FDA Rehires Ex-Manager Disgraced for Alleged Corruption

November 26, 2024

Top: Mr. Augustine B.M. Johnson on the Liberian delegation at the just-ended climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Facebook/Augustine B.M. Johnson

By Emmanuel Sherman

WHEIN TOWN—The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has rehired a former manager who was disgraced on multiple occasions for alleged corruption and involved with companies punished for logging offenses.

The FDA hired Augustine B.M. Johnson as a consultant in June. He gets US$2,500 as a service fee, US$300 for fuel, and US$100 for communication, according to a document obtained by The Daylight. Johnson’s duties include assisting with forest management planning, supporting compliance, and advising on forest mapping. He represented Liberia at the United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

But, Johnson’s roles starkly contradict his reputation at the FDA, where he served as the geoinformation system manager in the 2000s and 2010s. Johnson was found liable in the Carbon Harvesting Corporation (CHC) and Private Use Permit Scandals, forestry’s biggest postwar controversies. Later, he managed West African Forestry Development Inc. (WAFDI) and Mandra Forestry Liberia Limited, two of forestry’s dirtiest.

Before his rehiring, Johnson was touted as the FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Technical Affairs but eventually lost the position to Gertrude Nyaley, a former director of the agency’s legality verification department.

Criminal carbon contract

In 2010, Johnson and other officials fraudulently attempted to award a carbon contract to the London-based CHC for 400,000 hectares in River Cess County. Had it gone through, experts said Liberia would have a US$2 billion loss.

A national inquiry found that Augustine B.M. Johnson, was a mastermind of the infamous Carbon Harvesting Corporation Scandal in 2010, in which Johnson and other officials illegally attempted to lease 400,000 hectares of forest to a British man. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper

An official inquest found that Johnson introduced himself as a “resident expert,” allegedly receiving a bribe and computer from CHC. He then conducted a so-called biomass study on four plots of land in the southcentral county and tried to deceive the Office of the Prince of Wales about the “groundbreaking” deal.

“Johnson and colleague provided confidential information about the FDA to CHC and allowed CHC to draft the FDA document that they would have [then-Managing Director John Woods] and other FDA officials sign,” investigators said.

Investigators recommended Johnson’s dismissal and subsequent prosecution, which President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—his relative—accepted but later rescinded.

Forgery

In 2012, two years after CHC, Johnson participated in the infamous PUP Scandal in which the FDA illegally awarded about 2.5 million hectares of forests to logging companies. It remains the biggest postwar logging scandal.

An official investigation found Johnson illegally received money for boundary line demarcations and verification fieldworks. Investigators established his report for those events was falsified in “many cases” and inconsistent with a private use permit, awarded solely for private land. A Liberia Land Authority review showed 57 of 59 permits unlawfully involved community lands, supported by fraudulent documentation.

It turns out, that most of the forestlands Johnson and other FDA technical staff had issued had overlapped proposed protected and logging concession areas.

Unlike the CHC scandal, this time around, Johnson, then-FDA Managing Director Moses Wogbeh, and several officials were prosecuted. Wogbeh and others were found guilty of economic sabotage, criminal conspiracy, and other crimes but filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. The case still lingers at the high court. Criminal Court ‘C’ had granted Johnson’s petition for a separate trial, which never happened.

Johnson denied any wrongdoing regarding the CHC and PUP scandals but declined an interview with The DayLight for this story.

Illegal Logging

Illegalities followed Johnson from the FDA to WAFDI. A 2021 Ministry of Justice investigation found that West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) illegally harvested logs in Grand Bassa County’s Compound Number Two. The FDA had incorrectly awarded the company 14,460 hectares of extra woodland in the Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest. WAFDI exploited the error for three years, exporting a huge volume of logs at the hand of the process.

Following the investigation, the Ministry of Justice reprimanded the FDA and WAFDI for the irregularities. Accordingly, WAFDI’s operations were suspended for nearly a year. “WAFDI is an operator in the forestry sector, they are also obligated to know and comply with all forestry laws and procedures…,” wrote then-Minister Musa Dean.

Augustine Johnson was one of the alleged masterminds of Liberia’s largest postwar logging scandal for which he and several officials were prosecuted a decade ago. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Abandoned logs

Amid WAFDI’s rebuke, Mandra—Johnson’s other company—was being punished. The FDA suspended Mandra’s harvesting certificates and two other companies for not enrolling their logs into the FDA log-tracking system and abandoning logs in Sinoe County. A DayLight investigation found the company abandoned some 7,000 logs from the Sewacajua Community Forest, the single-most ever reported.

In a phone interview last year, Johnson appeared unfamiliar with the Regulation on Abandoned Logs…, one of the instruments he has been consulted to enforce.

He claimed that paying the fees on a log prevented its abandonment. “Before you talk about abandonment, I am expecting a ship to come to Greenville by the second week of next month to get the logs out,” Johnson said in the interview.

His comments contradicted the 2017 regulation, which defines abandonment as logs left unattended between three weeks and six months, depending on their location.

Conflict of Interest

Johnson’s well-documented activities and his current role at the FDA are a conflict of interest. Apart from WAFDI and Mandra, he has been linked to joint ventures with the Liberia Tree and Timber Company and the EJ&J Logging involving two large-scale forest concessions.

Under Augustine B.M. Johnson’s watch, the Forestry Development Authority punished Mandra Forestry Liberia Limited for abandoning thousands of logs in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

In June, Johnson represented logging companies at an annual meeting on a timber trade agreement between Liberia and the European Union. He even made remarks on behalf of commercial loggers, the third week into his second spell at the FDA.

In a letter last week, the NGO Coalition of Liberia urged President Joseph Boakai to address Johnson’s conflict of interest.

“Allowing individuals with such vested interests to influence forest governance undermines the integrity of the FDA and Liberia’s commitment to transparency and good governance,” the NGOs wrote. The Executive Mansion did not immediately respond to The DayLight queries.

Similarly, the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not return questions for comments on Johnson and the other issues. However, Merab’s appointment to the FDA follows the same pattern as Johnson’s return to the regulator. Like Johnson, Merab is a serial illegal logger, having himself participated in the PUP Scandal and wartime logging operations.

This story was a production of the Community of Forests and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Calls for EU not to End Timber Treaty with Liberia

November 25, 2024

0

Top: A drone picture of logs on a field outside Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

MONROVIA – Calls are mounting for the European Union (EU) to reconsider its decision to terminate a timber trade agreement with Liberia. The issue is high on the agenda as the bloc and the West African country discuss the deal this week.

In 2011, the EU and Liberia signed the voluntary partnership agreement, known as the VPA, enabling the West African country to trade legally sourced timber on European markets. The deal was hailed globally for breaking away from Liberia’s civil war era, where illegal Liberian timber flooded international markets.

But last month, the Head of the EU Delegation to Liberia Nona Deprez disclosed that Brussels had notified Monrovia about its decision to terminate the deal. “A formal notification to the [Liberian] government is in process,” Deprez said in a letter to NGOs.

Now national and international forest campaigners and experts say canceling the VPA would tarnish Liberia’s reputation, exacerbate illegal logging and undermine the country’s combat against climate change.

The NGO Coalition said the development was “deeply concerning, as the VPA has been instrumental in improving forest governance, curbing illegal logging and enhancing transparency in Liberia’s forestry sector.”

In a letter last week, the group called on President Joseph Boakai to use this week’s meeting to engage the EU to keep the agreement. The government has not spoken about the planned termination.

“The EU may cite slow progress, corruption, and illegal logging as reasons for termination, tarnishing Liberia’s international image. Neighboring countries retaining their VPAs will cast Liberia in a poor light,” the letter noted.

The EU has not cited any reasons for intending to terminate the 11-year agreement. However, recently, it blamed the failure to qualify for FLEGT licensing—which allows countries to export timber to EU markets—for terminating the VPA with Cameroon.

Cameroon’s scenario resembles Liberia’s. Liberia has not qualified for forest law enforcement, governance and trade. Though Liberia has made some gains since the end of its bloody civil wars, it has witnessed a string of logging scandals. Last year, the Associated Press reported that Liberia may have a “parallel system” to export illegal timber, citing diplomatic sources. A recent review paints the picture of a sector marred by noncompliance and impunity.

Apart from the tarnishing of Liberia’s reputation, experts say termination could dry out millions of much-needed funding the EU provides Liberia.

“Ideally, development partners would continue with support to communities,” said a forest governance expert who preferred anonymity, “but the question is whether such support would be as impactful without the structures and processes of the VPA in place.”

Liberia has some 43 percent of the Upper Guinea rainforests, the largest in West Africa. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

Dr. Arthur Blundell, an international forestry expert on Liberia, said losing the VPA would erode anti-deforestation efforts. Liberia has the largest portion of West Africa’s remaining rainforests, with its protection crucial to global climate targets. “Losing the EU’s financial and technical assistance must make it harder to fight climate change and protect biodiversity,” added Blundell.

‘Civil unrest’

This week’s meeting, which begins Tuesday and ends Thursday, is one of three events held at least once a year under the VPA. At those meetings, the Liberian government, the EU, international partners, civil society and communities discuss governance and transparency. Campaigners and experts say that civil space would be lost with the VPA.

“If this happens, so many of the gains that have been made over the years, in terms of strengthened government accountability for better forest management and distribution of benefits, will be undermined,” said the forest governance expert.

“It will become less representative,” added Blundell. “These groups suffer the most if the fight is lost. The loss of the VPA process will make their representation more difficult.”

The NGO Coalition believes the VPA’s absence could also undermine Liberian laws that guarantee communities’ rights and increase illegal logging. Warned the group: “Without it, enforcement could weaken, leading to social unrest.”

News of the termination comes as the EU published its Strategic Framework for International Cooperation Engagement on Deforestation, as it delayed the implementation of a new deforestation regulation. The Framework paves the way for the regulation’s implementation, proposing stricter requirements for countries to export to the EU.

Indra Van Gisbergen, a campaigner with the Netherlands-registered NGO Fern criticized the Framework for not being comprehensive and lacking of stakeholders’ participation. She wrote in October that the Framework had scrapped such participation for technical and development cooperation.

Gisbergen said it was “striking” that the publication coincided with the EU’s announcement of its unilateral termination of the Cameroon VPA. Similarly, Liberian civil society actors and community representatives were not informed of the EU’s decision beforehand.

“Ghosting the VPAs and unilaterally terminating them without any public assessment, does not set a good example for future partnerships,” she said.

In her letter, Deprez said Liberia was crucial for the region and the EU would continue its support. “We will continue to support and invest in the sector to strengthen it,” Deprez’s letter read, “to make it more sustainable and to fight illegality.”

The EU is expected to outline reasons for the planned termination at the City Hall of Monrovia. The bloc and the Liberian government are expected to discuss its implications.

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Disappointed in Logging, Communities Look to Conservation

November 21, 2024

0

A signboard at the Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County, the setting for perhaps forestry’s largest scandal in the last decade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By James Harding Giahyue

BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – “The challenges in community forestry are self-explanatory. The companies will not perform. There will be some breaches by the community for tempering with the forest.”

Jefferson Zoegbeh, the secretary general of Gheegbarn #2 Community Forest’s executive committee in Grand Bassa County, speaks at a recent meeting in Buchanan. Over 50 community land and forest leaders brainstormed conservation possibilities. Gathering from the west-central county and River Cess next door, they discussed ways rural people could benefit from their forests rather than logging.

It has been some 15 years since logging was reintroduced in community forests following the end of over a decade of Liberia’s bloody civil wars. Though postwar forestry guarantees communities’ benefits, locals have gained little from dozens of logging contracts countrywide, covering 2.3 million hectares.

Official records show that of the 186 logging companies that have existed since 2009, just four or five are active. According to a recent report, they owe communities affected by large-scale concessions US$21 million.

The meeting was the second of a series of community-based consultations, the the previous held in Ganta, Nimba County. The events’ organizers intend to incorporate communities’ views—and a report—into a proposal to the Liberian government early next year.

“The best way for communities to get their benefits is to reserve their forest,” says Piyigar Gaybeon, Zuzohn Community Forest’s chief officer in the same region as Gheegbarn #2. Zuzohn signed a contract with the Chinese-owned Booming Green, which was terminated by mutual consent. However, the company did not settle its debt to locals, including contractual projects before pulling out.

“If we can get anything from any company to reserve the forest, we will agree. We need the generation to come and meet the forest there.”

Organizers seek locals’ views on three ways they can benefit from conservation. The first is performance-based, where they get paid for a specific forest area that is easily measurable. The second is direct funding, which empowers communities without a third party and is less bureaucratic. And the third is enterprise development, where communities’ alternative livelihood programs are funded to keep locals away from the forests.

Silas Siakor, the country manager of Dutch NGO IDH and one of the organizers, explains that the idea is to enhance communities’ sense of forest ownership and management.

“By protecting their resources, they can access funds tied to conservation ownership,” said Siakor. “For example, payments linked to forest management should be transparently managed within community bank accounts, fostering a sense of collective responsibility and preventing misuse.

The idea is to balance conservation with community needs.”

Community forest leaders at a conservation workshop in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Locals did not dwell on REDD+ or reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, which activists have warned against. They also avoided carbon credits, trading and markets for which Liberia is still developing policies and legal frameworks.

Ziadue, a landowning River Cess clan, has its own experience with carbon. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency shut a deal between the clan and a company over alleged bribery.

But that glitch is nothing compared to the logging nightmares Ziadue and its neighbors—Teekpeh, Gbarsaw and Dorbor—have experienced. Ziadue seeks termination of a logging contract for a forest it shares with Teekpeh, while loggers fled Gbarsaw and Dorbor after illegally harvesting 550 logs in 2020. These experiences have inspired locals here to look to conservation.

“We the leaders of Ziadue, Teekpeh, Gbarsaw and Dorbor, have decided to get into conservation and are united. This way, we can get benefits and develop our communities,” says Emmanuel Marcus Roberts, CLDMC Chairman of Ziadue Clan’s community land development and management committee.

Caution

The community leaders at the event, including Kennedy Kaiuway of Gheegbarn #2, are convinced that his community should run one of the three workable conservation programs.

“That will be better for us than for one man to come to our forest, ship his US$10 million [worth of] logs, and we are left destitute,” says Kaiuway. A company called L&S Resources Inc. deserted the 12,000-hectare Gheegbarn #1, leaving behind debts, abandoned logs and unfulfilled projects.

Zoegbeh shares Kaiuway’s views but urges rural people to tread with caution. “This is a new approach. For us to know it, we have to investigate and do due diligence on it,” says Zoegbeh.

Like Zoegbeh, Paul Kahn Jr., the chief officer for Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest, has doubts in conversation and believes logging can still work.

Bordering Gheegbarn #2, Gheegbarn #1 has seen perhaps the worst forestry scandal in the last decade. A Ministry of Justice Investigation found that the FDA had awarded the West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) 14,000 hectares, exporting thousands of the illegal logs.

Amid the illegal activities, WAFDI did not pay locals their fair share of logging resources. Paul Kahn Jr., Gheegbarn #1’s chief officer, puts the debt at US$193,000 in project fees, US$3,125 in land rental and, an unspecified amount in harvesting. Kahn’s predecessors are accused of mismanaging US$200,000. There has been no work there since a community protest last December.

“I think it can change [a lot] of things in the communities,” says Kahn. He had been elected to his post last month after leading the protest.

“Train officials of the community forest. Raise more awareness in communities, making them understand how to manage their funds. The responsibilities of [members of the community forest leadership]. The responsibilities of the company.”

Waterfall Clan in Court for Nearly 9K Acres of Land

November 14, 2024

0

Top: The Whorn Waterfall sits in Ceeyugar Town in the Quikon Clan of Kokoyah District, Bong County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

KPELLETAY TOWN – A man has sued seven townsmen for dismantling his cornerstones and signboards in a conflict involving a large parcel of land in a Bong County clan.

The items represented Ceeyugar’s self-proclaimed 8,866 acres of land in the Quikon Clan, near the famous Whorn Waterfall on the St. John River.

The men were charged with criminal trespass, criminal mischief, menacing and disorderly conduct, court documents show.

“On May 3, 2024…you Samuel Monway (and others) unlawfully, intentionally and purposefully went on the land of David Ceeyugar in group and without his permission, damaged his cornerstones with four signboards,” their arrest warrant read.

Ceeyugar seeks US$1,900 in damages. However, he failed to present documents to support his claim in a July hearing. Former Sub-Kokoyah District Commissioner, Mary Queminee, had also rejected the letter of administration.

The accused deny any wrongdoing, saying the land in question is part of the Quikon Clan’s estimated 25,000 acres.

“We will make sure that our land is not taken away by anybody, including David Ceeyugar because the land is not for him,” said Tripple Zisus, one of the suspects and Secretary General of Quikon’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC). A CLDMC manages customary lands for a community and represents its interest in concessions, based on the Land Rights Act. Zisus spoke to The DayLight in Kpelletay, one of Quikon’s 18 towns.

Quikon Clan started the process of getting a deed last year. It is being guided by a Bong County-based NGO, Parley Liberia, and is currently harmonizing the boundaries with neighboring clans.

The suspects said Ceeyugar’s survey of the land was dubious. They said there were no survey notices and no participation from nearby neighborhoods.

Isaac Gbenyan, the Commissioner of Kokoyah Sub-District told The DayLight the clan only heard about the land when it was already surveyed. The chiefs of Kpelletay Town and Rock Crusher corroborated Gbenyan’s account.

One of the signboards townsmen dismantled. File Picture/Quikon Community Land Development and Management Committee

Asked what he made of the case, David Kangar, Quikon’s CLDMC chairman, backed the suspects’ actions.

“That is not a case. It is a carton. [Ceeyugar] does not have grounds, stance and witnesses. He just wanted to take it falsely,” Kangar said at his home in Kpelletay Town.

The story comes nearly a year after The DayLight exposed an illegal transaction involving some 300 acres of the clan’s land between a former lawmaker and a now-deceased elder.

Last year, deceased elder John Loway admitted to entering an illegal deal with former Representative of Bong County District Number One Albert Hills, Jr. The transaction took place in 2019, months after the passage of the law, which Hills signed. Family and other sources said the deal was valued at about L$400,000, something The DayLight could not independently verify.

Government Lapse Leading Miners to Community Forests

November 12, 2024

0

Top: An earthmover at work in Belleh Yalla, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

SALAYEA TOWN Lofa County – In early June, villagers seized a team of miners and their equipment for operating in the Salayea Community Forest without their consent and sued them.

A week later, the Salayea Magisterial Court dismissed the case because the miners had a valid license. It advised the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to settle the matter administratively.

Salayea is the latest community forest for which the Ministry of Mines has issued a license without landowning communities’ participation. This practice abuses communities’ rights, undermines their efforts to manage forests, and leads to forest degradation. From 2002, Liberia lost 347,000 hectares of primary forest, with 20,000 hectares in Lofa County last year alone, according to the Global Forest Watch, an online platform that monitors forests worldwide.

Miners in the Korninga B Community Forest in Gbarpolu. Picture credit: Moses R. Quollin

“What is happening in the community is bad because they are damaging the forest that we are fighting to protect for our children and the future generation,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the 8,270-hectare forest, one of a few conservation community forests countrywide. Home to important plants and animal species, Salayea received a community forest status in 2019.

“We are not happy because they are still destroying our forests, cutting down trees, and spoiling rivers and creeks because of gold-digging business,” adds Mulbah.

The Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands, empowers rural people, who were marginalized for decades. The law empowers residents to share benefits and managerial responsibilities with the FDA.

On the other hand, mining is a cornerstone of Liberia’s economy, with significant contributions to GDP and revenue. Last year, mining contributed $665.4 million to Liberia’s GDP and was a primary driver of economic growth along with construction, according to the World Bank. Continued growth of 5.3 percent is projected for 2024 and an average of 5.6 percent between 2024 and 2025, spurred by mining and structural reforms.

Lawsuits

Mining in community forests has led to several lawsuits countrywide in the last five years. Two cases ended with fines against the miners, while the other was withdrawn, giving the miners a clean slate.

In the first case, Korninga B Community Forest in Gbarpolu, 100 kilometers west of Salayea, locals sued Bea Mountain company for unauthorized entry into the community forest. They accused the company of cutting and destroying 2,800 logs while exploring for gold.

Later, the 16th Judicial Circuit Court in Bopolu found the Turkish-owned company liable and ordered it to pay over US$1.3 million in special damages and an additional US$3 million in general damages. The company eventually paid the community US$200,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Solway explored Mt. Blei (pictured) and Mt. Detton, initially without the locals’ consent. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

The second case is the most infamous. In 2019, the Ministry of Mines and Energy granted Solway Mining Inc. an exploration license for patches of forest in Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forests without the communities’ consent. So, locals filed a lawsuit. Subsequently, Solway paid the communities a US$3,000 fine after a local court ruled its entry into the rocky woodlands unauthorized. However, Solway went on to sign an agreement with the two communities for its exploration activities.

The third case happened earlier this year, just before Salayea. Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest in Gbarpolu filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Harming Mining Group of Companies. The community accused the company of cutting trees, digging large pits polluting water sources and establishing a camp protected by armed police.

Backed by chiefs and elders, the company purchased small-scale mining licenses the Ministry of Mines had awarded unknown to the community forest’s leadership. In the end, the community flipped and consented to the company’s operations.

Uncoordinated agencies

The cases expose the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Mines and the FDA, corruption other issues, forestry campaigners say.

A 2018 USAID report established that the Ministry of Mines weakened local forest management by authorizing mining in community forests without consulting local people and the FDA.

A 2021 Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) report highlighted weak coordination between the government offices in awarding semi-industrial-scale and small-scale mining licenses.

It found no redress mechanism for dissatisfied townspeople, except the courts, and that citizens’ participation in mining was low.

“In some areas, the FDA and Ministry of Mines and Energy lack the resources or capacity to enforce rules effectively,” says Dayugar Johnson, the lead campaigner at Civil Society Independent Forest Monitors.

“This leaves community forests and… protected areas vulnerable to unauthorized mining activities…” Johnson thinks corruption, high demands for minerals, limited awareness of the law and lack of alternative livelihood are a part of the problem.

Based on past and present mining authorities’ comments, there is more to the issue than the lack of coordination. It is also about the abuse of communities’ rights to forestlands.

A portion of the Sehyi-Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

In a 2020 interview, then-Assistant Minister for Exploration Rexford Sartuh disclosed that the Ministry of Mines did not recognize community forests. “They have their right to their land but when it comes to the issuance of mineral rights in Liberia, we don’t consider them. They believe that we should ask them before we issue [licenses]. We should not,” Sartuh said in the interview.

Sartuh’s view is the same as current Minister Wilmot Paye. In a WhatsApp chat with The DayLight, Paye suggested that the mining law was superior to forestry laws and regulations.

“Your query should further focus on what the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000 says,” Paye texted, and did not say anything else.

Paye’s comments contradict the facts. Though the mining law does not recognize communities’ rights—it is Liberia’s oldest extractive law—the Community Rights Law and the Land Rights Act of 2018 do. Both forestry instruments grant locals the right to consent and ownership of forestlands. The land law’s respect for community ownership is regarded as a landmark achievement in Liberia’s history.

Drafters of a new mining law, a draft seen by The DayLight, are proposing full recognition of all forestry and land laws and regulations.

‘Dissatisfied’

The FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries. However, Merab’s predecessor, Mike Doryen, criticized the Solway deal in 2020.

“We are disappointed in the way the Ministry of Mines and Energy handled things,” said Doryen at the time. “We think it has the propensity of discouraging our donors from making any more investments in the conservation area of our country.”

Doryen’s comments were a reference to a fallout of Solway’s exploration in Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo.

The two conservation community forests are adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve, a biodiversity hub home to the endangered Western Chimpanzee and the endemic Nimba toad. Both steep community forests and two others—Gba and Zor—receive support from ArcelorMittal Liberia and USAID.

Community forest guards with materials they seized from miners in Salayea Community Forest. File picture/Salayea Community Forest

Meanwhile, the situation in Salayea is not over. The court removed its stay order on the miners’ operations, leaving the community reeling.

Mulbah and co have decided to sue the miners at another court after consulting the FDA, which she says pledges to support Salayea.

“The community is frustrated, and people want to protest, but we urge patience as we seek help to protect our forest,” said Mulbah. “We are not satisfied because the government authorized us to manage our forest and resources.

An Analysis of the Proposed Increase in Electricity Tariff

November 11, 2024

0

Top: High tension wires on the Roberts International Airport highway in Margibi County. The DayLight/James Giahyue

By Dayugar Johnson

The proposed increase in electricity tariffs by the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), under review by the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC), presents a multifaceted challenge given Liberia’s current economic climate.

With a 37% rise in residential prepaid rates and significant increases in connection fees (310% for single-phase meters and 80% for three-phase meters), this change may have profound implications on development, industrialization, the agricultural sector, and the general livelihood of Liberians. The public hearings and stakeholder consultations LERC plans to hold will be essential in capturing citizen perspectives, as the proposed tariff hike will likely exacerbate existing economic pressures.

In the context of development and industrialization, increased electricity costs may dampen investment and growth prospects. Reliable, affordable energy is a cornerstone for industrial expansion; however, with higher electricity rates, business operational costs will rise, potentially deterring new industries and burdening existing ones. For Liberia’s agricultural value chain, which relies heavily on processing and storage facilities requiring consistent energy, elevated costs could reduce profit margins, limiting the sector’s capacity to expand and innovate. These factors could, in turn, slow down employment generation and economic diversification, which are crucial for Liberia’s long-term economic stability.

The proposed tariff increase will likely immediately impact the livelihood and affordability of ordinary citizens, many of whom already struggle with high living costs and limited income opportunities. With residential rates projected to rise by over a third, energy expenses will consume a larger portion of household budgets, potentially leading to increased financial stress and even reduced access to basic amenities that depend on electricity. The substantial rise in connection fees may further widen the access gap for many rural and low-income communities, which could be priced out of essential services.

To balance these economic impacts, LERC and LEC must prioritize transparency in justifying the new rates and explore avenues to ensure affordability, particularly for vulnerable populations. Additionally, investing in alternative energy sources and improving energy efficiency could help mitigate long-term costs. The proposed public engagement activities present an opportunity for stakeholders to advocate for cost-effective solutions and a phased approach to tariff changes that considers Liberia’s economic realities and developmental needs.

Dayugar Johnson is a development practitioner and civil society activist with over 20 years in the NGO sector in Liberia. He is a former consultant for the American Jewish World Service in Liberia and is currently the team leader of the Civil Society Independent Forest Monitor.

Government Owes Logging Communities US$9M, Report Finds

November 6, 2024

0

Top: The Liberian government delays paying communities their benefits from logging concessions, covering a million hectares of forests. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – The Liberian government owes large-scale Logging-affected communities approximately US$9 million in land rental for hot, dark forests, covering a million hectares, a new report has found.

Since 2009, the government collected US$12.9 million in land rental payments from logging companies for the communities, according to the report, published by US-based NGO Forest Trend. However, it has only transferred US$4 million to a watchdog, which disburses the fund to locals.

“A failure to share land rental payments risks undermining not just the forestry sector, and the rule of law in Liberia, but the development of communities across the country,” said Dr. Arthur Blundell, its author.

Per the National Forestry Reform Law, land rentals are calculated at US$2.50 per hectare for large-scale contracts and US$1.25 for small-scale contracts. The law requires the government to remit 30 percent of the fees to the communities.

Then the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board supervises locals’ expenditure of funds through their governance structures, known as a community forest development committee or CFDC.

The process is a breakaway from prewar and wartime logging practices, where forest resources did not benefit communities.

In 2021 and 2022 logging-affected communities staged protests over the government’s failure to pay their share of land rentals.

So, in 2023 a transitory account was set up at the United Bank of Africa to ensure timely remittance of the fees to communities. Unlike a previous arrangement, the account allows communities’ benefits to be directly transferred to the Trust’s account, instead of the government’s consolidated account.

Yet, only one payment of US$83,663.84 has been made since its establishment last year, according to the Trust.

“For this to work, the [government], should ensure that invoiced land rental (and any arrears) are paid by the logging companies,” says the report. It recommends that the government fast-track the payment process, beginning with the US$9 million already collected.

Trucks offloading logs outside Greenville, Sinoe County in 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“The Board wants a more robust money transfer from the transitory account to the Trust. Timely transfer of payment avoids the government’s diversion,” said Roberto Kollie, head of the Trust’s secretariat.

The delayed payments have dealt a blow to logging communities, with dozens of projects—schools, clinics, and town halls—stalled.

Shortly after the report’s publication, the government paid US$300,000, representing 40 percent of the US$746,294 allocated in the 2024 National Budget.

Blundell welcomed the payment but urged the government to pay the remaining 60 percent of the budgetary allocation and the unpaid one from the previous fiscal year.

“President [Joseph] Boakai should demonstrate real leadership, right historic wrongs, and help further the development of Liberia’s rural people most affected by industrial logging,” Blundell said.

The Forestry Development Authority did not immediately respond to The DayLight’s queries.

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Illicit Miners Ravage Community Forest

November 5, 2024

0

Top: Local forest guards with carpet seized from artisanal miners in the Salayea Community Forest. File picture

By Esau J. Farr

TELEMU TOWN, Lofa County – Miners in Lofa County have intruded on the Salayea Authorized Community Forest, undermining locals’ efforts to conserve the woodland. The miners entered the 8,270-hectare forest without the community’s consent, violating the Community Rights Law, which created community forestry.

“They are knocking down the trees,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest, established in 2019.

The DayLight obtained photographs taken by local forest guards showing mining equipment, barrels of fuel, felled trees and a polluted waterway.

Townspeople said the miners had 13 dredges on a tributary of the St. Paul River, machines the government has banned. The DayLight could not independently verify that information regarding our reporters’ safety on a long road amid bad weather.

Salayea is one of a few conservation community forests in Liberia, the only one in Lofa County. The forest’s leadership runs alternative livelihood programs to keep locals off murky, rocky woodland, with a high potential for gold.

“We want to keep this area as a reserved forest for our children and future generations,” said Nathaniel Forkpa, the secretary general of the community land leadership of Palama Clan, which hosts a portion of the forest.

Illicit miners over the River Dugbe in Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Forkpah, secretary general of the Palama Clan’s community land development and management committee. The clan hosts a portion of the forest. Forkpah and other townsmen had first spotted the miners in May.

In 2023, Lofa County lost 20,000 hectares of forest, according to the Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide. It was the county with the third-most loss.

Administrative proceeding

Angered by the actions of the illicit mining activities, forest guards seized the miners’ properties.

Later, Salayea filed a lawsuit against Ford Roy Tabolo, the mine owner. They sue him and two other men for mining without license, smuggling of minerals, criminal trespass and criminal facilitation, documents from the Salayea Magisterial Court show.

Tabolo and the men deny any wrongdoing. Tabolo argued that their activities were legal, producing a small-scale mining license.

Following a week of hearings, the court dismissed the case and removed a stay on the trio’s activities.

Judge Gabriel Ndupellar ruled that both parties had legal documents. Ndupellar said the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) needed to resolve the matter.

“The proceeding before this court is not ripe enough for judicial determination, except based on the outcome of an administrative proceeding,” the court said.

Reeling from the ruling, Salayea wrote the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) about the case. “We need your quick intervention,” read the June 8 letter. The FDA did not immediately respond to the DayLight’s queries.

The case is the fourth concerning mining in a community forest in the last five years, per media reports. Previous cases involved Korninga B and Bondi Mandingo in Gbarpolu, and Blei and Sehyi-Ko-doo in Nimba. Bea Mountain Mining Corporation and Solway Mining Inc. were penalized in the Korninga B and Nimba cases. The other Gbarpolu case implicates unlicensed miners and is still in court.

Meanwhile, Mulbah said Salayea was consulting lawyers for further legal actions against Tabolo.

Salayea forest guards with tools seized from an artisanal mine owner Ford Roy Tabolo. File picture

Water pollution

Back in Salayea, Tabolo and his team are digging in the forest. A DayLight review of the Ministry of Mines’ records shows Tabolo has four small-scale mining licenses, all expired in August and have not been renewed. That includes the license he presented to the court, based on court filings. Tabolo did not return queries for comments on this story.

Locals said another group of miners uses dredges on the St. Paul River, polluting creeks, driving away wildlife, and destroying the forest. It was due to such harmful environmental impacts the Ministry of Mines imposed a moratorium on dredging in 2019.

“The fishes in the water are also being affected and our people are eating the fish because they don’t know,” said Tokpah Koiwu, a community leader.

Villagers now carry drinking water from towns to their farms due to the pollution, Koiwu added.

The DayLight did not see the dredges. However, reporters obtained photos of royal blue plastic barrels, used by miners to make the makeshift machines. Furthermore, the color of the water in the pictures was consistent with a dredging operation.

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Salayea Shows Community Land and Forest Leaders Can Work Together

November 2, 2024

0

Top: Eva Kpandah, Palama Clan’s community land and development committee chairperson. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Esau J. Farr

SALAYEA TOWN, Lofa County – In 2019, the Sehyi Clan in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County began the legal process of acquiring a customary land deed. Sehyi’s community land development and management committee spearheads that process.

Another clan group has exercised similar functions over Sehyi’s forest since 2017. The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s community forest management body comanages the 1,538-hectare forest alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).

There is a problem, though. The forest leadership does not have a good relationship with its land counterpart. Like several communities, they are at loggerheads, with mounting calls for a national conversation to resolve these disputes.

But things are different in the Salayea District of Lofa County over 200 miles away. There, three—not two—community land and forest bodies, peacefully coexist and solve some of the district’s problems.

Since 2009, the district has had a community forest development committee, representing locals’ interests in a large-scale logging concession.

In 2016, the Salayea Community Forest was established, with a community leadership to co-manage the forest.

Then in 2019, Palama, a clan that hosts a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, established a governance structure to help develop and manage its land.

“If we don’t merge and work together, things will not work well for us,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Community Forest.

“We are working together as a team for a goal to protect the forest, to take it from illegal activities for the community’s development,” adds Eva Kpandah, the chairperson of Palama Clan’s land committee.

All three of the district’s bodies combat community challenges, including land conflicts and illegal mining activities.

A portion of the 8,270-hectare Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

In May, Kpandah tipped off Mulbah when she spotted miners entering the forest. Kpandah and Tokpah Koiwu supported Mulbah in filing a lawsuit against the miners. Koiwu is a member of Salayea District’s committee regarding the district’s large-scale logging concession.

In another instance, Mulbah and Koiwu are supporting Kpandah in Palama’s boundary dispute with Gbarlain, a neighboring clan.

‘Not invited’

In Sehyi, the stakes are even higher. Like Salayea, its forest and those of its neighbors Zor, Gba and Blei are all adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve. The four communities run conservation programs that help protect the reserve’s endangered and endemic species, including chimpanzees and the Nimba toad. However, confusion among community leaders undermines livelihood programs that benefit locals and keep the forest standing.

Yassah Mulbah speaks to The DayLight at the margins of the National Land Conference in September 2024. The DayLight/Harry Browne

“The [community forest] leadership said… they can’t accept to collaborate with us,” says Peter Dolo, Sehyi’s land leadership. “When they are having meetings, [we are] not invited.”

Ericson Flomo, the leader of Sehyi’s forest leadership, denies that accusation. “They have not called us in any of their meetings,” Flomo says. He claims he is the one who has invited Dolo to several meetings.

Dolo refutes Flomo’s comments, saying he has attended Flomo’s meetings as a townsperson, not the land leader.

This crisis has rocked communities outside of Nimba. In River Cess, the leaders of Gbarsaw and Dorbor Community Forest have refused to recognize land leaders of the clan. “They are only there to take care of the land after the loggers have left. They have no authority over the forest,” James Gbordoe, the forest leader of Gbarsaw and Dorbor, said in 2021. “When the logs have been cut from there, they will have the whole land to take care of.”

The intensity of the crisis was displayed at a workshop in Ganta last month. Things got so heated that Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who helped organize the event, had to suspend the topic after a discord of claims and counterclaims from participants. The event was being held to gauge communities’ views on what they would need to manage their forest sustainably.

‘Forerunner’

Campaigners foretold this result. A few months after the passage of the Land Rights Act in 2018, the Margibi-based NGO Sustainable Development Institute published a report, predicting the power struggle.

(R-L) Peter Dolo, the chairman of Sehyi Clan’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC), and Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The report argues that “conflicting provisions” in the law, which created the community land leadership, and Community Rights Law…, which established the forest leadership, would escalate tension.

“Our thinking is the crisis will increase because part of the reasons the law was crafted was to address issues of rural marginalization in respect to managing resources in the country but also conflicting, overlapping rights,” Ali Kaba, the then-head of SDI’s community land protection program, said at the time.

“It is a good law. However, there are loopholes, there are gaps and there are contradictions,” added Kaba, who is now a Commissioner at the Liberia Land Authority.

Speaking in 2021 at a conservation event in Monrovia, Cllr. Negbalee Warner, a senior partner at Heritage Partners and Associates (HPA) and one of the laws’ crafters, somehow acknowledged the “overlap” SDI spoke of.

“If there is anything, it is that the provisions of the two laws are in some instances [overlapped], although an argument can be made that the more appropriate term will be ‘reinforcing,’” said Warner. “The [land leadership] is therefore superior to all the structures established by the [Community Rights Law].”

‘Confusion will do nothing’

Bonathan Walaka, the lead facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body, says that understanding the roles and responsibilities of the two groups is crucial for progress.

The union intends to hold a forum with national stakeholders of the sectors to help ease the tension between community leaders. “The [forest leadership] should know that those who own the land are the community [people] and that they are only managing the forest,” Walaka says.

Augustine Dweh, the chairperson of a network of community land managers, agrees with Walaka, saying education and awareness are crucial to the solution.

An elevated view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The same goes for Eddie Beangar, Nimba County’s Land Administrator. “Having both them to understand their roles and to ensure that their involvement impacts the environment positively,” says Beangar.

Back in Sehyi, Dolo and Flomo are willing to work together. Dolo promises to invite Flomo and his team to an impending meeting, hoping to pave the way for a renewed, smooth relationship. The same goes for Flomo

“[Anything] that is better for Sehyi, Sehyi Ko-doo will accept, Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview at an entrance of the mountainous forest. “Confusion will do nothing for us.”

Monthly Archives: November 2024

Podcasts

ABOUT US

FOLLOW US