Top: The Liberian government delays paying communities their benefits from logging concessions, covering a million hectares of forests. The DayLight/Derick Snyder   

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – The Liberian government owes large-scale Logging-affected communities approximately US$9 million in land rental for hot, dark forests, covering a million hectares, a new report has found.  

Since 2009, the government collected US$12.9 million in land rental payments from logging companies for the communities, according to the report, published by US-based NGO Forest Trend. However, it has only transferred US$4 million to a watchdog, which disburses the fund to locals.

“A failure to share land rental payments risks undermining not just the forestry sector, and the rule of law in Liberia, but the development of communities across the country,” said Dr. Arthur Blundell, its author.

Per the National Forestry Reform Law, land rentals are calculated at US$2.50 per hectare for large-scale contracts and US$1.25 for small-scale contracts. The law requires the government to remit 30 percent of the fees to the communities.   

Then the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board supervises locals’ expenditure of funds through their governance structures, known as a community forest development committee or CFDC.

The process is a breakaway from prewar and wartime logging practices, where forest resources did not benefit communities.

In 2021 and 2022 logging-affected communities staged protests over the government’s failure to pay their share of land rentals. 

So, in 2023 a transitory account was set up at the United Bank of Africa to ensure timely remittance of the fees to communities. Unlike a previous arrangement, the account allows communities’ benefits to be directly transferred to the Trust’s account, instead of the government’s consolidated account.

Yet, only one payment of US$83,663.84 has been made since its establishment last year, according to the Trust.

“For this to work, the [government], should ensure that invoiced land rental (and any arrears) are paid by the logging companies,” says the report. It recommends that the government fast-track the payment process, beginning with the US$9 million already collected.

“The Board wants a more robust money transfer from the transitory account to the Trust. Timely transfer of payment avoids the government’s diversion,” said Roberto Kollie, head of the Trust’s secretariat.

The delayed payments have dealt a blow to logging communities, with dozens of projects—schools, clinics, and town halls—stalled.

Shortly after the report’s publication, the government paid US$300,000, representing 40 percent of the US$746,294 allocated in the 2024 National Budget.

Blundell welcomed the payment but urged the government to pay the remaining 60 percent of the budgetary allocation and the unpaid one from the previous fiscal year.

“President [Joseph] Boakai should demonstrate real leadership, right historic wrongs, and help further the development of Liberia’s rural people most affected by industrial logging,” Blundell said.

The Forestry Development Authority did not immediately respond to The DayLight’s queries.

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).