FDA Seeks Prison Term for Suspected Timber Traffickers

August 15, 2024

Top: Terrence Collins, also known as Terrentius Tidiboh Collins, is one of four suspected timber smugglers. Picture credit: LinkedIn/Terrentius Collins

By James Harding Giahyue

GBARNGA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is seeking penalties for four suspected timber smugglers who operated at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in a lawsuit at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County. The court has seized thousands of timber abandoned at the facility and impounded the machines the suspects used.

FDA petitioned the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County to imprison two Chinese nationals Chaolong Zang and Guoping Zang, a Turkish man Mehmet Onder Erem, and their Liberian alleged accomplice Terrence Collins. The agency seeks a 12-month term for the men if convicted, court documents filed this and last month show.

The lawsuit seeks a US$25,000 fine for the men as well as a forfeiture of machines and a vehicle used in their operations.

It accuses the men of conspiring and disregarding the law to “engage in logging activities, including the illegal harvesting, purchasing, transporting and processing of timber…” It adds that they “established a mini sawmill on the premises of… CARI…, where timber was being processed and smuggled out of Liberia…”

The lawsuit also seeks the forfeiture of a vehicle recently used by the suspects to transfer some of the timber to another location. Police in Gbarnga had arrested Jonah Jackson, the driver of one of the suspects, for transferring the wood to his house in Suakoko, police records show.

A collage showing allegedly illegally harvested timber at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI). The DayLight/Rebazar D. Forte

“On Wednesday, July 17, 2024, Mr. Zang sent me for the wood to take it from the CARI compound and carry it to my place in Suakoko for safekeeping,” Jackson wrote in a police affidavit.

“On Sunday, July 21, 2024, we continued to haul the balance. But surprisingly, while we got on the compound, we saw the CARI security and the OIC, and they called the police to arrest us.”

The court has impounded all machines and vehicles and imposed a stay on the timber until it determines the FDA’s petition. If granted, it will be the first time the agency has enforced the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products since it was formulated in 2017. Previous attempts in Bomi, Gbarpolu and Monrovia in 2022 proved futile.

The lawsuit comes barely a month after the FDA abruptly aborted an initial attempt to petition the court. An April investigation by The DayLight had exposed the suspected syndicate, showing photographs and documents of the allegedly illegal operation.

Board Resolution

The men deny any wrongdoing, saying they would not have exported the timber without the FDA’s approval. They are asking Judge Cornelius Wennah to dismiss the case for “lack of legal capacity to sue” them.

Their lawyer Nathaniel K. Innis, Sr. argued that two prosecution resolutions by the board of directors of the FDA had expired. One of the resolutions, signed in 2022, calls on the FDA to prosecute alleged forestry offenders. The other, signed in 2017, endorsed the confiscation regulation being used in the trial.

“It behooves the current Managing Director Hon. J. Rudolph Merab, Sr. to have filed a petition against the [four men] with a board resolution…,” the petition read.

Jonah Jackson, a driver of one of the suspects, transferred some of the allegedly illegally harvested timber to his house in Suakoko, Bong County. The DayLight/Anonymous

Innis also argued that the suspects legally purchased logs from Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company, which abandoned its concession in Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties. Therefore, Innis further argues, that the men could not forfeit the vehicles or machines and that the FDA had no right to confiscate the wood in question.

In Innis’ motion for dismissal, FDA lawyer Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo counterargued that it has the authority to enforce forestry legal frameworks and that the board resolution, which Innis hinged his argument, was a matter of corporate governance. Dolo argued the 2022 resolution was still valid and should be used to prosecute the suspects.

Dolo further argued that the men’s operations were illegal as the FDA did not permit them. He added that their transactions with Alpha Logging were not recorded in the FDA’s timber-tracking system.

The next hearing of the case has not been scheduled.

[Additional reporting by a Bong-based journalist]

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

Over Land Grab, GVL Defies Watchdog with Impunity

August 13, 2024

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Top: A guard at a Golden Veroleum Liberia gate in Lower Kulu Clan in the Tarjuwon District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Matenneh Keita

By Esau J. Farr

WIEH TOWN – Before the Ebola epidemic in 2013, Levi Jarteh joined other townspeople from Tarjuwon to file a complaint against Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry.

They accused GVL of encroaching on their land and destroying sacred places. The Palloh Hill, believed by locals to host spirits that granted good harvest, gave way for the mill. The Slinee Creek, where women sought children, made way for an irrigation system for palm nurseries.

Five years after their complaint, the RSPO found GVL liable for land grab. It ordered GVL to stop work in that area until it signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tarjuwon, including the Lower Kulu Clan, where Jarteh was born. The rebuke called for GVL to remap its plantation in the disputed area. The RSPO gave GVL a three-month deadline to implement the order.

“Any deviation from the above-mentioned milestones and timelines by GVL will be viewed adversely and may lead to consideration of suspension and eventual termination of membership,” the RSPO said.

GVL’s appeal of the decisions was rejected and left the RSPO, only to rejoin about a year later. GVL is a member of RSPO through its parent company, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), a Singaporean multinational, one of the world’s largest oil palm firms.

But, more than six years after that ruling, GVL has not signed a new MoU with Tarjuwon. Instead, the company has defied the RSPO by constructing the mill, planting in some areas and building houses in others. It has not been punished as the global watchdog had warned.

The first of those violations happened just three months after the RSPO’s order. Satellite images published in a report by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), an NGO based in Margibi, show GVL cleared additional farmland in Lower Kulu.

Then in 2019 evidence gathered by Blogbo-Teh, a local advocacy group, and RSPO confirmed that GVL cultivated additional land in Lower Kulu and continued to construct the mill.

GVL admitted to the violation, saying, “It took what it believed was a precautionary approach and interpreted the order to apply to the whole of the Lower Kulu area.” RSPO reordered GVL to complete the mapping of its plantation bordering the Upper and Lower Kulu “without any further delay.”

Again in 2022, Blogbo-Teh filed another complaint with evidence that GVL continued to develop the mill, houses and palm nurseries. Blogbo-Teh rued GVL’s “snail-pace” implementation of the RSPO’s orders, saying, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’”

Levi Jarteh, the General Town Chief of Wieh Town, was one of the townspeople who filed a complaint with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2013. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“It is unfortunate that duty bearers who have responsibilities and have signed international treaties, conventions and laws in our country do not have the willpower to do the right thing,” Simpson Snoh, the chairman of Blogbo-Teh, told The DayLight. Blogbo-Teh, which means “round land business” in the Kru language. Blogbo is a section within Lower Kulu.

“We are advocating for justice to be done per RSPO’s principles,” Snoh added.

GVL confirmed Blogbo-Teh’s findings, saying it carried out “minor works” at the mill site, repaired machines, established a nursery and replaced dead palms. The RSPO is reviewing that complaint. The DayLight has emailed the certification scheme for comments and will update this story once a response is obtained.

‘No more farmland’

Just as the years have witnessed an array of credible complaints of violation, so too have efforts to map GVL’s plantation in Tarjuwon.

In 2018, when the RSPO made the decision, Earthworm Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit was appointed by RSPO to map Tarjuwon. However, Blogbo-Teh questioned the group’s independence, as it had worked for GVL before.

Subsequently, Proforest, a UK-based NGO, was appointed to conduct the mapping. But it came at the time the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) was about to conduct Liberia’s fourth census. So, Proforest supported LISGIS to carry out the national duty and submitted the report to the RSPO in November 2021.

But LISGIS’ map established clan boundaries, and not the size of GVL’s plantation in Lower Kulu, the crust of the matter.

“We want to know the total hectare of land and how many hectares of land is occupied by GVL or will be occupied by GVL before any MoU can be signed,” added Simpson Toby, an ex-chairman of Blogbo-Teh.

Golden Veroleum has a 65-year concession with the Liberian government to develop 220,000 hectares of land in Maryland, Grand Kru and Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

“No more farmland [for us] because the palm bush is around us,” said Jarteh, the General Town Chief of the Lower Kulu Clan. “We have to travel beyond the palm plantation before we make farm and that distance is a [three-hour walk].”

The RSPO announced it would schedule a meeting with Proforest on the mapping report, whose draft the watchdog said it had received.

GVL dodged questions The DayLight emailed to it. However, it said in a periodic report to the RSPO that it would begin negotiation with Tarjuwon if the watchdog recommended that. The company has only reported for the first quarter of this year so far.

Meanwhile, locals of Lower Kulu say they are open to a negotiation with GVL. They want similar benefits that GVL-affected communities are entitled to, as they are excluded from the current MoU.

GVL’s current MoU calls for the payment of US$5 per hectare of developed land and gives citizens priority for jobs in affected communities. The agreement gives citizens access to healthcare services, schools and scholarships, especially employees and dependents. It also contains infrastructural development, including the construction of roads and bridges.

GVL, Liberia’s largest oil palm company, signed a 65-year agreement with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, and Maryland in a deal worth US$1.6 billion.

Ophelia Kumon, a resident of Wieh Town said, “Since they took the land, they should provide us safe drinking water, school for our children and job opportunities for the citizens here.”

Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Investors Invade Sinoe Palm Plantation

August 10, 2024

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Top: An elevated view of an oil palm mill at a plantation Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) abandoned five years ago. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By James Harding Giahyue, Derick Snyder and Varney Kamara

In August 2022, Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) purchased an abandoned palm plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in a deal worth approximately US$445,000

Publicity of the deal was scanty, limited to a LinkedIn post, a reference on LNPI’s website and an announcement hidden in EPO’s parent company’s annual reports.

The Liberian government has not approved of the takeover, with the Ministry of Agriculture and the lawmaker of that district unaware of the deal.

Yet, LNPI is forcibly operating the plantation, including a prewar oil palm mill. With the help of armed police officers, the company is throwing residents out of the plantation.

The company disregards local communities’ ownership of the land and their right to consent to the takeover.

SHAMPAY CAMP, Sinoe County – In June, armed police officers ordered Felecia Wesseh and other villagers to leave an abandoned palm plantation. A company called the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) told the residents they were taking over a portion of the 8,000-hectare plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had run it in 2019. Wesseh and other residents exploited the plantation and transformed the region into an artisanal palm oil hub ever since.

“I feel bad because number one, for me, this is my 25 years in this area. “The way the Emergency Response Unit [of the Liberia National Police] is coming here to take people from this place is not good,” said Wesseh, a mother in her late 30s. The DayLight interviewed her at her shop in Sankwehn Estate in Tarsue Chiefdom, Sanquin District locals have called Shampay Camp since the 1960s. A crowd of angry residents quickly gathered, questioning the legality of the takeover.

“By right, if you own the plantation or buy the area, I expect the Superintendent… to come with one of the lawmakers to show the people to us. Nobody brought them to show them to us,” Wesseh added.

Wesseh was right. There is evidence that LNPI bought the plantation from EPO. However, no one in the Sanquin District is aware of the takeover, and it has not been approved by the Liberian government.

In August 2022, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) of Malaysia, EPO’s owner, sold the plantation to Konnex Investments Limited, the parent company of LNPI, for approximately US$445,000, according to KLK’s annual report for that year. Uday Pilani, Konnex’s owner posted the deal on LinkedIn and LNPI mentioned it on its website a month earlier.

EPO owned the plantation through its subsidiary Liberia Forest Product Incorporated (LFPI). LFPI signed the concession with the Liberian government in 2008 for 50 years, covering 8,400 hectares. However, in 2019, EPO ceased operations because there “were insufficient plantable areas,” making it “uneconomic” to run. It devalued the plantation by RM145.3 million (approximately US$32.2 million).

Scores of local palm oil producers, including Felecia Wesseh, depend on the plantation, which covers about 4,000 hectares of palm trees. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

But the deal was not entirely transparent. KLK, required to declare such transactions under Bursa Malaysia or the Malaysian stock exchange rules, announced the takeover in its 2022 annual report. However, there is no record that EPO—under a similar obligation with the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange—publicized the takeover. This likely breaches AIM’s rule, which mandates companies to publish such transactions. EPO did not return questions for comments regarding the takeover and KLK said it would respond.

‘Into a hole’

The Shampay Camp part of the story began on August 23, 2022, when LNPI signed a six-month memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the people of Sanquin District. Per the MoU, LNPI bought a five-gallon tin of palm oil for L$1,300 and L$1,500. LNPI paid the community US$6,000 and paved a major road there.

Local palm oil dealers had welcomed the agreement as LNPI prices more than double the L$600 artisanal palm oil producers had set, while chiefs and elders saw it as an opportunity for development.

“When they came, it was correct because they paid our royalties,” recalled Alfred Pyne, an elder of Sanquin.

But the MoU was too attractive to be true. While the community was entitled to several benefits, the MoU restricted LNPI to “purchasing of oil palm products such as crude palm oil, palm kernels and other palm derivatives,” and to operate “without any embarrassment and undue restrictions.”

LNPI’s true intent surfaced when it unilaterally extended the deal by three months. Following a year of anger, the parties met in January this year when LNPI finally disclosed it had taken over the plantation. The company was not merely a party to an MoU; it was claiming possession of Shampay Camp.

LNPI, aided by armed police officers, asked artisanal palm oil producers out of a plantation abandoned in 2019 by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“When we saw Baccus Wiah with LNPI, I said, ‘A good thing is coming,’ not knowing we [were] getting into a hole,” said Eric Gbayon, the Township Commissioner of Tarsue Chiefdom. He was referencing LNPI’s administrative manager, who hails from that region.

In the end, the MoU was a disguise. By August 2022, LNPI had already signed the takeover, a negotiation it had started six months earlier, according to a document obtained by The DayLight. It had imported 117 consignments of electrical equipment and other instruments as of the 17^th of last month. They were imported from India, Pilani’s home country, according to Volza, a Russian online marketplace, citing international data.

Workers at a palm oil mill recently rehabilitated by the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The DayLight videotaped workers test the mill, which has a capacity of five metric tons of crude palm oil per hour. For the first time since the start of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, smoke billowed from the facility’s chambers into the gloomy Shampay Camp skies.

Before it disclosed the takeover to the people, LNPI had obtained an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year. It has asked for a renewal of the permit to extend the mill.

‘Not heard from them’

Tension has been brewing in Tarsue, particularly after the news of the takeover broke. After LNPI broke the news, locals asked to meet the company in Kommanah Town. LNPI instead requested to host the meeting at its headquarters in Shampay Camp, citing “continued threats of violence” from the community.

“If you are interested in meeting with me, please let me know so a time can be set that will be mutually convenient for both parties,” LNPI’s executive officer John Collie penned Paramount Chief John Koah a reply, seen by The DayLight.

Several receipts were issued by LNPI as part of its scam to operate a plantation it took over from Equatorial Palm Oil in August 2022 but has not been endorsed by the Liberian government. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Months later, locals lodged a complaint with Representative Alex Noah of Sinoe County District Three over LNPI’s illegal activities. In their letter, they listed the company’s takeover of the plantation and renovation of the mill without their consent. “We need our timely intervention concerning this matter before things go out of hand,” the letter read. Noah said he was unaware of LNPI’s operations and would visit the plantation when he returned from his travels out of the country.

LNPI’s disregard for the community’s right to consent violates the Land Rights Act, which recognizes ancestral land rights. Locals’ consent is a crucial principle of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry. Liberia has even domesticated the RSPO’s principles and criteria.

The Liberia Land Authority (LLA), which plays a role in land-related concessions, had recommended that LNPI get the locals’ consent but the company ignored the advice. LNPI had visited the LLA in Monrovia to seek counsel.

LLA’s Chairman Adams Manobah told The DayLight in a WhatsApp interview he had advised the community to first “formalize its land ownership before transacting business with an outsider or any investor.”

Manobah added, “Since that encounter, I have not heard of them.” Wiah did not respond to emailed questions on that conversation.

In an earlier interview at the company’s headquarters, Wiah justified LNPI’s use of force. “Due to the violence that took place here, since we have completed the factory and are ready for operation, we decided to bring [armed police officers] to be here to serve as [a] deterrent,” he said. “Our people are afraid of gunmen.”

Another elevated view of Shampay Camp with the smoke billowing from a palm oil mill at the background. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Wiah admitted the government had not approved the LNPI’s takeover. An ex-EPO employee, however, Wiah claimed the approval was being processed. “The Ministries of Justice, and Agriculture have signed,” he told The DayLight. It is left with the Ministry of Finance, then it will go to the Senate, and finally to the President for signature.”

The Ministry of Agriculture dismisses Wiah’s claim. “It is important that we address this lack of awareness immediately,” Comfort Whitfield of the ministry’s communication division said in an email.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on illegal oil palm operations in the Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The second part will focus on the legality of the existence of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated and its parent company Konnex Investments Ltd.

GVL Fails to Build Hand Pumps, Allegedly Dirties Creeks

August 7, 2024

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Top: Golden Veroleum Liberia has failed to provide hand pumps for communities who own the land the company develops. The DayLight/Esau Farr

By Matenneh Keita

DU-WOLEE, Sinoe County – Nimely Teah, an 80-something-year-old great-grandfather has two problems. At his farm in Teah Village, rainwater allegedly laced with chemicals from a Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) palm plantation runs into a creek he uses for drinking, cooking and washing. In Panama, a large neighborhood where he lives, there is just one hand pump, and the creeks are far away.

“I want to sue GVL so, we can go to the court for the water business,” Teah told The DayLight at his farm. “They say I must die from the germs.”

Teah is one of thousands whose water sources have been polluted by the GVL oil palm plantation. GVL, Liberia’s largest oil Palm company signed a 65-year agreement with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Cess and River Gee in a deal worth US$1.6 billion. GVL also signed individual MoUs with landowning communities, including Du-Wolee Nyennue Township in Kpanyan District, Sinoe County.

The Du-Wolee Nyennue MoU was signed in 2016, two years after GVL’s concession. The MoU guarantees the company more than 2,367 hectares of land. However, it obligates GVL to build hand pumps for populations between 25 and 150 people affected by its operations, among other things.

But a DayLight investigation found that GVL has not constructed mandatory hand pumps in the townships, violating the MoU. All of the old hand pumps the company renovated stopped working years back and have not been repaired.

Panama, the largest of its affected communities in Du-Wolee Nyennue, with some 2,000 people, is the most telling. GVL has not built a hand pump in the community, according to residents. The one the company renovated is insufficient for the population, residents say.

“When GVL came, they told us they did some inventory on the water system. They said even some of our community pumps that were built by some NGOs, they were going to rehabilitate them,” said Anthony Jerboe, a community leader in Panama. “But since that time, they have not come to the community, and we are suffering from water issues.”

Locals have used creeks for generations as the only source of drinking water in the communities, The DayLight gathered.

Old Man Nimely Teah of Panama, who owns the Teah Village. The DayLight/James Giahyue

But there is a problem with the creeks, too. Fertilizer from palm trees is washed into the creeks, residents say. This is even worse during the dry season when the water table drops, leaving townspeople with no other alternatives.

“We will just continue to drink it because there is no safe drinking water,” said George Sebeh, a resident of Panama and Old Man Teah’s son-in-law.

Sebeh was speaking to reporters in Teah Village, where reporters accompanied a villager to fetch water from the creek Old Man Teah had mentioned in his interview.

Empty palm husks

These accusations of water pollution are credible. A 2016 study by the Ghanaian Sync Consultant Limited found GVL polluted drinking water sources. Two years later, another study by Liberia’s Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) uncovered the same thing. In the eight years of its operations in Du-Wolee Nyennue, GVL has ignored these reports.

The situation in Zinc Camp is nearly the same, though GVL erected a hand pump there. Residents of the uphill community, which hosts a small-scale palm farm, cannot drink the water the hand pump produces.

“We boil the handpump water and bath with it,” said Kojay Glay, the chairlady of the community. “I’ve been here for three years. In those three years, I have not seen GVL come here to work on the hand pump.” Glay’s comments were corroborated by other Zinc Camp residents.

Due to the condition of the facility, the people of Zinc Camp fetch water from creeks. Initially, they were near the creek but now they walk a distance of between 15 and 20 minutes. Water from GVL’s empty palm husks—used as fertilizer—allegedly flows into creeks nearby, polluting them.

Residents allege rainwater from GVL’s empty husks or empty fruit bunches (EFB) flows into creeks they depend on for drinking water. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“We used to drink all of the creeks before the coming of GVL. Because of the palm, we can’t drink from everywhere in the creek. There are certain areas that you go to before you can drink the water,” said Wilfred Toboe, Zinc Camp’s General Town Chief.

Empty husks or empty fruit bunches (EFB) contain nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur. While the other gases are harmless, sulfur can be harmful, based on its concentration, scientists say.

‘Bad’ water situation

While the rainy season is good news for Panama and Zinc Camp, it is a nightmare for Blue Barrack and Mamakre.

Like Panama, GVL has not constructed any hand pump in Blue Barrack, according to residents. All five of the ones there were constructed by NGOs but are not in use, as verified by The DayLight.

Its 7,065 people depend on a creek, mainly during the dry season. During the rainy season, groundwater from the town’s main route—GVL often reconditions—seeps into the creek, residents say.

“Sometimes during meetings, we inform GVL. They can say, ‘Yes we will do it,’ but GVL doesn’t have time for Du-Wolee,” said Augustine Myers, Blue Barrack’s tribal chairman. Other residents The DayLight interviewed supported Myers’ story.

This hand pump in Blue Barrack was renovated by GVL but broke down some years ago, according to residents. Picture credit: Anonymous.

The DayLight could not independently verify Myers’ erosion-pollution claim. However, reporters photographed some of the spoiled hand pumps.

For Mamakre, GVL built a hand pump there but has needed repairing for about three years now, according to residents. The DayLight photographed the broken-down hand pump, its borehole sealed with sticks likely to protect children.

Mamakre’s creeks are also polluted due to erosion on the town’s main road paved and maintained by GVL.

“This water situation was alright when GVL never came,” said Anthony Tarpeh, the General Town Chief. “Since the GVL, the water situation is bad.”

Tarpeh said people, particularly children, were getting sick from drinking water from the creek this rainy season. Naomi Doe, Blue Barrack’s co-chairlady, had made the same accusation.

James Otto, a lead campaigner with the Margibi-based Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), blames GVL for the water situation. Otto believes the company was unaware of the scale of the problem because it did not hold MoU-required quarterly meetings.

“I think there is a total breakdown in the way the company engages with the communities,” Otto said in a Montserrado interview.

“I think the hand pump is just one example but there are many other things.”The water problem in the landowning, affected communities does not only violate the company’s MoUs and concession. It breaches a principle of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry.

Remnant of a hand pump constructed by GVL in Mamakre. The DayLight/Konwroh Wesseh

The principle calls on member firms to “respect community and human rights and deliver benefits.” GVL is a member of the RSPO through its parent company Golden Agri-Resources Ltd of Singapore.

GVL dodged questions for comments on the water situation in its project-affected communities. However, said in an email it was committed to its obligations. The company said it had worked with communities to provide clarity and timelines for resolution in cases where commitments are disputed or have not yet been fulfilled,” GVL said in an email.

Back in Du-Wolee Nyennue, people want GVL to build or repair hand pumps. Glay of Zinc Camp, Sebeh of Panama, Kumeh of Mamakre and Myers of Blue Barrack hope it happens soon.

“I will appreciate when GVL [builds] the hand pump,” said Old Man Teah of Teah Village. “I’m tired of drinking fertilizer water.”

[Konwroh Wesseh and an anonymous resident of Sinoe contributed to this report]

The Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Sinoe Clan on the Path to Customary Land Deed

August 6, 2024

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Top: Gboyonnoh Karmbo awaits the Liberia Land Authority to conduct a survey and confirm its land area. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Harry Browne

TITIYEN, Sinoe County – Gboyonnoh Karmbo could not progress in its quest to get a customary land deed without resolving a boundary dispute with the Kwiatuoh Clan. Gboyonnoh Karmbo argued the Klinlin Creek was the boundary but Kwiatuoh was firm on Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s side of the water, some 30-minute walk.

“Via oral testimonies, we were able to come together and identify one place,” recalls Harris Togba, the chairman of Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s land leadership. Togba speaks to The DayLight in Titiyen, one of four towns that own the land. The other three are Jogbawon, Chernyenkpo and Gbankpo. Predominantly Kru, it has a unique culture, with a traditional school for boys and girls to preserve their way of life and culture.

“We believe in the history of our people,” Togba adds.

Following the mediation of the NGO Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI) and the Liberia Land Authority, both clans resolved the dispute, agreeing that the creek is the boundary. FCI has worked with the community since 2019. Its current work in the region is part of a US$4.45 million project funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, styled “Keeping the Promise.”

It has been five years since Gboyonnoh Karmbo, a clan with 1,300 plus people in the Jaedae District, declared its intention to acquire an ancestral land deed. It has established a land governance body—known as the Community Land Development and Management Committee (CLDMC). It had set up bylaws and a constitution and mapped its presumed land area.

Togba and Jah Nagbe Chea in Titiyen Town, Gboyonnoh Karmbo Clan. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

With the Kwiatuoh Clan dispute settled, Gboyonnoh Karmbo had now established all the boundaries with its neighbors and completed that stage of the deed process.

“We together agree to clearly and finally establish the boundaries between our communities, and to desist from any further boundary conflicts concerning this area,” the MoU reads. It adds to the MoUs with Brutroh, Berh and Sayoh, another major dispute Gboyonnoh Karmbo resolved in 2020.

Next for Gboyonnoh Karmbo is the official survey after which the clan will be granted a customary land deed, marking the final requirement under the Land Rights Act. Liberia passed the law in 2018, recognizing customary tenure, a monumental right for the empowerment of rural communities.

Alexander Cole, FCI’s project coordinator, says the official survey would start this month, using special technology to cement boundary markers.

“FCI is happy that these communities will forever resolve land conflicts that existed because of conflict on traditional boundary markers,” Cole says.

The Land Authority says it has received resources from the Tenure Facility to “adequately” survey Gboyonnoh Karmbo, covering 13,462 hectares of land. Parley Liberia, a Bong-based NGO that works with FCI and the Margibi-based Sustainable Development Institute, confirmed that disclosure. The survey is scheduled for later this month.

“When it comes to this survey in Sinoe County, we are fully prepared to carry on this survey.” Dr. Mahmoud Solomon, assistant director for survey and mapping at the Land Authority tells The DayLight. “We do not want to survey with the old technology.”

Gboyonnoh Karmbo and Lower Bokon will add to the Sansen Clan as the communities that will have completed the legal steps to acquire a customary land deed. Sansen Clan completed its process earlier this year, while Lower Bokon will complete it alongside Gboyonnoh Karmbo.

‘We are the land’

By law, when Gboyonnoh Karmboe finally formalizes its land ownership, it will become easier for the clan to benefit from the land directly. It will have the power to sit and discuss with would-be investors, a sharp contrast from the past, where rural dwellers were denied such benefits.

A drone picture shows illicit miners on the Dugbe River in Gboyonnoh Karmbo Clan in Sinoe County’s Jaedae District. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Gboyonnoh Karmbo has a forest and the potential for minerals. Next to the clan is an oil palm plantation run by Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). While there is no large-scale concession here, it currently hosts small and medium-scale miners, including illegal miners.

Reporters spot dredge miners on the River Dugbe, a form of mining prohibited by the Ministry of Mines in 2019, about the same time Gboyonnoh Karmbo started its process. There are two dredges on the right side of the Dugbe River Bridge. The miners had left their trail on the other side of the bridge along the riverbank, on farmland belonging to Francis Toe.

Toe admits to facilitating illegal mining. “When [miners] get the money, they give it to us and I take it to the committee board,” Toe says in an interview at his riverside home.

Togba, Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s chairman, promises that his leadership will combat illicit activities, using the community’s bylaws and constitution. “If we have the deed, we have to manage the land and go by regulations governing it,” he tells The DayLight.

“We are the land and we must have the land so that our generation now and the ones unborn can benefit,” Jah Nagbe Chea, Togba’s deputy buttresses. “This is our quest.”

An Unfinished Mud Brick Guesthouse for ‘26’

July 26, 2024

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Top: The unfinished guesthouse in Karquekpo, Sinoe County. Picture credit: Anonymous

By Esau J. Farr

KARQUEKPO, Sinoe County – The People who own the Central River Dugbe Community Forest had hoped that they would get a guesthouse for their Independence Day celebration—or their “26.”

A Nigerian-owned Iroko Timber and Logging Company leased 13,193 hectares of land from the leadership of the forest in exchange for the guesthouse and other benefits.

But photographs and a video The DayLight obtained captured on Thursday show the project barely at window level.

“Nobody is expecting the keys to that building tomorrow,” said Cyrus Kartor, a youth leader in Karquekpo, where the guesthouse is being constructed.

Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the forest in Sinoe’s Jaedae District, had said the guesthouse was being completed in less than a day. “They are working there presently as I speak to you. Tomorrow (July 26) they may also go to work. I am sure,” Togba said.

The pictures and video show there has been no work at the construction site for some time.

The guesthouse is one of several projects Iroko is required to conduct, according to the contract. It was initially expected to be turned over to locals in October last year but was extended by nine months.

The unfinished dirt block guesthouse indicates Iroko’s lack of capacity to run a community forest. Recent DayLight investigations found Iroko owes locals land rental, harvesting and others to the community, while it has abandoned an unspecified number of logs.

Another view of the unfinished guesthouse. Picture credit: Anonymous

An earlier DayLight investigation uncovered Iroko was unqualified for logging when the FDA approved its contract in 2021. Its majority shareholder, Timothy Odebunmi, is linked to another company, Akewa, which was fined for fraud in 2019.

A forestry regulation disqualifies companies whose shareholders have been involved in an act of public dishonesty for five years.

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

Illegal Company Dashes Sinoe Towns’ Hopes

July 18, 2024

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Top: An Iroko Timber and Logging Company log yard outside Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

KARQUEKPO, Sinoe County – In early 2022, there were widespread jubilations across the eight towns that own Central River-Dugbe Community Forest. They had leased the 13,193-hectare woodland to Iroko Timber and Logging Corporation for 15 years in exchange for development benefits.

But more than two years later, Iroko failed to live up to the agreement. It owes the villagers a huge debt and required projects.

“Our expectation was to bring development to our district and various towns…, including schools, clinics and safe drinking water for our people,” Alexander Slah, a member of the community leadership, said. “I am actually disappointed.”

As it stands, Iroko owes the Central River Dugbe Community US$20,368, based on interviews and official records. These fees include land rental, educational support, volunteer teachers and forest protection. Unpaid harvesting fees stand at US$8,927, according to official records.

The harvesting fees could be higher. Iroko declared 523 logs constituting 3,570.848 cubic meters, official records show. However, it abandoned some of the logs in the forest, locals say. Bartee Togba, the head of the community’s leadership, said he and other townspeople would scale the wood to determine Iroko’s full debt.

Besides unpaid fees, Iroko has failed to undertake contractual projects. It has not constructed five hand pumps it should have completed by last year, according to the contract.

Two Iroko machines in Polay Town, one of the communities that own the Central River Dugbe Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“Instead of installing the hand pumps between November and March, the company started in June to August. So, the water table goes low during the dry season…,” Slah said. Arthur Nagbe, a religious leader in Karquekpo, corroborated his account.

Iroko is yet to construct three boundary roads connected to Karquekpo and a guesthouse, which should have all been completed last October. The renovation of an elementary school and the construction of a library that should have been completed this December, according to the agreement, have not also started.

‘Handpicked’

Like Iroko’s external failures, there are indications of internal disappointments since its establishment in July 2021.

Iroko targets 100,000 hectares in 15 years but cannot even manage 13,193 hectares so far. The firm projected production of 50,000 cubic meters of logs as of this year but has produced only 3,570 cubic meters of logs since 2022, official records show.

It declared that it owned eight earthmovers and leased nine others. However, it has been seen with way fewer. One old machine is at the log yard near Greenville and two others were parked in Polay Town after Karquekpo.

Togba criticized the FDA for the Iroko situation. “They (FDA) must know that they have equipment that is up to standard but these things were not done,” he said.

But townspeople The DayLight interviewed blamed the community leadership for choosing Iroko. They said community leaders who vetted Iroko did not have the experience to do so. “They were handpicked,” said Ernest Slah, a resident, in an interview on Somalia Drive, outside Monrovia.

Togba dismisses that claim. He claims only the government has the responsibility to vet companies, though locals have that right in community forest.

Iroko is a new company and did not have a track record at the time it signed the Central River Dugbe contract but its majority shareholder, Timothy Odebunmi, was a red flag. The Nigerian has a record of persistent, perennial indebtedness to communities through his other company, Akewa.

Akewa had owed communities hundreds of thousands of United States dollars for over a decade. One of its contracts was cancelled with unpaid fees and another has been embroiled in a lengthy debt-related out-of-court settlement.

Timothy Odebunmi, the majority shareholder in Iroko Timber and Logging Company, also owns a fifth of Akewa Group of Companies’ shares. His ownership in the latter company disqualified the former from logging activities in Liberia. Facebook/Timothy Odebunmi

That aside, Odebunmi’s shares in Iroko disqualified the company from conducting logging activities in Liberia at the time of the Central River Dugbe contract. Odebunmi has a 20-percent stake in Akewa Group of Companies, which was fined for forgery in 2019. The FDA’s Regulation on Bidder Qualifications rules out companies whose owners are linked to public dishonesty for five years. The FDA ignored that rule and prequalified Iroko.

Lied under oath

Iroko shrugs off claims and indications of struggling to live up to its contract and denies any wrongdoing.

“We don’t know what constitutes a ‘capacity issue’ from your point of view, and can, therefore, not address your question,” Iroko said in an email.

“We would like to state that Mr. Timothy Odebunmi is not aware of having own a share in Akewa, and also Mr. Timothy [Odebunmi] has no knowledge of any tax clearance forgery issue as alleged,” it added.

Iroko’s claims are not factual. More than one year ago, The DayLight exposed Odebunmi’s connection to Akewa in which the newspaper emailed the company about its findings. Moreover, a recent review of the forestry sector lists Odebunmi as an Akewa shareholder.

Iroko’s machine photographed in its log yard near Greenville. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

Iroko might have avoided the capacity issue. However, everything about the company’s operations is suggestive of a struggle for survival.

Two months ago, the FDA approved the export permit of Iroko to sell over 2,600 cubic meters but it has not exported the consignment. It has not exported any of the logs it harvested nearly two years ago. A recent DayLight investigation found the logs are abandoned, as some six months have passed since they were harvested, the longest period a log should stay anywhere before export. The FDA said it would investigate the abandoned logs accusation.

The FDA argued it approved Iroko’s contract because it had no list of debarred companies or individuals. The regulator further said it could not enforce the qualification regulation because Iroko did not bid for Central River Dugbe.

Those assertions are not backed by law. While the regulation requires the FDA to form a debarment and suspension list, it does not restrict a company or individual’s eligibility to the list. An individual’s eligibility is covered under the prequalification criteria, the standard for that person’s participation in logging activities.

The fact Iroko was prequalified with Odebunmi’s stakes shows that the company lied under oath. Per the regulation, the Nigerian firm should be prosecuted for perjury. The FDA referenced that provision when it certificated Iroko: “Any statement made under oath to the panel that is found to be false renders this certificate null and void.”

Locals are running out of patience over Iroko’s delay in meeting its contract obligations. They have planned a meeting to discuss their future with the company after the Independence Day celebrations. Some have already made up their minds.

“We are disappointed because the company failed us,” said Arthur Nagbe, a community leader. “I don’t even want to work with them again.”

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

FDA Aborts Process to Seize CARI Stolen Timber

July 15, 2024

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Top: The Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County. The DayLight/Wilmot Konah

By Rebazar D. Forte

GBARNGA, Bong County – The Forestry Development Authority aborted its process to obtain a court order to seize thousands of timber abandoned by smugglers at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).

Multiple sources told The DayLight that the FDA would petition the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga last Monday for the warrant, the first step in confiscating the wood.

Before then, Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley had appeared to have corroborated that information when she gave a hint on the Forest Hour radio show on Okay FM.

When Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the FDA’s lawyer, arrived at the court on Monday, July 8, at 10:20 am, it looked like the process had begun. The FDA’s Lawyer entered the courthouse and exited it about 15 minutes later, according to our reporter.

Dolo declined an interview with The DayLight, hopped into a white vehicle, and left the courtyard.

Daniel Porlenkollie, the court’s clerk, confirmed that the FDA had not sought a warrant from the court.

The atmosphere at CARI was similar to that of the court. A police vehicle tried to enter the area where the illegally harvested planks were but did not. The vehicle left the area after honking for minutes, an indication of an abruptly aborted plan.

Dr. James Dolo, CARI’s officer in charge, said he was unaware of any plan by the FDA to seize the wood.

“The only team that came here was the Crime [Service] Division, based in Gbarnga,” he told The DayLight. They came to make a follow up on the Chinese guys who operated here in the fence, a group from the Economic Crimes Division,” Dr. James Dolo added. The division did not immediately respond to queries.

Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the FDA’s lawyer, entered the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court on Monday, July 8, 2024, reportedly to seek a warrant to seize thousands of timber at the Central Agriculture Research Institute but abandoned the plan shortly after. The DayLight/Rebazar Forte

It would have been the first time the FDA had enforced the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products since it was formulated in 2017.

Under the regulation, the regulator must seek a court warrant to auction the planks. However, to do so, it must obtain court warrants to seize and confiscate the timber. If the planks are unsold at the auction, they must be given to the community or civil society.

The smugglers face a fine of thrice the value of the planks, a six-month prison term, or both fine and imprisonment upon a conviction.

The DayLight investigation discovered the network’s ringleaders were two Chinese Chaolong Zhong and Guoping Zhang, a Turkish Mehmet Onder Erem, and a Liberian named Terrence Collins.

The traffickers ran a company called CTL Industries in the China Aid compound of CARI for over two years. They purchased timber from Lofa, Nimba and vendors in Suakoko, Bong County, and processed and smuggled the wood via containers, the investigation found.

A screengrab of LiberTrace shows CTL Industries has never paid a dime for timber export, further proof of its trafficking activities.

Pictures and documents obtained by The DayLight show CTL trafficked timber in containers with the help of about 33 workers.

However, they halted their operations just before last year’s elections, abandoning an unspecified number of planks and equipment.

Records of LiberTrace, Liberia’s timber-tracking computer system, show no activities for CTL Industries, further proof of the illegality of its activities.

A collage featuring timber CTL Industries trafficked the abandoned at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko, Bong County. The DayLight/Rebazar D. Forte

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

House Hooks Harrisburg Rock Quarry Over Pollution

July 12, 2024

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Top: The Capitol Building on Capitol Hill in Monrovia. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Gabriel M. Dixon

HARRISBURG, Montserrado – An inquiry by the Committee on Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Environment of the House of Representatives found a quarry company polluted Harrisburg, validating a DayLight investigation.

The unpublished report, seen by The DayLight, found that the Z&C Investment Company rock quarry caused air, water and noise pollution in the Rural Montserrado township, established in the early 1800s by freed slaves from the United States of America.

The committee’s report acknowledged the distress of families, damages to homes and destruction of crops caused by Z&C’s operations.

The committee also found that the company did not have directional signs to warn residents and passersby of possible danger. It did not hire a safety or liaison officer between the company and the affected communities. There was a fuel spillage in the environment, and the committee found the company lacked functional toilets for workers.

Z&C’s quarry has been in Harrisburg for more than a decade, polluting the community’s land, water and air. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Z&C Investment Company, a Chinese-owned rock quarry got its license in 2012 from the Ministry of Mines and Energy to operate in Harrisburg. The company’s mining license covers 50 hectares in the rural Montserrado township. It is required to operate in line with Liberian laws, including mining and environmental regulations.

“I do understand everything they have said”, Stanley Gaye, Z&C’s human resource manager said in response to complaints against his company. “We say sorry and pray that we will take action.”

The committee recommended that Z&C pay US$15,000 a year to affected communities and put in place measures to curtail dust pollution. It ordered a review of the agreement between Z&C and residents. “Community members need to get a clear understanding of the agreement,” said Representative Anthony Williams of Maryland County, the committee’s head.

The lawmakers urged Z&C to provide the blasting report and profile of its engineers, ensure safety officers are always stationed on-site, and that the company informs the community two days before a blasting operation. It also included a call to introduce good housekeeping in and around the facility, provide a well-functioning latrine for workers and visitors and renegotiate the resettlement of a family that is closest to the facility.

The Sirleaf family is the most affected among the victims of the Z&C operations. Their house is located less than seven meters away from the rock-crushing plant. Frank Sirleaf, head of the family, said the company coerced his aunt, who is not literate, into signing an agreement.

Gaye said Z&C would address the concerns of residents and the Legislature.

“We have to do what is needed for which I cannot back the company,” Gaye said. “Z&C will work in compliance with the recommendations from the lawmakers.”

The committee report, however, failed to recommend punishment for Z&C Investment Company, a global best practice. The Environmental Protection and Management Law imposes a fine of up to US$25,000 or a 10-year prison term, or both fine and imprisonment, reinforcing the polluter-pays principle.

An open pit in Harrisburg due to Z&C Investment Corporation. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The DayLight publication had drawn the attention of lawmakers last month and led to a visit of a four-man committee.

During their visit, members of the committee along with residents and local chiefs had toured Z&C’s facility including its quarry plant. Members of the committee include Representatives Luther Collins of Gbarpolu, Jeremiah Sokan of Grand Gedeh, and Rugie Barry of Montserrado. Nelson Jallah, an environmental expert with the committee, also formed part of the delegation.

“We quizzed the people, [and] we quizzed the company and realized that the company falls short of those basic… responsibilities that it said it was going to complete,” Williams told The DayLight on the margins of the meeting.

At a meeting, the committee heard pollution from the rocks-crushing plant was taking a toll on residents’ crops and mine explosions cracked their houses. The blasting had damaged the Harrisburg Public School and the Lutheran School, endangering the lives of students and teachers. Years of quarry left big open holes in the area, corroborating The DayLight’s investigation.

The United States Embassy in Monrovia provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Loggers Illegally Cut Logs for Unlawful Bridge

July 11, 2024

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Top: Masayaha’s bridge in Gbargbo, River Cess County breaks the FDA’s standards for a log bridge. The Ministry of Public Works disapproved of the construction. Picture credit: An anonymous villager

By Aaron Wesley Geezay

GARGBO VILLAGE, River Cess – Masayaha, a Lebanese-owned company, known for its repeated logging offenses, has harvested about 500 logs in River Cess County, outside of its area of operations.

In November 2021, Masayaha had a 15-year logging contract with the 43,792-hectare Bloquiah Community Forest in Gboe/Ploe Administrative District, Grand Gedeh County.

One year later, Masayaha entered a verbal logging deal with Gbargbo, a River Cess’ Norbor Clan village about 80 kilometers away from its contract area. Under the deal, villagers would allow the company to harvest the logs and build a temporary bridge over the Cestos River, which would later be transformed into a partial concrete structure.

The log bridge was good news for both parties.

Masayaha needed it to transport logs from Grand Gedeh to Grand Bassa since heavy vehicles were disallowed to use the Timbo River Bridge between Sinoe and River Cess.

The villagers saw the bridge as an opportunity to connect the Norbor Clan in the Yarnee District to the Kploh Chiefdom in the Central River Cess Administrative District.

“They asked us to allow them to cut 250 pieces of logs to fix the bridge,” Samuel Gbargbo, a resident of Gbargbo Village, told The DayLight. “And because we have been suffering for the road we agreed.”

Masayaha abandoned several logs on this field and other areas in Gbargbo Village it illegally harvested last year. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

‘The people… fooled us’

Per the agreement, Masayaha paid the community US$1,500 and began harvesting. However, the logs were insufficient to complete the bridge so the parties signed another verbal agreement. This time, Masayaha only paid US$700, with the remaining US$800 yet to be paid, our investigation found.

And there were other problems. There was no concrete component of the bridge as Masayaha had promised. The bridge had been completed over a year ago, yet the company had failed to construct any concrete pillars. Besides, it abandoned several logs that they felled in Gbargbo’s forest.

This and the debt issue angered the villagers, who threatened to protest.

“The people came and fooled us and made us work for nothing,” said Melvin Wolloh, town chief of Norbor Clan.

Ali Harkous, Masayaha’s CEO and owner, said the Forestry Development Authority permitted it. “We applied to FDA to permit us to get the logs from around the area and they approved and we also approached community and they agreed,” Harkous said. He refused to share a copy with The DayLight or allow this reporter to see it.

A stump of a tree in Gbargbo Village, River Cess County Masayaha illegally harvested last year. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

Harkous would not speak to the villagers’ claim but budged after persistent inquiry. “Frankly, tell them they should not worry, we are going to give [them] their money.

“We invested all we have and credited from some financial institutions. We are really into [a] financial problem,” Harkous said.

Harkous was right. The FDA permitted Masayaha to harvest logs for the bridge. However, his company grossly violated the permit’s terms.

The document and other papers, the FDA provided, did not permit Masayaha to harvest logs in River Cess, but rather Sinoe County. Two letters written by then-Senator Milton Teahjay of Sinoe County and Bloquiah Community Forest, seen by The DayLight, mentioned the Tarjuwon District.

Also, the permit ordered Masayaha to work with the FDA staff in that area to identify targeted trees and calculate the volume logs for the project. That, too, did not happen.

FDA’s record of the Masayaha felling in Gbargbo Village shows that the company felled 200 trees, not 500 the villagers said.

Then of the 200 logs, 62 were untagged, according to the FDA record. Similarly, the logs on the bridge, on an open field on the riverbank and in the bushes were untagged. Even the tree stumps this reporter photographed were missing obligatory tags.

The DayLight photographed several untagged logs abandoned by Masayaha in Gbargbo Village, River Cess. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

This is a violation of the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System. In forestry, every log must be marked, tagged and entered into the system to ensure its legality. It is crucial to Liberia’s timber-trade agreement with the European Union.

The dates on the harvesting record and the communications are inconsistent, further proof of a dishonest operation. It shows rangers identified targeted trees on November 29, 2022—William V.S. Tubman’s birthday—for the harvesting. However, Masayaha’s request and the FDA’s response were written in December and January, respectively. This reveals that rangers had already counted, and tagged some of the trees before the FDA approved the harvesting.

Roadside logging

It is not the first time Masayaha has harvested logs outside its contract area. In 2022, a DayLight investigation exposed Masayaha’s illegal logging activities outside the Worr Community Forest in Grand Bassa County, where it exploited villagers’ need for roads. The report cited an August 2021 FDA publication in which investigators found evidence Masayaha connived with locals to steal timber. No actions were taken against the company for those activities, despite a protest.

William Pewu, FDA’s technical manager for commercial forestry, said Masayaha would go scot-free for its Gbargbo Village activities. Pewu claims the FDA does not record the logs in LiberTrace, a computer system that verifies the legality of timber.

“No, those logs are not for sale,” Pewu told The DayLight in an interview last week. “You only enroll logs in LiberTrace when they are for export. Those logs are for [a] bridge construction.”

Pewu’s comments are not backed by facts. The phrase “chain of custody” covers everything from “transport, interim storage, processing, distribution, and export.” In short, it extends from a log’s “source of origin in the forest to [its] end use.”

Furthermore, roadside logging does not derive from any law or regulation. In fact, in 2009, the FDA even fined a company for harvesting a hundred logs along a path outside a concession in Grand Bassa, according to a United Nations report. A 2017 regulation imposes a fine of twice the value of logs harvested outside a contract, a six-month prison term, or both fine and imprisonment upon a conviction. Other penalties include forfeiture of harvesting rights or a logging contract.

Masayaha illegally harvested over 500 logs from the Gbargbo Village in River Cess, 80 kilometers outside a Grand Gedeh forest, where it has a contract. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

Masayaha’s illegal operation in Gbargbo bears a remarkable resemblance to the one conducted by a company nearly a decade ago. In 2016, an investigation by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) found that Liberia Hardwood Company (LHC) harvested many logs outside the Bloquiah Community Forest. Strangely, some of the logs were felled in the very Gbargbo Village.

The FDA admitted at the time that roadside logging was illegal but said the logging would continue while it addressed “gaps” in the regulation. It took no action against LHC, which denied any wrongdoing, and there is still no regulation for roadside logging.

‘Not possible’

The bridge built from the illegal logs is equally tainted. It violates the standards for bridge construction, per the Code of Harvesting Practices. The code requires a log bridge to be built on a high portion of a riverbank so as not to stop or interfere with the water’s flow.

Masayaha engineers placed the logs directly in the water, stalling its natural course, photographs of the construction show.

Ministry of Public Works did not authorize the construction, a contravention of the precondition the FDA set for the construction. The Ministry said it had disapproved of the construction.

“Approval/consent was not provided on the basis that the [width] of the Cestos River was [wider],” Minister Roland Layfette Giddings told The DayLight. By the ministry’s standard, it was not possible to construct a log bridge at the location under consideration.”

That violation has led to consequences. At the start of the rainy season, the Cestos River overflowed its banks, washing many logs away. Masayaha later repaired it. Masayaha has started to use the bridge to transport logs to Buchanan.

But Fishermen, who have fished on the river for generations, now have to lift their canoes over the controversial bridge to access the other side of the river.

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

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