How a Newsroom Led to a ‘Ban’ on a Timber Black Market

April 25, 2026

Kpokolo in Gbaryama, Gbarpolu County — Gbarpolu kpokolo

Top: Kpokolo harvested by businesswoman Binta Bility in Compound Number One, Grand Bassa County, in 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

ByJames Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – On September 29, 2022, Emmanuel Sherman, The DayLight’s Editor-at-large, and I set off on a logging investigation in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County. While on our way, we saw several suspicious timber blocks by the roadside in Boyah Town and decided to investigate.

Our investigation found that Joe Jarvis Boyeah, a townsman after whose family the town is named, ran the kpokolo operation. Boyeah worked for Othello Teah, a regular caller on radio talk shows in Buchanan. Teah had been hired by Chanda Cole, the owner of one of Buchanan’s oldest businesses, the Cole Joe Wood Workshop.

The story that exposed the Boyeah Town syndicate was one of several DayLight investigations that led the government to “ban” kpokolo, though it was never a legal trade. The so-called ban might have marked the end—at least on paper—of the trade. However, each investigation untangled the criminal world of Kpokolo—how it prospered private individuals and public officials, costing the Liberian government millions.

“We have ordered all our checkpoint staff members to stop the issuance of waybills for all sawn timbers with a thickness above two inches because this is the dimensional range of thickness that is prone to illegal exportation,” said Edward Kamara, FDA’s manager for forest marketing and revenue forecast, in February 2023. Kamara was responding to a DayLight email about the spiraling of kpokolo countrywide, saying the regulator had issued “tens” of kpokolo permits.

“It had been observed that most of the timber arrested for attempting to illegally export consisted of these dimensions. Therefore, it is the chainsaw milling block wood… that is banned…,” Kamara added. The ban was officially announced at an annual meeting of forestry actors four months after Kamara’s passive disclosure.

Kpokolo started somewhere in the 2000s, based on local people and actors in the illegal trade. The term means “thick and heavy” in the Kpelle language. Logs are shaped into blocks to fit neatly into containers, and then are shipped to Asia, especially China and Vietnam.

By 2022—the year the ban was imposed—Kpokolo had peaked. Illicit operators ran advertisements on social media, and kpokolo had well been normalized. The Associated Press reported that 70 percent of Liberia’s timber exports were likely illegal, citing a diplomatic document. A 2023 report by the US-based Forest Trends found that kpokolo was a growing threat to Liberia’s forests, undermining the country’s climate change mitigation efforts.

“Flora crimes, particularly illegal logging and timber trafficking, are a significant criminal market in Liberia. Illegal practices like chainsaw milling large blocks of timber for export, known locally as kpokolo, further contribute to the scale of the trade,” reads the 2025 Global Crime Index. The annual report by organizations, including Interpol, chronicles the state of organized crime across the world.

Kpokolo has contributed to the toll that forestry activities have on Liberia’s rainforest, the largest in the West African region. In 2022, Liberia recorded the tenth-largest forest loss in the world, according to Global Forest Watch, an online tool that tracks deforestation in real time. The country lost 23 percent of its primary forest that year alone.

Leaked videos, pictures

Before the Boyeah Town investigation, The DayLight exposed Varney Marshall, a ranger with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) at the Klay checkpoint, Bomi County. The newspaper published videos and pictures from a WhatsApp conversation between Marshall and an illegal logger.

The evidence exposed a reel of the ranger’s illegal operations: kpokolo being cut, large ones packed into a container, a picture of Marshall’s equipped operatives, and a proud Marshall himself posing for a picture. He was eventually dismissed following the publication. However, the story showed that Kpokolo involved officials—not just loggers—a fact the newspaper would later further establish.

Seized Kpokolo at the Forestry Development Authority’s sub-office at the Klay checkpoint in Bomi County, in 2024. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

After the Marshall leaks, The DayLight investigated Binta Bility, a businesswoman, in Compound One, Grand Bassa. The investigation dug out that she ran a kpokolo camp in Zoegar Town with 17 accomplices, including townspeople.

The DayLight applied old-fashioned forensic techniques seen often in crime documentaries. We showed the businesswoman’s pictures to townspeople for identification, and we interviewed a man whose number was taken from the wall of the makeshift camp in the forest, near the Worr River.

About two months after the publication, Binta Bility, who denied she ran the operations, somersaulted and admitted her wrongdoing, and vowed to do things lawfully. However, that confession came after police in Bahn, Nimba County, seized a consignment of kpokolo she was transporting a month earlier.

Binta Bility might have been organized; however, a cartel of two Turks, two Chinese, and their Liberian accomplice push criminal timber trafficking, perhaps to the highest known level. With the aid of at least 33 local people, China Turkish Liberia Industries (CTL) transformed a portion of the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) into a kpokolo factory.

Videos and pictures The DayLight obtained show large pieces of boxlike timber and various machines used between 2019 and 2021. They were the most illegal timber and equipment the newspaper had ever seen at a single location.

“They got over there with a different plan,” said Dr. James Dolo, then-Officer in Charge of CARI. “They said they wanted land to set up some demo and start some production… but those guys came, and they started bringing logs in overnight.”

In the end, the Forestry Development Authority sued the syndicate’s ringleaders. Though the trial has yet to start, the syndicate claimed they bought logs from Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company, which operated in Lofa County. In all, the CARI investigation further proved that large-scale logging companies were involved in the illicit trade, not just small ones as previously perceived.

Collusion

Another investigation into a Turkish company pinpointed the collusion between kpokolo operators and government officials. The unravelling of the crimes of Marshall, the now-dismissed FDA ranger, provided a clue; this investigation uncovered the whole story.

Kpokolo in a forest in Gbaryama, Gbarpolu County, in 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The 2023 publication established that Askon Liberia General Trading Inc., run by a Turkish family—Hasan, Umit, and Yeter Uzan—illegally operated between Ganta and Sanniquellie, Nimba County. The Uzans advertised their kpokolo business on social media and online business platforms.

In 2020, Askon exported two container trucks of timber to India for US$19,800 with the help of Peter Somah, then-Assistant Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The export of timber occurred outside the legal system, known as LiberTrace.

The investigation led the FDA to blacklist Askon. Its executives, including Hasan Uzan, the majority shareholder, were arrested days later in Nimba and reportedly deported, ending the company’s years of illegal activities in the north-eastern countryside.

Askon proved the collusion between public officials and kpokolo operatives existed, but it was an investigation into a kpokolo kingpin that cemented that fact.

With 25 men and 30 chainsaws, Emmanuel Gongor’s operations spanned four of Nimba’s nine districts. People called the miner-turned-logger “Emmanuel the Investor” for his habit of conducting community projects such as bridges and roads.

Documents and interviews with Gongor revealed that the FDA colluded with him for several years. During this time, he paid the agency tens of thousands of United States dollars in permit fees and waybills. One waybill showed that he paid the FDA US$424 for 212 pieces of kpokolo in May 2022, a few months before the ban.

The money Gongor paid the FDA did not go into the government’s consolidated account at the Central Bank of Liberia. Instead, it was paid into accounts at commercial banks, controlled by the FDA’s top management, a legal breach.

“The FDA agents are always informed when we are going to bring wood from the bush,” Gongor told The DayLight in 2023. “We make more money for forestry.”

Gongor’s kpokolo reign came to an end late 2022, barely a month before our explosive interview with him. Police seized 80 pieces of kpokolo from him at a checkpoint in Bahn, Nimba, ending an hour-long car chase.

The Gongor and Askon stories uncovered collusion among officials and Kpokolo businesspeople. However, a landmark investigation last April unearthed other individuals’ roles in the crime.

The April publication dug into a trove of documents to expose Ben Wesseh, a veteran customs broker, who smuggled timber for over a decade. The evidence showed that Wesseh, alongside his daughter, Benetta Wesseh, forged documents from the FDA and the Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate his crime.

Kpokolo by the roadside in Boyeah Town, Compound Two, Grand Bassa County, in 2022. Spotting them proved essential to unravelling the illegal trade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The newspaper obtained recordings and screenshots of a WhatsApp chat between Mr. Wesseh and a client. The documents revealed Wesseh charged the client US$325 for two FDA documents and US$75 for a phytosanitary certificate, issued to certify that the consignment was pest-free. These revelations corroborated other evidence from an undercover investigation in Totoquelleh, Gbarpolu County, in 2024, as kpokolo resurfaced.

A police probe into Mr. Wesseh’s alleged crimes faltered. However, The DayLight investigation sparked reform of the Ministry of Agriculture’s phytosanitary department to prevent forgery of such a certificate.

But the samplings of the illegal trade remain.

The first evidence of this came from Gbaryama, a town in Gbarpolu’s Gbarma District. There in March 2024, reporters photographed hundreds of freshly-sawn kpokolo. Reporters also documented logs in a nearby forest that illegal loggers had harvested to mill kpokolo. They gathered that smugglers had contracted local chainsaw millers to produce the wood they trucked at night.

“They can hide it and take it away at night; people can’t easily see them in the day,” Armah Dukuly, Gbaryama’s Town Chief. “We don’t get that power to stop them.”

The DayLight’s latest kpokolo investigation occurred last January. The subject was Libfor Forest Corporation, which ran an unlicensed sawmill in Caldwell. Since 2022, Libfor has exported 51 times, valued at US$71,447, according to data compiled by British export tracker Experian. In May 2024, it shipped 55,000 cubic meters of kpokolo, valued at US$22,000. The company brought in workers from Sierra Leone, from where it smuggled wood into Liberia, official documents revealed.

Four days after the publication, two executives of Libfor were jailed and later charged. Their case at the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court has yet to begin.

Kpokolo might not have gone away. Certainly, there is evidence that the ban—as the result of the investigations—has significantly minimized the illicit trade. The FDA no longer issues permits for it or approves its transport, something it did for over a decade. Kpokolo operatives have switched to other things, based on our recent interviews and observation, and social media advertisements of the trade have disappeared.

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

FDA Explores Ecotourism Potential in Gola Park

April 9, 2026

Top: A view of the Gola National Park from Fonnor Town, Grand Cape Mount County. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

By Esau J. Farr

FONNOR TOWN, Grand Cape Mount County – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is exploring forests for potential ecotourism sites.

The exercise recently started with a visit to portions of the Gola National Park and other areas in Grand Cape Mount and Gbarpolu Counties. FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab led a delegation of FDA staffers and tourism stakeholders on the mission.

“Some people want to come to Liberia to see and explore other things, especially when we talk about the rainforest. People from the West and the Americas want to come here, but we will have to come and set the stage…,” Merab told reporters.

“[What] we are trying to do is for people to know our forests. They’ve got to know the tree and animal species we have. We need to bring researchers to research the forests to find which trees can help us with our own health.”

Established in 2016, the Gola National Park is an 88,000-hectare forest that extends into neighboring Sierra Leone. It has a rich ecosystem with diverse wildlife. The park has 300 bird species, including the Gola Malinbe and the white-necked Picathartes, 49 mammal species, reptiles and amphibians.

The tour followed a recent trip to neighboring Sierra Leone last month to understand that country’s park management structure and operations.

The FDA Managing Director, Rudolph J. Merab, speaks at the agency’s Camp Fonnor. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

Merab said showcasing Liberia’s tourism potential would attract tourists to its forests and generate revenue. Tourism is one of the pillars of President Joseph Boakai’s developmental agenda for inclusion, a sector that has been underdeveloped for decades.

“This is meant to amplify the voice of the President on his tourism pillar in the ARREST agenda. That is why you are seeing me here in the forest,” adds Merab. The FDA intends to train young people in tourism so they can develop the sector in the future.

The tour was conducted jointly with the Liberia National Tourism Authority and the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), a Monrovia-based NGO that helped establish the Gola Park.

A delegate of the Tourism Authority said the it was working with the FDA to map tourism activities in the country.

“We will tap into all the opportunities that these forests have and we are going to develop them sustainably,” said Juanita Yiah, the Tourism Authority’s technical director. “We want to do everything to make Liberia ecotourism-friendly.”

Tour delegates, including the FDA, the Tourism Authority and SCNL representatives at the FDA camp in Tima Town, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

Calling birds

James Mulbah, SCNL’s landscape manager, praised local communities for the protection of the Gola Park. said locals needed support to maintain the park’s rich biodiversity.

“We have come to overlook this place to see how well we can attract national and international tourists to come,” said Mulbah.

“The community people have a way of calling birds and other animals and you see them coming to you live,” Mulbah mentioned several local tourism sites, including an elephant fall and a famous bird watch site.

The FDA, the tourism authority and conservationists acknowledge the community’s efforts in preserving the park over the years and assure them of tourism benefits.

The FDA is seeking support for researchers to conduct a study of tree and animal species and potential tourist sites.

“Whatever we do, whether it is commercial, conservation, or even carbon, it has to impact the lives of our people for the positive,” said Merab.

Liberia Fails to Report US$2.7B Mining Exports, Study Finds

April 7, 2026

Top: A drone shot of a zircon sand mine in Greenville, Sinoe County, in 2023. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Liberia’s mining sector failed to report US$2.7 billion in gold and iron ore exports between 2007 and 2023, likely due to underreporting and/or smuggling, a new report found.

The US-based Forest Trends found that Liberia reported US$5.1 billion from mining exports over the 16 years. However, researchers established that importing countries reported US$7.8 billion from Liberia, resulting in the US$2.7 billion discrepancy.

“The scale of the problem is massive,” said Arthur Blundell, one of the report’s co-authors. “There is no reason to believe that what the government reported was a mistake because Liberian sources agree with the numbers.”

The report—”A Rapid Assessment of Liberia’s Mining Sector…”—determined that underreporting of export commodities and smuggling were the potential reasons for the revenue loss. Moreover, there are strong indications that the country could be giving away valuable revenue at a staggering rate. For instance, Liberia’s sales of rough diamonds and iron ore fell below the international benchmark during the reporting period.

Weak enforcement likely enabled underreporting, smuggling, and tax evasion, as well as environmental violations, costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The report recommends that the government halt illegal mining, improve trade oversight, protect ecologically critical areas, ensure transparency, uphold community rights, and enforce companies’ legal obligations fully.

The report utilized legal review, trade data, and geospatial analysis. Data used in the study were collected from various government agencies, including the Ministry of Mines & Energy, Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Central Bank of Liberia, Liberia Revenue Authority, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers analyzed Liberia’s minerals exported to Switzerland, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and other countries.

A mine in Vaguay, Grand Cape Mount County, in 2020. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

Overall, the report found that it was impossible to calculate all losses due to a lack of transparency in the reporting process, as there were likely losses from unpaid import fees and withholding taxes, social security payments, surface rental, license fees, etc.

The Ministry of Mines did not return queries for comment on the report’s findings.

Community benefits and the environment

The report also established that unfulfilled promises, human rights abuses, and environmental damage, among other things, hinder the mining sector, which accounts for a fifth of Liberia’s GDP, while dominating exports and generating a significant share of government revenue despite the losses.

Mining impacts across communities have been staggering, the report found. The study revealed that communities were not benefiting from their natural resources. It shows companies are not complying with their legal obligations to communities.

There is no official reporting on whether mining companies are paying two percent of their exploration budget on local health and education, as required by the mineral exploration regulation, nor is there reporting on whether companies are giving five percent equity to communities as required by the Land Rights Act.

Overall, it found that 1.4 million hectares of community forest lands were overlapped by mining licenses, undermining local people’s economic opportunities, and thus their autonomy and right to self-determination. The mining environmental laws require permits for semi-industrial scale or class ‘B’ licenses.

Benefits legally guaranteed to communities remain unrealized, while affected communities increasingly face degraded lands, abandoned open pits—deepening their vulnerability and leaving them with more burdens than they can actually handle.

“We only know what has been reported for communities, not what has actually been done. Additional payments may have been made that were unreported, but also payments reportedly made for communities may also have been misdirected elsewhere,” said Blundell, noting that since 2012, rather than putting the revenue into community funds, the government has required all payments to first be deposited into the County accounts. “What has happened to these funds is not clear.” However, the report noted that the General Auditing Commission, in its most recent audit on County Development Fund spending, found gross violations and lack of oversight by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which they said may “lead to fraud…through the processing and disbursement of illegitimate transactions.”

“Any reform should include immediate steps to stem financial losses, compel compliance, and ensure accountability of compensation and other benefits sharing with local communities,” Blundell concluded.

The report revealed Liberia’s forests are at risk, with licenses overlapping more than 2 million hectares nationwide. Mining is undermining the environmental health of these forests, citing a report by Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency. For example, the EPA found that many Class ‘B’ license holders are not obtaining environmental permits, a major requirement under the mining law, and that companies were using heavy machines to pollute major watercourses.

Dredges on the Dugbe River in Sinoe County in 2023. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The assessment found mining-linked deforestation, hazardous chemical mismanagement, and water pollution at an increasing rate, while monitoring and enforcement remain major challenges to tackling those issues nationwide.

Moreover, the Forest Trends assessment cautioned that these statistics do not include widespread artisanal, unlicensed mining because these mines go unreported by the Ministry of Mines & Energy.

Between 2021 and 2024, Liberia lost 390,000 hectares of primary forest to deforestation due to logging, agriculture expansion, and illegal mining, according to the Global Forest Watch. The recent boom in cocoa farming in the country’s southeast has increased the pace of deforestation.

The report recommends that the government stop illegal mining, enforce existing mining laws and regulations, increase consultations between miners and communities, urging miners to refill holes they dig across communities.

“What is needed now is more transparency, accountability, and a fundamentally different model of resource governance—one that prioritizes social equity, environmental sustainability, and community rights,” the report concludes.

Court Fines 28 for Illegal Mining in Sapo Park

April 5, 2026

Top: An illegal mine in the Sapo National Park. File picture/Forestry Development Authority

By Myer Saydi

GREENVILLE – A court in Sinoe County has fined 28 suspects and ordered them to do community service for illegal mining in the Sapo National Park.

The Greenville Magisterial Court fined the men US$1,300. It also ruled that they cut grass at the Presidential Palace in Greenville for seven working days.

The suspects had pleaded guilty to theft of property and criminal trespass following their arrest in February by park rangers. They escaped imprisonment because prosecutors did not prove they had any prior convictions for the crimes.

“I am happy for my clients despite government fines and community services because they are not going to jail,” said Franklin Myers, the convicts’ lawyer. “The court ruling is not based on public sentiment but on what the law says. So, I am happy for them.”

John Smith, Chief Warden of the Sapo National Park, said the ruling would serve as a deterrent to illicit occupants. Smith added that Liberia’s protected areas are critical to biodiversity conservation. He urged citizens to respect conservation laws and support sustainable practices.

Joint security forces arrested the men in February 2026 during an enforcement operation, court documents show. Security forces seized 4.2 grams of gold, a half-filled 25-kilogram bag of rice, six gallons of gasoline and eight pieces of carpet.

Authorities reported that the group was actively involved in unauthorized mining, a direct violation of Liberia’s forestry, mining, environmental and wildlife laws.

The ruling comes amid ongoing efforts to curb environmental degradation inside Liberia’s largest park. To date, thousands of illicit occupants have been removed from the 697-square-mile park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

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

Cocoa Changing Lives but Destroying Grand Gedeh’s Largest Forest

April 1, 2026

Top: A partial view of the Konobo Community Forest in Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba

By Esau J. Farr

BOUNDARY TOWN, Grand Gedeh County – Lawrence Koolor woke up one cool morning, his face beaming with a smile and joy pouring out of his heart. Koolor’s dream became a reality late last year when he moved his family into his new house. He had lived in his uncle’s house for decades.

Koolor built his home out of money he received from Burkinabé cocoa farmers he hosts in Konobo. His house—part-mud, part-concrete with metal roofs— stands out among huts with thatched roofs in Boundary, a town on the border between the Konobo and Tchien Districts in Grand Gedeh County.

“I felt so happy that day for me to go and live in my own house at that time,” recalls Koolor. “That was a complete relief for my family to [move from one bedroom] to a whole house.”

Koolor is one of several residents of Konobo, who, along with their Burkinabé guests, have encroached on Grand Gedeh’s largest remaining rainforest. Townspeople in Konobo say the arrival of Burkinabé cocoa farmers in their communities has transformed their lives.

The map of Konobo. File photo/Forestry Development Authority

Konobo has 390,000 hectares of natural forest, according to Global Forest Watch, an application that tracks deforestation. Gbarzon and Tchein Districts are second to Konobo District in Grand Gedeh County, with higher rainforest, 360,000 hectares each.

Burkinabés likely started migrating into Liberia from the neighboring Ivory Coast in 2014 in search of cocoa farmlands. The Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) has profiled 55,000 Burkinabés in southeast Liberia, 48,000 in Grand Gedeh. Burkinabés, also known as “Mossi,” have agreements with locals in which they provide investment and labor, while the locals provide land.

“The cocoa business that came here is helping to take us from zero to hero,” says Alice Doe, who hosts six Burkinabé migrant workers in Boundary Town.

“Before, we could not get a dime to buy a sheet of zinc. But for now, that story has changed, because before the Burkinabés enter your [forest], they give you [money],” adds Doe.

Interviews and reporters’ observations show Konobo District—a low-income community of 26,588 people—is transforming in several ways. People are earning income from cocoa that they have never earned in their lives. New houses are being built, and one resident is sponsoring his son’s studies in Spain.

Cocoa farming might be transforming lives in Konobo, but it is wiping out the district’s forest. To plant cocoa, Burkinabés burn down the forest. Reporters saw trees losing their foliage, gradually morphing into woody skeletons.

Between 2002 and 2024, Konobo lost 9,300 hectares of primary forest. A 2024 study found that 15 percent of Liberia’s deforestation is linked to cocoa cultivation. Then, last November, the London-based Global Witness linked top European chocolate makers to deforestation in Liberia.

‘Under threat’

Satellite imagery confirms that cocoa farmers are encroaching on the Konobo Community Forest, a 49,625-hectare woodland meant for logging. Konobo and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) signed an agreement in 2020 to co-manage logging activities with the regulator. The agreement outlaws farming in the community forest.

And that is exactly the case. Drone shots show cocoa pods sprouting amid decaying trees and cultivated forests.

“When the Burkinabés enter the forest, they burn all the trees…,” says Beyan Woi, FDA’s regional manager in Grand Gedeh. “Most of [those] community forests that people wanted to do logging and conservation in are under threat by Burkinabés.”

Burkinabé migrants set fire or apply chemicals to the base of trees in clearing the forest for cocoa cultivation. File photo/Forestry Development Authority

Woi says the FDA has made efforts to curtail encroachment on forests in the southeast, including prosecution.

Wulu Gaye, the chief officer of Konobo Community Forest, echoes Woi’s comments. The encroachment is the biggest challenge Gaye, who was recently elected, faces.

“As we speak, the forest is not well protected. There are illegal farmers farming in the forest,” says Gaye.

Burkinabés-hosts in Konobo deny farming in the community forest, claiming the farmland was their private property.

“I have more than 20 Burkinabés working for me on more than a-kilo-hectare of our farmland here in Boundary Town,” said Dennis Jakar, a classroom teacher and a resident of Boundary Town. Jakar claimed he is using ancestral land for his cocoa farm.

The DayLight could not independently verify Jakar’s and other townspeople’s comments due to the distances to the farms and the security of the reporters. Furthermore, the newspaper could not identify the owners of the farms the drone captured.

However, farmers hosting the Burkinabés say people are farming in the community forest because logging has failed them. Their position is a reference to an inactive logging agreement locals have.

In May 2021, Konobo and Horizon Logging Limited, a Monrovia-based firm, signed a contract. Horizon agreed to construct health facilities, handpumps, and latrines in the affected communities in addition to land rental and harvesting fees. The company failed to carry out the projects, leaving behind unpaid debts and abandoned logs. Horizon did not respond to queries for comment on the contract.

The contract’s failure is visible throughout Konobo. Several logs are abandoned in Boundary Town, behind a clinic and at other locations. Locals drink from creeks, and there are no public latrines.

“They (Horizon) lied to us; so, we were left with no other option but to put Burkinabés in the concession area to [farm for us],” says Christian Menyeah, a Konobo resident, who hosts three Burkinabé migrants.

“The money we are now getting from cocoa farming is plenty and quicker than what a logging company would give us,” adds Bill Yallah, a host of dozens of Burkinabés migrants.

Gaye, Konobo’s chief officer, says his leadership is working with county authorities to remove the encroachers from the community forest.

Gaye says, “Well, all the local authorities [bought] the idea that there’s a need that we remove the illegal farmers…”

Samuel T. Jabba contributed to this story.

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

New, Community-led Conservation Delivering Promises

March 31, 2026

Top: The payment for stewardship enables communities to get direct cash benefits and livelihood programs for keeping their forests standing. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Years ago, women in Wedjah and Jaedae Districts in Sinoe County processed cassava with their bare hands. Their story has changed for the better. They now use motorized mills, locally called garri machines, to grind their cassava before processing it. The grinders significantly reduce their labor inputs while increasing production, enhancing their businesses and improving their livelihoods.

“Since it was introduced, women’s involvement in business activity in the community has increased. We see more provision shops being built,” says Wratee Boyee, a community leader in Jeadea District.

The flourishing cassava businesses are some of the results of a trial of a new conservation method known as payment for stewardship. Launched last July, the program enables communities to receive direct cash benefits and livelihood interventions to help keep their forests standing. Experts say the program shows great potential to improve lives in rural communities, though it is too early to measure its full impact.

The program intends to protect between 300,000 and 500,000 hectares of forest, with a total investment of US$3.4 million by 2030. It is jointly implemented by Integrated Development and Learning (IDL), a Margibi-based NGO, and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).

“FDA strongly believes that this project will lead to the enhancement of sustainable forest management, forest conservation, including legal compliance and enforcement,” said Myers Tweh Jr., assurance and compliance manager at the FDA. “It will lead to the implementation of reward-based mechanisms that would reduce pressure on the forest.”

Under the trial, Wedjah is protecting 7,131 hectares, and Jaedae 43,543 hectares after meeting payment requirements. Both communities have received a combined payment of US$150,622 at the rate of US$1.50 per hectare yearly, according to payment records. Wedjah got US$21,393 for the two years the trial has been running, while Jaedae secured US$129,229 for the same period. Moreover, local forest guards receive training, a monthly compensation, protective gear, and GPS-programmed gadgets for monitoring.

Both Wedjah and Jaedae are on the buffer with the Sapo National Park, Liberia’s largest protected area, and the Proposed Grand-Kru-River-Gee Protected Area. They host wildlife such as chimpanzees and other species typical of Liberia’s rainforest, the largest remaining in West Africa.

In exchange for cash and the other benefits, Wedjah and Jaedae do not mine, farm, log, or build new homes in their forests. They harvest timber and non-timber products for community use only. They signed an agreement last June.

Environmentalists say the payment for stewardship helps reduce local communities’ dependency on the forest resources and contributes to the fight against climate change. Between 2002 and 2024, Liberia lost 390,000 hectares of primary forest, according to the Global Forest Watch. Agriculture, logging, mining, illicit activities and a recent cocoa boom in the southeast are the contributors, undermining conservation efforts.

Game-changer

Payment for stewardship breaks away from the past, when communities were at the margins of conservation efforts. In contrast, the program places communities at the core of conservation efforts. They protect the forest and decide what to do with the resources.

“We ensured that no one was excluded from the process,” recalls Silas Siakor, the executive director of IDL, “because, when you exclude others, there is a natural tendency for a whole community to go against you.”

“We wanted to do something very simple: we wanted communities to be provided direct incentives to protect their community forests,” adds Siakor.

Overall, the stewardship is intended to develop a community-led benefit-sharing mechanism. Currently, that is the duty of the Benefit Sharing Trust Board, which regulates resources for logging concessions. However, the new program recommends a channel that incorporates mining, agriculture, and climate finance.

Similarly, the payment for the stewardship program readies communities for climate financing, environmentalists say. Liberia is developing a carbon policy framework.

An independent assessment reviewed the new program’s activities and payment performances, and found positive behavioral changes among locals.

The most visible success of the scheme comes from the investments in livelihood activities, largely driven by village loan groups that provide savings and low-interest loans to members. IDL works with more than 52 in Sinoe; 20 in Wedjah and Jaedae.

“In 2025 alone, the [village loan scheme] generated more than L$50 million (US$263,000) from their village saving activities, more than what the amount the communities received for keeping their forest standing,” says Silas Siakor.

A section of a farm on the edge of a forest in Jaedae District, Sinoe County, in 2025. The DayLight/Esau Farr

For the cassava processing, four machines have been strategically deployed in Wedjah, replacing the traditional method of grinding the cassava. The investment in livelihood is the primary attraction for women, according to Siakor.

In addition to the machines, Wedjah received three motorbikes to improve women’s access to the market and secure better prices for their garri.

“We see that women are forming more financial clubs in the community, the movement of goods and services has increased, and businesses are also flourishing,” Lasting Kadee, a community leader in Wedjah, said in an interview with The DayLight. “We want to give it out to them 100 percent for this program. It is really helping our people.”

Additional feedback

Despite the success stories, the independent assessment found the payment for stewardship to be “moderately strong” in that it was too early to grade the overall impact. The review took place six months into the program, needing more than to conduct a full-scale assessment. This, too, was compounded by bad weather and terrible road networks.

However, the assessment was conclusive regarding the challenges associated with the payment for stewardship. It found that the youth and elderly townspeople disagreed on how potential land disputes could be settled.

Also, it found that townspeople in Wedjah and Jaedae faced difficulty meeting and agreeing on projects due to long distances between communities. Townsfolk said they did not afford transportation to attend meetings, the assessment revealed.

“We saw that planning for the project was a difficult thing to do because you cannot get everybody in one location at the same time,” says Saah David, an environmentalist who led the assessment. “Nevertheless, based on our interactions with the different actors, I think it is a game-changing initiative with a lot of potential.”

David’s report recommends that youth participation, coordination, and improvement in communication and compliance safeguards would address challenges. It also recommends improvement in performance requirements and governance safeguards to meet the program’s challenges.

To meet these challenges, IDL wants to engage communities and support local forest bodies for long-term success.

“We intend to organize more discussions around these issues,” says Siakor. “The idea is to generate additional feedback from the different stakeholders, so that we can derive effective solutions to those issues that have been identified.”

Community Forest’s Bank Account Resumes after Unlawful Freeze

March 17, 2026

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.

The Man Protecting a Community Forest from Cocoa Deforestation

March 16, 2026

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 Browne

A 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).

FDA Seizes and ‘Sells’ Logs without Court Warrant

March 3, 2026

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 Cooper

The 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.

FDA Seizes Illegal Logs Investigations Exposed

February 16, 2026

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.

Tag: Forestry Development Authority

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