Tubman and Firestone: The Tale of Land-grab and Human Rights Abuses

November 30, 2021

Banner Image: Harvey Firestone left and Tubman Right. Picture credit: Indiana University

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA– Since 1952, Liberia has commemorated November 29, the birthday of former President William V.S. Tubman, as a national holiday. Throughout this period, Liberians from all walks of life join in huge pomp and pageantry. In Maryland County, Tubman’s birthplace, thousands of people there usually decorate themselves with palm leaves as the echoes of traditional drumming trumpet across communities. In Monrovia and elsewhere, public buildings and businesses are shut down. Tubman became famous for his policies on unification and the economy, which earned him a great depth of respect home and abroad. He died on July 23, 1971.

But not many know that the former President was a lawyer for Firestone Liberia, a company whose nearly century-old rubber operations witnessed a huge land-grab and some of the worst human rights abuses in global concession history. The DayLight takes a look at Tubman’s controversial relationship with the company as the country celebrates the 126th birth anniversary of its longest-serving president.

Born William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman in 1895 in the southeastern city of Harper, Maryland County, he began his political journey in 1912 as an assistant in a probate court, going to serve in Harper City as a councilman and teacher from 1914 and 1917. During this period, he read law. He was admitted into the Maryland County bar later in 1917 and appointed county attorney. Tubman became an attorney for Firestone in the 1920s. Firestone hired him, who was Senator at the time, and Edwin James Barclay, who was Secretary of State (Foreign Minister). Both men even traveled to Ohio, USA as part of the negotiation, according to Samuel P. Jackson in Rich Land Poor County: the Paradox of Poverty in Liberia. “The agreement did not require Firestone to provide education beyond the ninth grade for the children of plantation workers and, as a result, the system produced generations of tappers and low wage earners.”

The Firestone agreement, one of the worst concessions in human history, saw the company pen a 99-year contract with the government of Liberia for one million acres at the rate of six cents per acre. Hundreds of people, who had lived on the land for generations, were evicted. Villagers were pushed at the margins of the concession area, including what would become the Roberts International Airport (RIA) highway. If it were today, it would have been a violation of the Land Rights Act of 2018, the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the UNESCO’s 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Framework. Firestone is currently locked in a land dispute with Kpanyan over the 1926 land-grab dispute. Queezar, another community adjacent to the concession, which roughly translates in the Bassa language, “The educated people took our land,” is an everlasting lamentation of that human rights abuse. The Firestone agreement was extended in 2015 to 2046 after agreeing on an amendment with the government.

Liberian President William V.S. Tubman with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, North Portico, White House, October 19, 1961. Picture Credit: The White House

The 1926 deal did not prove only detrimental to villagers and workers. It did to the Liberian government as well. In the 1930s, Barclay, now the President, found himself in a stalemate with the very concessionaire whose deal he and Tubman had helped secure. The Great Depression of that decade brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy, and Firestone tried to persuade the United States government to compel Liberia to pay a US$5 million loan. The country had obtained the loan as part of the agreement. Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to interfere in Liberian internal affairs, writing in a memorandum to the State Department that, “At all times we should remember that (Harvey) Firestone went to Liberia at his own financial risk, and it is not the business of the State Department to pull his financial chestnut out of the fire except as a friend of the Liberian people.” In 1932, the Liberian Legislature passed the Moratorium Act, suspending payment of the Firestone loan until terms could be negotiated that were more in line with Liberia’s ability to pay. The U.S. suspended diplomatic relations but did not take further action. To date, there’s no record to show that the government paid back Firestone this money.

The loan had always been controversial, as Firestone had slipped in the agreement, which went on to be called clause “K,” in the last stages of the negotiation. It was the same as the US$8 million loan deal the Daniel E. Howard administration had obtained from the US government but was disapproved by Congress. Clause K had sparked protest in and outside the country.

The loan clause was only accepted after both parties saw the deal as necessary for their political economies. At the end of World War I, Great Britain—the leader of the global trade of rubber—decided to restrict the supply of the commodity on the world market. So, Firestone decided to come to Liberia to nullify Great Britain’s dominance of the global rubber market. Liberia’s tropical and very humid climate was an ideal area for growing rubber. It also found that Liberia had a cheap labor force, and the government too was eager to offer a concession in exchange for U.S. protection against colonial neighbors who were impatient to annex the country, a nation it helped establish in 1822. Moreover, Firestone wanted political control in Liberia to protect its long-term investment. Liberia owed more than US$1 million to British bankers. That was a safeguard to avoid the British direct meddling into Liberia’s internal affairs. Also, Firestone’s action was a strategic decision aimed at protecting its rubber production deal with the Liberian government. Similarly, the U.S. Government got interested and supported Firestone’s plans which included a promise to construct a major port. Firestone did not need a port to export the rubber from Liberia but merely proposed it to get the approval and support of the US State Department, which was particularly interested in a port on the West African coast as a station for naval use.

Tubman’s relationship with Firestone became even stronger when he became President of Liberia in 1944, defeating six candidates, including Clarence Lorenzo Simpson, his closest rival. While president, he owned the largest rubber plantation outside of Firestone, selling rubber to the company, a conflict of interest today under the Code of Conduct. His administration used martial law to recruit 300,000 casual laborers for Firestone—as per the agreement—up to the early 1960s. In fact, it even shut down a strike action on the plantation in 1950. It was only in 1962—after Portugal filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO)—that Liberia created a labor law that outlawed forced recruitment of workers. Up to the mid-2000s, the company’s workers lived in windowless houses, without running water and electricity. The administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the time demanded it improve the workers’ welfare. Its relationship with workers inspired agricultural labor unions across the country and the creation of the Decent Work Act of 2015.

The Tubman-supported forced recruitment of workers was reminiscent of the Fernando-Po Crisis, where natives were adopted from their homes and farms and sent to the Fernando Po in today’s Equatorial Guinea to work on plantations. The Fernando Po Crisis had led to the resignation of former President Charles Dunbar Burgess King and Vice President Allen Yancy in 1930, and brought to power Barclay and later Tubman. Firestone would go on to pay rebels to protect its investments and operations while the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) raged, killing thousands of people, according to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Liberia, Harbel, January 2006 Every week-day, hevea-tappers from the Firestone plantation must take care of 800 trees: dealing anti-parasitical treatments, tapping trees, collecting latex, and clearing brushwood. As they can’t cope with their daily quotas, numerous workers have to be helped by their family or by a friend, to whom they pay back money and rice. Liberia, Harbel, janvier 2006 Tous les jours de la semaine, les ouvriers de la plantation de Firestone doivent s’occuper de 800 arbres et en collecter le latex, leur administrer un traitement anti-parasitique et nettoyer les allées des buissons. Comme ils ne peuvent pas réaliser le travail qui leur est confier seul, ils se font aider par leur famille ou amis à qui ils reversent une partie de leur salaire. Michael Zumstein / Agence VU

Despite these gross human rights abuses associated with Tubman and Firestone, both of them play important roles in Liberian society.

Regarded as the “father of modern Liberia,” Tubman was responsible for enacting many reforms during his 27-year rule (1944–1971). His administration built public schools and gave women the right to participate in politics. Many public infrastructures were also built during his regime, including bridges that linked interior Liberia to urban settlements. Tubman’s legacy also includes his “Open Door Policy,” which increased foreign investment in Liberia. By the time of his death, Liberia could boast the largest commercial fleet in the world and the world’s largest rubber industry, making the country the envy of many other African nations.

Firestone, on the other hand, is one of the largest contributors to Liberia’s economy. One of the country’s largest employers—a little over 6,000 workers—the company said it has spent more than US$2 billion in the country since the end of the Liberian Civil War.

This story is a part of The DayLight’s Human Rights Reporting Series.

Ex-Pro Tempore’s Brother Claims 750 Acres of Community Land in Gbarpolu, Locals Say No

November 27, 2021

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Banner Image: A portion of the 750 acres of land Sylvester Jallah is claiming in Fallah Clan, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By James Harding Giahyue

Darkollie Sylvester Jallah, a brother of the former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, claims 750 acres of land in Fallah Clan, Gbarpolu County

He said his late father, the famed Paramount Chief Jallah Lone, gave him the land in the early 2000s

Residents of the clan disapprove of his ownership of the land, accusing him of using his family status to deny them of farmland

Campaign groups call on the government to investigate “elite land-grabs” they say are happening across the country.

FALLAH CLAN, Gbarpolu County – A brother of Armah Jallah, former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, is claiming ownership of 750 acres of land in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County.

Darkollie Sylvester Jallah lays claim to 500 acres of farmland in Fallah Clan and another 250 acres in Barma Clan in the Gungbeyah Chiefdom, bordering Bomi County. He has cultivated 124 acres of the land in Fallah Clan, farming vegetables, pigs and goats, with a workforce between 20 and 25 people. He said he has invested over US$6,000 so far on the land and plans to plant cocoa in the future.

However, local farmers challenge Jallah’s claims.

“The land that Sylvester Jallah is occupying was not given to him by the citizens… the way it supposed to be,” said David Morris, a resident of Fallah Clan.“He came on that land without the consent of the citizens of Fallah.”

“Sylvester and the Fallah [Clan] people are not friendly…, because of the way he forced himself on the land,” said Flomo Wolobah, 47, the founder of Ekki Village, the community at the forefront of the opposition of Jallah’s acquisition of the farmland. He said he and other villagers have little land left to farm.

Jallah said he got the land from Chief Jallah Lone, his father, in the early 2000s as a token after he advised the late legendary paramount chief of Bopolu to document his ownership of all the land in the district. He paid L$150 (US$1.61 today) to seal the deal.

“I am not afraid, I am a citizen and I am not doing anything wrong,” Jallah told The DayLight in an interview on Daryan Organic Farm on a rainy day in August marking its first anniversary. “I am doing a good investment here for the citizens to benefit, so it is not something to hide.”

Villagers accuse Slyvester Jallah of grabbing 750 acres of farmland in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/Henry Gboluma

‘Go to court’

In February last year, chiefs and elders of the Fallah Clan met with Jallah to discuss the dispute. In that meeting, he presented tribal certificates his father and district authorities had issued him for the land but the chiefs refused to recognize the document on the ground that they were “fake.”

Jallah then agreed to meet the elders the next month. However, more than a year on, that meeting has not been held. Efforts by Paramount Chief Dianah Johnson of Gungbeyah Chiefdom to reach a resolution have also not materialized.

“I am not going to argue with anybody on the land issue here,” Jallah told The DayLight. “Just go to the court and present your case then we can discuss it from there.” His tribal certificates appear to be altered, with erasure marks on the portion with his name and locations of the lands. (He allowed The DayLight to take pictures of the documents under the condition that we did not publish them).

The villagers The DayLight interviewed accused Jallah of using his family status to grab farmland belonging to the entire community.

“We don’t know his next plan of action,” said Morris. “Maybe the following year he will like to extend it to the Maher River.” The river separates Gbarpolu from Bomi.

“He feels that we don’t have the strength to fight him,” Wolobah added. “For him, he’s got money. For us, we are struggling. It is because his name is Jallah.”

The Former Pro Tempore, Jallah’s elder brother, also faces similar allegations from people in Fallah Clan over 850 acres of land in a place called Underwear Town, a portion of which he has a vast palm plantation. He denied any wrongdoing, saying, “The land there is for us by inheritance,” and that the people of Ekki Village were “strangers.”

The Jallahs are a household name in Gbarpolu County. The late Paramount Chief Lone, their father, was revered up to his death in 2011 for being a unifier and peacemaker. He served as head of the National Traditional Council of Liberia from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The Jallah Lone Medical Center, the largest hospital in the western county, is named after him. A representative of Bopolu told the then-Land Commission in 2012 that the late Lone and other chiefs controlled 790,982 acres of land in the District. The former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate helped establish Gbarpolu as a county in 2001 while serving as senator of Lofa County. He is the only person to serve as senator for two counties. The younger Jallah threads the family’s political path, too. He contested the 2017 elections for a seat in the House of Representatives, finishing fifth in the field of 10 contestants.

But the younger Jallah is adamant the plots of land in Fallah and Barma Clan have something to do with his family’s influence. “There are some misconceptions surrounding it,” he told me, “and some people want to politicize what we are trying to do.”

Flomo Wolobah of Fallah Clan is one of several villagers who challenges Sylvester Jallah’s claim to 750 acres of land in the Gungbeyah Chiefdom of Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The conflict between the villagers and the Jallahs is typical of how controversial tribal certificates are to Liberia’s land reform. The Land Rights Act of 2018 guarantees rural communities’ ownership. Previous statutes—a bevy of hinterland legislations between the 1900s and 1920s, the Aborigine Law of 1949, and the Public Land Act of 1952—granted them the only user’s rights. Chiefs and elders, who represented the communities in land matters, extended that right to third parties through certificates for the decades that proceeded. The exact number of those tribal certificates is unknown but could well be in their thousands.

Under the Land Rights Act, townspeople in Fallah and Barma Clan must approve Jallah’s ownership of the 750 acres before he gets a deed for the land. The law requires the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and the community in which the land in question is located to vet all tribal certificates related to that particular community. The developed portion of the land remains with the holders and the undeveloped is returned to the community. That process began in January earlier this year and should end in 2023.

“If the community says they don’t know about it, we can’t force them to say they know about it,” said Adams Manobah, chairman of the LLA told me in a mobile phone interview. “If you have a tribal certificate and you developed portion of the [land that tribal certificate represents]… the area that you developed is hundred percent for you on ground that the tribal certificate is good. If it is not good at all, then you don’t have any claim.

“On that ground, we can’t say you have the land. That is when you and the community will have to negotiate.”

Last week, the Civil Society Land Rights Working Group (CSO-LRWG) criticized the LLA for the slow pace of the implementation of the law. The law requires the government to conduct a confirmatory survey of all customary lands. That has not been done, even though some communities have already completed all other legal steps more than a year ago. The LLA has also not formulated the regulations, which should facilitate the implementation of the law. It has started the process but is expected not to be completed until the first quarter of next year, according to Manobah.

CSO-LRWG, a conglomerate of several nongovernmental organizations, called on the LLA to speed up the formulation of the regulations and investigate reports of current and former officials of government, and their relatives and business people grabbing community land.

“The CSO-LRWG has [witnessed] a huge surge in land-grabs by so-called elites of community customary land and some have degenerated into land conflicts and yet the Liberia Land Authority has not done much to properly investigate these land grabs and conflicts and bring them to an amicable settlement,” said Paul Larry George, chairman of the Associates for Rural Development (ARD), one of the organizations.

“The government has to pay serious attention to this thing,” said Alphonso Henries, the executive director of the Liberian Reform Movement.

“Elite land-grab undermines the intent of the Land Rights Act,” said Nora Bowier of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). “It worsens poverty as it deprives communities of their rights to a fair deal and economic benefits from their land and resources.”

The LLA did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for a response to the group’s assertions. We will update the story once it does.

Editor’s Note: This story is a part of The DayLight Land-grab Reporting Series. Additional Reporting by Henry Gboluma.

Illegal Logging Having Severe Impact on Women, Says CSO

November 20, 2021

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Banner Image: Mrs. Loretta Alethea Pope Kai. Photo credit: Foundation for Community Initiatives via Facebook

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – A civil society organization (CSO) has frowned on illegal logging across the country, saying such practice is having severe negative consequences on women across concession communities.

“A significant segment of our women rely on the income from farming in the forests, and the illicit cutting of logs basically undermines these activities,” said Loretta Alethea Pope Kai, executive director for the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), in an interview with The DayLight on Wednesday. “Illegal logging weakens everything about women and their relationship to forests. It threatens their health, safety, and their food security.”

Kai’s comments came in reaction to a recent report by a number of CSOs, which found that a logging company harvested approximately 14,000 cubic meters of logs outside its expired permit area in Grand Bassa County worth nearly US$2.5 million. The Timber Sales Contract Area 2 (TSC A2) permit had expired in 2012.

FCI, which advocates for women’s rights to land and participation in forest governance, is demanding the government takes concrete steps against illegal logging across concession communities and as a first step publishes the official report examining this clear case of illegal logging.

Women in Liberia are major users of forests and forest products, such as wood for fuel, medicinal plants and wild foods. Seventy percent of households income in Liberia comes from forests products, according to a World Bank report.

“These activities continue to make our women poor. Communities have been greatly affected by the destructive wave of deforestation caused by illegal logging activities, while the government continues to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in forest revenue,” Kai said.

The report called on the FDA to revoke the permit of the Tarpeh Timber Company (TTC), the company which holds the controversial concession, and Renaissance Group Incorporated (RGI) and Freedom Group Liberia (FGL), the two other companies associated with the concession. It also called on the government to prosecute anyone involved in the scandal, criticizing the Ministry of Justice for not having done so, more than a year after it started to investigate the matter.

“This is a clear mark of impunity,” Kai said. “Without strict adherence to the laws and regulations on fines and penalty, we cannot guarantee the benefits for rural women and girls from forest resources. We are compounding their poverty.”

TTC has been associated with logging outside of its concession area before, and, the report found, it appeared to deliberately risk a fine for greater profit. A 2009 UN Panel of Experts report found the company harvested timber outside of its concession area valued at least US$100,000, but was fined a meager US$2,000 or two percent of the value of the export.

And in 2018, the FDA fined RGI US$5,000 after it learned that the company had felled trees outside its concession area and later increased the fine to US$100,000 but did not confiscate the huge stockpile of illegally harvested logs.

“This is a huge governance issue here. This is just going to scare away women from participating in forest governance matters and even occupying posts on governance bodies,” Kai said, referring to the low number of women in community forest leadership. “We are letting women down with all these violations and our failure to act in accordance with the law.”

The FDA has been largely blamed for not performing its appropriate oversight function. By law, the FDA should publish all permits, data, and payments it receives periodically but has failed to do so.

It has also not responded to the publication of the CSO report more than one week since it was published.

“To show it is serious in addressing illegalities,” Kai said, “it must now publish the official investigation into this case of illegal logging and speedily implement its recommendations.”

This pile of logs, according to a new report, was illegally harvested by Freedom Group Liberia (FGL) in Grand Bassa County. Photo credit: Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism.

Electric Cars, Private ‘Kehkeh’: Liberia’s Commitments to Combat Climate Change

November 16, 2021

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Banner Image: Liberia promised to reduce deforestation by 50 percent. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

In December 2015, 196 countries across the world met in Paris, France, to take uniform action in addressing the effects of global warming. The Paris Agreement or COP 21 is an internationally binding legal treaty whose overall goal is to reduce global carbon emission to well below 2.0 degrees or preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

Liberia was one of those 196 signatories. The country made a commitment to reduce its economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 64 percent below the projected business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2030.

Ahead of the COP26 Glasgow climate change conference, the country took a step toward its implementation plan. In July this year, Liberia revised its nationally determined contributions (NDC) document and pledged to mitigate the effects of greenhouse emissions in various sectors, ranging from agriculture to waste management. Here are the things Liberia promised the international community it will do to reduce the effects of climate change:

Agriculture

Women plow the soil in Sappimah, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

In the agriculture sector, Liberia committed itself to lower greenhouse gases emissions related to agriculture and livestock systems by 40 percent below BAU levels by 2030. It said it would achieve this target through the promotion of low-emissions rice cultivation and reducing the burning of field residues. The country also promised to source funds and establish programs to promote low-carbon agriculture practices, including conservation agriculture, a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance (i.e. no digging), maintenance of a permanent soil cover, low digging, combined agroforestry systems, improved lowland rice cultivation, multi-cropping, organic fertilizers, a concept that relies on using existing irrigation systems, and the use of sustainable agricultural waste management, among others.

Forests

Liberia promised to reduce deforestation by 50 percent. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Liberia obligated itself to reduce GHG emissions by enhancing the natural environment to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in forested and marine areas, including a reduction of the national deforestation rate by 50% by 2030. The country said it is committed to decreasing emissions by clearing forests and creating grasses for cattle by 40 percent below BAU levels and reducing greenhouse gases by 5,147 Greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide (GgCO2e), and reforesting an average of 12,285 hectares per year to enhance forest carbon stocks by 1,013 GgCO2e. Its strategy is to invest in natural regeneration and tree-planting through community and school programs, including financing sustainable woods that are used for cooking, and charcoal production.

Coastal Zones

West Point in Monrovia. The DayLight/Harry Browne

In the Coastal zones segment, Liberia assured the world that it will cut down GHG emissions from changing of natural ecosystems to agriculture as well as the abandonment of farmland, and enhance carbon sinks in mangroves and other blue carbon ecosystems, including advancing protection and conservation measures in 30 percent of mangrove ecosystems and reduce GHG emissions by a total of 1,800 GgCO2e through the protection mangrove ecosystems. Liberia also pledged to improve coastal carbon stocks that include mangroves, tidal, salt marshes, and seagrasses. The government said it will do this by restoring 35 percent of degraded coastal wetlands and mangrove ecosystems. It said it will expand marine and coastal ecosystem protection by establishing two marines and two coastal protected areas and developing new or updated protected area management plans. It said it will achieve these targets through the improvement of national policies, plans and investments to increase mangrove and coastal conservation and restoration, based on survey analysis of coastal zone ecosystems to identify threats and priority action areas.

Transport

A police officer did stops a car loaded with charcoal in Paynesville. The DayLight/Harry Browne

In the Transport industry, Liberia promised to reduce GHG emissions by 15.1 percent below BAU levels by 2030. The country also vowed to reduce greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide by 16.9 GgCO2e. It also promised to introduce electric vehicles with a focus on private tricycles. It said it will reduce greenhouse gases and carbon by 32.3 GgCO2e by lending support to the transformation of the National Transit Authority (NTA) buses and private vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG). The country said it will achieve these targets by introducing a vehicle labeling system, a feebate or rebate program through which the government levies fees on relatively high greenhouse gas-emitting vehicles and providing rebates on lower-emitting vehicles. It also said it will enforce a 10-percent tax on luxury vehicles and the integration of a tax on transit vehicles by 2025.

Energy

On the energy front, Liberia said it will reduce GHG emissions in this sector by 40.6 percent below BAU levels by 2030, creating a private investment enabling environment focusing on power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy (RE). The country said it will reduce emissions by 79.8 per year by installing 100 megawatts (MW) plants producing 300GWh per year with a load factor of 40 percent. The country said it will reconnect Monrovia clients to the grid, and decrease emissions by 124.15 per year by supporting the process by which 100 percent of the owners of individual generators will switch to the distribution network. It said it will achieve these targets by developing off-grid small hydropower plants (HPP) and on-grid ones via PPAs, including a reduction of emissions by 15.4 per year by installing a batch of several sites with 20 MW capacity; medium HPP with an output of 40 and with 50% baseload minimum for rural electrification and connected to the grid.

Waste

Garbage on Center Street in Monrovia. The DayLight/Tom Portland

In the waste sector, Liberia said it will reduce its GHG emissions here by 7.6% below BAU levels by 2030, and vowed to lower greenhouse gases and carbon emissions by 25.63 GgCO2e per year. It said it will do this by supporting the implementation of a landfill gas recovery system on Whein Town Landfill by 2022. The country also promised to reduce emissions by 25.63 GgCO2e per year by supporting the implementation of a landfill gas recovery system on Cheesemanburg Landfill by 2025, and reduce emissions by 0.84 per year by supporting the development of small-scale recycling of organic materials of market waste with a production of 500 t each year. It said it will achieve these targets by strengthening institutional and legal institutions at national and municipal levels, including the consolidation of operational and financial management capacities at the community and institutional level for an integrated waste management system by 2025.

CSOs Warn of Land Crisis Due to Lack of Regulations

November 16, 2021

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Banner Image: A Village in Gbarsor, River Cess County. The DayLight/William Harmon

By William Selmah

MONROVIA – Civil society organizations working on land rights in Liberia have warned of land conflicts in Liberia, unless the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) speeds up the development of regulations for enforcing the Land Rights Act, including the customary ownership component of the law.

“The [Civil Society Organizations Land Rights Working Group (CSO-LRWG)] has witnessed a huge surge in land grabs by so-called elites of community customary land and some has degenerated into land conflicts and yet the Liberia Land Authority has not done much to properly investigate these land grabs and conflicts and bring them to an amicable settlement,” said Paul Larry George of Associates for Rural Development (ARD), a member of the CSO-LRWG, at the news conference on Monday.

“Land-grabs by elites resulting in land conflicts and human rights violations have been reported and documented across customary communities and there are no options available for communities who have been affected to seek redress at the local levels,” said Maima Brooks of Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU), another member of the group. The CSOs—which also include Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), Rights and Rice Foundation and Liberia Reform Movement (LRM)—expressed fear of the law not serving its intended purposes.

The LLA did not respond to queries for comments. We will update the story when it does.

‘It will live’

The Land Rights Act (LRA), which recognizes local communities’ rights to their ancestral lands without formal title or deed, was passed into law in 2018. However, implementation of the law has been a challenge in the absence of regulations. The DayLight runs a series on land-grab, which features ownership claims of community lands by current and past officials of government and their relatives, businesspeople, and other elites.

The LLA has started to formulate regulations for the implementation of the law but has not completed the process, though it has been more than three years since the law was created.

“We will not sit there and let it die just like that,” the group said. “It will live, sit up, walk and even talk.”

Explainer: The Four Objectives of COP26 You Need To Know

November 9, 2021

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Banner Image: West Point witnesses sea erosion every year. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Emmanuel Sherman

Monrovia – In his address to the opening of the 26^th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) ongoing climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland or COP26, President George Weah called on world leaders to address the global disparity in climate financing.

“There is an inherent imbalance in the current architecture of climate financing,” President Weah said. “Country like Liberia who maintains and protects the largest remaining tracks of forest reserves receives the lowest benefits for these ecosystem services.”

Parties reached a landmark agreement in December 2015 at the Paris Accord or COP21 to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve net-zero carbon scenario as well as reducing global warming. COP21 set the basis for COP26 in an effort to review their commitments, known as intended nationally determined contributions (NDC).

That was s the core of the Paris Accord. Now here are the four objectives of COP26 you need to know:

Secure global net zero by mid- century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach

Under this objective, the conference agrees to do the followings:

Accelerate the phase out of coal
Curtail deforestation
Speed up the switch to electric vehicles
Encourage investment in renewables

Countries are expected to come forward with ambitious 2030 emission targets that are aligned with meeting net zero by the middle of the century. They will now begin to review its climate agenda in order to reach out to those mitigation targets in areas including agriculture, forest, coastal zones, fisheries, health, transport, industries, energy and waste

Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats

This objective focuses on the protection and restoration of ecosystems, the building of national defenses, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid the loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.

This is important because the climate indeed will continue to change even with the reduction of emissions, according to scientists. So, there must always be a way to adapt in an effort to protect vulnerable communities, which is imperative. Constructing defenses and warning systems to avoid the loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives are paramount. Under this objective, national governments will find the means and provide measures to ensure that they adapt to protect their people and natural habitats.

Mobilize Finance

This objective, dubbed global finance, is specifically for developed nations, investors and insurers to agree on a collective position in making sure that resilience becomes the most significant principle to combat climate emergency, which, to a large extent, means working together.

Achieving this objective is to continue to sing the anthem which calls on the big and developed nations that emit more GHG to begin to see the emergency as another pandemic capable of destroying the only one planet we all share as poor and rich nations of the world.

International financial institutions, investors and insurers have committed to recognizing the pending threat of climate change and unleashing trillions in private and public sector finance required for climate financing.

Working together to deliver

This objective calls on countries to finalize the Paris Rulebook (the detailed rules that make the Paris Agreement operational). It also calls for accelerated actions to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society. COP26 emphasizes that working together in one accord is the most practical way to accelerate the needed actions.

Houses in mangrove swamps are one of the features of Monrovia and its environs. The DayLight/Harry Browne

11.6 Billion Microplastics are Released from Our Teabags Per Bag

November 7, 2021

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Banner Image: A cup of tea. Photo credit: Traidcraft

Tea—the quintessentially British drink that we love so much so that 100 million cups are drank daily, translating to almost 36 billion per year. There are so many variations of tea, ranging from black tea to green and peppermint, touting a range of health benefits. For example, green tea has been linked to fat loss, improving brain functioning, and lowering the risk of cancer. Other teas, such as white tea, pack a punch with antioxidants and are the least processed.

Have you ever considered the negatives of drinking tea? New research has found that one plastic tea bag can shed billions of microplastic particles, which is significantly higher than the predicted amount of microplastic particles consumed by a person across a whole year.

Nano particles in our tea bags

The modern world is filled with new worries and concerns that were once non-existent, with one key concern being the consumption of harmful plastics. According to the research conducted, there is an increasing presence of micro-and nano-sized particles in both the environment, our food and drink, and consequently our bodies. Although many of us are mindful in attempting to reduce single-use plastics, there are some manufacturers who use plastic tea bags instead of traditional paper options. When these plastic tea bags were put to the test, 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion smaller nano plastic particles are released per bag into the water.

For tea bags to be sealed and to retain their shape in boiling water, polypropylene—a plastic polymer—is added. Although yes, the amount of plastic found in tea bags is small, it can add up significantly, considering how many cups of tea you’ll likely drink in your lifetime. Due to the plastic content, they cannot completely decompose, leaving residue behind and being washed away into our ecosystem. This makes them a bad option for both compost material and the environment.

Nanoparticles aren’t just found in teabags. You can ingest them through bottled water, as well as a long list of fruit and veg. Due to the reduced size of these particles, organisms that are at the base of the food chain can ingest them. For example, research has shown that microplastics are contaminating the fruit and veg we eat including apples, carrots, and lettuces, due to absorbing nano plastics through their roots.

In August, the Guardian reported that microplastics particles are now discoverable in human organs, but the potential impact on human health is not yet known.

Plastic free tea bags?

Manufacturers are on the hunt for sustainable and environmentally friendly materials to bind our teabags with.

Many manufacturers are working to create fully plastic-free bags. Since August last year, Ringtons have been testing a new, more environmentally conscious teabag material. This new teabag material— polylactic acid (PLA)—contains a bioplastic, derived from plants. PLA material has the same properties as its predecessor, polypropylene, but is renewable, sustainable, and biodegradable.

You don’t have to wait to ingest tea safely—another option if you want to completely avoid these nanoparticles is to drink loose-leaf tea. Loose-leaf tea can be brewed just as easily and has benefits for your tastebuds, too. Loose leaf tea is typically more flavourful and aromatic as the tea leaves haven’t been ground to dust for plastic-riddled tea bags!

You can do that—or you can drink organic coffee instead. Coffee has become the world’s most popular drink, with around two billion cups consumed every day.

Sources

Hernandez, L.M., Xu, E.G., Larsson, H.C., Tahara, R., Maisuria, V.B. and Tufenkji, N., 2019. Plastic teabags release billions of microparticles and nanoparticles into tea. Environmental science & technology, 53(21), pp.12300-12310.

Companies Cut Logs worth Nearly US$2.5M Outside Concession, Report Finds

November 5, 2021

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Banner Image: Logs harvested outside of TSC A2 barcoded TTC/RGI and FGL, according to a new report. Photo credit: Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism.

By James Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – Two companies harvested logs worth US$2.475 million outside of a concession area in Grand Bassa County, with the government of Liberia yet to take any action more than a year since it began an investigation into the violation, a new report by a group of civil society organizations (CSOs) has found.

Renaissance Group Incorporated (RGI) and Freedom Group Liberia (FGL)—which were subcontracted a timber sales contract (TSC) by Tarpeh Timber Company (TTC)—cut down approximately 14,000 cubic meters of ekki (Lophira alata) logs six kilometers from the concession area in District Number One, the report published today said.

It raised concern over the TSC-A2, which was issued in 2009 for three years but remains active nearly 10 years after its legal expiration date.

“This evidence represents a huge breach of the law, and points to a disturbing trend of irregularities and non-compliance with the forest laws of Liberia,” the report said. “The evidence points to a huge loss of revenue to the state and to communities. This must be remedied, and communities must receive the full benefits they have the right to.”

It was co-authored by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), the Independent Forest Monitors (IFM) and the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC) in a consortium called the Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism. Its work was funded by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. A forestry regulation and Liberia’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) mandate such civil society-led investigation.

Following a tipoff by Paris-based Société Française de Réalisation, d’Etudes et de Conseil (SOFRECO), the Ministry of Justice launched an inquest into the so-called road-alignment harvesting but has yet to release its findings. The auditor was hired in 2019 under Liberia’s VPA to prepare the country to issue Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license to enable it to sell timbers on European markets. The report criticized the ministry for not releasing the report more than a year on.

“[We] note with dismay that the report of the official investigation has still not been published, almost one year later,” the report said. “It is critically important for Liberia, its people and its forests, that the rule of law is seen to be applied, and that citizens have the information they need to hold the government and each other to account.

“A lack of accountability for violating the laws is reinforcing impunity. Enforcement action must be taken, including prosecuting individuals or companies involved, and revoking all relevant permits,” it added.

The Ministry of Justice did not respond to The DayLight’s inquiry for comments on the matter. We contacted Minister Musa Dean through WhatsApp and text messages hours after the report was released but he did not reply.

Liberia’s forestry reforms created community-centered laws and regulations against illegal logging. In 2011 it signed a VPA with the European Union to ensure logging is done legally and sustainably. But the last decade has seen the sector marred by irregularities, including the 2012 Private Use Permit Scandal, which rocked the war-ravaged nation. The report called on the government of Liberia to take action or see its gains continue to be reversed.

“The inability of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to enforce the laws contributes to irregularities with the sector,” the new CSO report said. “Reforms must be implemented, including public access to LiberTrace data.” LiberTrace is the software the legality verification department at the FDA uses to trace each log from forest to export. By law, the FDA should publish all permits, export data, and payments it receives periodically but it does not. The solitary publication of such a report on its website is its activities in February last year, which was only published in June earlier this year.

The FDA said it would respond to the report.

‘Laundering of logs’

In July last year, a team of civil society actors went to Grand Bassa and discovered that logs tagged with FDA barcodes “TTC/RGI” and “FGL,” according to the report. The logs were found six kilometers away from their permit area, towards Compound #1. The team confirmed nearby log yards belonged to RGI and FGL. A number of stumps were found the same distance from the 5,000-hectare former concession area.

The boundary of TSC-A2 and evidence of logging outside of it. Photo credit: Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism

Out of the 14,000 cubic meters of illegally felled logs, 9,000 cubic meters had been exported and recorded in the chain of custody, according to the French auditing firm’s tipoff letter—seen by The DayLight—which had accessed LiberTrace’s dataset. It said the remaining 5,000 cubic meters of logs “must remain ‘in stock.’” The new report valued the exported logs at US$2.475 million on the world market at the time.

The report called on the FDA to revoke the permit of TTC, owned by eight Liberians, including David Tarpeh, its majority (35 percent) shareholder. The company was the first to have its products into the FDA’s log-tracking system following the lifting of United Nations sanctions on Liberia’s timbers in 2006, the same year it was established. It has been associated with logging outside its concession before, and, the report added, it appeared to deliberately risk a fine for greater profit.

A 2009 United Nations Panel of Experts report found the company harvested timbers outside its concession area valued at least US$100,000 but was fined a meager US$2,000 or two percent of the value of the export. In 2018 the FDA fined RGI US$5,000 over logging outside the concession and later US$100,000 following pressure from the European Union.

“Given the value of the exported logs, the appropriate punitive measure that the FDA would have instituted should have been to confiscate the logs,” the report said. “The fines do not appear to have hindered the operations at all, evidenced by the companies’ continuing to extract logs in the area.”

It criticized the FDA for appearing to allow road-alignment logging. It involves companies cutting trees alongside pathways to improve road networks and into their concession areas. However, it has been abused for more than a decade. Last year, one company, African Trades and Entrepreneur Enterprise Incorporated, signed a bogus memorandum of understanding with another community in Grand Bassa to pave roads for locals in exchange for logs though it did not have a concession there.

One of the tree stumps civil society investigators found outside of Timber Sales Contract Area Two in Grand Bassa County. Photo credit: Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism.

The FDA had in 2016 promised to prepare a regulation for the controversial logging after the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) established that logging had taken place outside of the Blouquia Community Forest in Grand Gedeh County. However, two years later, Volunteers for Sustainable Development in Africa (VOSIEDA) exposed similar irregularities outside the Numopoh Community Forest. The FDA has yet to deliver on its promise.

“The [National Forestry Reform Law of Liberia] makes this difficult as it is clear that all logging must take place under one of the existing permits,” the report said. “Laundering logs for ‘road widening’ and similar reasons is a widespread illegal practice in many countries.”

TSC A2 has been controversial in other ways. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted logging operations within the concession due to a lack of an environmental permit. It was not clear whether RGI later obtained the permit. That same year, the Ministry of Justice placed a stay order on the concession after RGI, 100 percent Liberian-owned and FGL, owned by Liberian and American shareholders, wrangled over ownership of assets. RGI’s business registration shows that it is a mining company, not logging despite obtaining a prequalification certificate from the FDA. In fact, it ran three gold-prospecting licenses in Garwula District, Grand Cape Mount County in the very 2019, which have all expired.

TTC, RGI and FGL did not respond to queries before this story was published. We called the companies on several occasions but their numbers were off on each attempt. We visited their offices but found no one there.

Monthly Archives: November 2021

Nano particles in our tea bags

Plastic free tea bags?

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