settlement with the company, one year and eight months after they filed a complaint with the Sinoe County Labor Office over their illegal dismissals.
The former employees, mainly field workers, had been dismissed by the Indonesian company without benefit for allegedly participating in the May 25, 2015 riot in Butaw, according to documents from the Labor Office on the case. The disturbance left one dead and over US$7,000 of the company’s properties destroyed. They were all jailed without trial and released a year later. One inmate died in prison and another shortly after their release in 2016.
“I feel happy but I am also sad because when I was in prison, my father, who used to feed and clothe me, is no longer alive to enjoy this money,” said Adolphus Tarpeh, who received US$2,111.40, like all the other former workers, except a woman who received US$3,484.
In total, GVL paid them US$35,541.
“I can only sing praises to God for protecting my life… but I am not also happy because the one who is supposed to enjoy the fruit of her labor is not alive today,” Felecia Karwell, who received the payment for her mother Beatrice Koon, a former GVL worker, who died in 2018.
The other workers include Sunday Okusu Sackor, Vincent Koon, 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 worked in GVL’s palm plantation in Butaw.
Jubilant former workers took selfies, shared hugs and laughter before and after the payment ceremony at the County’s service center, where local government activities take place. The Heritage Partners and Associates, the law firm that represented the former workers, and the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), which supported the ex-employees, oversaw the payment.
“This is a real victory for justice,” Sackor Sunny Okusu Sackor, a victim of GVL’s bad labor practice said in a separate interview with this online news platform. “The payment today shows that a poor man can fight a rich man and get justice in return,” he said after receiving US$2,111.40 as his payoff.
SDI relished the payments. “We joined this fight because we wanted to send out a clear message of deterrence to GVL and other big concessions in this country said Sampson Williams, SDI’s national program assistant. We want them to realize that it is always important to protect the rights of the people and communities who give you land to operate.”
“This struggle is connected to thousands of other struggles from communities and activists around the world against the system of industrial monoculture plantations,” said Danielle van Oijen of Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which supported the former workers. “The victory can inspire others to stand up and claim their rights. But the plantation sector is known for its structural rights abuses and environmental harms.
“This week, governments have a chance to fix that and negotiate for a strong UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights that provides access to justice.”
On February 18 last year, four years after their release, the onetime GVL employees filed a complaint at the labor commissioner office in Greenville, Sinoe County, claiming “constructive dismissal and unfair labor practice”. The workers said they were verbally told of their dismissals and denied access to their workplaces, the case documents show.
Following its investigation, the Labor Office in Sinoe ruled against GVL and urged the company to reinstate or negotiate with the dismissed employees but GVL rejected the report and requested a transfer of the case to Monrovia, where labor authorities intervened after it moved to a full-scale investigation. The case finally reached a conclusion after authorities at the Labor Ministry found GVL guilty and urged the company to settle with its ex-workers.
Larry Noah, a labor inspector in Sinoe, described the workers’ legal victory over GVL as an important milestone in the country’s quest for fair labor practice. “Our report from the investigation shows that the workers were never served a letter of dismissal. It also showed that the workers were not investigated internally and found guilty of the charges brought down against them by the GVL, and all of this went contrary to the labor law of Liberia.”
A former fieldworker of Golden Veroleum Liberia receives US$2,111.40 as severance pay after he and other workers reached a settlement with the company. The DayLight/Harry Browne
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. But communities are not happy about its operation. GVL’s decade and a year stay in Liberia has seen its oil palm production engulfed by issues of land-grabs, complaints of bad labor practices and deforestation.
Banner Image: Sing Africa Plantations Liberia Incorporated has failed to meet its obligations with Bluyeama despite logging into the community. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
BONDI MANDINGO CHIEFDOM, Gbarpolu and BLUYEAMA, Lofa County – In 2018, the Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest signed a logging agreement with Indo Africa Plantation Limited. The community agreed for the company to log in its 37,222-hectare forest in the Bopolu District of Gbarpolu County in exchange for development.
Three years on, Indo Africa is yet to live up to the agreement, failing to pay the community land rental and harvesting fees.
“The community people engaged us so that we can engage Indo Africa so that they can meet up with their social responsibilities,” says Mark Dennis, the Chief Officer of Bondi Mandingo’s forest leadership, known across the forestry sector as a community forest management body. “Indo Africa has failed, and that has brought pressure on us from the community people.”
Some 250 miles away in Zorzor District, Lofa County, Bluyeama Authorized Community Forest faces a similar situation with Sing Africa Plantation Liberia, another logging company. The community agreed for the company to cut logs in its 44,444-hectare forest so that it could build schools, roads and clinics there. More than six years after, Sing Africa has failed to live up to the contract.
“The promises you made to the people and you don’t do it makes the community feel different. They are seeing logging going on,” says Alexander Songu, chief officer of Bluyeama Community Forest’s leadership in an interview with The DayLight. “The communities are not satisfied and they regret why they gave up their forest to Sing Africa.”
Apart from their failing logging agreements, Bondi Mandingo and Bluyeama have one other thing in common: Both Sing Africa and Indo Africa are owned by a Singaporean family, the Guptas. The family also owns Starwood Incorporated, according to the articles of incorporation of the three firms. Starwood signed a contract with the Matro-Kpogblen Community Forest in Grand Bassa County for 8,833 hectares in 2018 in the District No.4 area. Indo Africa—which holds the concession in Bondi Mandingo—has another agreement with the 31,818-hectare Korninga B Community Forest in Bopolu District. It has also failed to come up with its side of the bargain.
Five members of the Gupta family hold the shares of Indo Africa, Sing Africa and Starwood, according to The DayLight’s analysis of the companies’ shareholdings. Shivali Gupta, Shivani Gupta and Prachi Gupta have equal shares in Sing Africa. Mukesh Gupta has 70 percent of the shares in Starwood and Mrs. Anju Mukesh Kumar has 30 percent. Mukesh Gupta also has 51 percent of the shares in Indo Africa and Anju Mukesh Kumar 41 percent. Indo Africa and Sing Africa share the same registered agent: Kishan Rao Pamapalker. In the corporate world, a registered agent represents a firm’s interest in business deals and lawsuits.
The three companies have the same executives, too, with Kumah Gupta their chief executive officer and Moses Mononporlor, a former development superintendent for Gbarpolu, community forest manager.
Kumah Gupta, Sing Africa’s chief executive officer, who occupies the same positions in Indo Africa and Starwood, speaks at an event for the revision of the company’s new contract with Bluyeama Community Forest. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
In the four logging concessions the Guptas hold in Gbarpolu, Lofa and Bassa, covering 127,317 hectares, they made 50 promises to affected communities but implemented only 10 or 20 percent, according to our count. They did not fulfill any of the promises they made to Bondi Mandingo and Korninga B. All the commitments they kept and projects they implemented happened in Bluyeama and Matro-Kpogblen. For instance, they built the largest sawmill in the country so far in Bluyeama, employed locals and paid US$27,484 towards a scholarship program for villagers, payment records show. They have also prioritized the employment of locals.
The Guptas also owe the four communities more than US$300,000 in land rental and log-harvesting fees.
They owe Bondi Mandingo US$102,360 for all four years of the concession, the largest of the four community forests.
They owe Korninga B US$64,593. They have yet to cut a single tree in the two Gbarpolu communities. The family owes Bluyeama US$139,721 in land rental and log harvest fees, having paid US$103,610, records of their operations show. Sing Africa exported 52,265 cubic meters of logs in 2018 and 2019, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) in its 2018/2019 report.
The Guptas’ debt with Matro-Kpogblen is US$26,000 in land rental fees. They are due to pay the community harvesting fees. For instance, they should have paid US$3,201 from the 1,940 cubic meters of logs they shipped in 2019, captured in the LEITI report.
The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) sanctioning Sing Africa and Starwood to export logs despite owing Bluyeama and Matro-Kpogblen is a violation of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006. The law says, “The Authority shall not issue an export permit without confirming that all taxes and fees relating to the forest products subject to the permit have been paid.” In fact, under the law, the FDA can fine or terminate indebted companies’ contracts because of failure to pay their arrears.
Jonathan Yiah, the lead forestry campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), says authorities should compel companies to comply with all aspects of the law. “The sad reality is that the FDA and the national government have failed to uphold the law and have not learned their lesson,” Yiah says in reference to a 2005 Forest Concession Review report, which as part of Liberia’s overhaul of its forestry sector, found the country lost over US$64 million dollars to unpaid arrears.
“There is a need that the FDA, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and logging companies agree on an enforceable payment plan for the current arrears,” Yiah adds. The government of Liberia generated more than US$1.7 million from the three companies in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 fiscal years, according to figures published by the LEITI.
The FDA did not respond to The DayLight’s request for an interview on the matter. It also denied our access to export details of Indo Africa, Sing Africa and Starwood relative to the four community forests. We sent an email to Mike Doryen, the managing director of the entity and hand-delivered a letter with the same contents but nothing materialized. FDA should make biannual publications of all fees companies pay, as provided under the National Forestry Reform Law and its regulation. The Freedom of Information Act of 2010 also mandates all government contracts and concessions are published. But that is not the case. FDA’s website lists community forest agreements but those documents are not downloadable. We received some of the documents from its community forestry department through email.
Indo Africa has only paved a road to build its campsite in its four years in Bondi Mandingo Community Forest. It owes the community US$102,360 in land rental fees. The DayLight/Harry Browne
It is not a violation for companies owned by the same shareholders to hold multiple logging concessions in Liberia. However, it is a breach of the Community Rights Law—which created community forestry—for rural towns and villages not to benefit from forest resources. It dents the community-centered reform of the sector, exploited by factions during the Liberian Civil War and scarred by decades of mismanagement. The Guptas’ rich 2B Ramsgate Road community in the southeastern Asian country is a sharp contrast to the poor communities they log in, neglected for decades by successive governments, compounded by the failed logging concessions.
Campaigners urge the FDA to conduct due diligence and use its oversight powers to stop companies from signing news deals when they did not perform well with previous ones.
“We strongly believe that the FDA must conduct a much stronger due diligence that will ensure that the company is credible and has the capacity to operate a particular concession,” Yiah tells The DayLight in an interview.
“This… highlights companies’ widespread failure to pay communities their dues. Liberia’s government must control logging companies’ activities and ensure that they all act legally and abide by the contracts they signed with communities, which few presently do,” says Saskia Ozinga, founder of forests and rights nongovernmental organization, Fern, and now its adviser.
Sharp contrast: photo combination shows Google-sourced pictures of Ramsgate Road, where the Guptas live in Singapore, Gbarquoita, a community in Bondi Mandingo in Gbarpolu and Bluyeama in Lofa, affected by Indo Africa and Sing Africa concession
“Considering logging’s importance in [community forestry management agreements], it’s critical that timber logged under these agreements is incorporated in the legality grid, which is part of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Liberia signed with the European Union,” adds Ozinga. Liberia and the EU signed the VPA in 2009 to ensure that Liberia produces and exports legal timbers through strong forest governance and law enforcement.
‘The agreement… expired’
The communities themselves are taking action over the Guptas’ indebtedness to them.
Korninga B has written the FDA about their decision to cancel their contract with Indo Africa almost one year ago. “We do not want to work with Indo Africa Plantation Inc. since they have grossly violated and failed to meet up with any social [responsibilities] in the community,” reads the October 26 letter. “The agreement has already expired.” Legally, communities can terminate their agreements with loggers through the court system even without the consent of the government.
Bondi Mandingo held a meeting in December last year, resolving to begin the process to terminate their contract with Indo Africa beginning February earlier this year. It did not go as planned but they are currently working out modalities for the lawsuit.
Mononporlor had said in December last year Bondi Mandingo and Korninga B could press forward with their arbitrations if Indo Africa did not pay the outstanding amount by February this year. Two months after that deadline, the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Liberia after taking a toll on the global timber industry, halting production and stagnating export. Companies were unable to meet up with their social responsibilities to communities, according to the LEITI.
Like Bondi Mandingo and Korninga B, Matro-Kpogblen has reached an agreement to discontinue their relationship with Starwood and in May informed the FDA about their decision. “Having realized the failure of the third-party holder to live up to agreement signed with the community, the community assembly, the executive committee, have agreed to cancel the agreement and terminate all relations with the third-party holder with immediate effect,” reads their resolution. The assembly is the highest decision-making body in community forestry, and the executive committee takes decisions for the body.
Kumah Gupta did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for comments on the current situation of the four companies. We reminded him throughout last week via WhatsApp and texts but got no response. Mononporlor later told us Gupta was sick and could not speak at the moment.
Alexander Songu, the chief officer of Bluyeama Community Forest stands before logs Sing Africa felled more than two years ago. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Of the four community forests, Bluyeama’s agreement with Sing Africa shows signs of hope. Both parties have reached a consensus to upgrade their current, six-page contract to a comprehensive agreement, which details things like exact timeframes for payments of fees and implementation of projects. They should have sealed the deal last month but the FDA halted the process until the Bluyeama’s community assembly can make a quorum. The body is expected to reach a resolution on the new agreement this week, according to Songu. If signed, it would be the first enforcement of a commercial use contract (CUC) with the support of the government, private sector, community and civil society. The CUC, detailed and clear, is being heralded to help prevent payment-related conflicts in community forestry.
“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,” Songu, chairman of the Bluyeama forest governance structure told The DayLight at the end of an event for the revision of the document in August in Balagwalazu. “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,” Kumah Gupta said at the event.
Gertrude Nyaley, the technical manager of the FDA’s community forestry department, supports Korninga B, Matro-Kpogblen and Bondi Mandingo for their impending lawsuits. “We encourage companies to meet up with their responsibilities to both the government and the communities because the essence of the community forest is to empower our people,” says Nyaley, a lawyer herself. “The outbreak of COVID-19 might have brought an additional challenge but the companies have to reach out to the people and they must have a meeting of the mind.”
A Sing Africa truck transports logs on the Zorzor-Gbarnga highway. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
William Harmon and Varney Kamara contributed to this article.
It has been more than five weeks since President George Weah and Lakshmi Mittal, the CEO of ArcelorMittal, signed a revised mineral development agreement (MDA) in September, extending the company’s concession with Liberia for 25 years.
Since the agreement, valued at US$800 million, was signed and forwarded to the Legislature for ratification, the government has been silent on the details of the deal.
No doubt, calls for full disclosure have been made since the signing of the agreement. However, the government of Liberia seems to be playing deaf to these requests. Many persons in civil society, academia and within the mining industry are concerned that the MDA has not been disclosed for public debate, and now the National Legislature is taking up the issue when the public is unaware of the details of the Agreement.
As a result, a consortium of seven Liberian media institutions is filing a freedom of information (FOI) request, demanding full disclosure of the details of the revised MDA and believes that the process should be transparent. The media institutions, comprising mostly newspapers and a couple of online-only news outlets, include The Inquirer, New Dawn, New Republic, The News, News Public Trust, The DayLight and the Daily Observer.
As the National Legislature resumes official business, one of its key assignments before it finally adjourns in December later this year, is to fulfill the wish of President Weah to pass the agreement into law while the public has not been given an opportunity to see what is in the new agreement that will impact the country for 25 years.
ArcelorMittal has been criticized by communities affected by its concession for not living up to its promises in the existing agreement that was signed in 2006 after an initial agreement signed with the National Transitional Government of Liberia in 2005. Complaints captured in the media over the years have ranged from lack of employment opportunities, schools and hospitals. an agreement under the concessionaire’s corporate social responsibility.
ArcelorMittal Liberia has laid out a list of developments and initiatives that it has implemented over the years and is currently running a major public relations campaign in the media touting its efforts ahead of the debate over its MDA.
With a revised agreement on the table, the communities are calling the Government of Liberia, through the House and Senate’s Committees on Concessions, to halt any movement on the agreement until proper due diligence can be performed with the involvement of all stakeholders.
The consortium of Liberian media outlets is therefore requesting disclosures of 10 very critical issues as part of their FOI request in the form of unanswered questions why the revised ArcelorMittal Liberia agreement should be halted until full disclosure is made.
The freedom of information request is being filed with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which is the sectoral leader on the ArcelorMittal agreement, with copies sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, The President Pro Tempore of the Senate, The Ministry of Justice, The National Investment Commission and the National Bureau of Concessions. Both NIC and NBC were part of the negotiations for the revised MDA and MOJ has to legally attest to all major Government contracts and concessions.
The FOI request aims to make the agreement available to the wider public for scrutiny by independent sectoral experts, civil society, affected communities and other stakeholders.
Here are the areas for which the Consortium seeks release of the revised MDA:
What is the economic impact assessment of the MDA?
What is the environmental and social impact assessment (EIA) as it relates to the expanded investments and the extent to which all issues are addressed?
What is the estimated income to the Government over the life of the concession?
The request also calls for details on what effect the MDA could have on other potential investors (if any) in sectors impacted by the MDA, to assess full impact on Liberia’s private sector growth.
Are there any provisions therein for the benefit of Liberian businesses?
A key point of contention that calls for full disclosure involves agreements around the use or expansion of all public infrastructure such as ports, rails, utilities and any other public facilities, and any limitations or sole exclusivity granted in the MDA to ArcelorMittal. On this point, ArcelorMittal Liberia in the past has held the position that it should retain control of the Yekepa to Buchannan rail and certain port infrastructure the company has developed, even though those infrastructure are sovereign assets of the Republic of Liberia. Many industry analysts disagree with this position and argue instead that public infrastructure should never be under the exclusive control of any one company but should be under the control of the Government.
The FOI request also calls for details regarding the estimated 7,000 direct and indirect jobs to be created as stipulated in the Government’s press release of September 10, 2021. Including plans for Liberians assuming roles in the management structure.
Speaking of jobs, among other benefits, the request also aims to understand the potential impact on the surrounding and affected communities and their socioeconomic development. Affected communities in ArcelorMittal’s existing concession areas feel disenchanted that the company has not lived up to its proposed corporate social responsibilities according to the MDA. This includes job opportunities specifically for residents of the affected communities.
The request calls for disclosure of all GOL performance reviews to date (if any) of the existing concession for compliance and any justifications for the extension.
What are the Government of Liberia’s plans, as reported in its September 10, 2021 press release, pertaining to planned expenditures and use of the USD $65 million, agreed to as pre-payment of fees and as signing bonus, the FOI request aims to know.
Finally (for now) the FOI request calls for full disclosure of all proposed monitoring mechanisms to ensure that parties comply with the MDA for the benefit of the Liberian people.
Liberia signed on as a member state of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in July 2009, with the passage of a law establishing the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) to ensure revenue and contract transparency in the extractive sectors. The LEITI’s mandate, according to the law, is to assist in ensuring that all benefits due the Government and people of Liberia on account of the exploitation and/or extraction of the country’s minerals and other resources are (1) verifiably paid or provided; (2) duly accounted for; and (3) prudently utilized for the benefits of all Liberians and on the basis of equity and sustainability. A key part of the LEITI’s mandate is to promote the public disclosure of contracts and concessions bearing relationship with the extraction of forest and mineral resources.
Banner Image: The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in Monrovia. The DayLight/Harry Browne
BY Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – The Government of Liberia has paid US$200,000 to communities affected by logging concessions.
The payment represents a tenth of over US$5.5 million owed communities in land rental fees since the 2015/2016 fiscal year they protested for in August.
“The US$200,000 check for the initial payment of community 30 percent arrears owed by [the government] is now issued directly into the Benefit Sharing Trust Board’s account opened at the Central Bank of Liberia for the communities’ [share of land rental fees],” said Andrew Zelemen, the coordinator of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC) which organized the protest. “The check was issued on Monday, October 18, 2021, and was received by the Trust Board Finance and administration officer, witnessed by me and is being deposited today October 19 at the Trust Board Account.”
The US$200,000 check the government of Liberia paid communities affected by logging concessions. Picture credit: Andrew Zelemen
Rural communities in Liberia affected by forest management contracts and timber scale contracts (TSCs) staged a planned weeklong protest in front of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, demanding the government to pay them their share of US$27.7 million collected from logging concessions ever since. It was the third year in a row they had agitated for their share of forest revenue, guaranteed under the 2006 National Forest Reform Law of Liberia.
NCFDC represents 23 community forest 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).
A log field in Salayea, Lofa County, run by Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Inc. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – Stakeholders from across the forestry sector have proposed the revision of 10 agreements between communities affected by large-scale logging concessions and companies to replace failed, existing contracts.
The drafts—which actors in the sectors bill simplified, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-binding or “smart”—will replace unimplemented social agreements in communities in Gbarpolu, Nimba, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Maryland, Grand Kru and Sinoe. Social agreements contain commitments companies make to communities such as to pave their roads, build schools and clinics, and construct bridges.
“Social agreements are not fully implemented by the logging companies and social agreements are not renegotiated on time,” said Andrew Zelemen of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC) at a one-day program climaxing Forest Law Enforcement and Trade (FLEGT) program recently.
Sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Union (EU), FLEGT seeks to reduce and eventually eliminate illegal logging and improve forest governance.
It also seeks to increase the capacities of logging-affected communities to be able to monitor the benefits they receive through commercial logging, communicate and share information on the use of benefits from forest resources, and defend their rights.
“Community members, the logging companies, FDA and key stakeholders need to work together to develop, negotiate and regularly monitor the social agreements,” Zelemen said.
Zelemen also said that communities in Bong and Maryland have developed one-year social agreement implementation plans for the 2020/21 harvesting season. He added that 22 members of different community forest development committees—the bodies that represent the interest of communities under the 2006 National Forest Reform Law of Liberia— are charged to monitor the implementation plans.
Women empowerment
The project also enhanced the capacity of 100 rural women as a means of increasing women’s representations in the activities of communities’ forest governance bodies ahead of their elections.
Only one woman heads a community forest governance structure across 23 communities affected by forest management contracts and timber sales contracts—known across the industry as FMCs and TSCs, respectively. And only 52 out of 230 or 22 percent of the members of CFDCs are women.
“Much women are not being involved in CFDC activities and leadership, mostly due to culture, low education and income for women, and domestic responsibilities,” Zelemen said.
“NUCFDC is still seeking supports from partners to continue training women in the CFDC areas for involvement and monitoring CFDC activities, training still needed for new CFDCs after 2021/2022 elections.”
Banner Image: An employee of the Monrovia City Corporation removes a huge pile of overstayed garbage in Monrovia. The DayLight/Tom Portland
By Gabriel Dixon
MONROVIA – Recently, the Head of the European Union Delegation in Liberia, Ambassador Laurent Delahouse came under heavy criticism for a statement he made at the Monrovia City Forum on Solid Waste Management earlier this month. In brief remarks at the event, Delahousse said, “Monrovia is the dirtiest city of the many places I have visited in my work in Africa.”
Delahousse retracted his statement and apologized. But it has sparked out heated debate on the sanitary condition of a city, like many urban parts of the country, which has been dirty for decades.
While some consider the envoy’s statement as negative branding of the government of Liberia and a statement outside of the normal euphemism of public diplomacy, exploring the background of his statement and facts associated with waste management in the municipality of Monrovia could re-energize new strategies and a system-approach for efficient and effective waste collection and disposal in the sector, some experts say.
The DayLight has carefully analyzed four facts on garbage collection and disposal associated, which show the city is dirty.
Poor Collection and disposal Mechanism
Garbage on Center Street in Monrovia. The DayLight/Tom Portland
Monrovia is home to more than 1 million people, who produce close to 800 metric tons of solid waste per day. That means Monrovia alone creates 292,000 metric tons of waste every year. However, only 45 percent or 360 metric tons of waste is collected mainly by the Monrovia City Corporation and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the sector. The remaining 55 percent or 440 metric tons is uncollected, leading to huge piles of garbage at market places, street corners, empty lots and the backyards of residences.
Inadequate Budgetary Support
Garbage cloughs Monrovia’s major drainage system commonly called “Soniwein.” The DayLight/Tom Portland
Under Pillar Two of the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity Development (PAPD), the government of Liberia identified key challenges in the waste and sanitation sector and promised to have equitable, safe, affordable and sustainable water supply and sanitation services for all Liberians by 2023. However, in President George Weah’s budget message to the National Legislature on July 14 last year, recurrent expenditures dwarfed public sector investment projects (PSIP) by 90 percent against 10 percent of a budget of US$518 million. So, for every US$10 that the government spent on the economy from June 2020 to May 2021, US$9 went towards salaries, office desks and chairs, generator and vehicle fueling, etc, while only US$1 went towards core projects including garbage collection and disposal in the city of Monrovia. This fact is further supported by the government’s Mid-year Disbursement report on the administration and municipal government sectors for the fiscal year 2018/19 and 2019/2020.
Our analysis of the budget of the MCC over the last three years shows that a little close to US$11 million USD was allocated to the city government. However, the outlay of the MCC’s budgets from 2018 to 2021 reflects the dominance of recurrent expenditure as depicted in the national budget. For example, from 2018 to 2021, things like salaries, furniture, and other items not used in generating income by the city government amount to US$10,024,822. which is 92 percent of the MCC budget for the last three years. Equipment rental, refuse collection and operational expenses amount to US$573,672 or 5.25 percent of the budget.
Structural Limitation and Ineffectiveness
Sanitation workers collect garbage down Waterside, Monrovia. The DayLight/Tom Portland
The solid waste management system of the MCC basically comprises two layers: primary waste and secondary waste collection. The first layer consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and community-based enterprises (CBEs) that are involved with door-to-door garbage collection. The second layer involves the MCC and its sub-contractors.
However, because of the lack of a clearly defined demarcation or zonal restriction for SMEs and CBEs, there is often confusion on which structure should be operating where and at what time. This confusion is also contributing to the ineffectiveness of the system that is affecting the collection and disposal mechanism of the MCC.
This fact is supported by one research published in the Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, where it was established that 50 percent of Monrovians dispose of solid waste either by burying them in their backyards, open burning, dumping them in rivers and swamps or by the help of scavengers.
Another research report by the World Bank in July 2019 further details the structural limitations such as inefficiencies with contractual models with CBEs, lower level of trust between citizens and CBEs, and poor communication as challenges the waste and sanitation sector headed by the MCC needs to address.
Limited recycling Mechanism and Incentives
A pile of garbage on Center Street in Monrovia. The DayLight/Tom Portland
About 70 percent of solid waste generated in Monrovia is recyclable, organic waste. However, recycling is a challenge as many of those involved with pocket-recycling are small businesses or NGOs who often face resource constraints. Efforts to improve local waste management through projects like the Solid Waste Management project (SWM), led by Cities Alliance, has made a little impact due to issues like the lack of an effective and efficient integrated solid waste management plan by the government of Liberia as well as the lack of incentives for CBEs in the sector.
There is also the issue of scarce technical capacity and technologies required to encourage entrepreneurial ventures in the waste and sanitation sector of Liberia.
