Top: A view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

GANTA, Nimba County – Local communities are firm on conserving their forests but they want direct benefits from doing so.

“We’ve noticed that not giving funds directly to communities led to too many bureaucracies with limited social and economic impacts on the communities,” said Anthony Sumo, a community leader in the Proposed Wologizi and Wonegizi Protected Areas in Lofa County. The areas are part of the Wologizi-Wonegizi-Ziama belt, extending Guinea and connecting to Sierra Leone, and home to the critically endangered pigmy hippopotamus.

“Every day we hear about the money coming, but not much of how much development it brought to the community. There is a need to change things around.”

Sumo is one of 41 people from northern and northeastern Liberia who attended a recent meeting in Ganta, Nimba County to identify new ways local people could benefit from keeping their forests standing.

Their views and an emerging report on options Liberia could pursue to generate revenue will be developed into a proposal and turned over to the government and international partners for possible action.

The Community Rights Law… and Land Rights Act grant locals ownership of ancestral territories. Up to 75 percent of Liberia’s land is under customary control, including 1.3 million hectares of community forests and 1 million large-scale logging concessions.

Locals also support Liberia’s commitments to combat climate change, including halving deforestation, restoring a quarter of its degraded forests and reducing gases from forest use.  A host of communities run conservation programs and support protected and proposed protected areas, covering 1.14 million hectares.

Yet those communities have not significantly gained from forest resources over the last one and a half decades.  Failed logging contracts have left debts, abandoned logs and anger countrywide, while communities have struggled to profit from local conservation efforts.

“Any benefits that come from preserving the forests should go directly to the people, instead of passing through multiple organizations or international people,” said Sumo in an interview with The DayLight. “That’s what we have been asking for.”

Those views were echoed by other community leaders in Salayea, Blei, Sehyi Ko-doo and Zor and Gba. 

Robert Mahn, a leader of the Zor Community Forest in the Sanniquellie-Mahn District of Nimba, said direct benefits were necessary for residents to manage and maintain ownership.  The mountainous Zor, Gba and Blei are conservation community forests adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve, an 11,538-hectare forest that is home to chimpanzees and the Nimba toad.  

“I feel that direct funding will boost our CLDMC’s involvement in decision-making, helping us use our benefits more effectively,” said Mahn.

“The people depended on these forests from our ancestral days. Now that you want them to manage and protect it in other ways, you need to provide benefits like soap-making, women’s arts, tailoring, village saving loans, animal raring, and more,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Authorized Forest Community.

Eight thousand two hundred and seventy hectares Lofa County, Salayea, runs a conservation program, focusing on livelihood projects Mulbah mentioned.

But other attendees, including Grace Kotee, a ranger with the East Nimba Nature Reserve, caution against mismanagement. They referenced an instance in the Korninga A Community Forest in Gbarpolu, where townsmen were tried for allegedly misusing US$76,000.

“We think that providing direct benefits to communities is a good idea but we have a little bit of concern about this. There should be a process or system put in place that will make them to be accountable,” said Kotee.

All parties agreed NGOs were crucial to communities’ conservation efforts. However, most frowned on NGOs implementing projects for communities.  

Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Authorized Community Forest, called on conservation donors and the government to empower communities.  

The community has planted 30,000 indigenous and fruit trees, one of the highest totals in the country. Sehyi Ko-doo has an MoU with ArcelorMittal Liberia in which the company pays a dozen local forest guards a monthly stipend.

“We want to get things done,” Flomo told The DayLight at Sehyi Ko-doo’s border with Gba amid the hooting of chimpanzees. “We just need the right training and resources to succeed.”

Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who was one of the workshop’s facilitators, welcomed the participants’ views.

“By protecting their resources, they can access funds tied to conservation ownership,” said Siakor. “The objective is to identify other sources of economic benefits and revenue that you can use for your own development as a community, as an incentive for you to better manage your forest.

“The idea is to balance conservation with community needs.”

The next discussions will be held in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. After that, Inclusive Development Consultancy will draft the proposal on how communities can benefit from sustainably managing their forest.