Top: Some of the 431 logs Iroko Timber and Logging Company harvested and took about a year and six months to export. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Esau J. Farr
MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted the export of 2,549 cubic meters of abandoned logs, failing to punish the company involved, and losing substantial revenue.
Iroko Logging and Timber Company exported two consignments of logs on May 7 and July 18 last year, based on official documents. The combined 431 logs were shipped to Chittagong, Bangladesh via the cargo ship MV Nimeh.
But that was more than one-and-a-half years after the logs were harvested in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe County.
Iroko had harvested the logs in October 2022, per the Nigerian-owned company’s website and Facebook page. It only transported the 431 logs from the Jaedae District woodland to an open field near Greenville in February and March last year, residents and other sources said.
That violates the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products. The 2017 regulation requires all logs to be transported, processed, or exported between three weeks and six months after harvesting.
If a log stays in a particular location outside the regulatory timeframe, the FDA is obligated to investigate, auction the logs, or fine the company that harvested them. The fine includes a tenth, a twentieth and a fortieth of twice the total value of the abandoned logs, depending on the species classes.
Because the FDA did not do that with Iroko, the government lost US$103,387, according to The DayLight’s analysis, based on the export permits and the regulation.
To arrive at the fine, the newspaper grouped each species of the logs and doubled their volumes. Next, it multiplied the total volumes by their corresponding, FDA-approved prices and added those products. Then it added all of the first-class species, based on the FDA’s categorization, and found 10 percent of that sum.
The newspaper did the same with the second-class ones, finding five percent of the sum this term. Finally, it added the percentage values of the two classes to establish what should have been Iroko’s fine and the government’s revenue.
The loss of US$103,387 comes when the forestry sector faces a downturn in revenue generation. From July 2021 to December 2022, the sector generated US$7.65 million, the least in the extractive sector despite Liberia holding the largest patches of West Africa’s remaining rainforests.
That figure could be more, though. Iroko left several logs in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest, according to residents.
A screenshot from Iroko Timber and Logging Company’s Facebook page showing the logs were harvested on October 14, 2022, more than one-and-a-half years before they exported.
Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the community forest, corroborated the residents’ account. Togba said villagers had counted over 60 logs in the woodland on the border with Grand Kru. “There were more logs,” he said, and there would be an additional counting.
Following the second of two DayLight investigations last year, the FDA promised to investigate Iroko over the logs’ abandonment but did not. The regulator did not respond to queries for comment.
From July to August last year, Iroko paid the Liberian government US$173,432, covering export, land rental and other fees. The evidence, however, shows that the company owed the government US$16,263 in land rental fees.
That August, Iroko asked the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) to pay the balance due in September and October. The LRA agreed.
“If we default on this agreement, our tax debt may be referred to the Ministry of Justice to sue for the unpaid tax and or court’s authorization to seize and sell our property,” the agreement’s terms and conditions read.
But the money has not been paid, according to Iroko’s tax payment record, seen by The DayLight. Despite months of notice, Iroko and the LRA did not respond to inquiries for comments.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) pays Mr. Isaac Grigsby a board sitting fee through a proxy despite the fact he lives in the United States of America. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) pays a member of its board of directors who lives in the United States fee for meetings he does not attend, according to official documents obtained by The DayLight.
In March, President Joseph Boakai appointed Isaac Grigsby, an 80-year-old resident of New Jersey, on the FDA board. Since then, Grigsby has been receiving board-sitting fees through Gabriel Flaboe, a project coordinator at the Ministry of Public Works.
Grigsby informed FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab about the payment procedure in May, based on a letter obtained by The DayLight. “You are hereby authorized to issue the board fees in the name of Mr. Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe each time he [serves as a] proxy for me,” Grigsby wrote.
Accordingly, Merab forwarded the communication to the Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Victor Kpaiseh to process Grigsby’s payment. “Please act accordingly,” Merab requested on May 13.
That same day, Flaboe received L$131,625, the equivalent of US$500 for sitting fees, US$50 for communication and 25 gallons of fuel for transportation.
The board of directors, which comprises seven other people, is crucial to the running of the FDA. It has oversight over the formulation of regulations, codes and manuals governing the forestry sector. It provides direction for the FDA, passes resolutions and approves the agency’s organizational structure.
A letter Isaac Grigsby wrote to the Forestry Development Authority appointing Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe to receive board sitting fees on his behalf.One of the checks Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe, Sr. received on behalf of Isaac Grigsby, a member of the FDA board of directors
And the stakes are even higher now, with widespread violations and forest degradation, while the sector struggles to generate revenue.
Quorum
The board does not have a code or bylaw regulating its activities. However, Grigsby collecting board payments while residing in a foreign country violates the FDA Act of 1976. The law requires payment for directors who sit in board meetings, not absent ones through proxies.
In fact, it has a provision for absent board directors. “They may receive [from] the authority a stipend for each meeting attended and reimbursement for all expenses they incur in discharging their duties to the authority,” the law states. “A quorum for any meeting of the Board shall be a majority of its members.”
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries for comment on the matter. Merab’s failure to respond comes barely a month after he bragged of denying journalists required access to public information and evading interviews.
“I don’t run my office in the press but when there is something like I told people I would call a press conference,” Merab told a media event last December. “I will speak once and I will try to make myself clear. After that, I will not speak again.”
Flaboe positively identified Grigsby in a photo The DayLight downloaded from Grigsby’s Facebook page. He said Grisby was his uncle. However, he did not answer why he was receiving board-sitting fees for his uncle who does not live in Liberia, and whether Grigsby was sharing the board fees with him.
Similarly, Grigsby did not respond to queries.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s members in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
SEHYI-GEH, Nimba County – Villagers in a northeastern clan seek support to keep their forest amid huge challenges.
On 22 February 2017, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest signed a community forest management agreement that authorized the community to manage its forest.
“We have planted trees and established a management body to protect the forest,” says Ericson Flomo, the leader of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest as The DayLight tours one of the replanting sites.
“We have also put in place other measures to empower the people. We did this realizing that conservation is the best way to save our forest and the environment,” adds Flomo.
“We need resources, training, and capacity building to maintain and grow this initiative. Strengthening our workforce is critical to these efforts.”
The 1,538-hectare forest is next to the East Nimba Nature Reserve (ENNR), a biodiversity hotspot home to rare wildlife, including African elephants, chimpanzees, and golden cats. The FDA and its international partners see Sehyi Ko-doo and neighboring community forests as important for the ENNR’s protection.
In the past, the region hosted logging, hunting, mining and farming, activities that caused deforestation, habitat loss, and threatened species.
Thus, locals are rethinking ways they can benefit from forest resources without cutting down trees or degrading the forests. From 2002 to 2023, Liberia lost 347,000 hectares of primary forest, making up 15 percent of its total tree cover loss, according to the Global Forest Watch, which analyzes satellite images to track deforestation worldwide.
Reforestation
To help solve this problem, Sehyi Ko-doo runs a reforestation program, a community forest guard service and alternative livelihood activities.
Launched in 2019, the project has seen the replanting of 30,000 trees, including 28,000 indigenous species. It is one of the largest reforestation initiatives in the country.
The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest covers 1,538 hectares in the Sanniquellie-Mahn District of Nimba County. Varney Kamara/The DayLight
Moreover, Sehyi Ko-doo has put 15,000 trees in nurseries, which have produced high yields. They plan to establish a regional laboratory for plant and medical research.
But there are challenges. Locals do not have a water pump machine so, they water the nurseries manually. Furthermore, the distance between the clan and where volunteers collect seeds on the Guinea border is too far. Volunteers, including Otis Flomo, must make the sacrifice. (The Flomos of Sehyi Ko-doo are all related one way or the other, according to a local legend)
“We can go in the bush, bring the seeds before putting them on the ground nursery,” Otis Flomo tells our reporter. The nursery site is on the banks of a river on the Sehyikimpa-Karnplay highway. “We want to appeal to the people to give us one motorbike to be carrying them.”
Forest guards
For effective monitoring, Sehyi Ko-doo has a team of townsmen who regularly patrol the forest to track illegal activities. ArcelorMittal Liberia the project’s main funder, provides a monthly compensation for the guards.
The company has backed conservation projects in the region, including Sehyi Ko-doo’s neighbors: Blei, Zor and Gba Community Forests. It sees the protection of adjacent forests as an important part of managing the ENNR alongside the FDA.
But the support has proved insufficient. Sehyi Ko-doo wants that to increase the guards from 12 to 20. Volunteers lack training, and equipment and need a pay raise.
“Each patrol we make helps us to ensure our forest remains a home for wildlife,” says Emmanuel Flomo. We are also appealing so that the people can add some money to our pay because it is small.”
Emmanuel Flomo’s voice echoes in the forest as he speaks. There were no sounds or signs of logging, mining, or wildlife hunting. The noise from chainsaws and earthmovers that once vibrated in the rocky woodland has been replaced by the original cawing of birds, hooting of chimpanzees and rustling leaves from the footsteps of forest guards.
“What we earn here is nothing compared to the work we do. But we continue to work because the benefits of this project extend to the entire community,” says Charles Mele, the nursery supervisor.
Alternative livelihoods
The forest guard service aside, Sehyi Ko-doo runs an alternative livelihoods program to keep locals from the forest. It offers a variety of skills such as women’s arts and crafts, traditional tie dye, tailoring, soap-making, and computer literacy.
Also, Sehyi Ko-doo is building its headquarters in Sehyi-Geh. When completed, the structure will consist of a 250-person conference center and four offices.
It was built with US$42,000 from Solway Mining Inc., which had an iron ore exploration contract with Sehyi Ko-doo, and funds from ArcelorMittal.
Sehyi Ko-doo headquarters will host a 250-person conference center and four offices. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“Our forefathers saw the need to protect the forest and its resources. As members of the current generation, we are under obligation to protect this heritage to save the unborn generation,” says Flomo.
“Now, we have a collective responsibility to repair the damage and ensure future generations benefit from the forest.”
Top: Korninga wants the FDA to supervise the review of a logging contract between it and Coveiyala Investment Enterprise. The DayLight/James Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
KORNINGA CHIEFDOM – A Community forest in Gbarpolu County is demanding a review of its contract with a logging company, following five years of stalemate, contrasting with the celebrations that greeted the deal.
Korninga ‘A’ Community Forest and Coveiyala Investment Enterprise signed the 15-year contract in 2019 after the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) certified the community. Korninga leased 48,296 hectares of forest land to Coveiyala for logging purposes. However, the parties have not reviewed the contract as required by law.
“We are seeking renegotiation,” says Emery Ciapha, Korninga’s chief officer. “Up to the present, Coveiyala has failed to come and sit with the people of Korninga Community for the review.”
Legal battle
Coveiyala has had an internal conflict for over three years and counting, which has stalled the Korninga contract. In 2022, Lu Li, a Chinese national with 90 percent shares, and Anthony Urey, his Liberian partner and the company’s president, with the remaining shares, got into a fierce legal battle. It led the Commercial Court in Monrovia to halt the company’s operations.
The court lifted the injunction following an agreement between Messrs. Lu and Urey earlier this year. After that, Coveiyala began to focus on the contract’s renewal, with a series of communication exchanges with locals in May.
In an October letter, Urey suggested that the review be done in early November and the signing on the 15th of that month.
But Ciapha rejected his suggestion because Urey had allegedly singlehandedly made the decision. “It was not signed or attested. It is not an individual that the Korninga Authorized Community Forest is working with. We are working with an entity called Coveiyala, [not with Mr. Urey as an individual],” Ciapha tells The DayLight in a phone interview.
Urey refutes Ciapha’s comments, saying he often writes on behalf of Coveiyala. He also argues that Korninga did not raise any contention with him when he sent the letter.
“If it were so, they should have written me back and informed me and say, ‘Mr. Urey, it should be this way or that way,’” says Urey via phone. “If there was any document, definitely, I was going respond to it. I was going to say, “Ok, I accept it,’ and the three parties could sign it.”
Amid the disagreement, Korninga has asked the FDA to review the contract, Coveiyala’s debts, and the company’s failure to implement contractual projects.
Coveiyala owed the community US$102,304.75 in land rental, US$30,000 in scholarship fees, and unspecified harvesting and other fees, based on the contract, the community and documents.
Regarding projects, Coveiyala did not build health facilities and a wood science college as promised. It built two latrines but Korninga rejected them based on the construction materials.
“None of the promises made were actualized by the company during the five years the company has operated in the community. Based on this, we are calling for an immediate review of the agreement,” Korninga’s letter to the FDA read.
Emery Ciapha, the leader of Korninga A Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue
It is unclear how much the Coveiyala owes locals for harvesting. However, before the lawsuit, the company left many logs in the forest and a log yard at Po River outside Monrovia.
Also, in August, Coveiyala sold over 237 cubic meters of logs to Kris Veneer Industries of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, FDA records show.
Saye Messah, the FDA’s media and communication consultant, did not respond to queries for over a month. However, in a June letter, the FDA urged Korninga to work with the company to find a suitable time to conduct the review.
“Management highly considers your concerns regarding the company’s alleged failure to abide by terms in the contract…. calling for review is by law as stipulated,” the FDA letter reads.
Internal conflicts
Besides the debt and abandoned logs, Korninga’s contract with Coveiyala has been marred by community-based corruption. In early 2022, three members of the community leadership were jailed for allegedly misusing US$76,000. The three men included Johnson Flomo, Austin Kamara, and Dennis Flomo, chief officer, Korninga’s executive committee’s chairman and co-chairman, respectively.
They were immediately suspended after an FDA inquest and the community’s account was frozen. As a result, an interim body was set up to manage the community forest for over two years.
The head of the interim body, Cephas says Coveiyala has to account for the three years it operated the forest.
“Failure to implement those plights would mean termination or cancellation of the agreement.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Mr. Augustine B.M. Johnson on the Liberian delegation at the just-ended climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Facebook/Augustine B.M. Johnson
By Emmanuel Sherman
WHEIN TOWN—The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has rehired a former manager who was disgraced on multiple occasions for alleged corruption and involved with companies punished for logging offenses.
The FDA hired Augustine B.M. Johnson as a consultant in June. He gets US$2,500 as a service fee, US$300 for fuel, and US$100 for communication, according to a document obtained by The Daylight. Johnson’s duties include assisting with forest management planning, supporting compliance, and advising on forest mapping. He represented Liberia at the United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
But, Johnson’s roles starkly contradict his reputation at the FDA, where he served as the geoinformation system manager in the 2000s and 2010s. Johnson was found liable in the Carbon Harvesting Corporation (CHC) and Private Use Permit Scandals, forestry’s biggest postwar controversies. Later, he managed West African Forestry Development Inc. (WAFDI) and Mandra Forestry Liberia Limited, two of forestry’s dirtiest.
Before his rehiring, Johnson was touted as the FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Technical Affairs but eventually lost the position to Gertrude Nyaley, a former director of the agency’s legality verification department.
Criminal carbon contract
In 2010, Johnson and other officials fraudulently attempted to award a carbon contract to the London-based CHC for 400,000 hectares in River Cess County. Had it gone through, experts said Liberia would have a US$2 billion loss.
A national inquiry found that Augustine B.M. Johnson, was a mastermind of the infamous Carbon Harvesting Corporation Scandal in 2010, in which Johnson and other officials illegally attempted to lease 400,000 hectares of forest to a British man. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
An official inquest found that Johnson introduced himself as a “resident expert,” allegedly receiving a bribe and computer from CHC. He then conducted a so-called biomass study on four plots of land in the southcentral county and tried to deceive the Office of the Prince of Wales about the “groundbreaking” deal.
“Johnson and colleague provided confidential information about the FDA to CHC and allowed CHC to draft the FDA document that they would have [then-Managing Director John Woods] and other FDA officials sign,” investigators said.
Investigators recommended Johnson’s dismissal and subsequent prosecution, which President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—his relative—accepted but later rescinded.
Forgery
In 2012, two years after CHC, Johnson participated in the infamous PUP Scandal in which the FDA illegally awarded about 2.5 million hectares of forests to logging companies. It remains the biggest postwar logging scandal.
An official investigation found Johnson illegally received money for boundary line demarcations and verification fieldworks. Investigators established his report for those events was falsified in “many cases” and inconsistent with a private use permit, awarded solely for private land. A Liberia Land Authority review showed 57 of 59 permits unlawfully involved community lands, supported by fraudulent documentation.
It turns out, that most of the forestlands Johnson and other FDA technical staff had issued had overlapped proposed protected and logging concession areas.
Unlike the CHC scandal, this time around, Johnson, then-FDA Managing Director Moses Wogbeh, and several officials were prosecuted. Wogbeh and others were found guilty of economic sabotage, criminal conspiracy, and other crimes but filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. The case still lingers at the high court. Criminal Court ‘C’ had granted Johnson’s petition for a separate trial, which never happened.
Johnson denied any wrongdoing regarding the CHC and PUP scandals but declined an interview with The DayLight for this story.
Illegal Logging
Illegalities followed Johnson from the FDA to WAFDI. A 2021 Ministry of Justice investigation found that West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) illegally harvested logs in Grand Bassa County’s Compound Number Two. The FDA had incorrectly awarded the company 14,460 hectares of extra woodland in the Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest. WAFDI exploited the error for three years, exporting a huge volume of logs at the hand of the process.
Following the investigation, the Ministry of Justice reprimanded the FDA and WAFDI for the irregularities. Accordingly, WAFDI’s operations were suspended for nearly a year. “WAFDI is an operator in the forestry sector, they are also obligated to know and comply with all forestry laws and procedures…,” wrote then-Minister Musa Dean.
Augustine Johnson was one of the alleged masterminds of Liberia’s largest postwar logging scandal for which he and several officials were prosecuted a decade ago. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Abandoned logs
Amid WAFDI’s rebuke, Mandra—Johnson’s other company—was being punished. The FDA suspended Mandra’s harvesting certificates and two other companies for not enrolling their logs into the FDA log-tracking system and abandoning logs in Sinoe County. A DayLight investigation found the company abandoned some 7,000 logs from the Sewacajua Community Forest, the single-most ever reported.
In a phone interview last year, Johnson appeared unfamiliar with the Regulation on Abandoned Logs…, one of the instruments he has been consulted to enforce.
He claimed that paying the fees on a log prevented its abandonment. “Before you talk about abandonment, I am expecting a ship to come to Greenville by the second week of next month to get the logs out,” Johnson said in the interview.
His comments contradicted the 2017 regulation, which defines abandonment as logs left unattended between three weeks and six months, depending on their location.
Conflict of Interest
Johnson’s well-documented activities and his current role at the FDA are a conflict of interest. Apart from WAFDI and Mandra, he has been linked to joint ventures with the Liberia Tree and Timber Company and the EJ&J Logging involving two large-scale forest concessions.
Under Augustine B.M. Johnson’s watch, the Forestry Development Authority punished Mandra Forestry Liberia Limited for abandoning thousands of logs in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
In June, Johnson represented logging companies at an annual meeting on a timber trade agreement between Liberia and the European Union. He even made remarks on behalf of commercial loggers, the third week into his second spell at the FDA.
In a letter last week, the NGO Coalition of Liberia urged President Joseph Boakai to address Johnson’s conflict of interest.
“Allowing individuals with such vested interests to influence forest governance undermines the integrity of the FDA and Liberia’s commitment to transparency and good governance,” the NGOs wrote. The Executive Mansion did not immediately respond to The DayLight queries.
Similarly, the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not return questions for comments on Johnson and the other issues. However, Merab’s appointment to the FDA follows the same pattern as Johnson’s return to the regulator. Like Johnson, Merab is a serial illegal logger, having himself participated in the PUP Scandal and wartime logging operations.
This story was a production of the Community of Forests and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: An earthmover at work in Belleh Yalla, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
SALAYEA TOWN Lofa County – In early June, villagers seized a team of miners and their equipment for operating in the Salayea Community Forest without their consent and sued them.
A week later, the Salayea Magisterial Court dismissed the case because the miners had a valid license. It advised the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to settle the matter administratively.
Salayea is the latest community forest for which the Ministry of Mines has issued a license without landowning communities’ participation. This practice abuses communities’ rights, undermines their efforts to manage forests, and leads to forest degradation. From 2002, Liberia lost 347,000 hectares of primary forest, with 20,000 hectares in Lofa County last year alone, according to the Global Forest Watch, an online platform that monitors forests worldwide.
Miners in the Korninga B Community Forest in Gbarpolu. Picture credit: Moses R. Quollin
“What is happening in the community is bad because they are damaging the forest that we are fighting to protect for our children and the future generation,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the 8,270-hectare forest, one of a few conservation community forests countrywide. Home to important plants and animal species, Salayea received a community forest status in 2019.
“We are not happy because they are still destroying our forests, cutting down trees, and spoiling rivers and creeks because of gold-digging business,” adds Mulbah.
On the other hand, mining is a cornerstone of Liberia’s economy, with significant contributions to GDP and revenue. Last year, mining contributed $665.4 million to Liberia’s GDP and was a primary driver of economic growth along with construction, according to the World Bank. Continued growth of 5.3 percent is projected for 2024 and an average of 5.6 percent between 2024 and 2025, spurred by mining and structural reforms.
Lawsuits
Mining in community forests has led to several lawsuits countrywide in the last five years. Two cases ended with fines against the miners, while the other was withdrawn, giving the miners a clean slate.
In the first case, Korninga B Community Forest in Gbarpolu, 100 kilometers west of Salayea, locals sued Bea Mountain company for unauthorized entry into the community forest. They accused the company of cutting and destroying 2,800 logs while exploring for gold.
Later, the 16th Judicial Circuit Court in Bopolu found the Turkish-owned company liable and ordered it to pay over US$1.3 million in special damages and an additional US$3 million in general damages. The company eventually paid the community US$200,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Solway explored Mt. Blei (pictured) and Mt. Detton, initially without the locals’ consent. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue
The second case is the most infamous. In 2019, the Ministry of Mines and Energy granted Solway Mining Inc. an exploration license for patches of forest in Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forests without the communities’ consent. So, locals filed a lawsuit. Subsequently, Solway paid the communities a US$3,000 fine after a local court ruled its entry into the rocky woodlands unauthorized. However, Solway went on to sign an agreement with the two communities for its exploration activities.
The third case happened earlier this year, just before Salayea. Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest in Gbarpolu filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Harming Mining Group of Companies. The community accused the company of cutting trees, digging large pits polluting water sources and establishing a camp protected by armed police.
Backed by chiefs and elders, the company purchased small-scale mining licenses the Ministry of Mines had awarded unknown to the community forest’s leadership. In the end, the community flipped and consented to the company’s operations.
Uncoordinated agencies
The cases expose the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Mines and the FDA, corruption other issues, forestry campaigners say.
A 2018 USAID report established that the Ministry of Mines weakened local forest management by authorizing mining in community forests without consulting local people and the FDA.
A 2021 Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) report highlighted weak coordination between the government offices in awarding semi-industrial-scale and small-scale mining licenses.
It found no redress mechanism for dissatisfied townspeople, except the courts, and that citizens’ participation in mining was low.
“In some areas, the FDA and Ministry of Mines and Energy lack the resources or capacity to enforce rules effectively,” says Dayugar Johnson, the lead campaigner at Civil Society Independent Forest Monitors.
“This leaves community forests and… protected areas vulnerable to unauthorized mining activities…” Johnson thinks corruption, high demands for minerals, limited awareness of the law and lack of alternative livelihood are a part of the problem.
Based on past and present mining authorities’ comments, there is more to the issue than the lack of coordination. It is also about the abuse of communities’ rights to forestlands.
A portion of the Sehyi-Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
In a 2020 interview, then-Assistant Minister for Exploration Rexford Sartuh disclosed that the Ministry of Mines did not recognize community forests. “They have their right to their land but when it comes to the issuance of mineral rights in Liberia, we don’t consider them. They believe that we should ask them before we issue [licenses]. We should not,” Sartuh said in the interview.
Sartuh’s view is the same as current Minister Wilmot Paye. In a WhatsApp chat with The DayLight, Paye suggested that the mining law was superior to forestry laws and regulations.
“Your query should further focus on what the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000 says,” Paye texted, and did not say anything else.
Paye’s comments contradict the facts. Though the mining law does not recognize communities’ rights—it is Liberia’s oldest extractive law—the Community Rights Law and the Land Rights Act of 2018 do. Both forestry instruments grant locals the right to consent and ownership of forestlands. The land law’s respect for community ownership is regarded as a landmark achievement in Liberia’s history.
Drafters of a new mining law, a draft seen by The DayLight, are proposing full recognition of all forestry and land laws and regulations.
‘Dissatisfied’
The FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries. However, Merab’s predecessor, Mike Doryen, criticized the Solway deal in 2020.
“We are disappointed in the way the Ministry of Mines and Energy handled things,” said Doryen at the time. “We think it has the propensity of discouraging our donors from making any more investments in the conservation area of our country.”
Doryen’s comments were a reference to a fallout of Solway’s exploration in Blei and Sehyi Ko-doo.
The two conservation community forests are adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve, a biodiversity hub home to the endangered Western Chimpanzee and the endemic Nimba toad. Both steep community forests and two others—Gba and Zor—receive support from ArcelorMittal Liberia and USAID.
Community forest guards with materials they seized from miners in Salayea Community Forest. File picture/Salayea Community Forest
Meanwhile, the situation in Salayea is not over. The court removed its stay order on the miners’ operations, leaving the community reeling.
Mulbah and co have decided to sue the miners at another court after consulting the FDA, which she says pledges to support Salayea.
“The community is frustrated, and people want to protest, but we urge patience as we seek help to protect our forest,” said Mulbah. “We are not satisfied because the government authorized us to manage our forest and resources.
A patch of forest in District 3 B&C in Grand Bassa.
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.
Trucks offloading logs outside Greenville, Sinoe County in 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“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).
Top: Local forest guards with carpet seized from artisanal miners in the Salayea Community Forest. File picture
By Esau J. Farr
TELEMU TOWN, Lofa County – Miners in Lofa County have intruded on the Salayea Authorized Community Forest, undermining locals’ efforts to conserve the woodland. The miners entered the 8,270-hectare forest without the community’s consent, violating the Community Rights Law, which created community forestry.
“They are knocking down the trees,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest, established in 2019.
The DayLight obtained photographs taken by local forest guards showing mining equipment, barrels of fuel, felled trees and a polluted waterway.
Townspeople said the miners had 13 dredges on a tributary of the St. Paul River, machines the government has banned. The DayLight could not independently verify that information regarding our reporters’ safety on a long road amid bad weather.
Salayea is one of a few conservation community forests in Liberia, the only one in Lofa County. The forest’s leadership runs alternative livelihood programs to keep locals off murky, rocky woodland, with a high potential for gold.
“We want to keep this area as a reserved forest for our children and future generations,” said Nathaniel Forkpa, the secretary general of the community land leadership of Palama Clan, which hosts a portion of the forest.
Illicit miners over the River Dugbe in Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Forkpah, secretary general of the Palama Clan’s community land development and management committee. The clan hosts a portion of the forest. Forkpah and other townsmen had first spotted the miners in May.
In 2023, Lofa County lost 20,000 hectares of forest, according to the Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide. It was the county with the third-most loss.
Administrative proceeding
Angered by the actions of the illicit mining activities, forest guards seized the miners’ properties.
Later, Salayea filed a lawsuit against Ford Roy Tabolo, the mine owner. They sue him and two other men for mining without license, smuggling of minerals, criminal trespass and criminal facilitation, documents from the Salayea Magisterial Court show.
Tabolo and the men deny any wrongdoing. Tabolo argued that their activities were legal, producing a small-scale mining license.
Following a week of hearings, the court dismissed the case and removed a stay on the trio’s activities.
Judge Gabriel Ndupellar ruled that both parties had legal documents. Ndupellar said the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) needed to resolve the matter.
“The proceeding before this court is not ripe enough for judicial determination, except based on the outcome of an administrative proceeding,” the court said.
Reeling from the ruling, Salayea wrote the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) about the case. “We need your quick intervention,” read the June 8 letter. The FDA did not immediately respond to the DayLight’s queries.
The case is the fourth concerning mining in a community forest in the last five years, per media reports. Previous cases involved Korninga B and Bondi Mandingo in Gbarpolu, and Blei and Sehyi-Ko-doo in Nimba. Bea Mountain Mining Corporation and Solway Mining Inc. were penalized in the Korninga B and Nimba cases. The other Gbarpolu case implicates unlicensed miners and is still in court.
Meanwhile, Mulbah said Salayea was consulting lawyers for further legal actions against Tabolo.
Salayea forest guards with tools seized from an artisanal mine owner Ford Roy Tabolo. File picture
Water pollution
Back in Salayea, Tabolo and his team are digging in the forest. A DayLight review of the Ministry of Mines’ records shows Tabolo has four small-scale mining licenses, all expired in August and have not been renewed. That includes the license he presented to the court, based on court filings. Tabolo did not return queries for comments on this story.
Locals said another group of miners uses dredges on the St. Paul River, polluting creeks, driving away wildlife, and destroying the forest. It was due to such harmful environmental impacts the Ministry of Mines imposed a moratorium on dredging in 2019.
“The fishes in the water are also being affected and our people are eating the fish because they don’t know,” said Tokpah Koiwu, a community leader.
Villagers now carry drinking water from towns to their farms due to the pollution, Koiwu added.
The DayLight did not see the dredges. However, reporters obtained photos of royal blue plastic barrels, used by miners to make the makeshift machines. Furthermore, the color of the water in the pictures was consistent with a dredging operation.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Eva Kpandah, Palama Clan’s community land and development committee chairperson. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Esau J. Farr
SALAYEA TOWN, Lofa County – In 2019, the Sehyi Clan in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County began the legal process of acquiring a customary land deed. Sehyi’s community land development and management committee spearheads that process.
Another clan group has exercised similar functions over Sehyi’s forest since 2017. The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s community forest management body comanages the 1,538-hectare forest alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).
There is a problem, though. The forest leadership does not have a good relationship with its land counterpart. Like several communities, they are at loggerheads, with mounting calls for a national conversation to resolve these disputes.
But things are different in the Salayea District of Lofa County over 200 miles away. There, three—not two—community land and forest bodies, peacefully coexist and solve some of the district’s problems.
Since 2009, the district has had a community forest development committee, representing locals’ interests in a large-scale logging concession.
In 2016, the Salayea Community Forest was established, with a community leadership to co-manage the forest.
Then in 2019, Palama, a clan that hosts a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, established a governance structure to help develop and manage its land.
“If we don’t merge and work together, things will not work well for us,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Community Forest.
“We are working together as a team for a goal to protect the forest, to take it from illegal activities for the community’s development,” adds Eva Kpandah, the chairperson of Palama Clan’s land committee.
All three of the district’s bodies combat community challenges, including land conflicts and illegal mining activities.
A portion of the 8,270-hectare Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
In May, Kpandah tipped off Mulbah when she spotted miners entering the forest. Kpandah and Tokpah Koiwu supported Mulbah in filing a lawsuit against the miners. Koiwu is a member of Salayea District’s committee regarding the district’s large-scale logging concession.
In another instance, Mulbah and Koiwu are supporting Kpandah in Palama’s boundary dispute with Gbarlain, a neighboring clan.
‘Not invited’
In Sehyi, the stakes are even higher. Like Salayea, its forest and those of its neighbors Zor, Gba and Blei are all adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve. The four communities run conservation programs that help protect the reserve’s endangered and endemic species, including chimpanzees and the Nimba toad. However, confusion among community leaders undermines livelihood programs that benefit locals and keep the forest standing.
Yassah Mulbah speaks to The DayLight at the margins of the National Land Conference in September 2024. The DayLight/Harry Browne
“The [community forest] leadership said… they can’t accept to collaborate with us,” says Peter Dolo, Sehyi’s land leadership. “When they are having meetings, [we are] not invited.”
Ericson Flomo, the leader of Sehyi’s forest leadership, denies that accusation. “They have not called us in any of their meetings,” Flomo says. He claims he is the one who has invited Dolo to several meetings.
Dolo refutes Flomo’s comments, saying he has attended Flomo’s meetings as a townsperson, not the land leader.
This crisis has rocked communities outside of Nimba. In River Cess, the leaders of Gbarsaw and Dorbor Community Forest have refused to recognize land leaders of the clan. “They are only there to take care of the land after the loggers have left. They have no authority over the forest,” James Gbordoe, the forest leader of Gbarsaw and Dorbor, said in 2021. “When the logs have been cut from there, they will have the whole land to take care of.”
The intensity of the crisis was displayed at a workshop in Ganta last month. Things got so heated that Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who helped organize the event, had to suspend the topic after a discord of claims and counterclaims from participants. The event was being held to gauge communities’ views on what they would need to manage their forest sustainably.
‘Forerunner’
Campaigners foretold this result. A few months after the passage of the Land Rights Act in 2018, the Margibi-based NGO Sustainable Development Institute published a report, predicting the power struggle.
(R-L) Peter Dolo, the chairman of Sehyi Clan’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC), and Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The report argues that “conflicting provisions” in the law, which created the community land leadership, and Community Rights Law…, which established the forest leadership, would escalate tension.
“Our thinking is the crisis will increase because part of the reasons the law was crafted was to address issues of rural marginalization in respect to managing resources in the country but also conflicting, overlapping rights,” Ali Kaba, the then-head of SDI’s community land protection program, said at the time.
“It is a good law. However, there are loopholes, there are gaps and there are contradictions,” added Kaba, who is now a Commissioner at the Liberia Land Authority.
Speaking in 2021 at a conservation event in Monrovia, Cllr. Negbalee Warner, a senior partner at Heritage Partners and Associates (HPA) and one of the laws’ crafters, somehow acknowledged the “overlap” SDI spoke of.
“If there is anything, it is that the provisions of the two laws are in some instances [overlapped], although an argument can be made that the more appropriate term will be ‘reinforcing,’” said Warner. “The [land leadership] is therefore superior to all the structures established by the [Community Rights Law].”
‘Confusion will do nothing’
Bonathan Walaka, the lead facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body, says that understanding the roles and responsibilities of the two groups is crucial for progress.
The union intends to hold a forum with national stakeholders of the sectors to help ease the tension between community leaders. “The [forest leadership] should know that those who own the land are the community [people] and that they are only managing the forest,” Walaka says.
Augustine Dweh, the chairperson of a network of community land managers, agrees with Walaka, saying education and awareness are crucial to the solution.
An elevated view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
The same goes for Eddie Beangar, Nimba County’s Land Administrator. “Having both them to understand their roles and to ensure that their involvement impacts the environment positively,” says Beangar.
Back in Sehyi, Dolo and Flomo are willing to work together. Dolo promises to invite Flomo and his team to an impending meeting, hoping to pave the way for a renewed, smooth relationship. The same goes for Flomo
“[Anything] that is better for Sehyi, Sehyi Ko-doo will accept, Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview at an entrance of the mountainous forest. “Confusion will do nothing for us.”
Top: African Wood and Lumber Company abandoned hundreds of logs in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa, with people burning some. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – In the rainy season of 2020, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) investigated the scale of abandoned logs in Grand Bassa, River Cess, and Nimba Counties.
Investigators were stunned by what they discovered: several companies had left thousands of logs in the bush, on open fields, at sawmills, and other locations for long periods.
“Valuable species are continuously being harvested by logging companies without first securing sales contracts,” the investigators said in a report, “only to leave those logs unattended.”
A signboard at a log yard used by Coveiyalah on the Bomi highway supported the investigator’s findings. It read: “Timber sale.” Investigators recommended that the FDA curtail the situation. The signboard came down not long after.
Four years after the report—spanning two administrations—the FDA has yet to take any concrete action despite officially vowing on various occasions, to tackle the problem. Abandoned logs are symbols of the meltdown of the forestry sector, with companies deserting contracts, leaving debts and logs in their wake.
Abu Musa Kamara, campaigner at the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committee, calls on the FDA to verify companies’ capacity before approving contracts. He urges constant monitoring and enforce forestry’s legal laws and regulations.
A 2020 FDA investigation established that companies were felling trees before securing sale contracts as seen in this 2022 picture. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“If these things happen, there will be no abandoned logs in concession areas,” Kamara tells The DayLight in an email.
The regulation replaced a previous one that had proven ineffective seven years ago and undermined the regulator’s mandate to avoid waste of forest resources. Under the current regulation, the FDA must investigate and petition a court to auction abandoned logs.
‘Learning curve’
In 2022, the FDA ordered all companies to declare their production in LiberTrace, Liberia’s log-tracking system. It was a bid to tackle the situation albeit two years after the investigators’ report.
Later that year, then-Managing Director Mike Doryen said in a DayLight interview the regulator would begin auctioning logs that month. “We… will continue in the northern region and then go down south and [the] western part,” Doryen said.
In the end, nothing happened, as more evidence emerged of companies leaving logs. The Italian-registered African Wood and Lumber left logs on a field in Grand Bassa, with some burned. The Lebanese-owned Masayaha abandoned some 600 nearby. At least 500 Sing Africa logs rotted outside of Buchanan alongside hundreds of logs other companies dashed. Elsewhere, a DayLight investigation uncovered about 5,000 logs abandoned by the International Consultant Capital in the Gbi-Doru District, Nimba County.
Doryen’s timeframe was legally impossible, and his comments were dishonest—or at least ignorant. Per the regulation, auctioning timber takes months. Moreover, there is no record that the FDA filed a required petition at any circuit court countrywide to seize abandoned logs.
Doryen would tell the Associated Press a year later that the FDA had approved exports of abandoned logs outside of the legal process as “part of the learning curve.”
A DayLight investigation established Iroko abandoned hundreds of logs it harvested latest October 2022. They were recently exported without any due process, according to community leaders. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
In early 2023, the FDA announced it had suspended several companies’ harvesting certificates in Sinoe. The list included Malaysian-listed Mandra, which had abandoned about 7,000 logs, likely the largest The DayLight recorded.
“This decision is prompted by the failure of these companies to honor the mandate from the FDA to enrol all logs harvested in LiberTrace,” read an FDA statement. “Companies in both categories, suspended certificates and otherwise, may be subject to further [penalties]…”
Again, no public records that show the FDA punished the companies.
Unlawful
The FDA’s biggest-known abandoned logs lie occurred during last year’s presidential elections. On October 31, it published a notice on suspicion of abandoned logs on its website and ELBC.
A week later, the FDA petitioned the Zorzor, Magisterial Court in Lofa County to begin the process. “We hereby request Your Honor and this honorable court for a search and seizure warrant,” read the petition.
A screenshot of FDA’s Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley exposing her involvement in an unlawful abandoned logs petition during last year’s presidential elections. Facebook/Gertrude Wade Korvayan Nyaley
But that petition was unlawful and may have exposed the FDA’s dishonesty. The abandoned logs regulation requires the FDA to file a seizure application at a circuit court, not a magisterial court.
Also, the time interval between the announcement and the petition was short. Per the regulation, the petition should have been filed over a month after several notices.
Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley was one of two attorneys who signed the petition. She was the technical manager of the FDA’s legality verification department (LVD) then.
She did not respond to two questions in 19 days about her direct involvement in the unlawful process.
International Consultant Capital abandoned 5,000 logs in Gbi-Doru District, Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
No progress
Things remain the same under Doryen’s successor Rudolph Merab. Like Doryen, Merab has not lived up to his commitment to confront the abandoned logs problem.
This April, two months after his induction as FDA’s boss, he happened upon mounts of sundried logs in the southeast. Merab vowed to tackle the problem head-on Spoon FM reported.
A July DayLight investigation—a follow-up to an initial one published over a year ago—found the Nigerian company Iroko Timber a Logging Company abandoned some 700 logs in Sinoe. FDA’s commercial department promised to investigate the company but did not.
The logs were recently exported, roughly two years since they were harvested, according to Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the Central River Dugbe Community Forest the company operates.
A recent review of forestry concessions by the US-based NGO Forest Trends recommends that the FDA documents the scale of abandoned logs and sets up a database. That, too, has not happened.
Many logs transported to log yards across Liberia remain there until they rot. The DayLight/Eric Opa Doue
Merab did not return The DayLight’s queries and follow-ups, reversing a trend he had set. However, Merab told the Associated Press last April that he intended to scrap regulations that were “cumbersome” and “repressive.”
Amid the FDA’s dishonesty and failure, the Commercial Court authorized the sales of abandoned logs to pay off companies’ debts.
Perhaps the first publicized one is the case between Alma Wood and AfriLand Bank, which occurred before Merab. Co-owned by Lebanese businessman El Zein Hassan, Alma Wood defaulted on a US$63,000 loan from Afriland Bank. The court ordered the bank to auction Alma Wood’s properties, including 5,000 cubic meters of logs harvested in Grand Cape Mount County between 2018 and 2020.
Other cases involve Sing Africa, Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company, and Guaranty Trust Bank (Liberia) Limited. Sing Africa borrowed US$ 3 million from GT Bank on June 14, 2021. When it failed to pay the loan, the court authorized the bank to auction the company’s assets valued over US$7 million, including logs it abandoned in Lofa and Gbarpolu.
The Court had earlier permitted the bank to auction 15,000 cubic meters of logs belonging to Sing Africa and Alpha.
Forestry experts say the banks’ auctions will reduce the government’s revenue and communities, benefits, and expose the system failure. Normally, auction fees should go to the government and the communities where the logs were felled. In this case, the banks take a big portion of the money.
“If the FDA had enforced the abandoned logs regulation, the banks would be left with only other fixed assets,” says an expert who does not want to be named.
Jonathan Yiah the lead forestry campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), an NGO instrumental in formulating forestry’s legal framework, agrees.
“The bank shouldn’t be a priority at the expense of the community and the government,” Yiah says, “though sometimes it is the government’s negligence that we are having this conversation.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
