Varney Marshall (right) poses for a picture while a chainsaw miller works at Marshall’s illegal logging site in Gbarpolu County. Picture credit: WhatsApp/Varney Marshall
By James Harding Giahyue
KLAY, Bomi County – A leaked video of a ranger of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) shot by himself and photographs probably taken by his accomplices have revealed his illegal logging operations.
Varney Marshall, who is assigned at the Klay checkpoint in Bomi County, can be heard ranting in the one-minute-58-second video furious that one of his accomplices was trying to cheat him.
“Look at the woods Abe called 600 pieces. Look at the woods he [has] now hauled. I will wait for him until he comes here,” he can be heard saying at the beginning of the film.
He then turns his mobile phone around an open field of more than a thousand timbers.
“You see it, you see the woods? I am doing this video to send it to my woman straight. You see it, you see the wood?
“He’s here doing Gobachop. That’s here his dismissal will come from. You see the distances the woods [are]? Is that 600 pieces here?” “Gobachop” means black market in Liberian parlance. It was coined in reference to the late Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whose leadership led to the demise of the former Soviet Union.
“You want to steal from me?” Marshall says in the recording.
The leaked video exposed Varnery Marshall, the FDA ranger who runs illegal logging operations.
The video and pictures are believed to be taken at different locations in the forest in Gbarpolu County. Some reveal a sea of timbers scattered on an open field. Some show wood parked in containers. Others reveal Marshall’s accomplices, sitting on top of a mountain of woods, standing near a gigantic tree and posing for a photo with their new chainsaws and gear. Several of the pictures featured Marshall himself modeling next to a chainsaw operator as he saw a huge log.
Marshall had sent the recordings and pictures to a source as a pitch for both men to partner in an illegal logging business. “We need to talk, brother,” Marshall tells the source in the WhatsApp message on August 16 at 8 p.m. His message does not get a reply. The source said he shared the message with The DayLight to prove he was also a victim, not just an actor of the unlawful activity.
The leak comes barely a week after the FDA said it has observed that several illegal timber products are being exported without a trace. It said smugglers were hiding wood in containers. “FDA checkpoint and Free Port of Monrovia staff members are instructed to open all sealed containers from forested areas to verify content and ensure that the FDA duly issued conveying permit documents,” the statement said.
The agency suspended Marshall and Edward Kollie Jallah, another ranger assigned at the Klay checkpoint, over the leaked video and their alleged roles in the transport of illegal woods that involved a police commander and other individuals, according to Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the head of the FDA legal team.
“Both Marshall and Jallah are suspended with directives that they report to Monrovia for investigation. They are expected to report to headquarters tomorrow. Their supervisor has been notified,” Dolo told The DayLight.
Marshall and Jallah did not answer phone calls placed to them. They did not reply to WhatsApp messages well.
A container is being uploaded at an illegal logging site run by FDA ranger Varney Marshall. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallWoods loaded in a container that Varney Marshall harvested in a forest believed to be in Gbarpolu. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallA pile of woods Varney Marshall, an FDA ranger, illegally harvested in a forest believed to be in Gbarpolu County. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallA pile of woods Varney Marshall, an FDA ranger, illegally harvested in a forest believed to be in Gbarpolu County. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallSome of Varney Marshall’s accomplices pose with new chainsaws and gears. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallWoods Varney Marshall illegally harvestedTwo illegal loggers who work with Varney Marshall. WhatsApp/Varney MarshallWoods Varney Marshall harvested illegally. WhatsApp/Varney Marshall A mountain of timbers Varney Marshall, an FDA ranger, illegally harvested. WhatsApp/Varney Marshall
CORRECTIONS: This version of the story deleted the repeated phrase “means black market.” It also corrects “woods” for wood in the fifth paragraph.
Top: Sand mining on the Robertsfield highway. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Gabriel M. Dixon
MONROVIA – Since its establishment in 2009, Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative has provided information on the governance of extractive resources, and encouraged openness and sound management of Liberia’s natural resources and the revenues generated therefrom by the government. In June this year, LEITI released its 13th report to the public in keeping with its Act. The report covers mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and forestry.
It provides insights and depths into the activities and operations of companies in the extraction of minerals and logs, and the production and processing of rubber, oil palm, cocoa, and others.
Here, The DayLight highlights seven takeaways from the report you need to know:
Iron Ore Leads Export
Ships at the Freeport of Monrovia. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Extractive resources remain the main export commodities for Liberia. The country is heavily dependent on its natural resources with mining the largest contributor. Between 2019 and 2020, Liberia exported iron ore, diamonds, gold, bauxite, and other base metals. It also exported rubber, cocoa, and round woods from the agriculture and forestry sectors.
ArcelorMittal was the sole producer of iron ore, with Europe being the main destination of the commodity. Iron ore represented 78.6 percent of the value of export in 2019-2020. Diamonds accounted for three percent of export value, with Israel the main destination of the precious minerals.
Mining Is Once More On Top Of Extractive Industries
Sand mining operation in Margibi County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Mining interjected the highest revenue from extractive activities in the domestic economy. It contributed US$45.243 million in the 2019/2020 fiscal year out of US$70.915 million in total revenue.
Minerals currently being mined in Liberia include iron ore, gold, diamonds, bauxite, and several base metals. Income from those minerals represents 63 percent of revenues generated from the entire extractive industry for the fiscal period the report covers. Second to mining was Agriculture which generated US$17.455 million, mostly from concession-related operations in the rubber and oil palm subsectors. Agriculture was followed by forestry, netting US$7.312 million primarily from logging operations.
Mining, agriculture, and forestry were the three highest performers in the extractive sectors in 2019/2020. Oil and gas also contributed to tax income despite low investment activities. It contributed US$0.905 million to the revenue stream of Liberia for the period.
Rubber was the largest export commodity in the agriculture sector. it represents 81 percent of the total value of commodities exported by agriculture companies in 2019/2020. The Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) exported more rubber than any other company during the period, representing 56.7 percent of the total rubber exported.
Crude Palm Oil and Kernel were exported by two companies, LIBINCO Oil Palm and Golden Veroleum Liberia. Both companies exported US$27.063 Million value of crude palm and kernel oils in 2019/2020. Total tax income from agriculture for the period was US$17.455 million with Firestone contributing 36.2 percent of the amount.
ArcelorMittal Is Liberia’s Biggest Taxpayer
Mining giant ArcelorMittal again tops the list of taxpayers. The company paid US$30.966, making it the biggest contributor of tax dollars in the extractive sector. It exported 9.5 million metric tons of iron ore between 2019 to 2020 on which the company paid taxes to Liberia. Firestone Rubber Company, the largest agriculture company in Liberia, paid US$6.318 million in taxes, making it the second biggest taxpayer. The company occupies the biggest land concession area in the history of Liberia with 405,000 hectares of land. oil palm companies Golden Veroleum in Sinoe County, and Equatorial Palm Oil in Grand Bassa County came third and fourth, with tax remittances of US$2.254 million and US$0.773 million, respectively.
ArcelorMittal and three other companies accounted for 92.2 percent of total tax income generated from mining in 2020. The other companies are BEA Mountain Mining Company, MNG Gold Liberia, Inc., and Hummingbird Resources, Inc. Arcelor Mittal is the sole producer of iron ore while BEA Mountain, MNG Gold, and Hummingbird are all involved in the extraction of gold, according to the report.
Community Forests Exported More Logs Than Forest Concessions
A man marks logs harvested from the Korninga A Community Forest in Gbarpolu. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
There were more logging activities in community forest management areas (CFMA) than in forest management contracts (FMC) areas in Liberia, according to LEITI. Community forests produced 65,997.52 cubic meters or 75 percent of round logs in 2019-2020, while large-scale concessions produced 21,999.18 cubic meters of timbers. Total annual production for the period was 87,996.7 cubic meters according to information provided by the FDA to LEITI.
The export value of round logs was US$4,023,280, representing payments by 20 logging companies. The total volume of round logs exported was 230, 642 cubic meters with community forest exporting 54. 7 percent of the total volume while large-scale concessions and other forest agreements accounted for 48.3 percent.
Community Forest Management Agreements and Forest Management Contracts are the two main types of agreements that produce round logs for export. Asia was the main destination of Liberian woods with China accounting for 62.4 percent of export There were more logging activities in community forests than in large-scale forest concessions. Out of the 87,996.7 cubic meters of round logs that were produced.
Community forests exported 127,139 cubic meters of round logs or 55.1 percent of the total round wood production for the fiscal period of 230,654 cubic meters. The total value of round woods exported was US$4,023,280.
Community forests and large-scale concessions or forest management contracts are the two main types of agreements that produced round logs for export.
Agriculture Companies Employed More
Workers of Golden Veroleum Liberia in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
The agriculture sector was the largest employer in the extractive industries. The sector workforce stands at 14,845, second only to the mining sector. Firestone remains the largest contributor to employment in the agriculture sector.
The sector is also the largest benefactor to social and environmental expenditure and it accounts for 68.5 percent of the total expenditure highlighted in both the agriculture and mining sectors. Total social expenditure by the agriculture sector was US$1.924 million in 2019 and 2020.
The International Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (IEITI), the parent oversight body of LEITI, defines Social and environmental expenditures as “a form of contributions from companies with the aim of supporting social development or to account for potential environmental impact.” In some cases, these social or environmental payments are based on legal or contractual obligations. In other cases, companies make voluntary social or environmental contributions.
LEITI agreed that based on the 2019 report, any public social expenditure such as payments for social services, public infrastructure, fuel subsidies, national debt servicing, etc. made by NOCAL i.e., outside of the national budgetary process be regarded as a quasi-fiscal expenditure
Companies Are Hiding Their Owners
A camp of International Consultant Capital in Tappita District, Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The LEITI Act requires companies to disclose information on those who own them. but the institution found that many companies are not providing “ beneficial ownership” information as required by the Liberian Business Association Act of 1976 as amended in 2002.
The report said only 31 of the 132 companies that applied for or had licenses, were active in the mining sector. From the 31, only seven have declared who their owners are.
In the forestry sector, 28 companies but just three of them actually disclosed ownership. One company also provided partial owners’ identities. What it means is that 86 percent of companies engaged in logging in 2019/2020 did not disclose to government regulators who their owners are but were allowed to operate.
Similarly, in the agriculture sector, one company provided detailed information on the company ownership, and another company provided moderate ownership information to regulators from 13 active licenses issued in that period.
The Oil & Gas sector reported two active licenses issued to Chevron Liberia Holdings (Limited), and Deeco Oil & Gas. Chevron is a listed company on the international market. But Deeco Oil & Gas did not provide information on its owners.
Concealment of company beneficial ownership enables many illegal activities, such as tax evasion, corruption, money laundering, and financing of terrorism, to take place out of the view of law enforcement authorities. Governments and international financial and business regulators now require companies to declare shareholders or ownership information to the public as part of global transparency initiatives.
The Business Association ACT of 2002 empowers the Liberia Business Registry to implement beneficial ownership disclosures which enhance transparency in doing business. In 2021, Liberia signed up for the Opening Extractive Program (OEP). OEP is intended to assist Liberia to implement the beneficial ownership (BO) regime. Under the 2009 ACT of LEITI companies are required to disclose once every year the data on payments and other revenues.
Companies Are Not Providing Relevant Information
Rubber is one of Liberia’s major export commodities. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Section 7.2 of the LEITI Act mandates the institution to report on a regular basis, to the president of Liberia and the general public. Such a report should include payments and revenues, audits, and/or reviews of concessions and contracts between the government and companies in the extractive sector.
The report, however, said companies are not providing all of the information mandatory for full disclosure of contracts. It said it has “noticed that some mining contracts were not publicly disclosed on any of the agency’s (Ministry of Mines and Energy) platform” despite the companies being actively engaged in mining activities during the reporting period. It further stated that “While all mining licenses are being disclosed on a license portal, the terms and conditions associated with those licenses are not disclosed.”
“My thing was to ensure that I attract potential investors to Liberia,” Anderson told The DayLight in a phone interview.
Anderson said he contacted Augustine Dunbar, one of his friends, who took him to Weimu, a village in the Bopolu District of Gbarpolu County. Dunbar then introduced him to villagers there, Anderson said. Within months, the logs were ready for transport.
At that point, Anderson contacted Dawoda Sesay, the commander of police deports in the Paynesville area known as Zone Five, to help arrange the transport. Sesay hired three container trucks to move the logs, promising to pay them either US$1,000 or US$900, according to Sesay himself and the truck owners.
Last month, the trucks arrived at Anderson’s logging site, were loaded with logs, and took off. But rangers of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) halted the transport. Two trucks were arrested at the Klay checkpoint on the Bomi highway and the one at Sawmill on the Tubmanburg-Bopolu highway.
The rangers found out that Anderson and Sesay did not obtain approval from the FDA to transport the logs. The Klay trucks were immediately impounded at the FDA regional office in Tubmanburg. The one at Sawmill was held exactly there. After weeks of investigation, the rangers later discovered Anderson and Sesay were running an illegal logging operation, one of the severest offenses in the forestry sector.
The FDA has sued Sesay and the owners of two of the trucks over the illicit operation.
“The FDA sees the actions of Mr. Sesay and the owners of the truck as a gross violation of the National Forestry Reform Law,” Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the head of FDA’s legal department, told The DayLight in an email. “The Managing Director of the FDA, Hon. C. Mike Doryen has frowned on this gross illegality and has requested that sternest of action against the violators consistent with the laws governing the forestry sector.” The lawsuit comes as reports of illegal shipments of timbers and timber products are on the increase.
An investigation by The DayLight has found more details of the illicit activities, following our initial report of the seizure of the logs two weeks ago.
Ex-diplomat Richmond Anderson. Facebook/Richmond Anderson
Commander of Zone Five police deports Dawoda Sesay. Facebook/Dawoda M. Sesay
‘Sample’
Before you engage in logging activities in Liberia, you must have a company, registered at the Liberian Business Registry and then apply at the FDA. The agency will vet your company, including its capacity to operate and your criminal record. Once your business meets all of the criteria, it is prequalified to do logging in Liberia. Thereafter, you will have to seek a contract with the FDA or an agreement with a community, subject to the agency’s approval. That goes with the transport of woods.
That was not the case with Anderson. “I have not done logging before, don’t know the different species of logs. I have no idea, it was my first time,” Anderson told us in the phone interview.
Anderson said Dunbar introduced him to a customs officer at the Freeport of Monrovia he only identified as Peter, who told him it was possible to ship woods without a permit.
He said he had Korean business partners who were interested in exporting first-class logs and had assured him of buying the woods once he delivered them. He added that the woods were a kind of experiment for future deals.
“They (Koreans) want to carry the wood as a sample and then pay later,” Anderson said. “So Sesay agreed to help me with some of the money.”
Some of the logs there were illegally harvested in Gbarpolu in one of the container truckers that were seized by the Forestry Development Authority. The DayLight/Gabriel Dixon
The FDA has indicted Sesay, Shakia Kamara, who owns one of the Klay trucks, and Layee Sheriff, the owner of the one at Sawmill, in separate lawsuits in Bomi and Gbarpolu County, according to court officials. The agency is seeking a US$25,000 fine, a 12-month prison term for the men, and forfeiture of the vehicles, all maximum penalties under forestry laws and regulations. It would indict the owner of the third truck once it gets a name, according to Dolo.
The agency has also asked the courts to allow it to take the logs in line with the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timbers and Timber Products. It will need another court order to auction them.
Sesay admits he hired the trucks to transport the woods but said he did not know whether the operation was illegal.
“As police officers, we have our inalienable rights: the right to live, right to survive. So, if my brother came to me and said, ‘Look, I need this assistance,’ then… I made the arrangement… is that something prohibited? Sesay told The DayLight in an interview at his Mount Barclay residence. “Even if I knew what they (truckers) were going to get, that is none of my business. If the transaction was illegal, I was not there to know that it was illegal.
“The good thing there, I didn’t facilitate armed robbery, I didn’t facilitate murder, I didn’t facilitate drugs trafficking, nor human trafficking,” he added.
The owners of the trucks said they were also unaware that the woods were illegally harvested. Sheriff, one of the two trucks’ owners who have been indicted, said Sesay had promised to give them the documents for the wood once they arrived at the site but did not.
The National Port Truckers Association of Liberia said the scandal has “embarrassed” the group. It said it would try to prevent such illegal transport in the future.
“We want to have a memorandum of understanding [with the FDA] because we want to avoid future embarrassment. This is a complete lesson to us now. We know that there is a lot of clandestine activities going on with the transportation of woods,” said Yahaya Kemokai, the secretary general of the association.
The FDA said in a statement last week it has observed that several illegal timber products are being exported without a trace. It said smugglers were hiding woods in containers. “FDA checkpoint and Free Port of Monrovia staff members are instructed to open all sealed containers from forested areas to verify content and ensure that the FDA duly issued conveying permit documents,” the statement said.
The truck that was held at Sawmill, owned by Layee Sheriff, one of the people indicted for alleged illegal logging. The DayLight/Gabriel Dixon
‘On Credit’
The site of Anderson’s logging operations appeared equally illegal. A muddy and rough road branches into the forest at the top of a hill. Remnants of the illegally harvested logs lay around.
It was not clear how much volume of logs was harvested. However, Anderson said they were all Ekki woods, a very expensive species of logs that currently sells for US$210 per cubic meter on the international market. His statement was backed by Dolo, who said, “All the trucks have crossed cut Ekki Logs.”
The illicit loggers felled 17 trees but used 15, according to the villagers we interviewed. “It was 17 trees but they said two were damaged, they had holes in them,” said Emmanuel Massaquoi, one of the villagers.
Anderson and the locals had verbally agreed to cut the 15 trees in exchange for US$2,800 per tree, according to both parties. But it was a long negotiation process that involved half a dozen people.
Anderson and Sesay initially contacted Dunbar, who introduced the pair to a man only identified as Korvah. It was Korvah who actually introduced the pair to Massaquoi. Massaquoi then contacted Fatu Samukai, his mother-in-law, who claims ownership of the forest, Massaquoi told us in the interview. Samukai appointed Massaquoi to represent the village. Then the unlawful deal was sealed.
By law, communities are entitled to benefits from their forest resources but they must first meet FDA requirements. Moreover, said the agreement must be approved by the agency. That was not the case with Weimu, another layer of the illegal activities.
Anderson, Dunbar, Korvah, Massaquoi and Samukai could also be indicted, as the FDA conducts a further investigation into the illicit act, according to Dolo. A person commits an offense if they intentionally or negligently cut trees illegally, according to the regulation on confiscated logs.
“I regret my action. I am just appealing to the commercial and legal departments of FDA,” Anderson said. “I have learned the hard way.”
Korvah declined to comment, we were not successful in tracking down Dunbar, and Samukai was still recovering at the Jallah Lone Hospital in Bopolu at the time of our investigation.
Meanwhile, the case at the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Tubmanburg begins Tuesday. The DayLight will provide you with details of the proceedings as they unfold.
Henry Gboluma and Mohammed Sheriff contributed to this report.
The story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ).
Top: Kpayaquelleh Community Clinic is one of several projects undertaken from logging resources in Salayea District, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
SALAYEA DISTRICT, Lofa County – The Kpayarquelleh Community Clinic sits on a hill in the town whose name it bears. Established in 2018, it caters to nearly 2,000 people here and seven other towns and villages between 10 km and 55.6 km all the way to Gbarpolu County. Its services include maternity, emergency, vaccination and other things. Drugs sold at the clinic are less costly as compared to other clinics, according to its administrators.
But the clinic is not run by the Ministry of Health or a nongovernmental organization. It is supported by community leaders with funds they generate from a logging concession signed between the government of Liberia and Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company. The 25-year concession was signed in 2009, covering 74,186 hectares of forestland in Salayea and Zorzor.
“The money we get from the company, the community forest leadership purchases drugs,” says Deddeh Momolu, the deputy officer in charge of the clinic, in an interview with The DayLight. A sketch map of the clinic and another poster of communities, their distances and populations adorn a wall of the clinic.
“We are doing this because the funds are logging benefits we get from Alpha. Affected communities own the clinic,” Momolu adds.
By law, towns and villages affected by logging concessions signed between the government and companies are entitled to benefits from their forests. That is a crucial component of forestry reform in a country that marginalized locals for decades. But many communities are yet to receive things like log-harvesting and land rental, scholarship fees and dozens of mandatory projects. The government canceled over seven small-scale contracts in March earlier this year, leaving communities’ arrears unpaid, and promises of roads, schools and clinics unfulfilled by the companies that held those contracts.
Yet the Kpayarquelleh Clinic—and other projects here in the Salayea and Zorzor districts that were built with logging money—is a reminder of how forest resources can benefit rural communities.
Townspeople view a newly constructed teachers’ lodge in Ganglota, Salayea District in 20019, built with logging money. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Apart from the clinic, Salayea and Zorzor have seen a dozen of projects conducted with logging money between 2016 and last year that cost more than US$75,000. You have a guesthouse in Gorlu and another in Beyan Town, a market hall in Gbonyea and a school building in Fassawalazu. Six handpumps have been constructed in towns and villages as well as four toilets. Three hundred homes have received roofing sheets. There is a teachers’ lodge in Ganglota and Kpayarquelleh just next to the clinic. There is a resource center nearby—with forest-related books and development materials—where community meetings are held. And there is one concrete bridge under construction, one of two passages in the concession area.
“In terms of benefits to rural communities, the communities in FMC-A Lofa are benefiting to some extent in terms of the National Forestry Reform Law,” says Andrew Zelemen, the head of the secretariat of the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees (NUCFDCs). “FMC-A Lofa” is the industry name for the Forest Management Contract Area A of Lofa County. The NUCFDC represents the interest of villagers whose forests are awarded to concessioners countrywide.
“We are appreciative of the work Alpha is doing there and we look forward to other companies doing that,” says Ekema Witherspoon, the head of the secretariat of the Liberia Timber Association (LibTA), which represents the interest of logging companies. “That is what we want.”
Alpha pays the community regularly for logs it harvests compared to other companies. It shares harvesting data with locals for checks and balances, according to Zelemen, who is also a member of the leadership of Salayea and Zorzor. He says the company is also regular with its harvesting payment.
It would have paid more if the coronavirus pandemic had not taken a toll on the company, stifling production and export, according to George Smith, the company’s general supervisor.
The industry’s numbers speak well for Alpha. Between 2009 and December last year, it paid the government of Liberia US$5,457,037, the second-highest in the entire industry, according to official records. Only International Consultant Capital, which operates in River Cess and Nimba, paid more (US$ 9,501,939.46).
“It is commendable when companies fulfill social agreements that are signed with the affected communities and we congratulate Alpha for doing so,” says Roberto Kollie, of the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board (NBSTB). The board is responsible to collect annual land rental fees from the government and oversee their expenditure in communities. Villagers are legally entitled to 30 percent of the land rental fee, which is a product of the total size of the forest and US$2.50. That is US$55,639.50 each year.
Women dance at the dedication of a guesthouse in Gorlu, Salayea District in 2019 that build by villagers themselves with money they obtained from Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“We call on all companies to follow the example of Alpha by making sure that social agreements are fully implemented,” Kollie adds.
But all has not been rosy.
Just two years ago, the company and villagers had a frosty relationship over the payment of fees and projects. Villagers set up roadblocks and stopped the company from working. The protest was quelled only after the company made a commitment to pay some of its debt and promised to pave roads and erect bridges in the area.
The quality of some of the projects is poor, including the market hall in Gbonyea and guesthouses in Gorlu and Beyen Town, according to Kollie. “The National Benefit Sharing Trust Board has put in mechanisms that will ensure that greater value for money is achieved and the quality of projects improved during future implementation,” he tells The DayLight via email.
And Alpha still owes the communities here and in Gbarpolu over US$2 million in land-related fees, according to official records.
Witherspoon says there is still much to celebrate.
“One clear message it sends to the forestry sector, in general, is that there is a possibility for companies and communities to work together in a win-win situation,” says Witherspoon whose group conducted alternative dispute resolution (ADR) meetings with the parties that same year.
Payment Issues
By law, companies are to pay land rental fees to the government, which must pay communities 30 percent of that amount every year but that has not been the case. Between 2007 and 2019, the government paid communities US$2.6 million, seven times less than the legal amount, according to a 2020 report by Forest Trends. a 2020 report by Forest Trends, a U.S.-based NGO that promotes the sustainable management of forests, and conservation. The government reduced that amount by US$200,000 last year, after a string of protests at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in Monrovia.
To put that into context, out of the US$5.4 million Alpha has paid to the government, villagers in Salayea and Zorzor should have received US$1.6 million. That is more than half the amount the government has remitted to all the 23 communities that host forest concessions.
“The Benefit Sharing Trust Board continues to remain engaged with the government in ensuring that communities receive their fair shares of land rental fees,” Says Kollie. He tells me the institution is securing the payment of US$500,000 of the US$2.7 million allotted in the National Budget, with barely four months left in this year.
Zelemen calls for a long-term solution to the problem.
“We want to see an amendment to the law that will say that the 30 percent the law provides for the community should go directly to the Benefit Sharing Trust Board to avoid the bottleneck issues,” Zelemen says.
“I want to also see that the companies are paying on an annual basis,” he adds. The law provides that logging firms must pay their land rental fees before the date of the award of the concession each year. Moreover, payment of forest-related fees is a requirement for harvesting, export and new forest contracts. But that has not been enforced. Companies’ indebtedness to communities is the most common irregularity in the forestry sector.
A boy washes clothes next to a concrete bridge in Kpayarquelleh, Lofa County, which was constructed with funds raised from logging operations in that area. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
For Momolu at the Kpayarquelleh Clinic, it will be a relief for her and the 20 to 25 patients treated there daily when the concrete bridge on the road to the facility is completed. The road is impassable during the rainy season for vehicles. Cars bringing women in labor and emergency cases had to take a farther route in order to bypass the bridge.
“That bridge will really be helpful to us,” Momolu says. “Let the company give what it has for the community so that we can continue our services, and continue to buy drugs.”
This story is a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ).
Top: A file picture dated 4 October 2010 of then-alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout inside a cell at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand. Picture Credit: EPA
Freeing Bout, who played a well-documented role in the First and Second Liberian civil wars, would be a setback to have him account for the crimes he allegedly committed in Liberia, security experts and justice advocates say.
Between 1989 and 2003, Bout sold weapons to Liberian warring factions—most notably former President Charles Taylor—busting several United Nations arms embargoes. Within that time, Taylor’s forces and rivals illegally exploited the country’s timber and mineral industries to buy Bout’s weapons. Some 250,000 people were killed in the conflict, which spiraled to other countries in the region. The conflict degraded Liberia’s forest and the country became synonymous with “Logs of war” and “conflict timbers” across the world. The chaos stirred reform in the logging sector.
In 2009, Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended that Bout be investigated for his role in the country’s crises but this is yet to happen more than a decade on.
“[Bout’s] possible release is a dent in the quest for justice in Liberia,” says Hassan Bility, the executive director of Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), which helped convict Liberian war criminal Alieu Kosiah and United States immigration fraudsters Mohammed Jabbateh and the late Thomas Woewiyu whose crimes were linked to Liberian civil wars.
“His imprisonment did bring some relief and justice to Liberia. The US, in line with its interest in justice, at least did something which we appreciate,” Bility adds.
Bout was active in Afghanistan, Colombia, Angola, the former Yugoslavia, Yemen, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But it was his deals with Taylor that capped the former Soviet soldier’s career as the world’s most notorious gunrunner—or that led to his downfall.
While Bout busted arms embargos to supply Taylor with arms and ammunition in Liberia, Taylor illegally exploited the country’s logs and minerals and abused its huge shipping registry—the second-largest in the world—to pay Bout. The two men met personally, according to eyewitnesses cited by American journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun in their 2007 book “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.”
Earning other aliases: “Sanctions-buster,” “Lord of War” and “The McDonald’s of Armed Trafficking,” Bout broke a number of United Nations arms embargos on Liberia between 1992 and 2003. His fleet of ships and airplanes transported the weapons to Liberia, using different pseudonyms and shell companies, transiting through countries like Gambia, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Niger. That fitted well with his mastery of speaking English, Russian, Portuguese, French, Arabic and other languages, a benefit of his training as a translator in the Soviet military. In 2005, the United States Treasury Department said Bout controlled one of the largest networks of ships worldwide. He had ties with other gunrunners, including Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan arms dealer, who was arrested in Belgium in 2002. Ruprah has stayed in Liberia and carried several Liberian passports, which identified him as the deputy commissioner of maritime affairs.
Taylor’s illegal timber operations were equally organized. It comprised the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the then Ministry of Mines and Energy, militiamen led by his son Chuckie Taylor, logging companies, and combatant miners. At least 17 logging firms, including Oriental Timber Company (OTC) and Exotic Tropical Timber Enterprise, played a role in illegal arms trafficking, and civil instability in Liberia, according to the TRC. A report by the UN-backed Forest Concession Review Committee found that logging companies paid US$7.9 million in Taylor’s personal account. In one transaction, OTC paid Taylor US$3-5 million, according to a 2002 Global Witness report, citing sources.
An old OTC camp in River Cess. The DayLight/Eric Opa Doue
Taylor ran his illegal operations with Bout mainly through Guus Kouwenhoven, a Dutch gunrunner, who owned OTC. By 2000, the company controlled 1.6 million hectares of forestland, or 42 percent of the country’s concessional forest. The United Nations Panel of Experts on Liberia cited a transfer of US$500,000 by OTC’s parent company in Singapore, Borneo Jaya Pte Ltd to San Air, one of Bout’s airlines. OTC-chartered ships supplied weapons to Taylor at the Port of Buchanan three times between September and November 2001. The supplies contained 7,000 boxes of ammunition, 5,000 rocket-propelled grenades, 300 howitzer shells and other equipment, according to a report by Farah in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, OTC wasted logs to build bridges, polluted villagers’ water sources, desecrated ancestral graveyards, and, among other things, failed to fulfill promises it made to affected communities. Taylor’s forces protecting the company’s interest committed several human rights abuses. The Inquirer newspaper reported in 2000 allegations that the company operated a “private prison and barracks.” The UN imposed sanctions on Liberian timbers (and diamonds) to curtail the carnage. That sanction was only lifted after the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf agreed to reform the sector. New laws and regulations were created, a system to track logs from harvest to export was established, and communities’ benefits were guaranteed.
Amid those things, an insurgency against Taylor’s government, coupled with international pressure and prolonged sanctions, weakened Taylor. In 2003, the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which had launched its rebellion against Taylor in 1999, attacked the capital. With American President George W. Bush stating he “must leave Liberia” and Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo offering him exile, Taylor resigned in August 2003. And that marked the end of the 14 years of civil unrest.
The following year, Bout and Taylor were subjected to UN and U.S. sanctions, travel ban and assets seizure, similar to the one placed on three officials of the current Liberian government. It took more than a decade for the asset freeze and travel ban to be lifted.
Bout moved on with his illegal arms deals after Taylor’s fall, surviving an International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol notice, and forgery charges in the Central African Republic. In July 2004, Bush issued an executive order, freezing the assets of Bout, Taylor, Taylor’s relatives and some members of the Liberian government. Taylor’s ex-wife and now Vice President of Liberia Jewel Howard Taylor, and opposition figure Benoni Urey were subject to the measure.
“The actions and policies of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and other persons, in particular, their unlawful depletion of Liberian resources and their removal from Liberia and secreting of Liberian funds and property, have undermined Liberia’s transition to democracy and the orderly development of its political, administrative, and economic institutions and resources,” the executive order read. The assets freeze followed a similar one by the UN Security Council earlier that year.
Bout ignored the sanctions and went on with his operations. In 2008, he was arrested in an Interpol operation in Bangkok, Thailand. Bout had offered to supply weapons to rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It turned out the rebels were actually officers of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Royal Thai Police.
Initially, American prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to kill US officers and employees and conspiracy to provide surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to a foreign terrorist organization. But while the U.S. Justice Department pressed for Bout’s extradition from Thailand to America, prosecutors happened upon a new development. Bout had been negotiating to buy a plane on U.S. soil, which violated the sanctions Washington imposed on him and Taylor. Additional charges were filed against him: illegal purchase of aircraft, wire fraud and money laundering. He was convicted by a New York court in 2012 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, 15 years of supervised parole and forfeiture of US$15 million. The court dismissed his initial charges, saying they only originated from the deceptive operation that led to his arrest.
That drew the curtains on the career of perhaps the world’s most infamous arms trafficker, born Viktor Anatolyevich Bout on January 13, 1967, in the former Soviet Union now Tajikistan. His life has inspired a number of documentaries, TV series and movies, including “Lord of War,” which exposed the nature of the international illicit arms trade.
Amid those things, an insurgency against Taylor’s government, coupled with international pressure and prolonged sanctions, weakened Taylor. In 2003, the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which had launched its rebellion against Taylor in 1999, attacked the capital. With American President George W. Bush stating he “must leave Liberia” and Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo offering him exile, Taylor resigned in August 2003. And that marked the end of the 14 years of civil unrest.
Former President Charles Taylor (far left), and Guus Kouwenhoven (far right). Picture credit: Global Witness
Bout’s conviction was followed by those of Taylor and Kouwenhoven. A UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) found him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2012 and sentenced him to 50 years in a British prison. The Netherlands-based court found Taylor aided and abetted murder, rape, conscription of child soldiers and pillage, among other crimes, in the neighboring country that killed an estimated 50,000 people. Prosecutors proved that Taylor supplied the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels with arms and ammunition in exchange for diamonds. Five years after his conviction, a Dutch court sentenced Kouwenhoven in absentia to 19 years for illegal arms trafficking and war crimes in Liberia and Guinea. He had fled to South Africa on medical grounds. Dutch authorities tried to extradite him but a South African judge denied the motion on grounds that his crimes were not committed in the Netherlands.
Liberia’s failure to Prosecute Bout
The TRC recommended Bout face trial for alleged human rights abuses linked to the extractive sector. The allegations included illegal arms dealings, illegal extraction of natural resources, aiding and abetting economic crime actors, fraud, and tax evasion. It also recommended Taylor and Kouwenhoven face charges for war and economic crimes.
Liberia has not prosecuted warlords living in the country for one of Africa’s bloodiest conflicts, least to mention a Russian national. Calls for Liberian war crimes court have increased since former football superstar Geroge Weah was elected president in 2018 but his government has not mustered a political will to do so.
“I would urge countries that have suffered the wars armed by Bout, like DRC, Liberia and Sierra Leone, to seek his extradition from the US,” says Patrick Alley, a campaigner at Global Witness, who investigated Menin and Ruprah. Liberia has had an extradition treaty with the United States since 1939.
There is a good chance Bout could be released in the prisoner swap. The Americans are seeking the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, the other U.S. citizen, who is serving a 16-year prison term in Russia for espionage. Meanwhile, Russia wants Bout, who has not spoken a word to the Americans about an apparent link between his trafficking network and the Russian government. “No American will be exchanged unless Bout is sent home,” Steve Zissou, his U.S.-based lawyer warned last month. Russian news agency Tass reported last week, that Alexander Darchiev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North American Affairs, confirmed the deal.
Arthur Blundell, a security expert who worked with the U.S. government and the UN on Liberia’s forestry reform, says his release would add salt to the country’s wounds.
“Bout in prison at least meant that he was not able to conduct his arms-trafficking and other illegal operations,” says Blundell tells The DayLight via email. “This undoubtedly saved thousands of lives in conflict zones around the world.
“And thus, it is a sad day for countries like Liberia to see a convict go free before his prison term has been served.”
Top: Villagers in Bahn Town, the headquarters of Jo River and Nyorwein Community Forest, are excited they can now benefit from their forest. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
NYORWEIN, RIVER CESS – Throughout the two bordering clans of Jo River and Nyorwein far away in the Central River Cess District, villagers expect their logging agreement with Magna Logging Corporation to bring much-needed development to their community.
The newest among 49 authorized community forests across the country, they have leased their land in exchange for roads, toilets, scholarships and clinics, according to the agreement. Those benefits aside, Magna is required by the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands to pay affected communities for use of their land and each log it harvests in the 39,000-hectare forest.
But their hopes could be dashed, given the nature of the logging industry, particularly, community forestry. The 12 years of community forestry has been spiteful rather than sparkling for many communities. Forestry Development Authority (FDA) appears to side with companies more. There are reports of illegal logging in several communities. Companies and individuals are abandoning woods they harvest at an alarming rate, owe communities thousands of United States dollars and the FDA approves new contracts for them.
Jo River & Nyorwein does not have to look far for some of these grim examples. Between 2020 and last year, African Wood and Lumber Company, another logging firm, illegally cut 550 logs in the Gbarsaw & Dorbor Community Forest. The FDA representative responsible for the county was suspended and replaced. It owes that community thousands and has yet to conduct mandatory projects.
Similarly, in Ziadue & Teekpeh signed three years before Jo River & Nyorwein, Brilliant Maju and E&J Investment Corporation have not lived up to their agreement with the community. The company duo has failed to implement projects, sparking protest last year. Following the hostilities, it made a commitment to construct eight handpumps and two latrines in affected communities between September last year to February this year but has not completed them.
By the way, these industry woes are already at Jo River & Nyorwein’s doorsteps. Before its contract with the villagers here, Magna had not lived up to its agreement with Worr Community Forest in Compound One, Grand Bassa County. (It had paid Worr all its land rental, harvesting and scholarship fees, though.) When it signed the agreement in August last year, the company had not done any roads, still had to complete five handpumps, and had not rehabilitated a clinic it agreed to do by that time.
Broken-down equipment of E&J Investment Corporation in Ziadue & Teekpeh in River Cess. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
Magna is also in breach of its contract with Jo River & Nyorwein. The company has yet to begin operation since signing the agreement in August last year. It also has not paid its land rental fees of US$26,105 to the community. It has not done a major road leading to the forest, something locals consider a priority, according to the agreement.
“We really need roads, where there is a road there is life,” says Philip Ben, one of the community’s leaders in an interview with The DayLight in Buchanan.
“Since we signed the agreement last year, we have not had a meeting with them again,” says Alice Giahyou, another member of the leadership. The agreement mandates the villagers and the company to hold periodic meetings whose expenses the company must underwrite.
Molley Kamara, the owner of Magna says the meeting will be held in a week’s time. “There is a community meeting on August 20. I am pretty sure the community’s concern will be addressed,” Kamara tells The DayLight in an email.
“First, it is less than one year ago [since] we signed with Jo River [& Nyorwein]. And we are not worried,” Kamara adds.
Jo River & Nyorwein has its own internal problems. Ben, Giahyou, and have capacity problems and no knowledge of forest governance. Its leadership is not aware of the sector practices and legal frameworks.
“We know some of our rights… but we don’t understand all,” Giahyou adds.
There were indications the leadership of the community are not aware that their agreement with Magna is a public contract. Ben refused to share a copy of the agreement with The DayLight. He initially accepted to give our reporter the agreement, following a week of discussion. When the reporter finally tracked him down at his Worldwide Church in Buchanan, he asked the reporter to first buy legal papers to photocopy the documents. But he stormed out of the arrangement when the reporter came back with the papers. The reporter then demanded he repays the funds used to purchase the papers. Ben refused to repay until the intervention of members of the church.
Paul Nickerson, the head of the community leadership, also refused to share a copy of the agreement with The DayLight while in Monrovia in July. Nickerson eluded us three times before he stopped answering his phone. He only phoned us when he was already back in River Cess.
Weedor Gray, the technical manager for FDA’s community forestry department did not grant The DayLight’s request for access to the agreement, though the document is a public record. No contracts are available on the agency’s website as required by the National Forestry Reform Law. We obtained it from elsewhere. Gray did not return our emailed request for comments.
The Answer is Women’s Participation
Foundation for Community Initiative (FCI), which promotes the empowerment of women and youth in the natural resource sector, has begun working with Jo River & Nyorwein to strengthen its capacity. The four-year project encourages women like Giahyou to participate in the governance of the forest. It has been holding community meetings and using local radio stations to raise awareness in the area.
With funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), FCI will also work in Ziadue & Teekpeh, according to a document on the project.
“Jo River and Nyorwein have a lot more to do, their knowledge and skill in forest governance are very limited,” says Felix Foyah, a campaigner of FCI who works on the project.
Foyah says FCI is building on the important relationship women play in forestry to help Jo River & Nyorwein meet the challenges in the sector. Women tend to use forest resources more than men. Many women know which trees are for food and medicine, and how to conserve forests—important knowledge during food crises, according to the FAO. Evidence shows that increased women’s participation in community-forest leadership improves forest governance and sustainability, according to a 2019 report.
African Wood and Lumber Company harvested 550 logs, including these ones in Gbarsaw & Dorbor Community Forest. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
“That is exactly what we hope to achieve. Once there are more knowledgeable women on forest matters that are in the community leadership, they can better combat illegal logging, deforestation and forest degradation,” says Foyah. Only five out of nearly 50 members of the leadership of Jo River & Nyorwein are women.
“We know that there are a lot of issues in forestry,” he adds, “but that is how we can solve those problems.”
Zahn Dehydugar of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) contributed to this report.
Funding for the story was provided by the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI). The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over its content.
Top: Suspended Minister of State for Presidential AffairsNathaniel McGill. Photo credit: Liberia News Agency
By Gabriel M. Dixon
MONROVIA – President George Weah has suspended the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill, a day after he was sanctioned by the United States over allegations of concession-related corruption.
The Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA) Bill Twehway and the Solicitor-General of Liberia Syrenius Cephas, also sanctioned by the United States, were also suspended.
“The President of Liberia has received with serious concern, a recent the United States Treasury Department report…,” an Executive Mansion statement said on Tuesday.
“The President has also designated the principal deputies of the suspended officials to act in their stead,” it added.
The DayLight has reached out to McGill and Twehway, and efforts to contact Cephas did not materialize.
The United States Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned McGill On Monday for “bribing business owners, receiving bribes from potential investors, and accepted kickbacks for steering contracts to companies in which he has an interest.”
“McGill has manipulated public procurement processes in order to award multi-million dollar contracts to companies in which he has ownership, including by abusing emergency procurement processes to rig contract bids,” the Treasury Department said.
Since the inception of the Weah-led administration, Liberia has signed and ratified several concessions, including Solway Mining Incorporated, Western Cluster Mineral Agreement, and Mano Palm Oil Industries Limited (MPOI). It has issued several logging contracts. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the government generated US$70,915,618 from the extractive sector, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).
The sanctions are in line with the U.S. Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which aims to combat human rights abuses and corruption worldwide.
As the result, McGill, Twehway, and Cephas’s assets in the United States are blocked and they cannot travel or do business with Americans or on American soil.
The US Treasury Sanction comes just over two weeks after its State Department’s gloomy report on Liberia’s investment climate.
Top: One of the four container trucks loaded with illegally harvested logs at the FDA Regional Office in Tubmanburg, Bomi County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
TUBMANBURG, Bomi – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has seized four container trucks loaded with round logs that have been illegally harvested in Gbarpolu County.
Joseph Tally, FDA’s deputy managing director for operations, told The DayLight on Sunday that the agency would provide details on Monday but said it was still investigating.
“Right now, we are in pursuit of the [alleged] perpetrators,” said FDA’s Managing Director Mike Doryen, responding to a Facebook user’s allegation that the agency had taken a bribe from the company. “If we wanted [a] bribe, we could have allowed the containers [to] leave, and not to [seize] the logs.” He did not answer calls placed to him.
FDA rangers at the Klay checkpoint arrested the trucks recently after their drivers failed to show permits for the transport, according to sources.
The sources said the rangers later found out that logs were harvested from a forest in the Bopolu District by Reliable Import and Export Company, which has not acquired a logging license. The logs are ekki, an expensive species of wood, currently trading for US$281 per cubic meter on the international market.
The National Forestry Reform Law of Liberia prohibits logging without a contract.
Under the regulation, the FDA must confiscate the woods and auction them through two separate court orders.
One of the four trucks loaded with round logs that were seized by the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in Tubmanburg, Bomi County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
(This version updates the previous version of the story, adding comments from the Managing Director of the FDA, the name of the company, and details of the woods illegally harvested and their price. We will add details as they unfold)
Henry Gboluma of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) contributed to this report.
Top: The Environmental Protection Agency has flipped its initial findings that Bea Mountain Mining Corporation caused the pollution of rivers in Grand Cape Mount County. Picture credit: Environmental Protection Agency/Facebook
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – The Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) has cleared Bea Mountain Mining Corporation over the pollution of rivers in Grand Cape Mount, reversing its earlier findings that a waste facility operated by the company had polluted waterfronts in the western county.
“A technical team from the agency completed a final round of environmental assessment and water-quality testing on the Marvoe Creek downstream the New Liberty Goldmine… and is pleased to inform you that all facilities tested were appreciably below the permissible level set up by the EPA,” the agency said in a statement on Monday. It said it finalized its investigation in July.
The statement did not say what led to the reversal of the initial findings. The EPA had said it would conduct a final report only to find out what led to the death of fish, not a fresh round of investigation. However, it did not say what killed the fish.
The new findings are the complete opposite of the EPA’s preliminary findings back in June after villagers discovered dead fish and a dog in rivers they use for drinking.
It said at the time that “excess” cyanide, a chemical used to wash gold but dangerous to human health, spilled from the facility at the company’s New Liberty Gold Mine in Kinjor and emptied into the rivers.
“The analysis results showed higher than [the] permissible level of free cyanide (with source from the BMMC tailing storage facility),” it had said. “The presence of excess cyanide led to the contamination of the water sources and that the situation has severely disrupted and injured the livelihood of the communities that depend on those water resources...”
BMMC had denied the results, saying EPA’s findings were “inconclusive and filled with analytical gaps.”
“We are confident and particularly reaffirm our position of being in no breach of any required scientific standards. We note that the EPA has found no evidence of damage to or any spill or irregular discharge from the [tailing storage facility],” it said at the time.
The EPA then reacted that two days later that its preliminary findings were “based on scientific analysis and data collected by well-trained technicians and scientists in the field.”
It had warned villagers not to drink from the water, asking the company to continue to supply affected communities.
The rivers are now consumable, the statement said, thanking villagers for cooperating with authorities, and the company for its support to villagers during the period of investigation.
