Krish, the Sawmill the Vice President Dedicated, Explained

May 29, 2025

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.

Logs from Conservation Forest Illegally Exported to Europe

May 27, 2025

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Top: An elevated view of a 450-acre plot in the Gba Community Forest in Nimba County being cleared for a mine waste plant. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

ArcelorMittal Liberia gave the Gba Community Forest US$150,000 to clear 450 acres for a waste plant, but locals misused the money

Gba and Westwood Corporation signed an MoU to clear-cut the area anyway to make up for the stolen funds

The deal includes an unspecified number of logs that a previous company had illegally harvested, costing the government revenue

FDA authorized Westwood to skip harvesting requirements, including a mapping and GPS-recording of trees, undoing the immediate past administration’s legal order

Westwood exported the timber to Italy, though the harvesting breaks Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union

GBAPA, Nimba County – A cleared patch of the Gba Community Forest, a rocky conservation woodland, welcomes visitors to Sehyi Geh Town. Chainsaw-wielding loggers from a little-known company pile up logs in the clear-cut patch.

As it stands, Westwood Corporation has exported a combined 216 logs (921.124 cubic meters) from Gba, according to official records. The consignments were shipped in March to Sangiorgi Lugnami, a renowned Italian company. A third export of 142 logs has been requested for Bangladesh in the name of Leifwood APS of Denmark.

The exports, however, violate Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). Under the 2011 agreement, only logs from legal sources, listed and verified, can be exported.

Westwood signed an MoU to clear-cut 450 acres (about 182 hectares) of forestland in the 10,939-hectare forest in Nimba County’s Yarmein District. Westwood agreed to pay Gba US$8 per cubic meter, with the agreement ending next month. A receipt, seen by The DayLight, shows that Westwood deposited US$3,570 into a Gba account last month.

“They have proven to us that they are capable of doing the job due to the machinery they have,” said Samuel Johnson, Gba’s leader, in March. Johnson died shortly after the interview.

But the Gba-Westwood MoU does not qualify the logs as legally sourced. There are five contracts or permits in forestry where legal timber comes from. They are: a forest management contract, a timber sale contract, a community forest management agreement, a private use permit, and a forest use permit.

The GBA-Westwood deal comes close to a forest use permit but differs from it remarkably. This permit is issued through a procurement procedure, for research, tourism, or local use, according to the National Forestry Reform Law and the Regulation on Tender, Award and Administration of Contracts and Permits. The VPA is based on Liberian legal instruments.

Two experts The DayLight interviewed, who preferred not to be named, said the Gba logs were only for domestic markets. They can be converted into planks, generate additional income for locals, and provide temporary employment opportunities for chainsaw millers.

The Nimba flycatcher z

Initially, Westwood was not in the picture. ArcelorMittal Liberia had given Gba US$150,000 in 2014 to clear 450 acres for a mine waste plant. The money was also compensation for a 60-acre plot the company had earlier cleared.

Gba, however, misapplied the funds and failed to clear the area. Subsequently, Gba’s allegedly corrupt leadership was replaced in a scandal that rocked community forestry.

“[ArcelorMittal] paid US$150,000 to Gba to buy a machine or equipment to fell these trees or clear everything out of the site,” said Saye Thompson, the leader for the Blei Community Forest in the same region.

Westwood has exported 216 logs from an illegal source to Italy. Picture credit: Anonymous

Nyan Flomo, who has taken up a leadership role in the wake of Johnson’s death, corroborated that account. ArcelorMittal did not respond to queries for comment up to press time.

The US$150,000 aside, the Westwood arrangement breaks Gba’s original MoU with ArcelorMittal. The document obligates the steel giant to identify trees and guide the clear-cutting process. It nullifies any other MoU associated with the harvesting, such as the one with Westwood.

Gba and ArcelorMittal are conservation partners. Gba is one of four communities adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve (ENNR). Home to the endangered Nimba toad and Nimba flycatcher, the ENNR is part of the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, running through Liberia, Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Gba co-manages the 13,500-hectare forestland alongside ArcelorMittal, FDA, Blei, Sehyi Ko-doo, and Zor. This collaboration helps protect plants and animals of that region, which, experts say, renders logging harmful to that ecosystem.

And the stakes are higher for Westwood, with Gba its first official operation. The company has experience in construction, having constructed a stretch of the Gbarnga-Lofa highway in 2014. Samuel Cooper, its CEO, declined to speak on the matter.

‘Inability to perform’

Permitting Westwood to export, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) undid what its past administration had done to enforce the law. In a February letter, Managing Director Rudolph Merab excluded Westwood from cutting blocks—regulated forest portions where harvesting occurs. Merab, who did not return emailed questions, has spoken before about deregulation and a drive to increase timber exports.

“Following a desk review of your acquisition of the Gba Community Forest…, you are hereby approved to commence operations,” read the letter.

Merab’s action is the complete opposite of how the FDA handled the Gba case nearly 10 years ago. In 2016, Gba signed a similar MoU with the Liberia Tree Trading Company Thanry. However, the FDA administration then ensured that LTTC Thanry had an annual plan that contained blocks and a map to regulate the harvesting, at least consistent with the law.

Later, Gba terminated LTTC Thanry’s contract due to its “inability to perform,” bringing in Six S (6S) International Trading Limited.

Screenshot of a 2016 FDA report that validated 450 acres in the Gba Community Forest to be clear-cut. However, the current FDA administration deviated from this standard to allow Westwood Corporation to clear-cut the forest.

Though Six S had the capacity, the FDA disapproved of the new company’s harvest because it deviated from the approved plan, several past and present FDA officials familiar with the matter said.

“I [confirm] that during my time at the [legality verification department], 6S did not receive any export permit in LiberTrace,” said Deputy FDA Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley. At the time, Mrs. Nyaley headed the department, which co-manages LiberTrace, the computer system that tracks Liberian timber. She said the company had a tax issue, but, like the anonymous sources, presented no evidence. Six S’s official number did not ring, and it did not answer emailed queries.

Whether unauthorized harvesting or taxes, the Gba-Westwood MoU included an unspecified number of the problematic logs that Six S cut. This violates the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products.

Per the regulation, the FDA is required to investigate, seek a warrant to auction the logs, and fine Six S. Instead, Merab permitted Six S to sell the logs in question to Westwood for US$34 and US$55, losing that revenue.

‘Behind the Curtain’

Gba locals The DayLight interviewed said they were unaware of the Westwood agreement. They had only heard it through the sound of earthmovers and loggers in the forest.

“First, when they came, they just went into the forest and we said, ‘No, you don’t do things like that,’” recalled Aaron Lah, the town chief of Sehyi Geh Town. ‘“This is a town and people are here. Why did you people just come and not reach the townspeople before going into the forest?’”

The Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development (SESDev), a Paynesville-based NGO training Gba’s leaders in forest governance since 2023, said it was not informed about the deal.

Thompson, the Community Forests Union’s head, said there were missteps.

“If you don’t share information on what you are doing, it becomes corruption,” said Thompson. “Everything is behind the curtain.”

Liberia Forest Media Watch provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Dirty Deal Exposes Forestry Boss’ Conflicts of Interest

April 28, 2025

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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).

Man Alleges FDA Acted on Fake Letter in Illegal Contract

April 23, 2025

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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).

Lawmaker Admits Link to Illegal Logging Company

April 20, 2025

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Top: Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh of Sinoe County’s Electoral District-1 sits next to an executive of African Finch Logging Limited, a company whose board of directors he admits to being on. Picture credit/Anonymous

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh of Sinoe County’s Electoral District-1 has admitted his connection to a shady logging company, while denying it.

Quioh was reacting to a recent DayLight investigation, citing allegations by locals that he co-owned African Finch Logging Limited, a UAE-based firm that has a logging MoU with the Numopoh Community Forest in Sinoe’s Kpayan District. Locals, including county officials, accused Quioh of bribing and intimidating chiefs and elders into signing the document the same day he introduced it.

“As a duly elected lawmaker and a member of the advisory board of directors of the African Finch…, my involvement in forestry-related matters is strictly in the confines of legislative oversight,” Quioh said in a Facebook post last Thursday.

“My position on the advisory board of the forest management committee of the district and a non-voting member of the advisory board of the African Finch…,” Quioh added. He followed up that post with a press conference on Friday.

Quioh’s confession to his African Finch role confirms at least one of the allegations locals made. The investigation cited people who accused the lawmaker of co-owning the company, based on his part in the deal.

By his admission, Quioh is liable for multiple conflicts of interest. First, as a representative, he is a statutory member of Numopoh’s forest leadership. Also, as a lawmaker, he has oversight over the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which governs the logging sector.

This means that Quioh is caught between performing his duties as a lawmaker and his responsibilities as the director of African Finch’s board.

The Code of Conduct for Public Officials prohibits such conflicts of interest. “No Public official or employee of government should use an official position to pursue private interests that may result in a conflict of interest,” it says. Breaking the code constitutes a penalty, including a reprimand, a fine, or removal from office.

Quioh’s conflicts of interest nullify Numopoh’s contract with African Finch. The National Forestry Reform Law bars Quioh and other officials from playing such a role in a private company. It bars “a person associated through investment, ownership, effective control, or other similar means.”

Board of directors

African Finch’s article of incorporation shows it is a subsidiary of Finch General Trading Limited FZE, another UAE-based company. However, the article does not show the persons who own African Finch or Finch General, a violation of the Beneficial Ownership Regulation. The regulation requires companies to declare their human owners, not just parent companies.

Such shadowy ownership neither denies nor confirms the locals’ allegation that Quioh co-owns the company, The DayLight reported.

Kwadjo Asabre, an African Finch executive, fueled the local people’s allegation. When contacted for the company’s side of the story, Asabre told this reporter to “Speak to [the] Hon.”

Quioh appears to lessen his role in African Finch by falsely suggesting it has an advisory board, instead of a board of directors.

A screenshot of a page in African Finch Logging Limited Inc. shows it is a subsidiary of Finch General Trading FZE, and that it has a board of directors

A board of directors differs sharply from an advisory board, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, a leading global reference for legal definitions. A board of directors is a governing body that supervises a company’s activities with legally binding decisions. In contrast, an advisory board provides expert advice and recommendations that are not legally binding.

Accordingly, Quioh plays a much crucial role in African Finch than he has admitted. This likely explains why Asabre referred this reporter to a lawmaker when the newspaper sought an interview with the company.

Quioh claims the newspaper published its story “without [a] proper engagement with his office.” However, the evidence contradicts that claim. The DayLight did contact Quioh and published its article nearly a month later.

On March 20, DayLight reached out to Quioh via WhatsApp with its queries. The next day, in a phone interview, Quioh failed to respond to the queries. Instead, he boasted about his wartime logging experience, ranting at this reporter and hanging up the phone.

“You cannot teach me forestry. You don’t know me. I am one of the longest-serving foresters in this country,” said Quioh, who served as an FDA deputy managing director during Liberia’s deadly civil conflict. He continued the bragging in his press conference and WhatsApp messages to the newspaper.

But wartime foresters are not glorified as Quioh suggests, as they are synonymous with forestry’s darkest era. Logging companies used timber resources to fund warring factions, including forces loyal to the Liberian government. Thus, the phrases “blood timber” and conflict timber” were born, leading to United Nations sanctions in 2003. The sanctions were lifted following rigorous reforms that partially bar wartime loggers from conducting any forestry activities. However, the provision is not being enforced.

Lawmaker Allegedly Bribes Locals for Dirty Logging Contract

April 16, 2025

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Top: Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh whispers to an African Finch Logging Limited executive at a program in Numopoh District, Sinoe County. File picture/Anonymous

By Varney Kamara

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series on Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh’s involvement with a Sinoe County community forest contract.

NUMOPOH – Sinoe County Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh allegedly bribed locals in Sinoe County to sign a community forest contract with a UAE-based company he appears to co-own. A DayLight investigation also found that the forest was unlawfully extended amid Quioh’s decades-long friendship with the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab.

Several residents and local officials said Quioh gave thousands of Liberian dollars to Numopoh Community Forest’s leaders, who then distributed the money to community members to endorse African Finch Logging Limited. One person alleged they received the money directly from the lawmaker.

“After the people refused to sign the MoU, then, he (Quioh) carried the [the community forest leaders] behind the house, and we saw them coming back with a black plastic bag filled with money,” said Numopoh’s Commissioner Alfred Harwood. “From this point, the chiefs and other people started signing the document.

“I was sick and did not attend the meeting that day, but afterward, Quioh visited my house and gave me LD5,000, and said I should buy soap,” said Christiana Neoh, Paramount chief of Doboe Chiefdom.

“He also encouraged me to support the company’s entry into our community [forest],” added Neoh.

The residents signed the document the same day it was introduced without making any input. Emmanuel Dapoe, a resident of Kilo Town, said he had to leave the signing ceremony due to his dissent.

Others said Quioh had promised to bring African Finch to the Numopoh when he campaigned for the district’s seat in 2023, which Quioh would clinch after defeating eight other candidates.

“This whole thing is part of that big promise he made to the community during the campaign,” said Alex Sanwon, a prominent Numopoh citizen, in Johnny Town.

The allegations were confirmed by Darius Nagbe, the Superintendent of Kpayan District, where Numopoh falls. In February, Nagbe wrote the Ministry of Internal Affairs, complaining Quioh.

“Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh… singularly took a logging company to the district…,” Nagbe said. He said he was unaware of the company’s presence, and asked Minister of Internal Affairs Sakila Nyumalin to investigate.

A statutory member of Numuoph’s community forest leadership, a representative scrutinizes a logging company wanting to operate there, not negotiate on its behalf. Also, a representative has oversight over the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which enforces the sector’s laws and regulations.

An official’s involvement with a company or in bribery violates the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which prohibits inducement and conflict of interest. The code defines bribery as anything promised, offered, given, accepted, or received by a public official for favors in the execution of official duties, including “cold water” or “eating.” It defines conflict of interest as “when a public official, contrary to official obligations and duties to act for the benefit of the public, exploits a relationship for personal benefit.”

Paramount Chief Christiana Neoh of Doboe Chiefdom, Numoph District, said she received L$5,000 from Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh to sign a logging MoU. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

Moreover, any inducement or intimidation violates the locals’ right to consent, guaranteed in several national and international laws, including the Land Rights Act and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These instruments provide that local people must be free to accept or reject a contract.

Quioh did not respond to the bribery claim and other allegations. In a phone interview, he appeared to accuse The DayLight of blackmail while ranting at this reporter.

“You cannot teach me forestry. You don’t know me. I am one of the longest-serving foresters in this country,” said Quioh.

“I know my rights, I know what I did. I’m not a kid.”

“Publish your story in the sky,” he added, hanging up the phone.

Sam Kandie, Numopoh’s chairman, who had celebrated the African Finch deal in a previous interview, did not respond to The DayLight queries.

‘Speak to the Hon.’

The allegation that Quioh led African Finch’s negotiation with Numopoh appears to be backed by photographs of the signing ceremony. In one photograph, the lawmaker is seen whispering to an African Finch representative sitting next to him. Another shows the two men sitting and watching as the ceremony unfolded.

Due to his alleged involvement with African Finch, locals believe Quioh co-owns African Finch. Kwadjo Asabre, African Finch’s CEO, appeared to corroborate that claim when he recommended that The DayLight contact Quioh on company matters. “Speak to [the] Hon..,” Asabre wrote in a WhatsApp interview.

Meanwhile, African Finch’s legal documents do not rule out the possibility that Quoih is its owner. Established last year, African Finch is a subsidiary of Finch General Trading FZE, located in Ajman, UAE, according to its article of incorporation. Finch General Trading primarily focuses on mining, engineering, and agricultural products.. However, the Liberia Business Registry has no record of African Finch’s beneficial owners.

Such a shady ownership structure violates Liberia’s Beneficial Ownership Regulation and renders African Finch ineligible to do business in Liberia. The 2023 regulation requires Liberia-registered businesses to declare their beneficial owners—the person or people who own them. This rule safeguards against transnational crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion.

The DayLight has written the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Liberia Business Registry about African Finch’s unlawful registration. The Registry is obligated to reject companies with hidden shareholders, while the Ministry supervises the Registry’s functions.

A forest in Sinoe County, southeastern Liberia. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

‘Rudolph is my friend’

But the hidden ownership is not the only violation associated with the African Finch deal.

July last year, Numopoh asked the FDA to cancel its agreement with Delta Timber Corporation, which had previously illegally operated in the forest. About two months later, the FDA granted the request and advised the community to select a new investor.

Numopoh did, but this time, the FDA expanded its size from 7,220 hectares to over 18,000 hectares without the participation of neighboring communities. The company has even started checking trees for possible harvesting.

“I only got to know about the expansion from the signed MoU when somebody posted it on social media,” said Kwankon Saytue of Tartweh-Drapoh Community Forest.

The 2017 Community Rights Regulation guarantees neighboring communities the right to participate in the demarcation and mapping of community forests. There is even a handbook that the USAID funded for that.

Land and forest rights campaigners criticized the extension.

“These are forest communities that were already created by metes and bounds. Their exclusion is not only impractical but also illegal,” said Borwen Sayon of The Nature Compact, a Montserrado-based NGO involved with natural resource management and development.

The illegal expansion could heighten tension in that area. Numopoh and the Do-Wolee township currently have an unresolved boundary dispute that has stalled Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation there for years.

In all, it appears African Finch is exploiting Quioh’s relationship with the FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab. Quioh and Merab have been friends for decades. “When I come to the FDA, I feel at home away from home. FDA is my baby,” Quioh said at Merab’s induction in February last year. Rudolph and myself have 36 years of relationship. I am happy to be here as a friend of Rudolph.”

Not just the Liberia Business Registry, the FDA is also under legal obligation to check a forestry company’s eligibility. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications requires the agency to reject any company whose owner is a lawmaker. This cannot be done with a company whose owners are unknown.

The FDA did not answer questions on the Numopoh extension and the African Finch’s owners. Last month, The DayLight asked the FDA for information on the Numopoh-African Finch contract, as the information was not on the FDA’s website as required by law. However, that request was denied.

CORRECTION: This version of the story corrects a previous version that named African Finch as Africa Finch.

How a Family Smuggled Timber for over a Decade

April 15, 2025

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Top: Ben and Bennetta Wesseh run a timber smuggling business. Picture credit: Facebook/Ben Wesseh

By James Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – On June 30 last year, Panther, a Liberian-registered container ship, docked at a port in Shanghai, China. Among its cargo was 21.37 cubic meters of timber from the Freeport of Monrovia. The wood had left Liberia on May 31, transiting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast for nine days before its final voyage to the Chinese southern shoreline.

The company shipping the wood was Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc., a Liberian firm owned by Ben Wesseh, a veteran customs broker. The consignment came from 613 pieces of wood that had been harvested in River Cess County, according to a permit authorizing the shipment.

The Shanghai shipment was one of several Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc. made in the last 14 years outside Liberia’s legal channel for timber export or “LiberTrace.” A February DayLight investigation found Mr. Wesseh and his daughter Benetta Ben Wesseh forged the permit and another document to smuggle the timber, which they denied. Now, the newspaper has found additional evidence, providing more details of the Wessehs world of illegal timber trafficking.

56 exports in eight years

Mr. Wesseh formed Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc. on April 11, 2011, to export timber, minerals, and other things, based on its article of incorporation and business registration certificate. He holds 60 percent of the company’s shares, with the remaining outstanding, while Ms. Wesseh runs the business.

Export data gathered by Volza, a UAE-based international trade firm shows that Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc., owned by Ben Wesseh, shipped 56 times between 2011 and 2019.

Records from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the Liberia Revenue Authority, and a shipping line show that the Wessehs exported timber multiple times in the last three years. The records further establish that they made two shipments in 2022 to a Taiwanese manufacturer called Strong Industrial Co. Ltd. The ministry’s records also show that a second consignment went to the same buyer. Also, the date on the first shipment matches the one on the ministry’s record.

But there were other exports than just those three, a lot more.

As of 2019—eight years after establishing their company—the Wessehs had exported timber and other goods 56 times, according to Volza, a UAE-based company that researches international trade data from over 90 countries.

Of that number, 47 went to Uganda to an individual named Chriss Bakara, four to India for a firm called Rajneesh Enterprises, and four to the United States for an individual named Makulah Kromah. A lone export went to Vietnam for Thanh Hoa Mineral Joint Stock Company. Freeport, opposite City Builders—the Wessehs’ business address in the Volza system—was consistent with the address in their company’s legal documents.

The evidence shows the Wessehs traded expensive ironwood, the type used in outdoor construction and shipbuilding for their resistance to wear and tear. Volza documented that the Wessehs’ lone Vietnamese export was 20 cubic meters of tali (Erythrophleum ivorense), a wood used for frameworks that are exposed to bad weather.

Volza’s data on the Wessehs were the same as the ones compiled by ImportKey, a firm that tracks American shipments, and Trademo, a US-based company that provides supply chain intelligence.

Amid the Wessehs company’s well-documented export history, there is no trace of Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc. in LiberTrace, Liberia’s legal channel for the timber trade. A LiberTrace search screenshot shows the company is not registered there, proof it has never used the system before.

This violates several laws and regulations, including the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System, meant to prevent illegal Liberia timber from entering international markets. By doing so, the Wessehs evaded a significant amount of taxes, including land rental, harvesting, transfer, stumpage and other fees.

Fake Document

Finding additional evidence of the Wessehs’ illegal activities was much harder than detecting the forgery of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and the Ministry of Agriculture’s documents to smuggle the Shanghai consignment.

The newspaper began with the FDA document. First, it was addressed to Benetta Ben [Wesseh] but greeted her as “Mr. Ben.” Then it was signed by Mike Doryen in July 2024, five months after he had been replaced by Rudolph Merab as the FDA Managing Director. It miscounted the period July 25 – September 25 as 45 days, instead of 60 days. Turns out, a revenue receipt number detailed in the permit had been issued to one Albert Chie, perhaps not the Grand Kru senator, who denied knowledge of it or any affiliation with the Wessehs.

The Wessehs did a better job faking a phytosanitary certificate, a document that certifies that timber being exported is pests-free. Though the certificate is a requirement for timber export or import, it is rarely issued, based on The DayLight’s review of several companies’ tax histories.

Armed with that information, the newspaper contacted the quarantine department at the Ministry of Agriculture, which issues such certificates. Unsurprisingly, the department denied it issued the Wessehs the document.

“I want to categorically state here that this document is fake,” said Lawrence Massaquoi, the deputy director of the quarantine department. “I did not issue this certificate. People are using our names to carry on these criminal acts.”

Other evidence suggested that the Wessehs sold the forged documents to other potential smugglers. A screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between Mr. Wesseh and an individual reveals Mr. Wesseh solicited over US$1,350, including US$325 for a pair of FDA documents and US$75 for a phytosanitary certificate.

Liberia has one of the world’s fastest deforestation rates due to illegal activities. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The DayLight obtained audio recordings of those unscrupulous deals. In one recording, Ben Wesseh provided details of forged documents he had sent to a potential customer. His count of the documents matched the ones The DayLight obtained.

“I sent the FDA paper for you first. Then, I sent the agriculture paper two or three times,” Mr. Wesseh can be heard saying.

Interestingly, Liberia Export & Import Expert Inc.’s tax history shows that the Wessehs have only paid three times for timber exports. They also paid for a phytosanitary certificate once. The timber payments occurred in 2017, and the certificate two years after.

No Actions

The Wessehs’ illegal activities contribute to Liberia’s deforestation, one of the highest in the world. From 2002 to 2023, Liberia lost 347,000 hectares of primary forest, according to the Global Forest Watch, which tracks global deforestation. In that same period, River Cess— where the Shanghai-bound timber were harvested—lost 28,000 hectares of primary forest.

Mr. Wesseh did not turn out for a scheduled interview. However, in a February WhatsApp interview, Ms. Wesseh denied any wrongdoing. “First of all, our company has never and will never get involved with fraud or exploiting [the] government,” said she.

“Take care.” She and her father locked their Facebook profiles, where the newspaper had gotten their pictures.

It has been about two months since the Wessehs were first exposed, yet authorities have not acted significantly. The DayLight has written the National Customs Brokers Association of Liberia (NCBAL), the FDA and the Ministry of Agriculture. However, none has taken any actions, except that the ministry lodged a complaint with the NCBAL.

This is a usual outcome for forestry. A case against a Caldwell syndicate recently jailed has not gone to court. That is the same as the one against alleged smugglers who turned the Central Agriculture Research Institute into a sawmill. Before those two, in 2022, two Korean timber smugglers walked scot-free after prosecutors had failed to indict them.

Evidence Mounts FDA Signed Illegal Logging Contract

March 14, 2025

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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…”

Inside FDA’s Shady World of Chewing Sticks

March 6, 2025

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Top: Men offload chewing sticks at a beachfront in Greenville, Sinoe County in January 2024. File Picture: Anonymous

By Emmanuel Sherman

BARLOME TOWN – A truck with chewing sticks parked near an open field. Some of the sticks lay on the ground. It had been parked for three weeks in Barlome Town on the Grand Bassa-River Cess highway. The sticks had been transported from Nimba County and uploaded there.

“I am waiting for my boss,” said Obed Amoah, an attendant to the 37-ton truck with Ghanaian license plate GR-5774.

Reporters had happened upon a major player in the shadowy world of chewing stick trafficking. In 2021, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) imposed a moratorium on chewing sticks to curtail the clearcutting of the species. However, The DayLight found evidence, that the FDA has been issuing chewing stick permits amid the moratorium.

The evidence shows that chewing stick pushers pay the FDA at different levels, with poor, rural communities receiving a small portion. The sticks are transported in smaller trucks and are loaded into large trucks similar to the one The DayLight saw in Barlome Town.

Amoah’s boss, Isaac Pyne, pays several fees: an annual registration, a permit license, an export permit, and a waybill—fees for transporting forest products.

Pyne had to travel to Drodonewein, a town in Nimba County to get the sticks. He would mobilize 30 to 40 men to harvest the sticks.

Emmanuel Gibson, youth chairman of Drodonewein, sits on a pile of chewing sticks. The Daylight/Harry Browne

Pyne’s company, Winner Peace and Love Chewing Sticks reached an agreement with Dordonewien for LD40 per stick. The townspeople signed the deal, hoping it would develop the community, as it lacks a hand pump, toilet and clinic.

In all, Pyne harvested 1,000 chewing sticks and made one shipment. However, he has yet to meet all his obligations, having paid the community L$11,360.

“We were thinking we would have gotten the L$40,000 so that we could renovate our peace hall,” said Emmanuel Gibson, the youth chairman of Dordonewein. Pyne acknowledged his debt to the villagers and insisted he would pay the balance.

On commission

Once uploaded into the large truck, Pyne transports the sticks to the border via Pleebo or Laguatuo, and then to Ghana, Togo, or Senegal through the Ivory Coast.

Zebedi Bonwin, another chewing stick businessman in Buchanan, corroborated the route. Reporters had caught up with Bonwin’s truck in a town on the outskirts of Buchanan.

Bonwin revealed he also transported chewing sticks via the sea. “I used the boat one or two times,” he said. Other people The DayLight interviewed in Bassa, River Cess and Sinoe confirmed Bonwin’s sea route account. The newspaper obtained photographs of men offloading chewing sticks on a beachfront in Greenville, Sinoe County.

The DayLight also gathered evidence that chewing sticks and bitter kola are sourced from Bassa, River Cess, Bong, and Lofa, and transported to Guinea. Our reporter visited several locations in the counties, conducting interviews, and photographing warehouses and border crossings.

In Ghana, Pyne sells his sticks to mostly market women in the Ashanti Region of Kumasi, who pay him a commission. The women retail the sticks in shreds, charging US$2.50 or US$3.00 for a pile.

Prominent in African and Asian communities, chewing sticks (Salvadora persica) are used for tooth cleaning and as a herb. With their use dating back to prehistoric times, chewing sticks can be as effective as toothbrushes in removing dental plaque and caries.

A waybill issued by the FDA for 630 pieces of chewing sticks at L$12,600 (US$64) to Winer Peace and Love. File picture: Isaac Pyne

Moratorium

Pyne, Bonwin, and other businesspeople are violating the 2021 moratorium on chewing sticks—with the aid of the FDA.

Pyne provided three receipts that show different kinds of payments to the regulator. One for US$250 dated February 20, 2024, for annual registration. Another one recorded two payments for 630 pieces of chewing sticks with an accumulated volume of 15.908 cubic meters and an export permit fee of US$1,073.70. Two receipts document US$50 for an export license and a waybill of L$12,600. The waybill had been issued at the FDA’s Big Joe Town checkpoint in Grand Bassa on January 17, 2025.

Similarly, two official receipts The DayLight obtained reveal transactions in January last year. The two receipts show L$6,000 and L$9,000 payments to the FDA from one Emma Emmanuel in Greenville Sinoe County.

The evidence establishes Pyne paid some of the fees to an FDA account at the United Bank of Africa (UBA). This payment procedure violates the National Forestry Reform Law and the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System.

The regulations require that all forest fees be paid to the government’s account at the Central Bank of Liberia. The measure was installed to safeguard public funds, following decades of mismanagement, which, interestingly, continues today.

Women shred chewing sticks from Liberia in Kumasi, Ghana. File picture: Isaac Pyne

That mode of payment is similar to the one that fueled block wood or kpokolo, heavy and compact timber blocks illegally harvested, containerized and exported via land or sea. Following a decade of facilitating the trade, the FDA finally banned kpokolo in 2022. Last year, the regulator also banned the issuance of a certificate that facilitated the trade, according to minutes of an FDA board of directors meeting in July last year.

Pyne and Bonwin claim the government has lifted the moratorium.

“The FDA said the moratorium is lifted and we are starting again,” said Bonwin, who runs the Garraway Enterprise Inc. in the Buchanan suburb of Lower Harlandsville.

But that claim contradicts the facts. The FDA board meeting’s minutes prove the moratorium remains in place. In the meeting, the board agreed to lift the moratorium only upon a review of the Regulation on Non-Timber Forest Products (NFTPs) for the public to participate, an underlining principle of forestry reform.

“All other certificates signed by the [Managing Director] become null and void,” according to the document. “FDA needs to invite all those involved for a way forward.”

Though the board discussed local and national benefits of lifting the moratorium, there is no evidence the regulation has been reviewed, or a consultation has taken place. The FDA’s website does not have such information. Key civil society actors, including the Botanical Products Association of Liberia, which makes awareness of the protection and trade of NTFPs, said they did not participate in any such event.

Formulated in 2008, the NTFPs regulation covers chewing sticks, charcoal, rattans, bitter kola and other forest products other than timber. It was meant to provide income opportunities for local communities and the government, create awareness of NTFPs, and classify them for research purposes.

But it was not sufficiently community-centric, necessitating a review for a possible amendment or replacement.

“Once the [law] gives the community the right to own, manage, and protect the forest, and non-timber forest products are in the forests,” said Bonathan Walaka of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body.

“So, there should be a kind of benefit-sharing scheme for a community to receive benefits from that.”

Philip Parker, the chairman of the FDA’s Board of Directors, did not reply to questions, and neither did the FDA management. This is the second time Parker, whose duty is to hold the FDA to account, has ignored The DayLight’s inquiries. Similarly, the FDA’s refusal to respond adds to its silence on such matters, and an unwillingness to provide public information.

[Harry Browne contributed to this Investigation]

Community Forest Cancels Contract with Wartime Logger

February 21, 2025

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Top: By Varney Kamara

JOHNNY TOWN, Sinoe County — A community forest in Sinoe County has canceled a contract with a logging company owned by a wartime logger.

Last August, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) approved the Numopoh Community Forest’s request to terminate the contract with Delta Timber Corporation. The move marked the end of a years-long dispute over unfulfilled promises to local people, and wasted logs.

“[The FDA] is pleased to have you informed that it interposes no objection to your request.,” wrote Managing Director Rudolph Merab in an August letter only recently obtained by The DayLight.

“However, you are advised to identify and select a company that has both the financial and technical capabilities to manage the forest,” added Merab.

Delta signed a Community Forest Management Contract with Numopoh, securing the right to harvest timber from 7,220 hectares of woodland In 2016.

Under the agreement, Delta was required to construct schools and clinics in the district, providing scholarships and creating jobs for citizens.

However, the company failed to honor its commitments. Instead, disputes over unfulfilled obligations and Delta’s abandonment of about 1,387.343 cubic meters of logs and illegal harvesting.

Furthermore, Delta did not renew the contract after five years in 2021, a legal requirement in community forest agreements.

Gabriel Doe, Delta’s owner and CEO, did not respond to queries for comments on the termination.

The termination of the Numopoh-Delta contract is one of the rare occasions where the FDA acted without an arbitration process as the contract requires. However, several forestry legal instruments give the regulator the right to cancel failing contracts.

Wartime Logger

While the FDA eventually granted the community the legal authorization to terminate Delta’s contract, its decision to previously approve the company’s operations was unlawful.

During the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars, Doe owned Cavalla Timber Corporation, one of 17 logging companies accused of either supporting militias, participating in violence, or facilitating armed conflicts. An estimated 250,000 people died during the wars.

Rotten logs at the Ross Port of Greenville Delta Timber Corporation transferred from Numopoh Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue

In 2001, the United Nations imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Doe, then-President Charles Taylor, Dutch arms dealer Guss Kowenhoven, and over 100 individuals linked to the Taylor regime.

Two years after the travel ban, the UN sanctioned Liberian logs, aiming to cut the connection between timber revenues and arms smuggling. The sanctions were lifted in 2006, following reforms, leading to the cancellation of Cavalla’s and other companies’ contracts over irregularities.

Subsequently, reformers formulated the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications, which bars individuals involved in the logging industry before 2006, unless they fully and honestly confessed their past actions before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and worked with the FDA to repay stolen funds. No wartime logger ever did that.

But Doe resurfaced about a decade later with Delta, the FDA ignoring the qualification regulation’s war-accountability provision.

Numopoh views the termination as a break from the past, and an opportunity to be in line with the law.

“When [Delta] came here, they refused to consult the community on things they did,” said Sam Kandie, Numopoh Community Forest’s chief officer in an interview in Johnny Town.

“Now, we have taken a collective decision to get rid of Delta. We can only hope this will bring the much-needed development and prosperity to our land.”

Tag: Forestry Development Authority

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