Banner Image: Ariel view of a portion of the Palm Bay Estate of Equatorial Palm Oil’s (EPO) covering 6,400 hectares of land in Jogbahn Clan in District No.4, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue 

By James Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – Campaigners from civil society organizations in Liberia on Thursday received training on the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi), a new tool for advocacy in the agriculture and forestry sectors.  

AFi was introduced in 2019 by a host of international nongovernmental organizations, including Proforest, Rainforest Alliance and the Meridian Institute. Combining international and local laws, policies, principles and best practices, it provides a standard for civil society’s advocacy for agriculture and forest-related companies to produce sustainably. It aims to reduce private sector-related deforestation and foster strict adherence to respect for human rights and secure benefit for local communities where these firms operate.

Campaigners at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI)—which organized the one-day training workshop alongside Proforest Ghana—said it will help land and forest rights groups monitor companies and ensure they comply with social, environmental and economic standards.

“This is very important to us as civil society organizations,” said James Otto, who heads SDI’s community rights and corporate governance program, told participants at the opening of the daylong event. “This is going to be a build-on training so that the framework is actually implemented in Liberia.” 

“This is our opportunity in Liberia to understand what [AFi] is and see the linkages with our own efforts that we are making already, and see who we are going to take it and apply it in Liberia,” said Silas Siakor, one of the facilitators of the event

Siakor said coronavirus posed some challenges to the new initiative as it was established in the same year of the pandemic but momentum for the tool has started to take off. “The idea is really to drive stakeholders to take the concept and work with it,” he added.

The DayLight

The DayLight
TEEKPEH – Liberia Land Authority has conducted surveys in four clans in River Cess County, the last stage for the communities to get customary land deeds. The Land Authority conducted the surveys recently for Teekpeh, Ziadue, Dorbor and Gbarsaw, bringing to an end four years of quest for their ancestral land rights. Before the official survey, Teekpeh, Ziadue, Dorbor and Gbarsaw declared their intention to get title deeds for their lands. Later, they formed land governing bodies and conducted open mapping of their areas, requirements in the Land Rights Act of 2018 for a customary land deed. The confirmatory surveys were conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner with all of the parties represented. Representatives of the four clans, the Liberia Land Authority, and civil society gathered at the various boundary points to witness the process. Before that, the surveyors asked the representatives to walk them to the spot all parties agreed to. Then they took points from each location and planted trees at those points. There are 39 border points among the four clans. Representatives for the clans posed for a picture at each boundary point for evidence, using special equipment that processes and stores data on a memory card and to a satellite. The pictures will remain there as long as the satellite is in space.
TEEKPEH – Liberia Land Authority has conducted surveys in four clans in River Cess County, the last stage for the communities to get customary land deeds. The Land Authority conducted the surveys recently for Teekpeh, Ziadue, Dorbor and Gbarsaw, bringing to an end four years of quest for their ancestral land rights. “I feel so glad because, for the time Liberia existed, we were [squatters]. For us to be the legitimate owners of our land, we really appreciate that,” said Fredrick James, the chairman of Teekpeh’s Community Land Development and Management Committee. “If you do not have a deed for [your land] in Liberia, then … the land is not for you,” said Blessing Nagba, Town Chief of Zammie Town, one of Teekpeh’s largest communities.
Miners operating two illegal mines outside Monrovia have fled the communities three days after a DayLight investigation exposed them. Over the weekend, mineworkers of Quezp Mining Company began fleeing Brewerville and Royesville, where they have mined zircon sand for the last two years. The mineral is used in the ceramics industry, with Australia and Africa as the newest markets. The investigation unearthed that Quezp does not have a license for the suburban and rural Montserrado communities. Instead, it has two prospecting licenses for Kpayan District, Sinoe County. Video and pictures shot by a resident and The DayLight show Quezp’s workers dismantling a plant and moving mining equipment away from Brewerville. “We are happy that nobody will be mining sand on the beach anymore,” said Oliver Wallace, a resident of Brewerville. “What they were doing over there was [negatively] affecting the community.” The DayLight photographed piles of abandoned zircon sand at Quezp’s transferring location in Royesville. Tire impressions in the area had been erased, indicating that the company’s earthmovers had not been there for some time.
A community forest in Gbarpolu wants to cancel its logging contract with Indo Africa Plantations, a Singaporean-owned company. Bondi Mandingo Community Forest signed a 15-year agreement with Indo Africa Plantation Liberia Limited in 2018 in anticipation of development in their area. However, five years on, the company has not honored the agreement. It owes Bondi Mandingo over US$400,000 in land rental and harvesting fees, and mandatory development projects, barely exploiting the forest. “We are now pushing to cancel the contract,” said Darkanel Gbarto, the chairman of the Bondi Mandingo forest executive committee. “There has been no progress on the side of the company.” Bondi Mandingo’s contract covers 37,222 hectares with Indo Africa, one of four contracts held by a Singaporean family, the Guptas. The company agreed to pay the community US$46,527 as annual land rental fees. It promised to make an annual payment of US$35,000 as a scholarship fund and US$25,000 for yearly support to community healthcare. Additionally, Indo Africa promised to recondition roads, construct modern latrines, a youth center and a paramount chief office in affected communities. However, Indo Africa did not live up to the agreement. It only began work in late 2021, nearly three years after the agreement, a violation that is a ground for termination. It harvested 7,183 logs, according to the company’s production records.
Amid Liberia's negotiation with Blue Carbon in the United Arab Emirates, local communities are learning about carbon credits, trading, and the market. Blue Carbon targets over 1 million hectares of forestland in Liberia's northeastern, northwestern, southeastern and southcentral Liberia. However local communities, who own the forest under Liberian law, are unaware of the negotiation and carbon credits. With funding from the international NGO Fern, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI) conducted a carbon awareness campaign in the Central River Cess District in River Cess County.
CENTRAL RIVER CESS DISTRICT – Three clans in River Cess County have met the requirements for a government-conducted survey, the final legal step leading to a customary land deed. Ziadue, Teekpeh and Dorbor—all in the Central River Cess District—reached the landmark early last month. “We are aware that three communities are ready…,” said Lincoln Flomo, the head of the monitoring and evaluation division of the Liberia Land Authority (LLA). Flomo said the leaderships of the three communities would have to meet with LLA representatives and civil society organizations (CSOs) before the survey was conducted. The Ziadue, Teekpeh and Dorbor self-identified as landowning communities, mapped their respective boundaries and drafted bylaws and constitutions to reach this stage. They formed their respective leadership structures, known as community land development and management committees or CLDMCs. The Land Rights Act grants rural community people ownership of traditional land but requires them to go through a legal process to get a deed. “I am happy to get our land deed because the forest [is]for us and our children will benefit,” said Betty Gaywea a member of Ziadue’s CLDMC. Prior to the passage of the Liberia Land Rights Act, rural communities did not own the land they lived on and did not have a say in the management of its resources. The law grants members of rural communities the right to manage their lands and benefit from their resources. “Getting the land deed will empower us to tell people that the land belongs to us,” said Patience Smith, a member of Teekpeh’s CLDMC member. Having started their journeys in 2020, two years after the signing of the law, the three clans resolved long-standing disputes in the process. Ziadue, Teekpeh and Dorbor had a conflict over a town named Sand Beach Junction. After two years of claims and counterclaims, Ziadue and Dorbor surrendered the town with more than 30 houses to Teekpeh. Ziadue and Teekpeh also had a four-year conflict over Yarvoi Town, according to locals. “It was tense to the extent that people from both clans carried cutlasses and single-barrel guns but there was no firing or injuries,” recalled Jackson Sando of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). The NGO is helping the clans meet legal requirements for their deeds as part of a US$3.54 million project. Dorbor had a major boundary dispute with Gbarsaw, another clan, over a parcel of farmland across a creek. The conflict ended with Gbarsaw prevailing. “I am happy because we had problems with our boundaries and you people have come and settled everything because we want our deeds,” said Nancy Garpu, Clan Chief of Garpu Clan. SDI has been working with the communities under the Tenure Facility project to assist them in getting deeds to their ancestral lands since 2020. Ziadue, Teekpeh and Dorbor add to scores of communities across the country that are awaiting confirmatory survey, according to the LLA.
ZIADUE CLAN – The ongoing negotiation between the Liberian government and the UAE-based Blue Carbon would affect parts of River Cess. But a community in the southcentral county is negotiating its own carbon agreement with another company—and under similar controversial circumstances. Ziadue, located in the Central River Cess District, is negotiating a carbon credit memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BlueEarth Capital, an American-owned company. The parties had earlier signed a letter of intent. The company wants to harvest carbon from over 52,000 hectares of forest and trade the carbon credits it obtains on the international carbon market.
Communities that would be affected by a potential carbon credit deal between Liberia and the United Arab Emirates-based Blue Carbon are demanding their right to consent. The Liberian government has been negotiating with Blue Carbon to sequester carbon on more than a million hectares of forestlands as part of a US$50 billion deal that also involves Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and possibly Angola. The potential 30-year deal would affect towns and villages in Margibi, Sinoe, Lofa, Gbarpolu and River Cess. However, local people who own the forest have not given their consent as required by Liberia’s land and forestry laws. More than a dozen people The DayLight interviewed in potentially affected communities in River Ces and Margibi expressed dissatisfaction.
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Liberia has made significant strides to ensure its natural resources are managed in a sustainable manner since the end of a brutal 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003. It began with the reform of the country’s forestry sector a year later. The country created a new land law in 2018 that recognizes customary land ownership, has national policies on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It has its own oil palm strategy

On top of that, the country has already signed onto a horde of international principles. They include the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights, efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+), and the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA).

Nana Darko Cobbina, the training facilitator from Proforest, said AFi does not duplicate those efforts. It complements them and links the forestry and agriculture sectors.

“The framework aims to bring greater clarity, consistency, effectiveness, and accountability for supply chain commitments and their implementation and monitoring,” Cobbina told participants. “It embeds common approaches and good practices in standards, tools, policies, and initiatives for responsible production and trade.”

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