Top: The arrested illegal timber dumped at Bahn police station. The DayLight/Mark Newa
By Mark Newa
BAHN – Police in Nimba have arrested a truckload of illegal timber harvested from forests by a businesswoman.
The illegal timber, owned by Binta Bility, were harvested from community forests in the Zoe-Geh and Bu-Yao districts, destined for Ganta when it was stopped earlier this month.
FDA rangers arrested the consignment after they noticed the timber was oversized. Under the Chainsaw Milling Regulation, planks must be not more than two inches thick, 10 or 12 inches wide and at most 14 feet long.
The 79 pieces of the four-inch-thick timber, commonly called kpokolo, were dumped at the main police station. The woods are slightly less thick than the ones Bility illegally harvested in Compound Number One, Grand Bassa County.
Bility said she was not aware of the regulation restricting chainsaw millers to those sizes of planks.
“I agreed to reduce [the woods] to the legal two inches,” Bility told The DayLight via WhatsApp over the weekend. “I don’t intend to do anything illegal.”
Arthur Gweh, the local police commander, and Emmanuel Gbeh, the FDA ranger who carried out the arrest, evaded the interview.
Bility, meanwhile, faces a fine of twice the price of the timber set by the FDA and could face up to 12 months in prison. She has not been punished for the ones she illegally harvested in Grand Bassa, though.
Top: Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriquez speaks to journalists at COP27. Photo credit: Evelyn Seagbeh
By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt – The Global Environment Facility’s chief executive officer and chairperson did not mince his words identifying the role of the media in tracking funds given to combat the global threats posed by climate change.
The media, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez said, is critical in tracking how countries use the monies that are given to them, whether grant monies or loans that are meant for environmental or climate change initiatives in their respective countries.
“We work in countries where the perceptions of corruption are high but that wouldn’t be a limitation for us to work. That is why it is so important for us to have you all journalists doing your work,” Rodriquez told journalists at the margins of the global event.
“Countries come here (at the COP) and they brag about how good they are doing but they have not been totally transparent in what they do at the country level. There are lots of data materials that you need to track from here.”
“The country needs to be reporting to the people how they are doing with their climate commitment, but that is not happening because the journalists are not there yet. I hope this can be the first generation of journalists that do political control on climate action at the country level,” Rodriquez said.
The Global Environment Facility is the world’s largest funder of biodiversity protection, nature restoration, pollution reduction, and climate change response in developing countries with an investment portfolio worth about US$22 billion, and co-financing more than 5,000 national and regional projects. Liberia is one of the benefiting countries.
Article 13 of the Paris Agreement from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) calls for transparency, accountability, and monitoring for countries to report to the convention.
For 30 years, the Global Environment Facility has been a major partner in supporting some of Liberia’s environmental and climate change programs. Its support to Liberia has focused on creating a system of protected areas, working with local communities in land tenure, and sustainable harvesting among other things.
Emphasizing the role of the media in ensuring that there is transparency and that GEF project countries deliver on their deliverables and adequately account for money given for climate and environment programs, Rodriquez added the role of the media was critical.
Rodriguez called on the media to pay close attention to monitoring countries’ implementation of the National Determined Contribution (NDC).
On November 8, 2022, the Liberian delegation at the COP27 launched the country’s revised NDC implementation. Keen among the country’s national goals is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 64 percent by 2030 and prioritize climate actions with a multi-stakeholder engagement approach. NDC is a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts that each party to the Paris Agreement signed. It requires nations to establish an NDC and update it every five years detailing policy actions.
Seven countries jointly pledged added support to the GEF for addressing the most urgent climate action needs of the least developing countries, including the implementation of NDCs.
The new portfolio “The Least Developed Countries Funds (LDCF)” is to the tune of US$105.6 million with Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Walloon Region of Belgium contributing the new funding.
The new commitment from the seven nations now adds to the $413 million that 12 donor countries have pledged to support the Least Developed Countries Funds (LDCF) at COP26 in Glasgow last year.
This story is produced as part of the 2022 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
Top: Rose Yancy and community people lead foreigners into the Kpaytuo Plantation. Photo credit: Facebook/Rose Yancy
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh
KPAYTUO, Nimba County – A Liberian-owned company ships timber from a forest in Nimba County unknown to the rest of the public, except for the Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Mike Doryen and the other top managers of the agency, who have sanctioned the firm’s illegal operations.
Rosemart Inc. was awarded the Kpaytuo Plantation in the Saclepea District at least six years ago, according to documents withheld secret ever since until a recent investigation by The DayLight prompted the FDA to publish them. The company has illegally shipped US$100,000 worth of teak logs, expensive woods used for construction, shipbuilding and the making of rifles. At the time of Rosemart’s last known shipment in 2020, teaks were selling for US$300 per cubic meter. It has traded between US$1-2.5 million goods on the Trade Key alone, a Saudi Arabia-based e-commerce platform.
But there is no public record of Romsemart’s operations—its contracts with the FDA and the community where it operates—except for three illegal export permits. The company is not captured in the reports of the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). It has only paid US$664.70 during all its years of operations, with some of its fees going straight to the FDA’s account at the United Bank for Africa (UBA), instead of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA).
Villagers adjacent to the Kpaytuo Plantation said Rosemart pays them US$15,000 for a certain quantity of logs. They said they have had three transactions, information backed by the permits published so far. The 500-acre Kpaytuo is one of several plantations across the country that were established by the government of Liberia prior to the Liberian civil wars as part of the government’s forest regeneration program.
“The agreement puts Rosemart in charge of the forest. The few pieces [of logs] that remained there, she is responsible for them. I heard that she has found partners and is waiting for the rain to stop coming,” said Adolphus Kpangar, the commissioner of Kpaytuo township. He declined to share a copy of the agreement.
The FDA awarded Rosemart’s its contracts outside of forestry laws and regulations. There are five legal logging permits: forest management contracts (FMC), timber sale contracts (TSC), forest use permits (FUP) or private use permits (PUP) and a community forest management agreement (CFMA). Rosemart contract does not fall under any of the five contracts, known in the sector as forest resource licenses.
Rosemart did not conduct an environmental social impact assessment (ESIA) as mandated by the National Forestry Reform Law. The assessment draws out the environmental and social consequences of a project and proposes measures to mitigate potential negative impacts. Clearing a forest without conducting an ESIA could hurt plants, animals and people, experts say. For instance, Kpaytuo Plantation has swamps, generally important ecosystems that are home to different species.
Also, Rosemart’s export permits were issued outside of the chain of custody or LiberTrace, the system that tracks all logs produced and shipped from Liberia. Its creation was a monumental achievement in Liberia’s drive to trade legal and sustainable logs. It is a crucial component of the country’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union signed in 2011.
“I have no idea what [those permits are],” said Gertrude Nyaley, the technical manager for the department in an emailed interview with The DayLight. “What I know is that all woods and wood products must be exported [through] the LiberTrace system. Anything shipment of timber or timber products outside the chain-of-custody system is illegal.” Awarding permits outside the chain of custody amounts to economic sabotage under the law.
Rose Yancy Adikwu, Rosemart’s co-owner and CEO, turned down an interview with The DayLight on her company’s illegal activities.
Rose Yancy Adikwu, Rosemart’s co-owner and CEO with townsmen and her foreign business partners. Facebook/Rose Yancy
The FDA did not initially respond to The DayLight’s inquiry. But in a rebuttal to our investigation that exposed the secret deal, it falsely claimed that Rosemart’s consignment did not meet certain requirements. It also claimed that Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), the Swiss firm that created LiberTrace, declined to enter the teak logs from plantations into the chain of custody.
Contrary to this claim, Rosemart made a number of shipments that are much larger than some of the ones captured by the LEITI. For instance, Rosemart exported 88.625 cubic meters of logs outside the chain of custody in 2020. That same year, Regnals Internationals Inc.—which runs the Cavalla Reforestation Plantation—exported only 62 cubic meters of logs.
SGS also debunked the FDA’s claim it declined to register the logs Rosemart exported into the system.
“SGS has never been informed of any scientific management plantations to be applied in LiberTrace,” Theodore Aime Nna, SGS’ forestry project manager, told The DayLight. “Moreover, SGS does not certify any log in Liberia, but only verifies their history…”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has continued to issue illegal logging permits. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By The DayLight Fact-checking Desk
FDA cites violations of previous administrations, including an ex-head of the institution who is being prosecuted over forestry’s worst postwar scandal
Swiss quality company SGS says FDA lied over a so-called threshold on the registration of logs
Manager of Legality Verification distances herself from illegal permit FDA cites in excuse of its violation
The argument that over 88 cubic meters of logs do not meet the threshold is wrong, as the agency legally exports smaller volumes of logs
WHEIN TOWN, Paynesville – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) defended its decision to award export permits to companies outside the legal system that tracks timber trade—an offense that constitutes economic sabotage—recently reported in an investigation by The DayLight.
FDA Managing Director Mike Doryen and other top managers awarded firms export permits that are not registered in the chain of custody or LiberTrace. Other managers who issued the permits include Joseph Tally, the deputy managing director for operations; Edward Kamara, the manager for forest products marketing and revenue forecast; and Jerry Yonmah, the former technical manager for the agency’s commercial department.
Export from just one of the firms, Rosemart Inc., owned by Liberian businesswoman Rose Yancy Adikwu, has traded over US$100,000 worth of timber, according to the permits awarded to the company. Rosemart has traded between US$1 million and US$2.5 million goods on Trade Key, according to the Saudi Arabia-based e-commerce platform. However, it only paid the Liberian government US$664.70, according to its tax-payment history as of the time of writing.
The FDA has kept these permits secret: they have not been published on its website, in periodic reports, or captured by the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).
The uncovering of the illegal permits comes at a time logs are being smuggled out of the country at an alarming rate. The permits evoke harsh memories of the Liberian civil wars when logging contracts were illegally awarded to companies in exchange for weapons. They recall the infamous Private Use Permit Scandal of 2012, where 2.5 million hectares of forests were illegally awarded.
The FDA’s defense of the illegal permits contains a number of unlawful and flawed arguments. “FDA’s Rejoinder to The DayLight Publication on Illegal Timber Export Permit Issuance” was published as a news story and an advertisement. Here are what we found after fact-checking major claims:
Claim One – The DayLight published a story on EJ&J
The FDA claims that The DayLight published a story in FrontPage Africa that alleges EJ&J Logging Company and Brilliant Maju exported US$3 million worth of timber. It had told villagers it had not shipped a single log so it could not pay its debt to them, according to the article.
“The amplification of this story was channeled through several newspapers, including FrontPage Africa,” the FDA wrote. “We wish to inform the public and educate the publisher of their lack of understanding of the scope and nature of forest management…” It was used to exemplify that The DayLight’s reports were that of “paid journalism… employed by our detractors to paint us ugly in the eye of the public,” and that our style of reporting is “counterproductive to the norms of journalism.”
Facts
The article cited by the FDA was not written by The DayLight. Rather New Narratives, a media development program known for award-winning reports on Liberia’s extractive sector, transitional justice and female genital cutting (FGC).
Claim Two – SGS declined to enroll logs into the chain of custody
Varney Marshall, a ranger with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) poses for a picture at an illegal logging site he runs believed to be Gbarpolu County. This picture was obtained from a leaked gallery of photos exposed by The DayLIght in August.
The FDA claims that Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) declined to enroll teak logs from plantations as they fell below “technical requirement” and “because of their salvage nature.” It made the claim without showing any proof.
Facts
SGS refutes the FDA’s claim that it rejected the logs for any reason. It was the Swiss firm that created LiberTrace, a major component of Liberia’s 2011 Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union (EU). The trade agreement mandates both parties to ensure logs are legally and sustainably sourced.
“SGS has never been informed of any scientific management plantations to be applied in LiberTrace,” Theodore Aime Nna, SGS’ forestry project manager, told The DayLight via email over the weekend.
“Logs could be rejected through LiberTrace only if they are not traceable or illegally produced. Moreover, SGS does not certify any log in Liberia, but only verifies their history…,” Nna added.
Claim Three – Ex-FDA Managing Director also issued illegal export permits
The FDA argues this administration is the first to issue illegal export permits. Past administrations did.
In its sponsored rebuttal in FrontPage Africa, the Doryen-led FDA published four more of the illegal permits. They had been awarded between 2016 and 2019, including one each to two other companies and two others to Rosemart.
“Past administration of the Forestry Development Authority had the option to either allow the logs to waste/rot … or take a decision that favors their utilization.”
Facts
The FDA’s reference to permits issued by past administrations as justification for the violation does not hold. Moses Wogbeh Sr., a former managing director who issued one of the permits FDA cited, was found guilty of economic sabotage, issuing deceptive writing and other crimes for his role in the Private Use Permit Scandal. Wogbeh’s appeal of Criminal Court C’s August 2015 ruling is still at the Supreme Court of Liberia.
Claim Four – The head of the legality Verification Department signed one of the Illegal Permits
Making further arguments to legitimize the illegal permits, the FDA tried to discredit comments made by Gertrude Nyaley, the technical manager of its legality verification department (LVD). Nyaley had told The DayLight that permits for wood and wood products issued outside of the chain-of-custody system are illegal. It was a huge assertion that helped lift the lid on illegal permits.
“It is important to note that that Atty. Gertrude Nyaley…, who was quoted by [The] DayLight as having no knowledge of the [permits’] legality, also signed one of the mentioned [permits] as acting managing Director.
Facts
Nyaley denies she signed the permit, though it has her name handwritten. “I did not sign any permit. They know where they got their permit from,” Nyaley said of the 2019 document. “In 2019, I served as the Technical Manager of the community forest department and was in no way near commercial activities.
Nyaley did not sign as an acting managing director, instead, she proxied for Tally, the deputy managing director for operations.
“What an inherent contradiction,” Nyaley said.
Claim Five – Rosemart Inc. does not meet the revenue threshold
The FDA says companies such as Rosemart do not meet the “revenue threshold,” and the decision for the publication of their exports lies with the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).
Facts
This claim by the FDA is not grounded in facts. There are a number of shipments made by Rosemart that are larger than some of the ones captured by the LEITI. For instance, Rosemart exported 88.625 cubic meters of logs outside the chain of custody in 2020. That same year, Regnals Internationals Inc.—which runs the Cavalla Reforestation Plantation—exported only 62 cubic meters of logs, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). In fact, that was the same volume of logs it exported the previous fiscal period. That is a difference of more than 26 cubic meters.
