Top: Isaac Tuker, Chief Officer, Mavasagueh Community Forest, District #2, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
COMPOUND TWO, Grand Bassa County – A community forest’s account has been unfrozen after a bank, allegedly heeding a lawmaker’s request, froze it nearly a year ago.
Last month, the Mavasagueh Community Forest accessed its account at the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI) for the first time since it was frozen last March.
“I feel a little relieved,” Isaac Tuker, Mavasagueh’s chief officer, said in an interview in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County. “I am happy that the community account has been opened, so we can do what we are supposed to do as a community.”
Tuker withdrew US$100 from the forest account, based on a receipt of the transaction, to prove that it was operational. The community has set up committees to begin development initiatives, according to Tuker.
The unfreezing of the account followed a community resolution that threatened to stop logging activities in the 26,003-hectare forest.
Last year, the C&C Corporation signed a logging contract with 39 towns and villages of Mavasagueh. However, a few towns and villages claimed they were sidelined, sparking a protest.
It was unclear who authorized the bank to freeze Mavasagueh’s bank account, though.
Clarence Banks, the representative of Grand Bassa’s District Two, and Superintendent Kadyue Johnson intervened in the matter.
Representative Banks alleged that the Tuker and his team had misapplied US$9,500.
Tuker denies any wrongdoing. He claims that the money was used to purchase a motorbike, pay forest guards, and on health matters.
Banks then wrote C&C, asking it to direct all payments to another account.
“I am asking the C&C Corporations to deposit all financial obligations to the affected communities of the Mavasagueh in the following named account with Account# 001USD42205927202 until the investigation is completed,” read the letter.
Deposit slip of US$45,000, to the Mavasagueh Forest Account by C&C, The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
As a result, Mavasagueh could not access the US$45,000 C&C Corporation deposited into the account, stalling local development efforts.
Representative Banks did not return interview questions, and LBDI said it could not disclose a customer’s privacy.
“The bank is bound by strict customer confidentiality obligations and, as such, is unable to disclose any information relating to customers’ accounts to a third party,” said Cllr. Regina Elliott, LBDI’s corporate secretary and in-house legal counsel, in reply to a DayLight inquiry.
Regardless, the evidence shows that the account was frozen unlawfully. The Community Rights Regulations, which created community forestry, only empower Tuker to operate the account with the Mavasagueh executive committee’s supervision.
Representative Banks is only a statutory member of the executive committee, which Abraham Sumo, a townsman, chairs.
Lawmakers’ restricted role is a product of forestry reform. It breaks away from the periods before and during the Liberian civil wars, where politicians marginalized local communities and mismanaged forest resources, fueling one of West Africa’s deadliest armed conflicts.
Top: Sampson Zammie, Chief Officer, Bloquia Community Forest, Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Varney Kamara
CHAYEE TOWN, Grand Gedeh –During the Liberian civil war, warring factions fought over forest resources. Sampson Zammie, an ex-combatant, finds himself protecting the very forest he once scrambled for two decades after the conflict ended. However, this time, he has a different foe: cocoa farmers.
Zammie is the leader of the Bloquia Community Forest, who, against all odds, has fought illegal cocoa cultivation. Bloquia measures 43,796 hectares in Grand Gedeh’s Gbarzon District along the Cestos River on the borders with River Gee and Sinoe Counties.
“It’s a bad idea to clear the forest because it is our supermarket, food warehouse, building material and drug store. Whenever our people get sick, we go in there and pick those special traditional leaves and treat them,” says Zammie in an interview with The DayLight in Chayee, his hometown.
“It is our ancestral heritage. We are under an obligation to protect it.”
Thanks to Zammie and local forest guards, Bloquia is the only community forest that has not been cleared for cocoa farms. Burkinabe migrants have encroached upon every forest in Grand Gedeh County. The tally includes eight community forests, several large-scale logging concession areas, and two proposed parks. Backed by their Liberian landlords, the migrants apply chemicals or set fire to the base of trees, gradually transforming virgin woodlands into vast forest graveyards.
Between 2002 and 2024, Liberia lost 390,000 hectares of primary forests, according to the Global Forest Watch, an app that tracks deforestation, utilizing satellite imagery. Grand Gedeh alone lost 59,000 hectares during this time. Last November, London-based Global Witness found a link between the world’s leading chocolate producers and deforestation in Liberia.
The Burkinabes, also known locally as “Mossi,” migrated to the Ivory Coast in the 1930s, becoming a majority of the plantation workforce and boosting that country’s cocoa industry. In search of new cocoa farmland, they began crossing into Liberia in the 2010s by canoe, on foot, and on motorbikes. The Liberia Immigration Service has registered 55,000 Burkinabés in southeastern Liberia, with 48,000 in Grand Gedeh alone.
Locals, including people in the neighboring Neezonnie Community Forest, welcome them with open arms. They see cocoa as an end to years of poverty and underdevelopment. The locals enter agreements with the migrants, wherein they provide the land and the migrants plant and nurture the cocoa.
“I don’t have a problem with the Burkinabés because through them, I have a house today that is worth more than US$17,000,” said Morris Totaye, a Polar Town resident.
“They are very strong, hard-working, and always willing to work. In my mind, they should stay here because they are helping to develop the community.”
Residents of Totaye and Neezonnie cite a failed logging contract as justification for their cocoa activities in their community forest. In 2011, Neezonnie and Bloquia signed a logging contract with A&M Enterprises Inc., owned by Aisha Conneh, the wife of Sekou Conneh, the ex-leader of Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD. A&M then subcontracted another firm, the Liberia Hardwood Corporation. The contract promised roads, schools and a clinic for residents. However, instead, the contract ended in a fierce legal battle at the Supreme Court in Monrovia.
‘…Never betray my people.’
Zammie and the people in Bloquia are aware of the opportunities that cocoa brings. However, they have chosen legality and heritage over ill-gotten wealth. In forestry, farming in a community forest without the FDA’s authorization is illegal. There are several cases involving the FDA, Burkinabé migrants, and local people.
Zammie has refused several offers to rein him in. In an audio recording of a phone call with Emmanuel Zongo, a spokesperson for the Burkinabé community, Zongo promises Zammie CFA 5 million (US$8,853.13) to plant cocoa in Bloquia. Zammie turned down Zongo’s offer.
“I rejected his offer because it amounted to bribery and corruption,” Zammie says. “I told him that I would be destroying my children’s future if I had accepted his offer, and that would amount to a betrayal of the community’s trust. I can never betray my people.”
Reporters traveled on motorbikes for over five hours, deep into the isolated belly of Grand Gedeh, where the forest thickens, and the road steadily disappears beneath bush and broken earth. A convoy of two motorbikes squealed over fragile wooden bridges and through narrow, mud-slashed paths, tilting dangerously at every bend. There was Zammie.
A soft-spoken, slim, grey-headed man, Zammie joined the Armed Forces of Liberia in 1990 as a private. From 1992 to 2003, he served the disbanded Liberia Peace Council and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia as a battalion commander. After the war, Zammie, now disarmed, returned to Chayee Town, desperate to turn his life around, eager for a fresh start.
Backed by their Liberian landlords, the migrants apply chemicals or set fire to the base of trees, gradually transforming virgin woodlands into vast forest graveyards. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba
His chance came in 2016 when Bloquia, established five years earlier, headed for elections. Zammie contested for the chief officer, the one who runs the daily affairs of a community forest, and won on a white ballot. Liberia had passed the Community Rights Law…, empowering locals to participate in forest governance and share in its benefits.
Zammie uses his wartime experience to organize the community’s forest guards. With Zammie’s oversight, guards regularly deploy across the forest to monitor and remove illegal occupants. His guardianship against encroachment also extends to protecting a 266,910-hectare logging concession adjacent to Bloquia, ravaged by cocoa cultivation.
But like his time as a combatant, leading Bloquia has been a difficult journey for Zammie, who often faces off with encroachers and local authorities.
In 2023, Zammie was removed as chief officer of Bloquia, following a controversial election. However, he was later reinstated after the FDA overturned that election’s outcome, retaining him pending a fresh poll.
Zammie and his guards struggle daily to prevent Burkinabés and their Liberian hosts from illegally occupying the Bloquia forest. At least 30 Burkinabés have been detained and removed from Bloquia by the Zammie-led forest guards, a video shows.
In the video, Zammie can be heard interrogating a group of Burkinabes in Farblor, a village between Bloquia and the large-scale logging concession. Sitting on the ground with folded hands, the men listen to Zammie nervously as he scolds them for encroaching on the community forest.
Zammie also faces threats from Grand Gedeh authorities.
Last April, anti-riot police officers fired at forest guards who had gone to evict illegal occupants. In a video clip of that incident, Zammie is seen presenting ammunition to a local official.
A partial view of Chayee Town in Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Harry BrowneA partial view of the Bloquia Community Forest, the only community forest in Grand Gedeh without cocoa farms. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Applause
Zammie accuses Alex Grant, the Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County, of masterminding the shooting incident. Now, Zammie travels with dozens of men in a motorbike convoy, as the cocoa crisis in the southeast has resulted in deaths and injuries.
“Grant has always threatened to get rid of me because he said I am standing in his way,” says Zammie. “He wants to take over Bloquia and make it his personal farm.”
Grant did not respond to queries. However, speaking on “Forest Hour” on Okay FM last year, Grant called Zammie “a fugitive.” He called on the police to arrest him “wherever he is found.”
Forestry campaigners have frowned on the constant harassment of Zammie. In a joint press statement last July, they showed solidarity with the Bloquia savior.
“Such threats against a citizen who is acting in the national interest are unacceptable,” says Andrew Zelemen, a forestry campaigner. “We take these allegations seriously and demand a full, impartial investigation. Zammie’s safety must be guaranteed.”
Grant is a major player in Grand Gedeh’s cocoa rush. Last October, Grant signed a 30-year lease agreement with a Burkinabe businessman for 500 acres of ancestral territory in the B’hai District. The deal was later terminated due to several irregularities. Months earlier, Grant had received over CFA 4 million (US$7,111) from B’hai citizens to secure a deed for the same land.
Nevertheless, Zammie’s effort to protect Bloquia Community Forest has been hailed. Beyan Woi, regional management officer for the southeast, is one of his admirers.
“I would like to give it out for the Bloquiah Community Forest. I want to thank Sampson Zammie…,” says Woi. “He is working tirelessly daily and, through him, we don’t have any Burkinabe in that forest.
“Everyone must give him applause for his great work in that area.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Teak logs that the Forestry Development Authority illegally confiscated ended up at Libfor Forest Corporation, a sawmill involved in alleged illegal timber trafficking. Photo credit: Anonymous
By Esau J. Farr
In 2024, the Forestry Development Authority arrested two truckloads of expensive teak logs in Ganta and Salala that came from Kpaytuo, Nimba County.
The FDA announced it filed a lawsuit against the owner of the logs, providing no further information.
But a DayLight investigation established that the regulator did not obtain a court warrant to seize or auction the logs, as the law requires.
Instead, documents, recordings and interviews paint an intriguing picture of alleged illegal transactions.
The evidence shows that some of the logs ended up in a notorious sawmill, which the FDA sued for alleged timber smuggling.
KPAYTUO, Nimba County – Late 2024, Rose Yancy Adikwu, the manager of Rosemart Inc., a logging company, set off to transport a truckload of teak logs, an expensive and sought-after wood. Little did she know that rangers with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) at the Salala checkpoint in Bong County would seize the logs.
Before that incident, rangers at the Ganta checkpoint arrested 200 teaks from men linked to Rosemart. That consignment and the one from the Salala checkpoint were taken to the FDA headquarters in Whein Town, Paynesville City. In all, the FDA said it seized about 706 timbers valued at US$20,000.
“FDA’s decision to confiscate the woods is based on the owners of the trucks or companies’ inability to obtain proper documentation for said transactions,” the FDA said in a Facebook post. It said it was processing Rosemart and Amengo to court for violating the forestry law and evading government revenue.
But a yearlong DayLight investigation found that the FDA bypassed the legal process to seize and auction timber. The evidence suggests that the regulator clandestinely transacted with companies that had already traded with Rosemart for the same consignments.
The Eighth Judicial Circuit Court in Nimba, which hears such cases, confirmed it did not issue the FDA any warrant to seize or auction the logs.
In an interview with reporters last December, FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab admitted to not following the law.
“There was no warrant when I seized [the logs],” Merab said. “I will go to court to get the court’s authorization to sell it.
“I don’t need a warrant to catch a rogue. If you enter my house and I catch you there, you are rogue,” Merab added.
The facts contradict Merab’s comments. The Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products provides that the FDA must obtain a warrant from the circuit court where the logs were harvested or stored before the logs are confiscated. The 2017 regulation complements the 1972 Criminal Procedure Law regarding the seizure of contraband and stolen or embezzled property.
‘Lots of money’
Except for the initial arrests and seizures, which were published, the FDA provided no updates on the Ganta and Salala logs in the months that followed. The FDA did not publish any more details as required by law, and ignored detailed questions emailed and hand-delivered six months ago.
So, what happened to the logs in question? Were they sold off? If so, where and when did the sale occur? And who bought them? How much did the individual or company pay the government? How much did Kpaytuo receive?
Documents and interviews The DayLight conducted likely provide the answers to these questions.
In one interview, Adikwu said that Merab told her he had seized the logs because her company was illegally operating. The DayLight obtained a video recording in which Merab corroborates Adikwu’s story. In the video, Merab can be heard saying, “Rose came to my office, and I told her what to do.”
Adikwu alleged that the FDA sold the Salala checkpoint logs for US$1,860 to Bana Liberia, a little-known company. Weeks later, the regulator announced the seizures. There were over 740 logs, not 600 as the FDA announced. It had paid Rosemart US$7,500 for the logs via a Liberia-based executive, a receipt of that transaction, seen by The DayLight, shows.
Interestingly, Bana Liberia stored the logs at Libfor, a sawmill in Caldwell embroiled in at least one lawsuit with the FDA for alleged timber smuggling. Pictures of teaks that The DayLight obtained matched the wood from Kpaytuo, and the environment in the picture fitted Libfor’s yard. A DayLight investigation last January had found that Libfor smuggled timber in and out of Liberia. Trade data shows that it smuggled timber at least 51 times since June 2022.
“Amadu Kabbah, who bought the woods from me, said he took part in the bidding process and won the bid with US$1,800,” said Adikwu. “So, he bought the woods for the second time from the FDA.”
Kabbah confirmed Adikwu’s claim that Bana Liberia bought the wood from the FDA. He revealed that Bana Liberia paid “lots of money to the FDA,” and had still not exported the logs.
FDA’s records suggest it handed the Ganta logs to Fahmah Construction Company, established in 2023. There is no record of that sale, but the FDA reports Fahmah paid US$50 for tags used to track logs.
Some of the controversial logs in Kpaytuo, Nimba County. The DayLight/Carlucci CooperThe FDA stored Rosemart’s logs at its headquarters in Whein Town, Paynesville. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
Official records show that Fahmah was registered in LiberTrace—FDA’s log-tracking system—in December 2024, the same month the FDA seized the logs in Ganta. Fahmah had purchased the 143 teak logs from Rosemart for US$3,000 or US$3,500, according to a receipt The DayLight obtained.
Screenshots of WhatsApp chats provide a glimpse into the Rosemart-Fahmah deal. In a WhatsApp chat, a Fahmah representative engaged Rosemart for a deal.
“If you can cut two containers, please let us know. The minimum circumference is 80 centimeters and the minimum length is 2.4 meters,” the representative wrote.
Adikwu replied, “Yes, I have.” It was two days after that conversation when Fahmah was stopped at the Ganta checkpoint.
‘The king of woods’
Last August, Merab visited Kpaytuo to negotiate with townspeople for the remaining teaks there. Referred to as “the king of woods,” teak is used for furniture, outdoor construction and shipbuilding. A cubic meter of teak sells between US$212 and US$805, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization, which sets global prices for wood.
The Kpaytuo teak plantation was established before the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars as part of an afforestation initiative. However, during the conflicts and the decades that followed, illicit occupants destroyed the plantation.
In 2015, Rosemart acquired the right to harvest a prewar teak plantation in Kpaytuo, spanning three FDA administrations. Two years later, Rosemart signed an MoU with townspeople and began exploiting the remnants of the plantation, ravaged by the Liberian civil wars.
Since then, the company has shipped teak logs on several occasions, with the FDA’s approval. One of its last-known shipments occurred in 2020. A 2022 DayLight investigation found that those exports occurred outside the legal system despite the FDA approving them.
Now, while in Kpaytuo, townspeople reminded Merab about their MoU with Rosemart and the company’s legal status, but he dismissed it. The FDA boss does not recognize Rosemart’s legality.
In a video recording of their meeting, Merab can be heard calling Adikwu a “rogue,” threatening to jail anyone who worked with her.
A townsman can be heard asking Merab, “‘Why don’t you take Rose [Adikwu] to court?’”
Merab then replies, “No. I won’t take her to court. She will take me to court.”
The Forestry Development Authority announces the seizure of logs belonging to Rosemart Inc., which operates the Kpaytuo teak plantation in Nimba. Facebook/Forestry Development Authority
Merab’s comments in the video contradicted the FDA’s initial comments during its press conference. The FDA had claimed that it was “awaiting further court proceedings” to confiscate the logs.
In the end, the FDA paid Kpaytuo US$400 for each consignment, twice the amount Rosemart was paying, according to Socrates Kpeah, Kpaytuo’s Commissioner.
Kpeah pitied Rosemart but said Kpaytuo could not fight the FDA.
“The FDA is a big arm. The FDA is the government,” he said, as rangers supervised the transfer of teak logs from the bush to the road. “If the government can come to say, ‘Rosemart is no longer here,’ what power do we have to stop it?”
The FDA published no details of the teak logs it removed from Kpaytuo. Townsmen, who helped transfer the wood, however, said they counted 738 logs. Francis Wile, a Rosemart representative, corroborated that information.
The FDA had contacted Oyaleke Ademola, a Nigerian businessman, who had pulled out of the deal upon learning of the logs’ history, according to Adikwu. The Nigerian did not respond to queries for comments on the matter.
CORRECTION: This version of the story corrects a previous version, which stated that Merab paid the community L$40,000. The actual amount is US$400.
It also corrects Salayea in the highlights of the story for Salala, where the arrest took place.
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Some of the logs Westwood illegally harvested in the Gba Community Forest. Picture credit: Anonymous
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – A Nimba court issued the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) a warrant to seize logs that a company illegally harvested last year.
The Eighth Judicial Circuit Court in Sanniquillie ordered the FDA to take charge of the 5,694.33 cubic meters of logs Westwood Corporation felled outside a designated area in the Gba Community Forest, Sanniquillie-Mahn District.
“You are hereby commanded to immediately proceed to confiscate all logs harvested by West Wood Corporation outside of the 450-acre area…,” read the court warrant.
Samuel Cooper, Westwood’s manager, declined to be interviewed.
An FDA investigation had found evidence that the company harvested 4 kilometers outside the 450-acre area, near the East Nimba Nature Reserve, home to endangered species.
The Investigation confirmed an earlier DayLight publication that utilized satellite imagery to pinpoint the illegal felling. The newspaper had established that Westwood made two shipments of the illegal logs to Italy, violating Liberia’s timber-trade agreement with the European Union. Moreover, the company’s shareholders are unknown.
Having seized the logs, the FDA is required to seek a warrant for a public auction.
FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab said the regulator had already auctioned the logs. “Kris Veneer [Industries] won the bid for the auction, Merab told The DayLight. (Kris operates a plywood factory in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.)
This is the first time the FDA has auctioned illegal logs since the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products was formulated in 2017.
Top: A poster showing Roberto Kollie (left), St. Solomon Peters (center) and Edward Teah, the main characters in this investigation of the Benefit Sharing Trust Board. Illustration by Michael Harijgens for The DayLight
By Varney Kamara
Roberto Kollie joined the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board in 2021, with a vision to help reform it. Accordingly, Kollie scrutinized the activities of the board’s executives without fear or favor.
Last year, one executive alleged that he paid Kollie a bribe for certain payment; Kollie was subsequently suspended.
The Forestry Development Authority investigated the matter and exonerated Kollie of the accusation. The FDA praised him for championing transparency and accountability.
Nevertheless, the Board terminated Kollie’s contract, leading to a case now before the Ministry of Labor.
The case, the FDA investigation, documents, recordings, and interviews The DayLight conducted shed light on corruption in the board and impunity in forestry.
MONROVIA – In January 2021, Roberto Kollie was recruited as head of the secretariat of the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board, which regulates communities’ shares of logging resources. Kollie had just left his job as a human resource officer at a bank, and before that, an auditor with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
The 41-year-old dreamed of guiding the board to uphold its core values of transparency and accountability and driving major reforms to benefit communities. Just months on the job, Kollie helped draft the board’s first budget, saving it from bankruptcy, according to a 2021 report.
“I had a vision to ensure that during my time at the board, we would make sure there was value for money, where funds delivered for projects would be properly accounted for,” Kollie said in an interview with The DayLight. “In that way, the board would be living up to its objectives, and that communities would benefit from a fair share of their natural resources.”
But his story was too good to be true. Last July, months before his fifth anniversary as head of secretariat, Kollie received shocking news: His contract had been terminated. It was the grand finale of an internal struggle that would shed light on corruption inside the board and the culture of impunity in forestry.
It all started on November 25, 2024, when Edward Teah, a local forest leader in Grand Gedeh County, requested L$702,494.61 (US$3,753 today) check from the board for his community leadership’s share of land rental that the International Consultant Capital (ICC) had paid the Liberian government.
In 2009, ICC signed a logging concession with the Liberian government, covering 266,910 hectares across River Cess, Nimba, and Grand Gedeh. Thirty percent of the land rental fees companies pay to the government goes to affected communities under the National Forestry Reform Law. Of that amount, community leaders are entitled to a tenth of land rental fees. It was that money that Teah had requested.
Kollie denied the request, based on an issue he discovered with Teah’s previous report. Kollie had noticed that Federick Soloe, a Sinoe County community leader, did not attend an event in Grand Gedeh for which he had received US$240.
A day after that encounter, Teah filed a complaint against Kollie with the board. He alleged that Kollie had not denied his request because of Soloe’s failure to attend the Grand Gedeh event. Instead, Kollie was demanding a bribe before issuing his check.
“I write to officially inform the board that Roberto Kollie is in the constant [habit] of holding my documents without turning [them] over to the rightful committee that has the authority to review [them],” Teah said in his complaint letter. “My… document was kept for more than one month because I didn’t promise him a share of the project cost.”
Kollie was suspended in January last year, two months after the complaint, and the board immediately asked the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to investigate.
Teah told investigators that he allegedly gave Kollie US$600 as a kickback, which Kollie denies. Then Teah said Soloe had attended the dedication of a town hall in Dougee Town, Grand Gedeh County, refuting Kollie’s claim.
Soloe corroborated Teah’s testimony, claiming he had attended the event but arrived late. However, he told the FDA investigators that he only received US$150, corroborating Kollie’s claim.
Based on the evidence, the FDA cleared Kollie of all allegations, concluding a four-month investigation. The regulator instructed the board to reinstate Kollie. It found no evidence that he solicited US$600 or any kickbacks. There was no evidence of delayed check payments, and Soloe’s testimony justified Kollie’s doubt in questioning Teah.
The National Benefit Sharing Trust Board collects funding from the government that logging concessioners pay, disburses the money to affected communities, and oversees its expenditure. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue
“The committee determined that the query operates to enhance the integrity of the board as opposed to disrespecting its authorities,” the investigation report said. “The nature of evidence presented was mostly speculative.”
The investigators recommended that Kollie be reinstated. They further recommended that the board hold a retreat to review its roles and responsibilities and conduct an audit within three months.
Now exonerated, Kollie thought that his nightmare had ended. He could push forward with his reform agenda.
“I felt relieved that I was exonerated from allegations that had the propensity to damage my professional career and negative image on my family,” Kollie said. “I had hope that my return to work could pave the way for massive reform at the [board], given that many of the accountability issues that I flagged were captured in the investigation report.”
But Kollie’s nightmare was far from over. Instead of reinstating him, the board terminated his contract, saying that it had expired.
Conspiracy
Kollie suspected that Teah’s allegation against him was only a smokescreen because he had been a pain in the buttocks. In September 2024, Kollie and other officials of the board found out that the Dougee town hall project was incomplete, despite a report from the CFDC that the project was finished. Subsequently, the monitoring team compelled Teah, his accuser, to sign a commitment to complete the unfinished town hall within a specified period.
Kollie suspected the board was conspiring against him, too. In January last year, Solomon Peters, its chairman, presented a US$3,294 budget to celebrate the Ziadue and Teekpeh clans’ customary deed acquisition in River Cess. He advised the board against reviewing Peters’ budget for three reasons: One, Peters had not completed certain projects in River Cess, a requirement for him to get further payment. Two, the board’s window for budget submission had closed. And Ziadue and Teekpeh clans’ deed celebration was a land matter, not a forestry project.
Here: St. Solomon Peters, the chairman of the board. Above: Roberto Kollie, embattled head of the secretariat of the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board. The DayLight/James Giahyue and Esau J. Farr
The board ignored Kollie’s advice and approved Peters’ budget, though Kollie abstained from the process.
An email, seen by The DayLight, confirmed Kollie’s suspicion of the board’s plot to remove him. In the communication, Andrew Zelemen, a community forest union leader, with the highest representation on the board, discussed the conspiracy.
“I… realized that there is a plan to remove Mr. Kollie from the board due to his critical stance on some decisions that have been made by the chairperson of the board, who is also a [community forest] official,” the email read.
“These decisions, it is believed, often favored the communities, but sometimes did not align with best practices, and the secretariat, headed by Roberto, is always critical of these decisions.”
If Zelemen’s email was revealing, then text messages and WhatsApp conversations between Kollie and Peters in July and August were explosive.
On an evening last March, Peters met Kollie at a bar in 72nd, Paynesville, while the FDA investigation proceeded. In an audio recording obtained by The DayLight, Peters can be heard trying to reach a compromise with Kollie.
“If it is left with me, these issues that are going around will not come out among us anymore. I don’t like for it to come to my mind. That is the reason why I sent the texts that you, Andrew [Zelemen], and myself meet and discussed, so we can find means to solve it,” Peters suggested.
Kollie rejected the chairman of the board’s proposal and urged him to hold on until the investigation was completed. The allegations were too grave to be swept under the carpet, as they concerned his reputation. National and International partners had heard of the matter, and it would be good to see it finalized.
Teah, Kollie’s accuser, walked in and sat near Peters without saying anything. Shortly after that, Kollie left the bar, fearing incrimination. Teah did not respond to The DayLight’s queries.
But that was not the only Kollie-Peters encounter. On Thursday, July 31, at 11:50 pm last year, Peters engaged Kollie for a “friendly” conversation, according to a Facebook chat between the pair, obtained by The DayLight.
“What would be your top priority on a list of many with regard to the foregoing? What would you wish I could initiate in favor of your top priority?” Peters began.
“I’m saying this because I have had a series of discussions with many interested parties, finding an alternative approach to an amicable resolution, but I sometimes get quenched by certain actions and information,” Peters said. He appeared to reference the board’s refusal to reinstate Kollie, defying the FDA, a decision that forestry actors had criticized.
The controversial town hall in Dougee Town, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/James Giahyue
“I am not sure a fight can better address our situation,” Peters added.
Kollie replied, starting with pay and benefits.
“The first thing I would appreciate from you is if you consider that I am entitled to my May and June salary, including communication allowances for February to July.
“That is a very good beginning for a very good dialogue,” Kollie added.
“Rest assured,” Peters replied, ending that day’s chat.
The negotiation, it turns out, did not hold. Kollie filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor for “unfair labor practice.” He seeks reinstatement and settlement of unpaid wages.
Kollie argues that his contract was continued, as the board paid him several months after January last year, when his contract was supposed to have expired.
Peters did not respond to detailed queries for his side of the story, citing the case before the ministry.
The story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: A team of FDA staff in a town hall meeting with affected forest leaders in Tima Town. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
By Esau J. Farr
TIMA TOWN, Gbarpolu County – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has initiated the process of establishing a new logging concession. The FDA has engaged with the communities that would be affected in Kongba District, Gbarpolu County, near the Gola Park forest management contract area, specifically “D” or FMC-D.
The FDA is conducting social and economic surveys in the area in line with the Forestry Reform Law. The law requires the regulator to seek local people’s consent for possible commercial logging activities. It also mandates the FDA to conduct an inventory of all species of the forest that qualify for a concession agreement.
“Government needs resources and if it must continue infrastructural development, we need to get those resources from the communities for the benefits of all of us,” says Rudolph Merab, the FDA Managing Director. “We want to see our communities developed. Our people in the rural area have been there for years in abject poverty. So, our intervention has to be real.”
FMCs are large-scale concessions signed between the government and logging companies. It covers at least 50,000 hectares of forestland and not more than 400,000 hectares for 25 years.
After the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars, Liberia’s forest cover area was divided into 26 large-scale contracts. They were labelled as FMC “A” to “Z”. This one in Gbarpolu and others were, however, not granted to companies due to technical reasons.
Currently, two of them are active—Geeblo Logging Company and Euro-Liberia Logging Company—according to the FDA’s records, with the rest inactive.
A view of a forest in Tima Town, where the FDA wants to create a logging concession. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
When completed, the Kongba-based concession would be the first since the initial ones over 15 years ago.
“The team that is here will talk with community people. They will go into the bush to check and find the different kinds of trees there,” Ekema Witherspoon, an FDA consultant, tells a town hall meeting in Tima Town, one of the landowning communities.
“They will take some people from here and work with the team that is coming from Monrovia because your children know the forest.”
Forest leaders of Kongba welcome the idea of commercial logging in their area.
“We don’t want any more parks in our district. The only thing we want is a company that will come and improve our living conditions,” says Blama Kanneh, Paramount Chief of Kongba District.
Other chiefs agree with Kanneh.
“For us to hear you today that you want to work with us for companies to come here, we are very happy,” says Aaron Momo, Zuie Clan Chief. “If you compare other counties in Liberia with Gbarpolu County, especially Kongba District, you will feel at for us here. Development is very slow here!”
Following the FDA’s field report, companies will have to bid for the forest through the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC). The winner of the bid, after legislative approval, will sign a social agreement with the would-be affected communities.
But forestry campaigners dissent from the process. Jonathan Yiah, the head of forest governance of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), believes it is counterproductive. Yiah references the troubled history of large-scale logging concessions.
A 2013 Liberian government-commissioned report by the London-based Moore Stephens found all seven concessions, covering 1,007,239 hectares, had been illegally awarded.
Likewise, a 2024 review by the US-based Forest Trends found that all FMCs were noncompliant.
“The FDA should refrain from pursuing another forest management contract when nearly all existing contracts are either dormant or underperforming,” says Yiah.
“Instead, the FDA should focus on implementing the recommendations from the Liberia Forest Concession Review (Phase II) of 2024.” The review determined several large-scale logging contracts did not meet essential prequalification criteria, among others.
“Resolving these critical issues should take precedence over initiating another [large-scale logging concession],” Yiah adds.
Top: FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab in a group photo with residents of the Proposed Kwa National Park, Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh County. Gaye Town-Thursday, November 13, 2025. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
GAYE TOWN, Grand Gedeh – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) recently announced a resurvey of the Grand Gedeh portion of the Proposed Kwa Protected Area within 90 days. The FDA ordered farmers to halt further degradation of the park, warning of punitive actions.
“We will cut the boundaries and ensure that the government collects what belongs to it, and then the community will get its benefit,” Merab said in a meeting with community representatives in Gaye Town, which borders the park. “I don’t want to see anybody planting cocoa or doing farming business in there.”
But Merab left out important information about the FDA’s plan after the resurvey. A document The DayLight obtained shows that the FDA targets a potential auction of the area where cocoa has been planted. The document was written on October 10, about a month before the Gaye Town meeting.
The document also shows that an unnamed FDA manager dissented from the regulator’s plan to seize and auction. The manager wrote that the “bad precedent” would undermine conservation efforts, fuel violence, and be legally misplaced.
“My technical advice is straight implementation of the law – establish boundaries at the jointly agreed areas and make the presence of the forest rangers,” wrote the unnamed manager.
A DayLight review of multiple laws and regulations confirms the manager’s dissent. While the FDA can punish encroachers, it cannot auction farmland in a proposed protected area.
Like the anonymous manager, the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF), an NGO helping to establish Kwa, opposes the seizure and auctioning plan. Clement Tweh, WCF’s Program Manager, said there was no need to seize and auction the property. He urges the FDA to remove encroachers from Kwa and identify and support livelihood programs for communities.
Tweh also disagrees with the FDA over the resurvey idea, warning the exercise would cause more harm than good.
“This will lead to more problems because lines were drawn during previous surveys. Potential conflict spots were duly identified and demarcated. I don’t see the need for another one,” Tweh said.
“All the FDA needs to do is to remove the park’s illegal occupants, and identify and support alternative livelihood activities for communities.”
The FDA insists on the resurvey. Asked whether the FDA would replicate this action in other proposed and protected areas since encroachment was commonplace, Merab nodded, depending on a “positive” outcome of Kwa’s resurvey.
“We are here because our people keep complaining about encroachment and conflict all around here. Our action is intended to resolve all these issues,” Merab told The DayLight on the margins of the Gaye Town meeting.
Kwa crosscuts River Cess, Sinoe, and Grand Gedeh Counties. It protects Liberia’s vital biodiversity within the Upper Guinean forests, West Africa’s largest remaining rainforests. With 90 percent of its primary forest intact, Kwa hosts vulnerable wildlife species such as the Western chimpanzee, pigmy hippopotamus, and slender-snouted crocodile.
Protecting Kwa is vital for Liberia’s commitment to conserve 30 percent of its rainforests, conservationists say. It contributes to the country’s climate commitment to cut deforestation and forest-related emissions by 2030.
It would be the third time that Kwa has been surveyed.
An overview of Gaye Town, Gbarzon District, where the FDA held its consultative meeting with Kwa National Park’s residents. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
Kwa, formerly known as the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Forest, was first surveyed between 1950 and 1952 as part of a general survey of the Kwa National Forests, a fulfillment of the Act for the Conservation of Forests, which established legal frameworks for National Parks and protected areas.
In 2023, a survey found that Kwa measured 236,246 hectares after feasibility studies and community consultation in 2016. However, it lost some 64,358 hectares to roads, encroachment, and mining, and now measures 171,888 hectares. These activities have led to habitat loss and the destruction of the ecosystem.
Conservation versus mining
The disagreements over the FDA’s resurvey come amidst miners’ interest in parts of Kwa. In July and August, Grand Gedeh Superintendent Alex Grant met representatives of GLM Inc., an affiliate of Bea Mountain Mining Corporation, Liberia’s largest gold producer.
Pictures The DayLight obtained show Grant, Timothy Amos, a GLM official, and another man in a group picture with Grant in his Zwedru office. They disclosed plans to extend their operations to Boe Geewon, Grand Gedeh’s portion of Kwa.
“I remember some members of a Bea Mountain affiliate met me in my home office and said they wanted to do prospecting in parts of River Cess and Grand Gedeh,” said Grant, who has been under fire for an illegal cocoa farm deal covering 500 acres.
“I told them to go and bring their authorization from the Ministry of Mines and Energy. I did not authorize anyone to go mine in those places.”
Merab said he was unaware of miners’ interest in Kwa, and that nothing had been decided when the survey ended. “We will come back and sit down with our people to decide what to do when it is finished.”
GLM did not respond to queries from The DayLight. Amos had promised to return the question on Wednesday, but had not by Thursday.
Grand Gedeh Superintendent Alex Grant poses with a representative of GLM Inc., an affiliate of Liberia’s largest gold mining company.
Earlier this year, communities in River Cess withdrew their support for the establishment of Kwa through a petition to lawmakers, leading to the extraction of a portion of Kwa. Locals would later sign an MoU with GLM Inc., a subsidiary of Bea Mountain, which is now exploring for gold in the area.
In October, a US-based NGO, Forest Trends, published a mining report that found several licenses overlap with Kwa and other protected areas.
Mining in a proposed or protected area is illegal, under the National Forestry Reform Law, except for industrial mining, which must meet certain requirements.
Top: Seekon Pellokon Community Forest covers 44,989 hectares. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
By Emmanuel Davies
SEEKON PELLOKON, Sinoe County – A community forest has signed a logging contract with a company despite multiple reports highlighting problems with the deal.
The agreement green-lights the Liberian Hardwood Corporation to carry on logging activities in the Seekon Pellokon Community Forest in Sinoe County.
Signed on 10th September, the contract provides for a combined annual payment of US$47,930 to the community in exchange for the 44,989-hectare forestland. It provides for land rental fees, development initiatives, and education, among others, for landowning communities.
Several roads were captured for rehabilitation and maintenance throughout the lifespan of the contract. Liberian Hardwood to construct durable wooden and concrete bridges, the agreement shows.
It was signed a day after two DayLight reporters, Esau Farr and Carlucci Cooper, narrowly escaped the wrath of a masked dancer, commonly known as “Country Devil.”
Reporters Farr and Cooper had traveled to conduct an investigation for a contract-signing ceremony in the Community Forest when they were suddenly confronted by the country devil.
Seekon Pellokon’s leaders were reacting to an investigation the online newspaper published. It highlighted issues and concerns about Liberian Hardwood’s capacity to operate Seekon Pellokon amid its failure in the Bloquia and Neezonnie Community Forests in Grand Gedeh, and its management of the largest active forestry concession in Liberia, covering Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties, 254,670 hectares. The concession is known in the sector as the forestry management contract area-F (FMC–F).
Junior Kumah, a Seekon Pellokon leader, had dismissed the warning of Liberian Hardwood failure in Grand Gedeh. Kumeh argued that they had signed a five-year contract, the company would pay after production, and they would terminate the contract if Liberian Hardwood breached the contract.
Pellokon Town in the Seekon District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
“I am not a rocket scientist to know whether Hardwood will fail or not. All I am telling you is that what happened in Bloquia will not be repeated here. What happened to John doesn’t mean the same thing will happen to Paul,” Kumah said.
The investigation also shed light on the relationship between the company’s manager and co-owner, Jihad Akkari’s relationship with the Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Rudolph Merab. The investigation accused Merab of negotiating for Akkari to get Seekon Pellokon.
“FDA is the one that is negotiating. The FDA has all those documents in its possession,” said Kumah in a phone interview.
“FDA said it would not do business with us unless the community signs a contract with Liberian Hardwood,” said Stanley Kreejarly, a Seekon Pellokon leader, confirming Kumah’s claim.
Merab did not respond to The DayLight queries for comments on the accusations. However, Akkari denied any wrongdoing. In a statement, he claimed he had lost US$4 million in Grand Gedeh, and had “the capacity to operate” the combined nearly 300,000 hectares of Seekon Pellokon and FMC – F.
This story was produced by the Community of Forests and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFE).
Top: The Forestry Development Authority’s headquarters in Whein Town, Paynesville. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – A member of the Forestry Development Authority’s board of directors has resigned, following a DayLight investigation that established he received board-sitting fees through a proxy while residing in the United States of America.
“Yes, [Mr. Grigsby has resigned],” Loretta Pope-Kai, an FDA board director, told The DayLight.
“The board is yet to receive his replacement, and his proxy no longer attends meetings,” Mrs. Pope-Kai added.
The FDA did not immediately respond to queries for comment. However, two other persons, familiar with the board’s activities, confirmed the information.
Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe, a project coordinator with the Ministry of Public Works, who served as Mr. Grigsby’s proxy, did not return questions on the matter. Efforts to contact Mr. Grigsby did materialize.
Per DayLight estimates, the New Jersey resident’s resignation saves over half a million Liberian dollars (US$2,925) for the FDA, which barely has money for fieldwork.
Before his resignation, Mr. Grigsby received L$131,625 periodically through Mr. Flaboe, who, board minutes show, made no contributions.
The amount was equivalent to US$500 for the board-sitting fee, US$50 for communication, and 25 gallons of fuel for transportation. The FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab, had approved Grigsby’s payment in May last year, according to official documents.
This was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Iroko logs on an open field outside of Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – In this and the last three years, The DayLight published a series of reports, exposing a Nigerian-owned logging company’s offenses. Yet, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) ignored each of the six investigations, approving the firm’s operations.
Over eight months after the newspaper’s last story, Iroko Timber and Logging Company has ceased operations. An FDA online portal identifies Iroko as “inactive.” The company is indebted to the Liberian government and the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe, where it operated.
“There are signs that Iroko may not return to the community. As I speak, most of their workers are now working with different companies,” said Ernest Slah, a local leader, in a phone interview. “I am seriously disappointed because the community is still struggling to get its benefits after all these big promises.”
The story started in 2022 when Iroko signed a 15 -year logging contract with Central River Dugbe Community Forest to lease 13,193 hectares in exchange for schools, handpumps, and other benefits.
However, Iroko failed to live up to the agreement. It owes the villagers US$28,720.19 in land rental, harvesting and other fees, as well as projects, according to the community.
From their obligations to the community and the clearing of the logs from the forest, everything has been stalled since that time,” said Bartee Togba, Central River Dugbe’s chief officer. “They have still not paid the community debts they owed it.”
The FDA sanctioned Iroko’s export amid its indebtedness to the Central River Dugbe and the government, violating the Regulation on Forest Fees. The regulation requires that the FDA disapproves of an indebted company’s export.
A DayLight investigation found that a majority of the logs exported were illegally harvested and had been red-flagged by LiberTrace, the FDA tracking system.
Official records show that from July to August last year, Iroko paid the 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 September and October, official records show.
“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,” read Iroko’s commitment.
The LRA agreed, but the money has not been paid, according to official records. Iroko and the LRA did not immediately respond to queries for comments.
A map of the Central River Dugbe Community Forest. Filed picture/Forestry Development Authority
Another DayLight investigation last year established that the FDA permitted Iroko to export abandoned logs without fining the firm. Thus, the government lost over US$100,000 in fines, based the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products.
In fact, Iroko was not qualified for Central River Dugbe Community Forest due to its shareholder Timothy Odebunmi.
Odebunmi is also a shareholder in Akewa Group of Companies, which was fined US$1,000 for forging a tax clearance in 2019. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications restricts a person who is part of a dishonest company from forestry activities for five years.
Back in Sinoe, Togba and other locals brace for a court action.
“It is a sad thing to hear this because Iroko is still obligated to the community. It owes the community numerous benefits that have not been settled,” said Togba.
“If the company decides to close and leave the community without settlement, we will use the law to demand our social and financial benefits.”
This was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
