Top: Newly elected members of Mavasagueh Community Forest. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
VAMBO TOWNSHIP – Eleven townspeople have been elected to a community forest leadership in Grand Bassa County, calming months of tension over their towns’ alleged misrepresentation.
Mavasagueh Community Forest’s previous election, held in August last year, was marred by irregularities, prompting fresh elections. Those elected include representatives from Boe, Borbor Kaykay, and Togar Towns. Zeogar, the twelfth town, was disqualified because its representative serves as a town chief, debarred from direct community forest activities.
“Now that we have been elected, we will do the proper thing for the affected towns and the Vambo Township,” said Ojuku Kangar, a community assembly representative from Boe Town, one of the 11 elected persons.
Wooded areas get community forest status when they complete nine legal steps, including establishing a governance structure. This structure comprises a day-to-day forest management body, a supervising executive committee, and a topmost decision-making assembly.
“We will form unity with our counterpart as a community assembly to hold the company accountable to our contract,” added Kangar, a DayLight affiliate.
The election in Mavasagueh has eased tensions in the Compound Number Town area, following months of hostilities. Before the election, townspeople protested for representation in the leadership. There was an imbalance in the allocation of projects in the 39 towns that own the 26,003-hectare forest.
The elections could also lead to the unfreezing of the community forest’s account, which was frozen after funds were misapplied. Kangar said more signatories would be added to the account to reflect inclusion. “We will ensure the FDA includes us in the bank account,” he said.
Citizens blamed the FDA for the chaos. The regulator conducted inadequate awareness, leading to some towns not participating in Mavasagueh’s formation, according to civil society and locals. That finding was corroborated by an investigative series over the last five months.
Daniel Dayougar, the former Vambo Commissioner, was accused of handpicking representatives to serve on Mavasagueh’s assembly. Dayougar denies any wrongdoing.
Trucks carrying logs from the Mavasagueh Community Forest. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
Amid the chaos, C&C Corporation, the logging company Mavasagueh’s leadership signed a contract with, has been operating. So far, it has paved dirt roads in the area and has harvested logs that are being stored at Krish Veneer Industries, a sawmill in Buchanan, a few miles away.
“All of our logs are taken to Buchanan without benefit. This is what happened during RETCO days until we blocked the roads and chased them out,” said Zechariah Boima, of Togar Town. He was referencing RETCO Liberia Timber Industry, a company that worked here in the 1990s and paid the community L$10,000 (roughly US$90 today).
The FDA did not respond to queries. However, Kangar David, head of the agency’s sub-office in Buchanan, who conducted the election, urged the new leadership to work in Mavasagueh’s interest.
The election is yet another proof of Mavasagueh’s flawed formation. It has already been established that the FDA skipped legal steps in granting it a community forest status. C&C Corporation is illegitimate because its owner, Clarence Massaquoi, is an ineligible logger. Krish Veneer, the company’s buyer, operates on the FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab’s family land with an ineligible status. The forest overlaps a private land that two men are claiming.
This is a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.
Top: The plywood factory, Krish Veneer’s office, New Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The Daylight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the third part of a series on illegalities associated with a newly established community forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab illegally granted Mavasagueh in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa, a community forest status.
Merab approved Mavasagueh’s logging contract with C&C Corporation, co-owned and run by Clarence Massaquoi, an ineligible logger.
Then, a Duport Road resident, Khalil Haider, wrote to the FDA to claim 3,200 acres of Mavasagueh.
Against the law, Merab encouraged Haider to compromise his claim and bargain with Massaquoi. Another person, Amos Lewis, also wrote Merab, claiming the same land as Haider, but his claim has yet to be addressed.
Amid these issues, Merab approved Massaquoi’s harvesting, with the logger selling timber to Krish Veneer Industries, an illegitimate sawmill located on Merab’s family land in Buchanan.
But that is just one of the multiple conflicts of interest involving the FDA Managing Director. Turns out, Merab is related to Massaquoi and Haider, likely explaining why he failed to enforce the law.
VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – Everything about this company’s contract with a new community forest is illegal.
And there are lots of problems, too, based on documents and interviews. The Forestry Development Authority skipped several legal steps before granting Mavasagueh a community forest status. Then the FDA approved Mavasagueh’s logging contract with C&C Corporation (CCC) despite the company’s majority shareholder being barred from forestry activities over his wartime activities. The FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab, encouraged a man claiming 3,200 acres of Mavasagueh’s 26,003-hectare woodland to unlawfully compromise. Then, a sawmill linked to the company is illegitimate and engages in illegal timber exports.
Now, a DayLight investigation has established that the Mavasagueh-CCC contract constitutes multiple conflicts of interest involving Merab. The investigation found that Merab is related to CCC’s co-owner, and that the sawmill operates on his family’s property.
These conflicts of interest likely explain why the FDA boss approved CCC’s contract amid the sea of illegalities, ignoring a civil society critique and failing to take any action against the sawmill.
Merab’s conflicts of interest violate the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, a key legislation for the Boakai administration. Merab did not respond to queries on his dual relationship with Massaquoi and other issues in this story.
Merab and a logger
By his admission and LinkedIn profile, CCC’s CEO Clarence Massaquoi, worked with Merab during the second half of the Liberian civil conflict. “I worked with Merab from 1999 to 2007 in a managerial role,” he told The DayLight in January.
Massaquoi’s wartime logging activities disqualify him and the CCC, but the FDA only reviewed the CCC’s financial records, not his wartime activities. War loggers are barred from engaging in forestry unless they confess their roles in Liberia’s bloody conflict (1989 – 2003) and collaborate with the FDA to repay stolen or unpaid funds, according to the Regulation on Bidders Qualification. No wartime logger did that.
Having known Massaquoi for decades, Merab approved his ex-employee’s contract with Mavasagueh, ignoring calls from a group of civil society organizations to re-demarcate and remap the community forest. A previous DayLight investigation corroborated the finding that the FDA did not raise ample awareness, and that public participation in the process was inadequate. Residents only reviewed Mavasagueh’s contract with CCC some seven months after it was signed, and weeks after Merab approved Massaquoi’s harvesting.
In addition to their wartime association, Merab and Massaquoi are related. Rose James, Merab’s deceased mother, was a Hill. She was related to the Holts, Massaquoi’s maternal family, according to Khalil Haider, a Duport Road resident, who said he was related to both men.
FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab in February 2024. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Haider’s late mother, Rosa Dillion, had a relation with the Hills. “My mother and Merab’s mother were cousins, and both families lived separately on Tubman and Church Streets [in Buchanan],” said Haider.
“Massaquoi and Merab are related, and Merab is my cousin. We are all related,” said Haider.
His account is backed by an obituary of Edward Merab, the FDA boss’ late elder brother, who died in the United States in 2020. Another obituary of Sylvia Holt, the matriarch of the Holts, proves that the families are related.
Private land in a community forest
Before CCC began harvesting, Merab received a communication from Haider. In the letter, Haider claimed that he owned 1,295 hectares of Mavasagueh’s 26,003-hectare rocky forestland. The plot is located between Mt. Findley and the St. John River. By that time, CCC’s harvesting had already been approved. Haider had first told the FDA about his claim in 2018.
This was no welcome news for Massaquoi or Merab. The FDA would have to cut off the problematic plot and redo the process, including new mapping, demarcation, and other elements, based on the Community Rights Law Regulation. It could involve coordinating with the Liberia Land Authority and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, a rarity among public institutions.
As a way to avoid that outcome, Merab encouraged Haider to compromise with Massaquoi to continue the operations, according to Haider and Massaquoi.
“The FDA asked me to see Mr. Haider. I met Haider and we talked,” said Massaquoi in a January interview with The DayLight. “Haider and I settled, and said he would work with the community and me, so the FDA should let the document be processed.”
Haider corroborated that account, disclosing that Massaquoi gave him US$1,500. “I assisted him when he wanted to go to the hospital,” said Massaquoi, calling Haider his stepbrother.
In an interesting turnaround, Haider now claims that a letter the FDA hinged its authorization of Massaquoi’s operations was forged. “I did not write that letter,” Haider said. “I know nothing about it. “He faked the whole letter and my signature.” Haider has written the FDA another letter requesting a redress after his initial letter went unanswered.
Massaquoi did not reply to questions for comments on the allegation. However, in the January interview, he claimed Haider had instructed him to write the letter on his behalf, which Haider signed.
Long before this, Amos Lewis, a Marshall, Margibi resident, wrote the FDA, claiming the same land as Haider. Both men’s deeds date back to Tubman’s era. Moreover, and more importantly, Lewis’s claim cements the reality that Mavasagueh overlaps with private land. This proves that the Mavasagueh process was flawed.
A sawmill on Merab’s family plot
Krish Veneer Industries’ operations present another conflict of interest for Merab. The sawmill is situated in Buchanan on a plot belonging to the Hills, Merab’s maternal family. It is infamous, as the Timber Management Corporation, operated by the Dutchman and eventual war criminal Guus Kowenhoven, occupied the facility between 1991 and 1997, Global Witness reported.
Two CCC trucks held in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County, after residents erected roadblocks in protest of an illegal community forest contract in March. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
“That place is for Merab’s mother and her family,” Haider said.
“Stephen Hill is managing the property; he is a cousin of Merab, and the plywood factory was there long before Merab,” added Massaquoi. “Merab is from Bassa, and the property is owned by his grandfather,” said Massaquoi.
There is more, though. Massaquoi is also Krish’s general manager, FDA records show. In his January interview, Massaquoi disclosed that Krish was crucial to his operations in Mavasagueh. “I have buyers. I can sell to my plywood factory. My buyers are in Buchanan,” said Massaquoi.
The evidence shows that Merab is caught between his relationships and his duty to enforce forestry laws and regulations. The evidence shows that his relationships are winning the conflicts.
Krish operates as a partnership in breach of the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications. The 2007 regulation states that a sawmill must be a corporation, as a partnership has a limited lifespan and liabilities. The provision stemmed from the Public Procurement and Concession Act, carved to safeguard against the government’s revenue loss.
Last year, the FDA authorized Krish to export 210 illegally harvested logs to Singapore. LiberTrace, the timber tracking system, found that all the logs had issues. Krish made at least three other shipments to that Asian country and the UAE, which had approximately 20 to 30 percent illegal timber.
FDA Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Victor Kpaiseh told Okay FM that the agency would act. However, some two months later, Krish’s remains a partnership. The Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC), which enforces contracts, has asked the FDA to investigate, according to a letter seen by The DayLight.
Meanwhile, with a workforce of 300 people, Krish is one of the most active companies in a generally quiet industry. It produces between 25,000 to 27,000 cubic meters per year, according to an official environmental report. From April and December last year, Krish exported at least 794 logs, even though its products are veneer—a decorated wooden material—and plywood.
Merab’s relationships with Massaquoi, Haider, and Krish, with the string of offences associated with those relationships, break the Code of Conduct. The code prohibits any conflict of interest, defined as “when a public official… exploits a relationship for personal benefit.” It guides government officials against “situations of conflict that impair, or may likely impair, the performance of their duties.
“No public official… should use an official position to pursue private interests that may result in a conflict of interest.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
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: Smoke billows from a sawmill operated by Krish Veneer Industries Incorporated in New Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
Residents in communities affected by Krish Veneer Industries’ sawmill in New Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, complain of daily noise and air pollution
Krish’s environmental permit requires a 50-meter distance from any residence. However, satellite imagery shows several homes much closer to the facility.
An independent verifier finds Krish complies with its environmental permit, but inconsistencies undermine findings.
The evidence establishes that the verifier doctored the report, covering up the sawmill’s pollution trail.
NEW BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – Seedaye Mingo, a grandmother in her 60s, sits and washes in front of her house, just a few yards from a large sawmill. For her, living near the sawmill, a fresh breeze has become a distant memory.
“The smoke can be black,” Mingo said. “It can smell.”
Mingo is one of several residents in five communities in New Buchanan, Lower Hardlandsville, who are impacted by the sawmill. Residents say they are experiencing some of these health issues. They complain of nonstop chainsaw buzzing and rattling from morning to evening, and smoke from the factory’s huge chimney clouds the entire area, covering everything. A video, shot by one resident, shows smoke billowing from the sawmill into the community.
Krish Veneer Industries, an Indian-owned company, runs the gigantic sawmill. Established in 2019, Krish produces and exports timbers, plywood, and veneer, a decorative wooden material. It has a workforce of 300 people and processes between 25,000 and 27,000 cubic meters of wood yearly. It was dedicated last May by Vice President Jeremiah Koung, which is likely the largest sawmill in the country.
Krish’s environmental permit requires the sawmill to be at least 50 meters away from any residence to prevent pollution. However, satellite imagery, analyzed by Nerisa Group of Companies, a DayLight affiliate, shows that several homes are just a few meters from the facility.
This indicates that residents such as Mingo are exposed to noise and invisible particles suspended in the air. Noise exposure, scientists warn, can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, and stress. Similarly, suspended particles can lead to heart and lung diseases in people, and impair visibility, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The smoke is getting us blind and making our children sick,” says Junior Toe, a resident of Peace community, which hosts the sawmill.
“The pollution is a serious problem. The smoke affects not only adults but also children,” said Pastor Charles Gray of Success Community.
Daniel Larwubah, EPA Grand Bassa County Coordinator, said the agency needed to conduct a study to confirm the community’s concerns. He says he will inform the head office in Monrovia to send a team to the area.
The sawmill also poses a more direct threat to residents. Last year, ashes from the flames transferred to Pastor Gray’s makeshift house. Fortunately for him, neighbors ran to his rescue and cut off the fire.
On another occasion, flames from burning wood waste caught a resident’s clothes just outside the facility.
“I decided to take the clothes from the sun, but the flames from the fire in the fence had already burned the shirt,” says Beatrice Jacobs. Paul Harris, the chairman of Prosser, and other residents, corroborate Jacobs’ story.
A map showing several residences less than 50 meters away from Krish Veneer Industries, a violation of the sawmill’s environmental permit. Nerisa Group of Companies for The DayLight
After those incidents, the community wrote Krish in January last year, complaining about the danger the sawmill posed to the neighborhood, but got no reply. Harris says they also wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia’s Buchanan office, but also got no reply.
So, in June that year, residents complained to the Office of the Superintendent of Grand Bassa County. Before her death, Superintendent Julia Bono held a conference between the community and Krish in June, a Ministry of Internal Affairs document shows.
In the meeting, the late Bono asked the company to find somewhere else to dispose of its waste, according to Harris. She died that November. However, Krish obeyed and stopped burning its wood wastes in the open. The DayLight observed that following several visits there, it remains the case.
A Krish contractor, who asked not to be named because he was unauthorized to speak, confirmed the change. “We use matches to light the fire and put big wood in the oven. The fire would burn throughout the day from 8 am to 8 pm,” he tells this reporter.
Larwubah admits to discussing with Harris about Krish. However, he denies receiving any communication, though the community mentioned that in their letter to the Office of the Superintendent.
Krish did not reply emailed questions on The DayLight’s findings and the residents’ allegations. The newspaper contacted a Krish executive, but he hung up the phone once this reporter introduced himself.
Inconsistencies
The EPA of Liberia certifies independent firms to conduct an environmental audit to find out whether the project complies with legal requirements. By law, the regulator fines a company that violates its permit provisions, based on the audit’s findings.
Smoke chimney mounted on top of the building, in the saw mill compound. Emmanuel Sherman/The DayLight
In Krish’s case, the Monrovia-based Environmental Consultancy Incorporated (ENCO) conducted the audit of the sawmill.
“Krish Veneer Industry is operating in a very effective and proficient manner in safeguarding the environment and its workforce…,” the audit report reads.
But residents dismiss those findings, saying they are unaware that ENCO conducted an environmental audit on the sawmill.
“Nothing of such,” says Joshua Howard, a spokesperson for the community. “They never came here in the community.”
ENCO determined Krish was “compliant” with the 50-meter provision. It established that the facility was a “well contained and [fenced].”
The satellite imagery, however, shows several homes just a few meters away from the sawmill’s fence, some 11, 12, 16 and 22 meters close to the facility. This evidence supports residents’ stories of flames from the company’s yard ending up on their premises next door.
Also, ENCO found that Krish did not employ an officer to handle community complaints in line with its environmental permit. Yet, ENCO marked Krish “compliant” in that area, an inconsistency.
The DayLight found other inconsistencies in the environmental audit report. ENCO reports that Krish respected cultural and historical sites, even though there are none in the community.
It found that Krish’s raw materials were from “outgrown rubber trees,” and that the community was forested. In reality, New Buchanan, where the sawmill sits, does not have a forest. Instead, it is one of the fastest-growing suburban communities with mushrooming homes and businesses on the Buchanan-River Cess highway.
A screenshot of Krish Veneer Industries shows findings inconsistent with scientific evidence gathered with the aid of satellite imagery.
ENCO misplaces its recommendations for finding in the “noise pollution” and “air quality control” portion of the report. It also mistakes findings for recommendations.
These inconsistencies, along with residents allegedly not partaking in the audit, prove that ENCO doctored the report, covering up Krish’s noncompliance.
The evidence indicates ENCO copied details from a 2024 report it had compiled for C&C Corporation (CCC) on the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Two, about a 30-minute drive away. Interestingly, CCC supplies Krish with logs, and both companies have the same general manager, Clarence Massaquoi.
The CCC report was as problematic as the Krish audit report. While assessing potential impacts of CCC’s operations, it consulted only 24 of 39 affected communities.
Townspeople would protest their exclusion, leading to fresh elections that ultimately incorporated the 15 towns and villages left out.
ENCO did not reply to emailed questions, and when contacted, declined to speak to The DayLight.
“Go and ask the EPA,” said James B. Konowa, ENCO’s lead environmental auditor, who is a mining engineer. “We are accountable to them, not to you.”
Integrity Watch Liberia provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over its content.
Top: Logs felled on 3,200 acres in the Mavasagueh Community Forest claimed by Khalil Haider. Mr. Haider has filed a US$5 million lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority and C&C Corporation. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – A man has filed a lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company for at least US$5 million over alleged damages to his private property in Grand Bassa’s District Number Two.
Khalil Haider accuses the FDA of authorizing C&C Corporation of harvesting trees on 3,200 acres of forestland in the Vambo Township, according to court filings.
“The FDA took my client’s property, and awarded it to a company, and the company has been [harvesting] logs on the property without the consent and acceptance of my client,” said Cllr. Vaani-Faate Kiawu, Haider’s lawyer.
The FDA and C&C Corporation did not respond to queries for comments.
Alleged forgery
Last year, the FDA authorized Mavasagueh as a community forest, covering 26,003 hectares. Then the new community forest signed a contract with C&C Corporation, co-owned and managed by Clearance Massaquoi, a logger active during the Second Liberian Civil War.
Shortly after, Haider wrote to the FDA, claiming the land in the company’s harvest blocks for this year. Haider, a resident of Paynesville, is the administrator of the interstate estate of his late mother, Rosa E. Dillion of Montserrado, court filings show.
Later, Haider asked C&C Corporation to settle with him or halt the harvesting. Instead, the FDA acted on a letter that the lawsuit alleges was forged, misspelling Haider as “Hajder,” ignoring the plaintiff’s notice.
The lawsuit alleges that Rudolph Merab, Haider’s “cousin,” appeared to be “exploiting the relationship to deprive [Haider] of his property rights by granting permission to C&C Corporation.
“The C&C has been cutting logs for over four months without the consent of [Haider] despite every effort to resolve the issue amicably,” it added.
The suit cited a decade-old survey, which found 21 species and 778 trees in every 100 acres of the land, valued at US$672 million, using approved prices.
The lawsuit referenced a provision of the National Forestry Reform Law, which recognizes that the state does not own forests on private plots.
“Although the FDA is a government agency responsible for… the regulation of forest resources…, it has illegally granted C&C Corporation to cull logs from the private property of the plaintiff.”
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Perhaps the most active forestry company in Liberia, Krish Veneer Industries exports round logs in addition to plywood and decorated wooden materials. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Over the weekend, Vice President Jeremiah Koung dedicated Krish Veneer Industries, perhaps the largest sawmill in Liberia.
Established in 2019, the Indian-owned Krish produces and exports timber, plywood and veneer, a decorated wooden material. It processes between 25,000 and 27,000 cubic meters of wood per year, according to an official environmental audit.
“This is a clear demonstration that India is not only a friend of Liberia in words but in deeds,” Koung told the dedication in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. He toured the facility before breaking ground. A crowd of officials, chiefs and elders celebrated the event with workers dressed in protective gear.
“We are happy because these kinds of investments employ our people. If most of the logs can be put into cubes, planks and other things before getting them out of here, there will be job creation,” added Koung.
It might have been Krish’s dedication; however, the company has been in the news several times over noncompliance with the law. The DayLight has compiled these well-documented facts about Krish with supporting evidence:
Ghost of ‘Blood Timber’
The location Krish occupies is a symbol of sub-regional wartime atrocities. Between 1991 and 1997, Guus Kouwenhoven, a Dutch gunrunner and eventual war criminal, operated the Timber Management Corporation from there.
Koung referenced the facility in his speech. “I know the TIMCO yard used to be around here where we used to burn coal,” he recalled. “We were those children around here doing the wheelbarrow from here to town to carry the coals.”
Picture taken on October 27, 1992, North of Monrovia showing ULIMO members of the Maquis patrolling the area and searching for NPFL members. (Photo by Alain BOMMENEL / AFP)
TIMCO’s logs helped fuel the First Liberian Civil War (1989 – 1997). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that it and other companies illegally traded arms to Liberian militias and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone, leading to mass killings of civilians.
This became known as “blood timber,” “conflict timber,” and “logs of war.” Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf mentioned it in a recent opinion.
Both Kouwenhoven and his business partner, ex-President Charles Taylor, were convicted of war crimes for their role in the murderous trade. Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison. Kouwenhoven, meanwhile, was sentenced to 19 years in absentia by a Dutch court while he lives in South Africa.
Krish Illegally Operates
Krish is a partnership, not a corporation, as required by the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications and the Public Procurement Concession Act. According to its partnership agreement as of March this year, Antique Ahmed and Kamal Parwini are Indian nationals with 57 percent and 43 percent shares, respectively.
The legal instruments restrict forestry companies to corporations, not partnerships. They are a safeguard against the limited liabilities and lifespans of partnerships, as opposed to corporations.
The Public Procurement and Concession Commission has asked the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to investigate Krish’s business status, according to a letter, seen by The DayLight.
A screenshot of Krish’s partnership agreement
Furthermore, Krish’s head office is in Buchanan, per its legal documents. That violates the National Forestry Reform Law, which calls for all sawmills to have their main offices in Monrovia. This rule is consistent with a provision of a repealed law that was used to hold TIMCO accountable in 2005.
Krish Rents from the FDA Boss’ Family
The land where Krish operates belongs to the family of the FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab. Merab inherited the plot from Rose Hill James, his late mother, who inherited it from Merab’s grandfather.
“Merab is from Bassa, and the property is owned by his grandfather,” said Clarence Massaquoi, Merab’s cousin. “Stephen Hill is managing the property; he is a cousin of Merab’s.
A screenshot of an obituary of Edward Merab, Rudolph Marab’s late elder brother, confirms the FDA Managing Director is a member of the Hill family, which owns the land Krish rents.
Khalil Haider, another of Merab’s cousins, corroborated that information. “That place is for Merab’s mother and her family,” Haider said.
The two men’s comments are confirmed by an obituary of Edward, Merab’s elder brother, which shows that the FDA’s boss is a member of the Hill family, the property’s original owners.
This establishes that Merab is caught between two interests involving Krish: a landlord and a forestry regulator. Such a clash breaks the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which prohibits Merab from “situations of conflict that impair, or are likely to impair, the performance of their official duties.”
Krish’s Manager is Merab’s Cousin
Turns out, Clarence Massaquoi is not only Merab’s cousin but also Krish’s manager, according to FDA records.
Massaquoi is also an ex-employee of Liberia Wood Management Corporation, Merab’s wartime company. “I worked with Merab from 1999 to 2007 in a managerial role,” he told The DayLight in January.
Noteworthy, Massaquoi is ineligible to conduct logging activities in Liberia due to his wartime role. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications states that wartime loggers must confess their crimes and restitute unpaid or stolen funds, something Massaquoi did not do.
A screenshot of a Krish export permit showing Clarence Massaquoi in the manager’s row.
Krish Benefits from an Unlawful Contract
Krish’s illegal logging love story with Merab and Massaquoi does not end with the pair’s family and work relationships.
Krish does business with C&C Corporation, Massaquoi’s own company. Now C&C has a contract with the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a few miles away from Krish. “I can sell to my plywood factory. My buyers are in Buchanan,” Massaquoi said.
However, C&C’s contract did not follow the law, as the FDA had bypassed legal steps in Mavasagueh’s formation. There are nine steps in the formation of a community forest, characterized by locals’ participation and consent.
In Mavasagueh’s case, some communities adjacent to the forest were left out, there was inadequate awareness, and even people in the communities that the FDA recognized did not participate in the 26,003-hectare forest’s mapping exercise.
Civil Society organizations criticized the formation of the Mavasagueh Community Forest.
The FDA ignored the issues that actors raised, including the absence of civil society organizations during Mavasagueh’s election, which is a requirement.
Matters worsened when Merab allowed Mavasagueh to overlap private land, violating the Community Rights Regulation. Khalil Haider, Merab’s cousin and Paynesville resident, claims 3,200 acres in Mavasagueh.
Haider, who said he was Massaquoi’s step-brother, revealed Merab encouraged him to drop his claim for the contract to continue. Though Merab ignored The DayLight’s queries for his side of the story, Massaquoi corroborated the claim. “Haider and I settled… so the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi said.
Krish Exports Illegal Timber
April last year, Krish exported 210 logs (1,243 cubic meters), illegally harvested, to Singapore. LiberTrace, the FDA’s computerized system that tracks timber, had red-flagged the logs, but Merab still approved their shipment.
Out of the 210 logs, 66 had minor issues, including differences between their species, sizes and lengths in the system, and the ones exported. A whopping 144, or nearly 70 percent of the consignment, had major errors. There were 66 of these logs whose harvest had not been approved by the FDA.
Krish exported at least three other times to Singapore and the UAE, with some 20 to 30 percent of the logs illegal.
C&C Corporation trucks transport logs from Mavasagueh Community Forest to Krish Veneer Industries. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: C&C Corporation’s bush manager, Askew Varney, standing before two earthmovers in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – Last November, a Du Port Road resident filed a complaint with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), claiming a large plot in a Grand Bassa community forest. About a month later, Khalil Haider agreed to bargain with the company contracted for the forest and the townspeople.
But in an interesting twist, Mr. Haider now alleges that Clarence Massaquoi, C&C Corporation’s CEO, forged the bargaining letter from which the FDA approved the company’s operations in the Mavasagueh Community Forest.
“I did not write that letter,” Haider said. “I know nothing about it. “He faked the whole letter and my signature.”
Massaquoi and the FDA did not respond to queries for their side of the story.
Last August, Mavasagueh leased 26,003 hectares of forest to CCC in exchange for development. The forest is owned by communities across Vambo and Marloi Townships in Grand Bassa County’s Compound Number Two.
About three months later, Haider wrote the FDA that he owned 3,200 acres of land in the forest. The problematic plot lies between Mt. Findley and the St. John River, presenting a Tubman-era deed seen by The DayLight.
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab encouraged Haider to negotiate with Mavasagueh and C&C, according to Haider and Massaquoi. Haider agreed and consented to CCC’s operation, though such a compromise is not backed by law.
As part of the compromise, Haider requested US$3,500, but Massaquoi gave him US$1,500, which he disclosed was used to settle his hospital bills.
Then something happened. Locals protested for their exclusion from the community forest process, thrusting Mavasagueh under the spotlight. The three-day protest was called off after the police, Representative Clarence Banks of District 2, and county officials intervened.
To understand the problem, Banks secured Haider’s letter, which was sent to the FDA last year. Haider then realized Massaquoi had allegedly written the FDA in his name. Efforts to reach Banks did not materialize as he is out of Liberia and has not replied to WhatsApp messages.
The controversial letter—obtained by The DayLight—is consistent with a forgery, as it misspells Haider’s full name.
Haider threatened to go to court when he returned from a medical trip. “I will sue C&C [Corporation] for doing this fake thing,” he said.
Haider has rewritten the FDA again on the alleged forgery.
C&C Corporation’s truckloads of timber leaving Vambo Township in mid-March. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
“I am writing you to inquire about the letter that I wrote to you on April 16, 2025, complaining about a fake letter that was given to you by the C&C Corporation claiming that I waived all claims against them,” the letter read.
“I have not received any response from your entity,” added the letter, addressed to Merab.
The forgery allegation is the latest in a series of problems associated with Mavasagueh. Besides, Haider, Amos Lewis, a Marshall resident, claims the same plot as Haider. Mavasagueh was established without the participation of neighboring communities. CCC’s contract was illegally approved because Massaquoi, a wartime logger, is barred from forestry, based on the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications. Krish Veneer Industries, a sawmill in Buchanan to which Massaquoi sells Mavasagueh’s logs, is illegitimate.
By law, the FDA is supposed to halt CCC’s operations and reestablish Mavasagueh, including removing the controversial plot. However, the agency has permitted the contract amid mounting illegalities.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Trucks transporting logs are stuck on a road in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County, after community protesters set up roadblocks, demanding benefits. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
VAMBO, Grand Bassa – People claiming landowners of a community forest have protested against a company for allegedly sidelining them in a logging contract.
The aggrieved citizens of Vambo Township set roadblocks to prevent C&C Corporation (CCC) from transporting logs to Buchanan. Over 10 towns and villages, including Gblorso, Vahzohn, Baryogar, Boe, and Cee, participated in the protest.
“We have decided to set roadblocks because of the mismanagement of our resources without understanding,” said Abel Payway, youth chair.
“We did not sign the agreement with them, only a few groups of people. They formed a clique and did what they could without consultation with the citizens,” added Payway.
Last year, CCC signed a logging contract with 39 towns and villages adjacent to the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a 26,003-hectare woodland, in exchange for development.
But everything about the deal was illegal. An environmental assessment of the impacts of the CCC’s operation left out 15 towns and villages. Mavasagueh had been illegally established, and the company is ineligible for logging activities, a report review found, which a DayLight series corroborated. Some towns had criticized the Mavasagueh process for excluding them.
The protest followed months of failed negotiation. It echoes the illegalities of CCC’s operations and foreshadows likely future hostilities.
Rebecca Gblorso, a middle-aged protester, did not mince her words during a Daylight interview. “The company started extracting our logs without any benefit. They started hauling our logs last week Thursday. We feel bad and angry so we set the roadblock,” Gblorso said.
Jacob Cee, an elder in his late 80s was among the protesters.
“I am here to protect my township. I speak for all my elders, so when something is happening here and is not right I represent my community,” said Cee.
“The protest is a wake-up call for the company to meet our needs,” said Vambo’s Commissioner Nathaniel Clarke.
Daniel Dayougar, Vambo’s ex-commissioner and now CCC’s community liaison officer, refutes the protesters’ claim. “Togar Town is out,” said Dayougar, who is accused of handpicking the forest’s leaders.
Horace backs Dayougar. “Those towns that did the protest are not within the [contract area].”
The protest lasted three days and ended when police arrived on the third day.
Misapplication of US$6,000
Clarke and the protesters also demanded accountability for a US$6,000 CCC paid to the community forest leadership. The company had deposited the money into the community’s account.
Askew Varney, CCC’s bush manager, confirmed the company deposited the fund.
“My boss called and said the money given to the community had been mismanaged. I expected the [community leaders to meet] to say, ‘This is what the company has brought to us.’ There is no awareness going on. So, if they are going on with the protest they are right,” Varney said.
One of the roadblocks in Vambo Township that stopped C&C Corporation from transporting logs. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
But instead of spending the money on community forest guards and health benefits, Mavasagueh’s leaders bought motorbikes and pills, according to Stephen Horace, one of the leaders. Horace said he had not seen the money but confirmed it had been misapplied.
Last week, at a Buchanan meeting to mediate between the protesters and the company, Representative Clarence Banks of Grand Bassa Electoral District Two and Superintendent Karyou Johnson suspended Mavasagueh’s leadership.
However, Representative Banks and Superintendent Karyou do not have any legal power to suspend the leadership. That power lies in Mavasagueh’s community assembly, its highest decision-maker, and the FDA. The FDA did not immediately respond to queries.
Isaac Tukar, Mavasagueh’s leader, denied any wrongdoing. “I am not in the know of any suspension,” Tukar said. “I am in the Guehsuah Section and doing my work.”
Representative Banks, told Okay FM, a DayLight affiliate, Vambo was awaiting the outcome of a three-week ultimatum CCC to address the protesters’ concerns.
“It is my citizens, that closed the roads. Give me three weeks, I will work with the Superintendent,” said Banks. “If the company does not listen to the issues that will be raised, “I will close it down legally.”
[Additional reporting by Ojuku Kangar]
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Logs appear undersized and spread out, with an earthmover in the background. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a series on the illegalities of a new community forest in Grand Bassa County.
VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – Early last month, The DayLight started a series on a newly established community forest, documenting a string of illegalities involving the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company.
So far, the series has published evidence that the FDA illegally established the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. The agency approved Mavasagueh’s logging contract with the C&C Corporation (CCC), owned by an ineligible logger, Clarence Massaquoi, who also, manages an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan.
The DayLight has, however, gathered additional evidence of the FDA’s breach of forestry’s legal provisions, cementing initial findings of the regulator’s wrongdoings.
‘Embarrassing’
Twenty-four out of 39 or nearly 40 percent of the communities that own Mavasagueh participated in an environmental and social impact assessment conducted on the community forest, according to a report. The study, which took place between October and November last year, after the FDA awarded Mavasagueh a community forest status, shows the signatures of representatives of the participating towns.
A legal requirement for logging contracts, the report clearly shows that 15 towns and villages were left out of the process, including Gblorso Town and others in the Vambo Township, which hosts a large portion of forest in that area.
This evidence confirms a previous finding that many communities did not participate in Mavasagueh’s formation. Townspeople alleged that ex-Vambo Commissioner Daniel Dayougar handpicked members of Mavasagueh’s leadership, with some unaware of their roles. Dayougar, who was involved with another bogus deal in 2020, denies the allegation.
Civil society organizations flagged those issues when they reviewed Mavasagueh’s documents last year. They asked that the FDA ensure people participate in the boundary process. Residents The DayLight interviewed corroborated the findings.
Mavasagueh Community Forest supposedly overlaps 3,200 acres of private land. Picture credit: James Giahyue
The new evidence shows the forest’s original name, Vambo-Marloi, was changed to Mavasagueh, a play on Marloi, Vambo, Gorzoah and Sawbein. Like Vambo, Marloi is a township, while Gorzoah and Sawbein are clans.
The name Mavasagueh remains an issue, though.
“The combined name is embarrassing to every one of us,” said Nathaniel Clarke, Commissioner of Vambo Township. “We were not combined with any other forest.
The FDA did not answer why Vambo-Marloi, the name recorded in last year’s forestry sector review, was changed to Mavasagueh. The regulator did not respond to the newspaper’s questions, for this story or previous parts of this series.
A 2018 letter
The first part of this series established that the FDA ignored a claim laid by Khalil Haider, a resident of Monrovia, to 3,200 acres of land between the St. John River and Mt. Findley, which overlaps Mavasagueh’s 26,003 hectares. A Google Earth map of the area Haider’s claim falls within in the first compartment CCC intends to operate.
Then a second person Amos Lewis, a resident of Marshall, Margibi, is also claiming the same plot as Haider. Like Haider, Lewis has informed the FDA about his claim. Both men have presented a Tubman-era deed to substantiate their claim.
Lewis and Haider’s claims are sufficient for the FDA to call off the contract between Mavasagueh. The community forest handbook requires the FDA to investigate and potentially slice the problematic plot from the community forest. The claims prove that the demarcation and mapping of Mavasagueh was not participatory.
Mechanics standing by a CCC earthmover parked for maintenance in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The Daylight/Emmanuel Sherman
The compromise has several implications, according to forestry experts. First, CCC has more forest blocks to cut in a season, as the size of the forest determines the number of blocks. Second CCC can harvest at a faster rate—even, if the company does not cut logs in the area Haider is claiming, since the forest contains the supposedly private plot. Third, Mavasagueh overlaps a private plot, contradicting a community forest’s description: a forest on a community or customary land.
But that is not all. One of the new pieces of evidence is a letter Haider wrote to the FDA in 2018, informing it about his claim to the 3,200 acres.
The letter, obtained by The DayLight, read, “We are getting ready to do some farming projects on our land. But because of the road condition and bridges, we are asking your authority to allow us to market the existing marketable species, which will enable us to generate some funds.” Haider claimed he wrote several other letters to the FDA over the years.
Haider’s letters prove one of two things: First, the FDA ignored his communication. Or the regulator lost it, leading him to write the agency again last year. Notably, this appears to confirm a flawed process, and a finding from last year’s forestry concession review that the FDA did not keep proper records.
An illegal compromise
FDA has sanctioned CCC’s operations despite the mounting illegalities associated with the Mavasagueh-CCC contract.
Photographs and videos shot by The DayLight show apparent undersized logs CCC harvested. The woods are visible in the video spread out in an open field.
Last week the Mavasagueh-CCC contract was read to residents. Though signed in August last year, it was the first time, the townspeople had seen or read the document.
Managing Director Rudolph Merab encouraged CCC and Haider to compromise to avoid the FDA from repeating the process, according to Haider, one of the private land claimants and CCC’s owner 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 in January. He added he empathized with Massaquoi because CCC spent a lot of money paving over 15 kilometers of a major road in the community.
This Google Earth map shows Mavasagueh overlaps a supposedly private land, rendering the community forest area unlawful.
“Haider and I settled, and he would work with the community and me so, the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi told a DayLight interview.
Massaquoi, who conducted a failed logging operation in Grand Cape Mount in the 2010s, covering just 5,000 hectares, is confident of success this time around. He intends to sell logs to Krish Veneer Industries, an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan he manages. A DayLight investigation found that the Indian-owned Krish is not a corporation, a legal requirement for forestry companies.
As organized as the plan seems, it is not backed by law.
Per the community forest handbook—based on the law—the FDA must “review objections, contact and meet with objectors, and use customary dispute resolution mechanism.” It further requires the FDA to work with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Land Authority to establish a community forest area.
“If required, the FDA and [the] community repeat the demarcation process…”
