Top: Some of the logs Westwood illegally harvested in the Gba Community Forest. Picture credit: Anonymous
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – A Nimba court issued the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) a warrant to seize logs that a company illegally harvested last year.
The Eighth Judicial Circuit Court in Sanniquillie ordered the FDA to take charge of the 5,694.33 cubic meters of logs Westwood Corporation felled outside a designated area in the Gba Community Forest, Sanniquillie-Mahn District.
“You are hereby commanded to immediately proceed to confiscate all logs harvested by West Wood Corporation outside of the 450-acre area…,” read the court warrant.
Samuel Cooper, Westwood’s manager, declined to be interviewed.
An FDA investigation had found evidence that the company harvested 4 kilometers outside the 450-acre area, near the East Nimba Nature Reserve, home to endangered species.
The Investigation confirmed an earlier DayLight publication that utilized satellite imagery to pinpoint the illegal felling. The newspaper had established that Westwood made two shipments of the illegal logs to Italy, violating Liberia’s timber-trade agreement with the European Union. Moreover, the company’s shareholders are unknown.
Having seized the logs, the FDA is required to seek a warrant for a public auction.
FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab said the regulator had already auctioned the logs. “Kris Veneer [Industries] won the bid for the auction, Merab told The DayLight. (Kris operates a plywood factory in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.)
This is the first time the FDA has auctioned illegal logs since the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products was formulated in 2017.
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