Top: Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley seen here in 2020, was the technical manager of FDA’s legality verification department (LVD), and oversaw the export of 219 illegally harvested logs in August 2023. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
By Esau J. Farr
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – LiberTrace, a computerized timber-tracking system, can detect one illegal log from a consignment of a thousand. So, it is pointless to say whether the system can identify multiple dirty logs in a consignment.
When LiberTrace identifies illegal logs, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is required to compel the exporting company to correct issues or remove problematic logs from a consignment, according to the FDA’s special operating procedures (SOPs).
But that was not the case with 219 logs a Chinese-owned firm headquartered in Paynesville exported on August 20, 2023. A LiberTrace analysis of the consignment shows that all 219 logs West Water Group (Liberia) Incorporated shipped had been illegally harvested.
The timber, with a volume of 1,266 cubic meters, were shipped through the Port of Buchanan to China on board MV Sheng LEC, a bulk carrier sailing under the flag of Panama. Most of the timber had been harvested in a Grand Bassa County community forest on the same day, July 19, 2023.
Built by SGS, a renowned verification company based in Switzerland, LiberTrace traces timber from its origin to its final destination. The FDA’s legality verification department (LVD) co-manages the system.
Illegal timber undermines the system, a crucial part of forestry reform to ensure Liberia does not flood domestic and international markets with illegal timber as it was during the country’s civil wars between 1989 and 2003.
A LiberTrace screenshot of history of the 219 illegal logs shows that the FDA did not justify its approval for auditing purposes in line with its standard operating procedures.
Warnings and errors
LiberTrace flags issues as “warnings” and “errors,” with the latter more serious than the former.
A closer review of the warnings and errors in West Water’s consignment LiberTrace red-flagged paints a grim picture. All the logs had multiple issues. The FDA had not approved the felling of 166 logs or over 75 percent of the shipment. One hundred and sixty-four logs were undersized and details of 144 did not match the records in LiberTrace.
“Diameter class is different of the one declared during inventory,” some of the issues read.
“Diameter below the minimum felling diameter,” others said.
The FDA’s SOPs for export allow the regulator to override LiberTrace’s red flags. In such an event, the FDA must justify the override for second or third-party auditing purposes. However, LiberTrace’s history of the export shows no justifications were made.
Deputy Managing Director for Operations Gertrude Nyaley, who headed LVD in 2023, thrice rejected the consignment.
Mrs. Nyaley’s last rejection occurred on July 26, 2023— Liberia’s Independence Day—due to “major traceability errors.” But miraculously, it was approved in less than 48 hours. There were no inspections of the consignment or corrections of the issues with the logs.
Theodore Nna, SGS’ project manager, who did not respond to queries for this story, only cared about payments. “[Export permit] will be signed upon all clearing of invoices,” said Nna, making no further comments.
An entirely dirty consignment is rare, even by the FDA’s poor standards—repeatedly fuelled by capacity gaps, noncompliance and impunity.
Nna and the FDA did not reply to inquiries for comments, the same with Mrs. Nyaley who oversaw exports in 2023, and West Water.
Last year, the FDA rejected reports it approved an export half of whose consignment comprised illegally harvested timber as a “misinterpretation” of export data. The regulator argued the errors and warnings LiberTrace identified were “normal occurrences” but struggled to explain inconsistencies that characterized the export.
Top: Amos Lewis displays an old map of Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County, where he claims to own 3,200 acres of land overlapped by a community forest. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the second part of a series on illegalities associated with the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
MONROVIA – A second person has claimed a huge plot of land in a newly authorized community forest in Grand Bassa County, proving that authorities conducted a flawed process, requiring a redo.
Amos Lewis’s claim covers 3,200 acres of land in the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a 26,003-hectare woodland in Compound Two.
“This is to inform your office that my father, the late Duzoe Reeves had 3,200 acres of land beginning from Duzoe Town and its surroundings in the Vambo Township,” read the letter.
“It is my understanding that the FDA has mistaken my father’s private land and has certificated the C&C Corporation to harvest logs from the land,” it added.
Lewis is the second person claiming the land along the St. John River with Mount Findley overlooking it.
In November, Khalil Haider, a resident of Buchanan, laid claim to the same land. However, Haider dropped his contention for a compromise with C&C Corporation (CCC), which had signed a contract for the forest.
A DayLight investigation on Monday found that the compromise was unlawful as community forests cannot overlap private land.
A portion of the Mavasagueh Community Forest in 2020. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
The investigation established that the FDA had leapfrogged some legal steps leading to Mavasagueh’s formation, ignoring NGO warnings. It also established that the FDA brokered the compromise between the company and Haider, not wanting to re-demarcate and remap the forest.
The two claims make it more certain that the regulator would redo the process in line with industry guidelines. The claims prove that the FDA did not conduct the demarcation and mapping in line with the guidelines, which have several safeguards to resolve any claims.
The FDA did not immediately respond to queries for comments on the matter.
Khalil Haider was the first to claim ownership of 3,200 acres of forestland in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County, which a community forest overlaps. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
Lewis’s claim
Lewis is a stepson of the late Paramount Chief Reeves, who originally acquired the land. Lewis’s name is on a paper he claims is the original deed.
“Haider faked those things from his mother,” Lewis told The DayLight on Tuesday, displaying an old map of the Vambo Township.
Haider dismisses Lewis’ claim, saying Paramount Reeves transferred the ownership of the land to his late mother, Rosa Dillion. Like Lewis’, Haider’s deed was signed by the late President William V.S. Tubman.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The Mavasagueh Community Forest overlaps 3,200 acres of private land two individuals are claiming. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the first part of a series on the illegalities associated with a newly established community forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
VAMBO, Grand Bassa – One day in 2022, a logger visited Gblorso Town and asked elders to prospect their forest. The elders consented, and Clarence Massquoi found marketable timber species there, promising to return soon.
Then Massaquoi disappeared and returned in October last year with a surprising message: His company, C&C Corporation (CCC), would break ground for the construction of a major road from BIA through Vambo and Marloi Townships in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. CCC had signed a logging contract with the townspeople for 26,003 hectares of forestland in exchange for local development.
“The elders told him if you view the forest come back to us. He did not come back until last year October,” said Nathaniel Clarke, Commissioner of Vambo Township who helped organize a meeting between Massaquio and the community.
“I got a call from the development chairman asking me to go to [a place] because there is a company coming in there,” said Clarke.
The Commissioner was rightfully surprised. Evidence, backed by interviews with local people and forestry actors, shows the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) skipped legal steps in the Mavasagueh Community Forest’s formation. The evidence establishes that the FDA, CCC, and some community leaders rushed to enter contracts, ignoring several red flags.
The nine-step process, which made Mavasagueh a community forest, had begun in 2011 and ended in 2023. The forest covers 26,003 hectares and is owned by 39 communities across the Vambo and Marloi Townships. In August last year, locals entered a logging contract with CCC, a company established in 2022 and has no history of logging.
But a civil society review of Mavasagueh’s documentation last January reveals that the FDA did not do a good job. Seven organizations under the Community Forest Working Group (CFWG) found the process improperly documented and, that there was inadequate community awareness and participation.
The group also found that the community governance structure had not been established in line with the law, suggesting that civil society did not participate in Mavasagueh’s elections.
“Based on the final decision of the technical committee CFWG that reviewed the documents, it wasn’t clear whether CSOs that may have participated in those processes were member organizations of the CFWG,” said Jackson Nobeh, the committee’s facilitator in an emailed statement.
Nobeh’s comments were corroborated by Bonathan Walaka of the National Union of Community Forest Body, who said the group played no part in elections. Other organizations also deny participating, including the Sustainable Development Institute, which helped make the rules for community forestry.
There is no record the FDA fixed the issues. The regulator did not answer questions regarding the NGO’s assessment and other queries for comments in this story.
Not informed
The DayLight visited several of Mavasagueh’s 39 towns and villages, talked to townspeople, and attended four meetings between December and last month, confirming what the NGOs had unearthed.
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab signed a community forest agreement with locals in Grand Bassa, leapfrogging several legal steps on the way. The DayLight/Harry Browne
In the December meeting, citizens and elders said they were unaware of Mavasagueh’s formation and the logging contract.
“We were not informed about the company coming into our township,” said Martha Vondleh, a representative of Togar Town to Mavasagueh’s assembly.
“I have seen no document, we want to see the paper,” added David Key, a representative of Boo Town. He said he did not even know his role in the leadership.
Townspeople accused Daniel Dayougar, Vambo’s former Commissioner of handpicking members of Mavasagueh’s community assembly. The assembly, representatives of forest-owning towns and villages, is the highest decision-making body in community forestry.
“He selected people he had influenced over,” said Alexander Weegar, a resident of Gblorso Town.
This is not the first time Dayougar has been accused of selecting community leaders. In 2020, Dayougar was similarly accused when he chose signatories to a bogus MoU for a road project in exchange for Vambo’s logs.
Clarence Massaquoi, the CEO and co-owner of C&C Corporation, signed a logging contract with locals in Grand Bassa for a community forest that overlaps a private land. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Dayougar, now the liaison officer with CCC, denies any wrongdoing in the past or now, calling the accusation “false and misleading.”
“I believe people want to do things to spoil my reputation. The CAs from Vambo were sent by the dwellers, of their respective communities. Elders, chiefs, and youths were the ones who sent those people,” said Dayougar.
People in neighboring towns and villages said they did not play a required role in the demarcation and mapping of Mavasagueh’s area. Gblorso, Philip Town, and Reeves Town were among them. Interestingly, it was in Gblorso Town, where Massaquoi met the elders in 2022.
In one of the meetings last January, Massaquoi apologized for not making the contract available and shared it with the elders four days later.
Controversial private land
The lack of participation and awareness was not the only problem with Mavasagueh. Reporters uncovered a land conflict involving the community and two families.
Khalil Haider resident of Buchanan, is claiming 3,200 acres of land between Noway Town and Jesse Town, along the St. John River. The DayLight obtained copies of Haider’s 1958 probated deed signed by the late President William V.S. Tubman, and other documents.
In a November letter to the FDA, Haider informed the agency that he owned the land, about a fifth of Mavasagueh’s size.
CCC has begun harvesting despite about a fifth of its contract area overlapping private land. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
“I have learned the logging company has already sent a survey team, and that your entity has the boundary of the area,” read the letter. “Enclosed is a copy of my deed and coordination of my property to determine if it falls within the company’s operation area.”
Haider might have compromised with Massaquoi. However, his claim proves that the FDA did not conduct demarcation and mapping properly, flouting its guidelines for creating a community forest.
The guidelines—something USAID invested millions in—require the regulator to post notices in Mavasagueh and neighboring communities for at least 30 days at various levels of the process. The guidelines also require the FDA to work with other government agencies to resolve claims—or re-conduct the process.
The evidence shows that did not happen. Instead, the FDA asked Haider and Massaquoi to work together and iron out their differences. Managing Director Rudolph Merab called them for a meeting after Haider’s complaint, according to Haider and Massaquoi.
“I received a call from [Mr. Merab], stating that if I pursued it further, they would have to cancel everything until two to three years before anything,” Haider told The DayLight. He added he empathized with Massaquoi because CCC spent a lot of money paving over 15 kilometers of a major road in the community.
“Haider and I settled, and said he would work with the community and me so, the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi told a DayLight interview.
The evidence supports the men’s comments, as CCC has obtained a harvesting certificate and has begun felling trees in the rocky forest.
The guidelines aside, Merab’s mediation is unlawful. Community forests should not overlap private forestlands, and loggers are disallowed from conducting community forest operations on such plots.
By the National Forestry Reform Law, CCC will have to obtain a private use permit (PUP)—a logging right awarded for a private forestland—to operate on the 3,200 acres.
A PUP is, however, impossible at the moment. There is a moratorium on such contracts after it led to forestry’s biggest postwar scandal in 2013, where contracts for some 2.5 million hectares of forests were illegally awarded. Merab and Augustine Johnson, the FDA’s demarcation and mapping consultant, were involved in that scandal.
Amos Lewis claims the same 3,200 acres of land Khalil Haider claims in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
‘Fake deed’
Haider might have a so-called arrangement with Massaquoi but not with some elders. Borbor Kaykay, an elder of a village that bears his name, contested Haider’s claim at a meeting last month. Haider and Kaykay fought after a series of verbal exchanges, according to our reporter, who witnessed the incident.
“He came and brought some paper and said he owned land up the mountain. I told him, ‘You don’t have land here. I have been the elder here since 2002,’” explained Kaykay.
Meanwhile, another person is also claiming ownership of the 3,200 acres Haider claims. A resident of Marshall, Margibi, Amos Lewis is the late Paramount Chief Reeves’ stepson. Like Haider’s, Reeves’ deed, which the DayLight obtained, was signed in the Tubman era.
Lewis counterclaims that Haider’s late mother, Rosa Dillion, secured the land for the late Paramount Chief Reeves, not for herself as Haider claims.
“My name Amos Lewis is on the deed,” Lewis said. “Haider does not know anything about that land. He faked those things from his mother.”
Haider refuted Lewis’ side of the story, saying the late Reeves “surrendered the deed to my mother.”
Lewis said he would lodge a complaint with the FDA on Tuesday.
[Ojuku Kangar contributed to this report]
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Bendu Sonii, a victim of a fatal accident involving a Mano Oil Palm Industries vehicle on May 12, 2024, stands at the exact location where the incident took place. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Matenneh Keita
BALLAH’S TOWN, Grand Cape Mount – On May 12 last year, Bendu Sonii, 42, a casual laborer with Mano Oil Palm Industries, left for a friend’s house. She did not know that would be the last day she ever walked.
As soon as Sonii left her friend’s house, a Mano vehicle ran into her, damaging her right foot.
“The car nearly killed me. I was not to myself when the car hit me I was not even a human. They say I was running, but I don’t even know. My spirit went away from me,’’ Sonii tells The DayLight at her home in Ballah’s Town, a community on the highway in the Garwula District, Grand Cape Mount County.
“People said I was shouting ‘Aaa my children, God my children’ but I don’t remember. I just saw myself in the hospital,” adds Sonii, a mother of eight. She took The DayLight to the accident scene, several yards off the Babangida highway.
A police report found the vehicle had a brake failure. Singbeh Jimmy, the driver, had been traveling from Gbah Jacket to Mano’s Matambo estate. He was jailed for five days and was suspended by Mano.
Immediately after the accident, Mano took Sonii to the company’s headquarters, according to Aminata Getaweh, Sonii’s sister who had rushed to the scene.
Sonii stayed at Mano headquarters for about three hours, as there was no ambulance when she arrived. Having lost too much blood and not getting any care, Getaweh protested her sister be transferred immediately.
Later, an unconscious Sonni was taken to the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Congo Town, outside Monrovia. There, she spent two weeks in a coma, during which time doctors advised that her right leg be amputated. She had suffered severe trauma to the foot, crushing her bones.
But there was a problem: Only Sonii, could sign for the amputation. Not even her father, who by then had joined her sister by Sonii’s bedside, could approve the procedure for her. So, they waited two more weeks for her to gain consciousness to make the life-changing decision.
Bendu Sonii cries as she sits on her hospital bed in an interview after her right leg was amputated. The DayLight/Matenneh Keita
After Sonii gained consciousness and was informed about the amputation but relapsed into a coma. When she finally awoke, she sanctioned the amputation “for my children.”
Land grab
Sonii had spent two months and three weeks at St. Joseph, a period she says was characterized by hunger and grief. Mano sent L$40,000 in total for juices and additional food to the one the hospital served.
However, Sonii said the money was insufficient as she found it difficult to eat the food the hospital provided, a claim Mano denies.
Richard Hilton, Mano’s corporate communication officer, says Sonii’s hospital bill covered her food. “When she says it was insufficient, I don’t know. I don’t know who determines whether the money is insufficient. Whether there is a policy, I don’t know.”
Sonii was a general worker with Mano, doing all kinds of casual labor, including applying fertilizer, brushing, and weeding.
A Lebanese-owned company, Mano, came to Cape Mount in 2021 following a takeover agreement with Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Limited a year before. Mano is a subsidiary of Mano Manufacturing Company (MANCO), Liberia’s largest household health and cleaning products producer.
Sime Darby, a Malaysian conglomerate, had signed a 63-year concession agreement with the Liberian government in 2009 to develop 220,000 hectares in northwestern Liberia into oil palm and rubber plantations.
But things did not go as planned. From 2009 to 2019, Sime Darby developed only 10,300 hectares—about five percent of its concession area—due to “several operating challenges.” Locally, its operations were marred by international condemnation over land grab and other human rights violations.
That ghost haunted Mano’s takeover and setups, including workers’ protests and local communities’ demands. This explains the presence of armed police at the plantation who had used the vehicle that shattered Sonii’s life.
Mano Oil Palm Industries took over a 63-year concession from Sime Darby Plantations (Liberia) Limited in 2020. The DayLight/Harry Browne
‘Playing on me’
Sonii was transferred to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital for discomfort she felt in the shoulder and neck. Doctors at the JFK solved the neck issue but did not find anything wrong with her shoulder.
So, Sonii sought a herbalist’s help to cure her shoulder. “When the herbalist came, he said ‘It is your hand that has got the problem.’ Right away, he started working on my shoulder. The second day that is how my hand sat down,” she recalls.
Singbeh Jimmy, the driver who caused the accident, regrets the situation and is remorseful. Jimmy knew Sonii before the plantation was established.
“It is playing on me just like it is me [who] is crippled,” said Jimmy. “I am really feeling disappointed in this situation because I am not able to afford anything for her to buy a L$5 cold water and drink from me.”
Sonii receives between US$70 and US$80 with four 25-kilogram bags of rice, the same she received before the accident. It is, however, inadequate for her family of 10 people—her husband, her eight children and herself. The shop she ran before the accident collapsed while she lay in the hospital.
Mano claims Sonii was advised to check with an insurance company over benefits.
“She should make sure to take the courage to walk after getting her benefit,” said Hilton, Mano’s corporate communication officer. He did not present any evidence or give the insurance company’s name. “Bendu should not see it that she will be sitting down and it happens.”
A police sketch of the accident that left Bendu Sonii amputated.
Sonii refutes Hilton’s comments, saying Mano did not tell her anything about an insurance company.
Sonii has some domestic issues, too. She fears that her husband, children, and friends could abandon her.
“My husband can feel bad because I was everything. The day he gets it or doesn’t have it, I provide it. I think this is going to affect my marriage because some men are weak-minded. When they interact with another woman who does everything I cannot do, there will be changes,” says Sonii.
“Right now, I tell God thank you because changes are not there yet. He is still with me.”
Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.
Top: Some of the logs LiberTrace red-flagged for having multiple issues but the FDA still allowed to be shipped. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Esau J. Farr
MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted a company to export round logs mid-last year. However, the regulator ignored its computerized system—known as LiberTrace—red-flagged over 60 percent of the timber.
Out of the total 431 logs, Iroko Timber and Logging Corporation submitted for two shipments, LiberTrace identified 267 as problematic.
LiberTrace, which tracks logs from their sources to final destinations, found the logs’ details were inconsistent with the system’s information. Most of the logs had not been recorded during a pre-export inspection.
For instance, some logs had their butt-end diameters different from what Iroko declared. Others had volumes different from the ones submitted, while other logs had discrepancies with the lengths the Nigerian-owned company declared.
But the LiberTrace analysis and the export specs detailing each log shipped establish that the FDA allowed the tainted logs to go.
The combined 431 logs with a 2,549-cubic-meter volume, were loaded at the Port of Greenville, Sinoe County and departed on April 27 and July 2, 2024, on the Panamanian cargo ship MV Nimeh, destined for Bangladesh.
‘Nothing to add’
Based on the FDA’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) the regulator should have investigated the red flags and sought correction. If not, the SOPs provide the export to be disapproved. “Wood products that are not compliant with the legality definition shall not be authorized for export,” according to SOPs for export.
A screenshot from some of LiberTrace’s analysis of one of two Iroko exports last year the FDA unlawfully approved
The SOPs allow for the FDA to override LiberTrace’s alarms. However, in such a case, the FDA is required to record the justification for overriding the red flags for auditing. Screenshots of LiberTrace’s history of the logs prove there were no justifications for the FDA’s decision to approve the exports.
Those standards contribute to LiberTrace ensuring tax-complaint companies’ logs are legal, not just traceable. LiberTrace plays a critical role in the forestry sector, particularly in combating illegal logging and enhancing transparency in the timber trade. SGS, a Swiss verification company, built the system and the FDA co-manages it.
Confronted with the red flags, Theodore Nna, SGS’ project manager, did not respond to queries. Nna did the same last year in a similar incident. He had sarcastically offered The DayLight a tutorial in interpreting LiberTrace’s data and analysis.
The FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab declined to speak on the matter. “I believe my team handled this Iroko issue last year…,” Merab said in a WhatsApp chat. “I have nothing new to add!”
A screenshot of LiberTrace’s history of one of Iroko’s exports shows that the FDA did not justify why it overrode errors with several logs for auditing purposes.
Last year, the FDA dismissed reports as a “misinterpretation” of data. It argued that the errors and warnings LiberTrace sounded were routine “minor occurrences.”
Similarly, Iroko did not return emailed questions. The company had initially responded to the DayLight’s inquiries but ceased after the newspaper exposed a series of its wrongdoings.
This investigation adds to the logs’ taint and Iroko’s notoriety. A previous investigation found the logs spent over a year in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe County’s Jaedae District. One unearthed Iroko owed local people a good sum. Another revealed an Iroko shareholder was unqualified for logging over a co-ownership of a company punished for fraud.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The Bushrod Island Magisterial Court. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Two alleged timber smugglers in Caldwell are spending a fourth night behind bars after a court ordered their arrest following a search and seizure of incriminating evidence at their company’s premises.
On Tuesday, the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court sent suspects Amara Fofana and Suleyman Karabacak of Libfor Forest Corporation to the Monrovia Central Prison for multiple crimes.
“You are hereby commanded to proceed at Libfor Forest Corporation, and Libfor Forestry Inc, operated by Mr. Amara Fofana and Suleyman Karabacak… to find threatening evidence of the illegal processing and trafficking of wood, the operation of an unregistered and illegal sawmill, including wood products and processing machines use to perpetrate the said illegal act,” read the court order.
“You are hereby commanded to arrest the living body of Amara Fofana and Suleyman Karabacak, identified as defendants, before this Bushrod Island Magisterial Court, Montserrado County, to answer the crime smuggling, environmental crime, fraud, and economic sabotage.”
Fofana and Karabacak remain in jail because defense lawyers have failed to file a $100,000 bond, court officials said.
Their arrest and subsequent incarceration came within 48 hours after a DayLight investigation exposed Libfor’s illegal activities between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The publication established that Libfor has never traded through the legal channel for timber trade, known as LiberTrace.
Monrovia Central Prison authorities committing to receiving Amara Fofana and Suleyman Karabacak
Yet, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s records show that Libfor shipped 55,000 cubic meters of sawn timber in a 20-foot container on May 2 last year with a value of US$22,000. The newspaper also published evidence that Libfor has illegally traded timber over 50 times, citing international trade data.
The court has yet to hold a preliminary hearing into the case.
“No lawyer has filed in for preliminary hearing even as we speak,” said Thomas Kun, prosecutor at the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court.” “The essence of this kind of hearing is to afford parties, including the court, the opportunity to listen and know the actual source of the case.”
Whether or not a preliminary hearing is held, the matter will be transferred to a higher court, as the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court does not have jurisdiction over economic sabotage, a state crime.
Kun added Fofana and Karabacak are expected to be prosecuted at the Montserrado Circuit Court during the official commencement of the February term of court.
Top: A town hall in Voogbadee in Sinoe County. File picture/National Benefit Sharing Trust Board
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – The National Benefit Sharing Trust Board (NBST), which ensures communities benefit from logging concessions, has approved US$146,117.49 for projects, according to an unpublished report.
The January to June 2024 report unpublished until now, highlights initiatives undertaken during the first half of 2024. Projects include schools, clinics, and guesthouses in River Cess, Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, and Gbarpolu Counties.
“We have outlined areas of work to ensure long-term sustainability and capacity building and highlighted significant efforts undertaken… to address challenges so that the NBST can become more effective and efficient in the implementation of its mandate,” the report said.
In the coming months, NBST is expected to supervise the construction of the Voogbadee Service Center in Sinoe County, Putu Duo Town Hall in Grand Gedeh, and the Zeegar Town Community Health Center in River Cess, accounting for 73 percent of its approved new projects.
NBST is an offspring of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006 (NFRL). Its main function is to manage land rental fees from concessionaires to communities affected by commercial logging.
A school in Forkpata, Gbarpolu County. File picture/National Benefit Trust Sharing Board
Since its creation, the trust, which comprises traditional leaders, representatives of the forestry authorities, logging companies, community forest representatives, civil society organizations and international donors, has implemented a host of community projects.
During the period under the spotlight, the trust finished the construction of a town hall, clinic, and primary schools in Gbarpolu, Grand Gedeh and Nimba Counties, valued at US$48,097.08. Before its latest report, the trust board had completed a town hall, teachers’ quarters, and a clinic in Lofa and Sinoe Counties.
Between 2018 and 2022, NBST hit a major milestone, completing 53 community projects, organizing the first National Forest Forum(NFF) in the country, and ensuring the government paid the US$200,000 it owed communities.
Other achievements include processing and channeling of land rental fees between communities and the government, capacity building for communities, an independent financial audit, law amendment benefiting communities, and support to community-funded projects.
Its establishment has increased communities’ participation in the country’s natural resource management, as well as enhanced transparency and accountability in the distribution of communities’ benefits. Last March, the group signed a project partnership agreement (PPA), with beneficiary communities to enhance accountability and transparency, strengthening locals’ involvement in future contract negotiations.
But the trust’s achievements did not arrive on a silver platter, facing some of the biggest challenges in its 19-year history.
During the period under review, NBST faced funding gaps that resulted from delayed government payments of land rental fee arrears, contractor inadequacies causing project monitoring delays, insufficient logistics and understaffing, etc.
These hurdles, according to the report, hindered its operations and community project implementation. The success of two of its outstanding projects—the Dougee town hall in Grand Gedeh and three primary schools in Gbarpolu—now hinges on how much progress the organization will make to overcome the hitches it faces in the months ahead.
To address these difficulties, the trust recommends that the government amend the regulations to permit it to hire additional staff, seek support from office equipment and quickly pay land rental fee arrears.
The Liberian government owes communities US$25 million in land rental fees, including US$9 million it collected from companies. By law, the government is required to pay these fees quarterly but has failed to meet its obligations since 2009.
Roberto Kollie, NBST’s head of secretariat, informed The DayLight about the body’s expectation a year from now, revealing its next report should be expected in weeks.
“We expect a major reform in the composition of the NBST. We are proposing an amendment to expand the management of the trust board beyond benefit sharing,” Kollie said.
“We want all benefits intended for communities for logging and other natural resources, including carbon, to be channeled through the NBST and, for this to happen, the regulation has to be amended.”
Top: Miners operate with an expired license in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Esau J. Farr
SALAYEA TOWN – In late May 2024, the Salayea Authorized Community Forest filed a lawsuit against a group of illegal miners for alleged unauthorized entry.
The Salayea Magisterial Court threw the case out, saying Ford Tabolo, the miners’ head, had a legal class ‘C’ or small-scale license. The court called on the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to resolve the matter.
But Tabolo’s miners continued to mine after the expiration of his license in August last year, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s records. This means that Tabolo has illegally exploited the 8,270-hectare woodland for five months, nearly half of the lifespan of a small-scale mining license.
In a follow-up to previous investigations, reporters walked six hours to and from the community forest late last year and gathered evidence of Tabolo’s illicit mining activities.
“He (Ford Tabolo) is aware of our operation [mining activities] here and he is the one sponsoring us. If anybody has a problem with us, they will put it before our leader,” said Daddy Kanneh, the head of the mining camp.
Illicit miners Water wash gold at a mining camp in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
The camp is first from Salayea Town towards Telemu deep into the forest at the foot of a red, muddy hill. Mine pits spread beneath a hill, with two tents made of palm thatches and tarpaulins. Five miners panned and sieved for gold with a water pump machine, which is prohibited for small-scale mining.
“If the forest people say we should stop mining, that one should be an agreement between them and our boss man,” added Kanneh.
The reporters walked another hour to Tabolo’s second goldmine. Perched on the banks of a stream, some 10 miners worked there—this time—with shovels, buckets, diggers and cutlasses.
Here, the miners built an inclined wooden stage with carpets. They poured muddy gravel on the carpeted stage, followed by water, which entrapped tiny gold nuggets.
Other mineworkers panned for the nuggets, while others dug gravels and transported them to the washing stage.
Miners wash gravel for gold in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
“Right now, we have around 30 persons here in the forest. The way we used to receive gold here, we are not receiving it like that. When we were using the machine, we were getting more gold but the forest guards came here and took it away,” said John Kollie, the camp’s manager. Kollie disclosed they got between a quarter and half of a gram of gold daily.
Reporters could not visit Tabolo’s third goldmine more than two hours walk away, as evening approached. It would have meant sleeping in the dark, humid forest, and compromising their safety. So, they collected testimonies from the miners who had worked there.
They spoke about how Salayea Community Forest guards seized their tools, including a machine, carpets and shovels.
The DayLight could not determine whether Tabolo had a license for all three goldmines, as he has three other expired licenses in Lofa.
Efforts to interview Tabolo did not materialize, as his phone was always off, and he did not reply to text messages. However, in a previous interview with The DayLight, the mine owner said he would upgrade his small-scale license to a semi-industrial scale license.
Mining with an expired license constitutes a violation, with up to a US$2,000 fine, a maximum 24-month imprisonment, or both for convicted offenders.
Conservation undermined
The community forest wants the miners out as the forest is under conservation. Salayea Community Forest is important for conservation due to its rich biodiversity, which has empowered local people.
The community forest runs alternative livelihood programs, including beekeeping, piggery, village saving loans, woodshops and cocoa plantations.
“We want the government to make sure to get the miners out of the forest because it is undermining our conservation efforts,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest. “We will not rest as leaders of the forest until the right things are done.”
Miners in the Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Last November, the current minister of Lands, Mines and Energy Minister, Wilmot Paye suggested that the mining law was superior to forestry laws and regulations. He made the statement in a WhatsApp chat with The DayLight.
“Your query should further focus on what the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000 says,” Paye texted and did not say anything thereafter.
Paye’s comments were incorrect. The mining law does not recognize community forestry—it is Liberia’s oldest extractive law. However, the Community Rights Law and the Land Rights Act of 2018 do. Both laws grant locals ownership of forestlands.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The headquarters of Libfor Forest Inc. in Riverview, Caldwell. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By James Harding Giahyue and Derick Snyder
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series that exposes Libfor Forest Corporation, an illegal timber trafficking company, operating in the Monrovian suburb of Caldwell.
CALDWELL – A DayLight investigation has uncovered an illegal timber trafficking company in the Caldwell neighborhood of Riverview. Libfor Forest Corporation. coordinates illegal logging activities in and out of Liberia, packages the wood at an unlicensed sawmill and smuggles them in containers, depriving the Liberian government of much-needed revenue.
Public records and other evidence obtained by The DayLight show that Libfor has never traded through the legal channel for timber harvested, transported, processed, imported, or exported from Liberia, known as LiberTrace.
Yet, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s records show that Libfor shipped 55,000 cubic meters of sawn timber in a 20-foot container on May 2 last year with a value of US$22,000.
Also, data compiled by British firm Experian, which tracks global trade, show Libfor has exported 51 times since June 2022. The latest shipments went to Turkey.
The US-based The Trade Vision, Another data company whose report is consistent with Experian’s, finds that Libfor’s exports to a single company last year were valued at US$71,447.
An internal document shows Libfor predominantly exports Iroko, a high-quality timber species selling for US$390 on the world market. Due to its durability, it is used in shipbuilding, outdoor construction and furniture.
The Iroko information is consistent with the one provided by the Ministry of Commerce, Experian and Trade Vision. The document suggests that Libfor predominately smuggles Iroko in different sizes via the Freeport of Monrovia 7.6 miles away.
Libfor’s setup matches a class A sawmill, which means the company has deprived the government of US$2,500 for each year it has operated. The same with export fees, local communities’ benefits and other payments, including for an environmental permit.
‘Black manager’
Libfor Forest Corporation, solely owned by Amara Fofana, a Liberian, was established in 2021. It is the one that has conducted the smuggling, the national and international trade databases.
But Süleyman Karabacak, a Turkish national, is Libfor’s practical owner.
Fofana recruits workers and runs the business’ errands, based on a previous DayLight investigation. Karabacak, on the other hand, manages the business, including finances and exports.
In 2023, Fofana signed a contract with Sierra Leonean chainsaw millers for illegal activities in Nimba, exposed in the investigation. The newspaper had published the bogus contract and oversized timber the chainsaw millers produced, compelling Fofana to admit to the wrongdoing. The contract also had Karabacak’s contact number, which a call app identifies as “Turkish buyer.”
“It is the white man who owns the company. Fofana is just the black manager,” one source said. “It is Süleyman [Karabacak] who has the money, who owns the machines.”
Karabacak also co-owns Libfor Forestry Inc., another company created on December 21, 2023, and registered earlier this month, per its article of incorporation and business registration certificate. Its other owner is Ibrahim Halil Sever, whose nationality The DayLight could not determine.
Before Karabacak, Hasan Uzan, another Turk, ran Libfor, Riverview residents and people familiar with the company, told The DayLight. Uzan was blacklisted by the Forestry Development Authority in 2023 for illegal logging in Nimba County. The sources identified Uzan in a picture with another Turk when police arrested the pair.
Photographs and videos The DayLight shot and obtained further unravel Libfor’s criminal world. Workers work with machines to rip thick, heavy timber into different dimensions. Loads of sawn wood adorned various locations, with a Caucasian person’s foot and fingers in some of the pictures. In another picture, men weld a truck destined to transport timber.
Screenshots of sawn timber export record of Libfor Forest Corporation also known as Libfor Forestry Inc. by British firm Experian
Drone shots of the sawmill corroborated the photographs and videos. They show guards manning the facility as men work. In one video, a person can be seen throwing something at the drone as it hovered over the walled property that headquarters Libfor.
‘In the bush’
But where do Libfors source their timber? Does it smuggle in sawn wood, too? The answers lie in our previous investigation of the company, interviews with customs and immigration officers, sources knowledgeable about Libfor’s activities, and public databases. Our 2023 investigation uncovered that Libfor had 20 chainsaws and deployed six Sierra Leoneans to operate them. The men, who were unregulated migrants, harvested some 460 pieces of Iroko in Karnplay in Nimba’s Gbeh-lay District.
Workers of Libfor workers operate a mobile sawmill to rip oversized timber in the company’s year in Riverview, Caldwell.
“We hauled some on the road, and the rest are in the bush,” Aruna Kamara, one of the men told The DayLight.
The Iroko timber were three inches thick, one inch more than the approved dimension for chainsaw-milled timber supplied domestically. Oversized timber are relatively a new illegal trade known across the industry as “kpokolo.”
By that time, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) had banned kpokolo after permitting it for over a decade. That ban would be followed by a prohibition on the issuance of permits that fueled the illegal trade, according to minutes of one of the FDA’s recent board meetings, seen by The DayLight.
Fofana, the company’s frontman, claimed that the men had failed to follow instructions. Libfor made furniture to compete with Lebanese merchants. He had recruited the Sierra Leoneans because “There are no good operators in Liberia.”
But he somersaulted when confronted with the contract Libfor had given the men, instructing them to cut timber three inches thick, 13 inches wide and 15 feet long.
“I will reduce it because I can’t fight the government,” Fofana said at the time. He later claimed he reduced the wood, Smart News reported.
Fofana provided no evidence the timber were reduced or used to make furniture. Unfortunately, The DayLight did not have any evidence that Libfor was exporting wood at the time. Drone shots and pictures The DayLight obtained last December show oversized timber in Libfor’s yard. In one of the pictures, two men operate a mobile sawmill with kpokolo fastened to it.
“First they used to bring round logs for sawing but now they saw the wood in the bush themselves,” one source said. “They only [rip] it into smaller sizes at the sawmill.”
Sierra Leone
Different sources said Libfor also gets its timber from Gbarpolu and Sierra Leone.
In an audio recording obtained by The DayLight, Foday Kallon, a cross-border trucker, can be heard explaining how he transports wood from Sierra Leone. Kallon says he does not present any documents to Sierra Leonean immigration and customs officers at Bo Waterside, Liberia’s western border with Sierra Leone the border. He only pays customs duties on the Liberian side of the border.
The DayLight interviewed Kallon via WhatsApp and he added more information. He revealed that he had transported timber up to 80 inches in thickness, sourcing the wood in Kono and other parts of Sierra Leone.
“When you buy the wood, you need to hire a car from me and you pay me. I can carry your wood from Sierra Leone to Liberia. I, Mr. Kallon, will be there for you anytime you are ready. I will invite you to Sierra Leone or if you want to see me in Liberia, we discuss how you will pay, and how we will come and buy the woods. You and I can come to Sierra Leone and buy your wood and I will transport your wood from Sierra Leone to Liberia,” he told our reporter.
Liberian and Sierra Leonean immigration and customs officers, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak, corroborated Kallon’s account. We obtained a picture of timber in a truck that eyewitnesses said Libfor imported over the weekend.
This supports a 2018 World Bank report that found Liberia imported over US$10,580 worth of timber from Sierra Leone, the third-largest importer of Sierra Leonean timber after China (US$20,295) and Belgium (US$14,230).
Sierra Leonean authorities did not respond to queries from a DayLight associate. The DayLight has reached out to the Liberia Revenue Authority and will update this story with the LRA’s response.
‘We can’t sleep’
Riverview residents have had issues with Libfor for causing noise pollution and spoiling the community’s road. The community—close to the St. Paul River, giving it a waterfront scenery—has watched as Libfor scars the secluded, suburban community.
Mary Toe, an elderly woman who lives behind Libfor’s fence, complained about the noise from the woodwork. “I can’t sleep at night,” she told The DayLight. “The people work all night.”
Other residents backed Toe’s comments. Hassan Kamara, a concerned youth, said Libfor’s container truck spoiled Riverview’s main road, sparking a protest.
French, Turkish, and Dutch
Libfor sheds light on the widespread irregularities and the general downturn of forestry. A recent review of the sector found only five out of 11 logging companies were active, and that none met legal requirements to operate. Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) reports that the sector generated US$7.65 million from July 2021 to December 2022, a far cry from 8.5 million in 2018 alone.
Sierra Leonean Timber blocks such as these are smuggled to Liberia on container trucks
The Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody requires all timber harvested, transported, processed, exported, or imported to pass through Liberia’s timber tracking LiberTrace. Trading outside LiberTrace is an offense, with violators facing a prosecution, forfeiture of their vehicles and equipment, and a prison term, according to the Regulation on Confiscated Logs…
Libfor did not answer questions The DayLight posed to it. Karabacak claims he only speaks French, even though documents prove he speaks and writes English.
So, The DayLight translated the questions into French, Turkish and Dutch, the two nationalities of Libfor Forestry Inc. Nevertheless, Karabacak did not respond.
Instead, Karabacak informed Fofana, who called the newspaper and scheduled an interview that day. However, Fofana, too, did not turn out. He evaded an interview in Cape Mount and two schedules for Monrovia.
Top: Clan Chief Mary Garpu of Dorbor receives the clan’s customary land deed. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Harry Browne and Aaron Geezay
YARPAH TOWN – Several clans in River Cess recently received customary deeds, granting them the right to manage and benefit from lands left behind by their ancestors.
On December 10, 2024, the Liberia Land Authority(LLA) presented customary deeds to Gbarsaw, Dorbor, Ziadue, and Teekpeh Clans in River Cess County, formalizing the communities’ ownership.
Then 10 days later, the Siahn Clan in Central River Cess District and the Togba-Nyankun Clan in Fen River District received theirs.
“Today has become one of the happiest days of my life,” said Samuel Vonziah, chairman of the Gbarsaw Community Land Development Management Committee, fighting back tears.
“When you see me coming down with tears, it is tears of joy, tears of pain, the kind of struggle that we have been through, and other people who struggled with us in the past. All this represents the difficulties we underwent. As communities celebrate this historical moment, we hope for a new beginning that would improve their lives,” Vonziah added.
Edith Gbukpa, a women’s leader of Siahn, celebrated the milestone similarly. “In the past, our parents used to be caretakers of the land, but we are so happy today that we have right over our land.”
The latest issuance increases the number of communities with customary deeds to at least 27 from a list of 21 as of September last year, according to official records. Five more communities are poised to be issued customary deeds, while 30 have registered and conducted confirmatory surveys, representing over 1.3 million acres of land.
The six clans’ progress followed the completion of several processes that qualified the communities, including community self-identification, participatory mapping confirmatory survey, and. Before granting the property deeds, land authorities ensured all land disputes within the clans were amicably resolved.
An elevated view of a portion of Teekpeh Clan’s 65,224.61 hectares of land. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Obtaining the deed is a break away from the old days.
In the past, communities struggled to get their deed. The right of customary people to own land in Liberia was only recognized in 2018, 171 years after independence. Historically, customary land rights were often overlooked and disregarded.
The Aborigines Law enacted in 1956 weakened the rights of Indigenous people by disregarding customary land rights, experts say. The move denied native people legal ownership of land without written deeds, emphasizing control and ownership by the state.
In response to the growing threat posed by land disputes, Liberia, backed by the international community, enacted the Land Rights Acts, which recognizes and protects customary land ownership.
Hailed home and abroad as a landmark achievement, the law recognizes customary land ownership, following decades of deprivation.
“Our land is for us now,” said Nancy Garpu, Clan Chief of Dorbor Clan. “It wasn’t for us at first. It was for the government but now the land is ours. So, I am happy that we have gotten our deed. When I go to my home, it is dancing that we will carry on there.”
The deeds now give communities the freedom to decide how to manage and benefit from the resources of the land, providing them with a window of opportunities to attract investment for local development.
Six of River Cess’ 34 clans now have a customary land deed. The DayLight/Harry Browne
“This is the time to lobby for companies. The reason why we struggled for the deed,” said Onesimus Charles, chairman of the Teekpeh Community Land Development and Management Committee. “I am confident that this deed would ensure the protection and promotion of our customary land.”
“We are grateful that we were able to educate our people on the processes leading to the acquisition of their deeds and awareness about their rights. This is a result of that engagement you see here today,” said Winston Siaker, a representative of the SDI. “It means we are graduating from the past, where people will no longer say women cannot own land but only boys children.”
Borbor Boeyon, River Cess County Land Administrator. Boeyon disclosed five other River Cess clans are in the process of obtaining their deeds. Boeyon added that many of River Cess’ 34 clans had started the deeding process but were at the boundary demarcation level.
“The land will now be under the clans’ protection and they are going to do what they can do,” Boeyon told The DayLight on the margins of the deeding ceremony in Yarpah Town. “Unlike before, the government will not just move in an area and say, ‘We are taking this portion of land from you.
