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

November 16, 2021

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.

New APP for Forest Monitoring Launched

October 27, 2021

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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.

Opinion: With Dutch money, our rainforest and our income will disappear

October 26, 2021

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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.

J-Palm partners with International Foundation to Support 7,500 Liberian Smallholder Oil Palm Producers

October 26, 2021

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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.

Sande School Storming Unmasks Mano’s Misgivings

October 25, 2021

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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 has not provided the items for the ritual, according to Konah Harris, the clan chief of the region. “We are still waiting for the company,” she says. Respect for sacred places is guaranteed under UNESCO’s 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Framework and other international protocols such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

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

Former GVL Workers Receive Payoffs after Labor Ministry’s Ruling

October 23, 2021

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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.

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