Inside FDA’s Shady World of Chewing Sticks

March 6, 2025

Top: Men offload chewing sticks at a beachfront in Greenville, Sinoe County in January 2024. File Picture: Anonymous

By Emmanuel Sherman

BARLOME TOWN – A truck with chewing sticks parked near an open field. Some of the sticks lay on the ground. It had been parked for three weeks in Barlome Town on the Grand Bassa-River Cess highway. The sticks had been transported from Nimba County and uploaded there.

“I am waiting for my boss,” said Obed Amoah, an attendant to the 37-ton truck with Ghanaian license plate GR-5774.

Reporters had happened upon a major player in the shadowy world of chewing stick trafficking. In 2021, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) imposed a moratorium on chewing sticks to curtail the clearcutting of the species. However, The DayLight found evidence, that the FDA has been issuing chewing stick permits amid the moratorium.

The evidence shows that chewing stick pushers pay the FDA at different levels, with poor, rural communities receiving a small portion. The sticks are transported in smaller trucks and are loaded into large trucks similar to the one The DayLight saw in Barlome Town.

Amoah’s boss, Isaac Pyne, pays several fees: an annual registration, a permit license, an export permit, and a waybill—fees for transporting forest products.

Pyne had to travel to Drodonewein, a town in Nimba County to get the sticks. He would mobilize 30 to 40 men to harvest the sticks.

Emmanuel Gibson, youth chairman of Drodonewein, sits on a pile of chewing sticks. The Daylight/Harry Browne

Pyne’s company, Winner Peace and Love Chewing Sticks reached an agreement with Dordonewien for LD40 per stick. The townspeople signed the deal, hoping it would develop the community, as it lacks a hand pump, toilet and clinic.

In all, Pyne harvested 1,000 chewing sticks and made one shipment. However, he has yet to meet all his obligations, having paid the community L$11,360.

“We were thinking we would have gotten the L$40,000 so that we could renovate our peace hall,” said Emmanuel Gibson, the youth chairman of Dordonewein. Pyne acknowledged his debt to the villagers and insisted he would pay the balance.

On commission

Once uploaded into the large truck, Pyne transports the sticks to the border via Pleebo or Laguatuo, and then to Ghana, Togo, or Senegal through the Ivory Coast.

Zebedi Bonwin, another chewing stick businessman in Buchanan, corroborated the route. Reporters had caught up with Bonwin’s truck in a town on the outskirts of Buchanan.

Bonwin revealed he also transported chewing sticks via the sea. “I used the boat one or two times,” he said. Other people The DayLight interviewed in Bassa, River Cess and Sinoe confirmed Bonwin’s sea route account. The newspaper obtained photographs of men offloading chewing sticks on a beachfront in Greenville, Sinoe County.

The DayLight also gathered evidence that chewing sticks and bitter kola are sourced from Bassa, River Cess, Bong, and Lofa, and transported to Guinea. Our reporter visited several locations in the counties, conducting interviews, and photographing warehouses and border crossings.

In Ghana, Pyne sells his sticks to mostly market women in the Ashanti Region of Kumasi, who pay him a commission. The women retail the sticks in shreds, charging US$2.50 or US$3.00 for a pile.

Prominent in African and Asian communities, chewing sticks (Salvadora persica) are used for tooth cleaning and as a herb. With their use dating back to prehistoric times, chewing sticks can be as effective as toothbrushes in removing dental plaque and caries.

A waybill issued by the FDA for 630 pieces of chewing sticks at L$12,600 (US$64) to Winer Peace and Love. File picture: Isaac Pyne

Moratorium

Pyne, Bonwin, and other businesspeople are violating the 2021 moratorium on chewing sticks—with the aid of the FDA.

Pyne provided three receipts that show different kinds of payments to the regulator. One for US$250 dated February 20, 2024, for annual registration. Another one recorded two payments for 630 pieces of chewing sticks with an accumulated volume of 15.908 cubic meters and an export permit fee of US$1,073.70. Two receipts document US$50 for an export license and a waybill of L$12,600. The waybill had been issued at the FDA’s Big Joe Town checkpoint in Grand Bassa on January 17, 2025.

Similarly, two official receipts The DayLight obtained reveal transactions in January last year. The two receipts show L$6,000 and L$9,000 payments to the FDA from one Emma Emmanuel in Greenville Sinoe County.

The evidence establishes Pyne paid some of the fees to an FDA account at the United Bank of Africa (UBA). This payment procedure violates the National Forestry Reform Law and the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System.

The regulations require that all forest fees be paid to the government’s account at the Central Bank of Liberia. The measure was installed to safeguard public funds, following decades of mismanagement, which, interestingly, continues today.

Women shred chewing sticks from Liberia in Kumasi, Ghana. File picture: Isaac Pyne

That mode of payment is similar to the one that fueled block wood or kpokolo, heavy and compact timber blocks illegally harvested, containerized and exported via land or sea. Following a decade of facilitating the trade, the FDA finally banned kpokolo in 2022. Last year, the regulator also banned the issuance of a certificate that facilitated the trade, according to minutes of an FDA board of directors meeting in July last year.

Pyne and Bonwin claim the government has lifted the moratorium.

“The FDA said the moratorium is lifted and we are starting again,” said Bonwin, who runs the Garraway Enterprise Inc. in the Buchanan suburb of Lower Harlandsville.

But that claim contradicts the facts. The FDA board meeting’s minutes prove the moratorium remains in place. In the meeting, the board agreed to lift the moratorium only upon a review of the Regulation on Non-Timber Forest Products (NFTPs) for the public to participate, an underlining principle of forestry reform.

“All other certificates signed by the [Managing Director] become null and void,” according to the document. “FDA needs to invite all those involved for a way forward.”

Though the board discussed local and national benefits of lifting the moratorium, there is no evidence the regulation has been reviewed, or a consultation has taken place. The FDA’s website does not have such information. Key civil society actors, including the Botanical Products Association of Liberia, which makes awareness of the protection and trade of NTFPs, said they did not participate in any such event.

Formulated in 2008, the NTFPs regulation covers chewing sticks, charcoal, rattans, bitter kola and other forest products other than timber. It was meant to provide income opportunities for local communities and the government, create awareness of NTFPs, and classify them for research purposes.

But it was not sufficiently community-centric, necessitating a review for a possible amendment or replacement.

“Once the [law] gives the community the right to own, manage, and protect the forest, and non-timber forest products are in the forests,” said Bonathan Walaka of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body.

“So, there should be a kind of benefit-sharing scheme for a community to receive benefits from that.”

Philip Parker, the chairman of the FDA’s Board of Directors, did not reply to questions, and neither did the FDA management. This is the second time Parker, whose duty is to hold the FDA to account, has ignored The DayLight’s inquiries. Similarly, the FDA’s refusal to respond adds to its silence on such matters, and an unwillingness to provide public information.

[Harry Browne contributed to this Investigation]

Nimba Locals Embark on Ecotourism, Commit to Conservation

March 5, 2025

0

Top: The Zor Community Forest covers 1,140 hectares. The DayLight/Franklin K. Nehyalor

By Franklin K. Nehyalor

ZOR, Nimba County – Local leaders in a northeastern community seek more support to conserve their forest.

The Zor Community Forest in Zor Chiefdom in the Gbehlay-Geh District of Nimba County has support from ArcelorMittal Liberia and NGOs. With the support, Zor, a conservation forest, has established cocoa and oil palm farms, recruited forest guards, and conducted training for community members. The community has also provided loans locals have invested to purchase a rice mill and cassava-processing machines.

However, Zor needs more to develop its ecotourism to continue to protect its forest resources.

“We need technical and financial incentives to better preserve our forest and make our community a place of attraction for investors and businesses,” says Robert Mahn, Zor’s executive committee chairman. “But for this to happen, we need constant monthly salary for forest guards, declaration of ecotourism site, and reclamation of our forestland from foreigners.”

“To reduce deforestation, poaching and other illegal activities, we need the necessary support for the community to realize its ecotourism dream,” says Grace Yeeplah, Treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Zor Community Forest. “These efforts have helped us to improve conservation in the last 10 years. We need help to continue with them.”

Cocoa being sunbaked in Zor, Nimba County. File picture: Zor Community Forest

Zor’s push for ecotourism is a significant step in line with the government’s pledge to conserve 30 percent of Liberia’s forest, which forms the largest portion of West Africa’s remaining rainforests. The Community Rights Law…, which created community forestry, allows locals to co-manage forests alongside the government.

However, unfriendly environmental practices like logging, mining, bad farming methods and other forms of deforestation often undermine these efforts, according to a World Bank report. Between 2002 and 2022, Liberia lost 23 percent of its primary forest due to rampant deforestation, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), which tracks global deforestation.

“More needs to be done,” says James Otto, a lead campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute. “The community must set up governance systems and structures that will pay attention to issues like benefits for those who have and those who don’t. They must consider seeking partnerships outside, and external support from other entities who have an interest in ecotourism,” adds Otto.

Zor Community Forest lies adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve (ENNR), home to nearly 3,000 different species. Zor is a buffer between the reserve and forests on Liberia’s border with Guinea and Ivory Coast. Covering 1,140 hectares, Zor has faced significant threats from illegal mining, poaching, and commercial agriculture in the past, with hunters from Ivory Coast and Guinea.

So, for over a decade, community leaders in Zor constantly employ conservation and sustainable livelihood initiatives to address these challenges.

Currently, the community has recruited and trained 22 forest guards, who regularly patrol the forest. In October last year, the FDA conducted a joint forest guard training with community rangers with the ENNR. In November 2023, an MoU agreement reached between AML and the Zor community turned former bushmeat sellers and hunters into forest protectors in local communities such as Zolowee, Gbapa, Suakasue and Zortapa.

“We have mobilized the community, created awareness on the need to save the forest and the environment,” explains Mahn. “These efforts are meant to empower our people in ways that will discourage them from harming the forest and its species.”

New development

Zor maintains a host of community livelihood programs through which it protects its forest.

With support from ArcelorMittal Liberia and the NGO, the Multi-stakeholder Forest Governance and Accountability Project (MFGAP), the community processes rice, cocoa, and cassava. ArcelorMittal provides US$160 for community forest guards on a quarterly basis. On the other hand, MFGAP provided US$112,971 to strengthen Zor’s governance system, develop its business model and provide other needs.

Also, Zor has set up 40 acres of oil palm farms in 20 towns adjacent to the rocky forest, with two acres established in each of the beneficiary communities. Zor has a rice mill that helps to increase farmers’ productivity and reduce their high cost of labor, while at the same time generating proceeds from minimal fees charged.

Zor Community Forest’s leaders inspecting a cassava processing machine. File picture: Zor Community Forest

Depending on the size, each farmer is charged LD130 or LD150 to mill a bucket full of rice. Zor’s leadership retains 70 percent of the proceeds into a community account, distributing 30 percent to the rice milling machine maintenance team. Of the 70 percent, 40 percent goes to the landowning communities, while the remaining portion is used for administrative purposes.

Despite the prevailing challenges, Zor remains hopeful of achieving their ecotourism desire provided they receive the necessary support.

“We will get many benefits with the ecotourism project,” says Mahn. “With the right support, we expect the community to come alive with hospitality. We also expect business investment, jobs, economic growth and new community development.”

Beekeeping and Loan Protect Sinoe Forest

March 3, 2025

0

Top: Ariel view of Nitrian Community Forest in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

KABADA, Sinoe County – Jackson Tweh makes a living from beekeeping. Tweh, 35, and a father of six children has six beehives, which produce up to seven gallons of honey every three months.

Tweh was a farmer and hunter since his youth but in 2019 Universal Outreach Foundation, a Canadian NGO, went to Kabada, a town in the Kpanyan District of Sinoe County. The NGO trained him and other townspeople in beekeeping. When the training ended, he received six beehives, enclosed structures where honeybees live and raise their young.

“From what I see, beekeeping is one of the best programs when it comes to human promotion in the conservation community,” says Tweh. “Whenever we harvest, the honey can’t stay long with us because people can be standing by, waiting to buy it.”

Like Tweh, Ophelia Merrian, a mother of five children in her 40s, dropped farming in the forest for full-time shopkeeping.

In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture trained Merrian to set up a village saving and loan association. The ministry came to Tweh Town, about half an hour’s walk from Kabada, and introduced her to swamp farming, which increased her yield.

In the last five years, Merrian saved her income from the loan scheme, and the interest transformed her life dramatically.

“When I started, I was renting in someone’s house, but right now I have my place,” Merrian said. “This same program helps me to pay my children’s school fees.”

Tweh and Merrian are two of over 200 townspeople living adjacent to the Nitrian Community Forest who have benefited from alternative livelihood programs. The schemes provide replacements for forest farmlands and bushmeat for locals to keep them away from forest farming in one of Liberia’s few conservation community forests.

Established in 2011, the 958-hectare Nitrian is home to different species, including chimpanzees, African elephants, buffalos and pangolins. Located in southeastern Liberia has a high stock carbon value, a 2018 study shows. The forest is, however, being undermined by poachers, farming and other illegal activities.

Dennis Broh, president of the Nitrian community assembly, tells The DayLight the beekeeping and loan schemes have helped to reduce unwanted occupants.

“Intruding into the forest by farmers and hunters has been some of the challenges we have faced here,” says Broh, in a Kabada interview.

“Currently, when you look at the farming activities, the way people were involved with the forest has been cut down,” adds Broh.

Universal Outreach Foundation introduced beekeeping in 2019. The NGO trained 40 men from six towns and 16 villages. In these six years, the trainees have multiplied their beehives from their initial six. Tweh now has 15. Johanson Wiah has nine, the same as Stanley Saydee, and Broh has 15.

Six beehives can produce at least three gallons of honey in as many months, according to the beekeepers, and five liters sell for US$20 on local marketplaces.

Similar to beekeeping, the village saving loan started in 2019. It is a product of a partnership between Dutch NGO IDH and the Ministry of Agriculture. It encouraged residents to do lowland farming to keep their forest standing.

Locals accepted the proposal and started lowland farming. The exercise produced more yields, increased villagers’ incomes and introduced the village saving loan and association program there.

Since then, the association has had an annual saving of not less than L$1 million, except for 2019, the year the scheme was established. The highest income of the scheme was realized in 2023 when the association saved more than L$2 million.

Victoria Cooper, former Sinoe County’s agriculture coordinator, explains it became clear that they needed to manage their proceeds. The ministry provided technical support.

“This is a very good project and I think everyone needs to welcome it to help rural communities fight climate change and strengthen conservation efforts,” says Cooper, who is now a technical assistant at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Vincent Swen, a community leader, led a tour of Nitrian Community Forest in 2019. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

‘Not going into logging’

Residents have seen the result of their actions. At the beginning of their conservation efforts, they would record bullet casings and illicit farms. Today, they no longer see those things.

But Nitrian reckons there is a need for full-time forest guards to frequently monitor the forest, not leaders who conduct monthly patrols.

There is also a need for other forms of animal husbandry in addition to beekeeping—and loans—according to Neboe Sarboh, Nitrian’s secretary general.

“The way we are reserving this forest, by right, companies supposed to come here and bring goats, ducks and even cows to the community people to raise them so that anytime you want to eat meat… you can get one and kill it,” says Sarboh. He adds there is a need for more awareness to prevent or curtail unauthorized entry and extraction of the forest’s resources.

A lack of community benefits is a common reason why some communities have dropped conservation for logging or incorporated mining.

Others are considering abandoning logging for conservation.

For Nitrian, things remain the same.

“It has been difficult for us carrying out conservation,” says Broh “However, we know the importance of conservation and so we are not going to go into commercial logging.”

Monthly Archives: March 2025

Podcasts

ABOUT US

FOLLOW US