Top: West Water’s camp in Tonwein, Nimba County. The DayLight/Gerald Koinyeneh
ByEsau J. Farr
GAYPUE TOWN, Grand Bassa County – Local leaders in a Grand Bassa community forest have seized a logging company’s equipment for failing to pay their benefits.
Locals seized six West Water Group (Liberia) Inc.’s earthmovers, obstructing the company’s operations in the District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa.
“It is unfair for them to come and take away our resources and fail to live up to promises they made. So, the community people seized those machines,” said Jeremiah Whoe, Chief Officer of the B&C Community Forest.
“We seriously regret West Water coming into our forest,” Whoe lamented. “It would have been better for our forest to remain standing until better investors come and take over it,” added Whoe.
In April 2021, District 3 B&C Community Forest signed a 15-year contract, leasing 24,175 hectares to West Water for hand pumps, a clinic, and a school.
Four years on, it owes locals thousands in land rental, harvesting, and education fees. Moreover, it has failed to build a clinic, a school, and a market building in line with the agreement.
To date, West Water owes the community US$26,000, according to the community forest. The company has constructed four out of the eight hand pumps the contract requires in landowning communities.
West Water owes the community an unspecified amount in harvesting fees, having only paid US$6,100 in 2021. West Water exported 18,683.309 cubic meters of timber last year, according to the FDA records. That means the company should have paid locals US$28,024 for that shipment alone, based on their contract.
Locals also said they were holding West Water’s machines because it had abandoned hundreds of logs in the community forest. Deserting logs in the forest for over three weeks violates the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber, and Timber Products.
Omega Jimmy, a local leader, said they seized the equipment because West Water ignored their warnings.
“We heard that they were about to take their machines from the bush and run away from the community. We quickly moved in and stopped them because they came and exploited our resources, and want to leave the community with nothing,” Jimmy said.
West Water has a 15-year contract with District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. Locals have seized the company’s equipment over unsettled debts. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Jeffrey Gao, West Water’s CEO and majority shareholder, admitted his company is indebted to the community.
“I did not calculate the exact amount that we owe the community, but it is similar to what the community said,” said Gao.
However, he blamed it on the community’s repeated disruptions of his operations.
“The community people have looted our properties and set up repeated roadblocks. They have caused me to lose over a million dollars to the extent that I am almost bankrupt,” added Gao.
The community rejects this claim, saying West Water was begging them on one hand and accusing them on the other.
“No, we did not loot anything,” Jimmy said. “This is a double standard. West Water cannot be begging us to go back to the negotiation table and at the same time accusing the community of damaging its properties.
Meanwhile, tension heightens in the area.
Last month, a meeting organized by the office of the Grand Bassa superintendent failed to resolve the dispute. Weeks later, community forest leaders called for the cancellation of West Water’s contract.
District elders have issued a traditional order, preventing West Water from removing its equipment from the community forest, Jimmy said.
Early June last year, West Water wrote to the Ministry of Justice, asking it to urgently intervene to save his company from “robbery, theft, and damage” to his properties.
“If not handled urgently, [this] could lead to the company closing its operations and leaving Liberia, something that would greatly impact the country negatively,” read the letter.
This was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: C&C Corporation’s truckload of timber leaves Vambo Township in mid-March. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
ByEmmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company have asked the Commercial Court at the Temple of Justice to dismiss a US$5 million lawsuit against them for alleged damage to 3,200 acres of land in Grand Bassa County.
Khalil Haider, a Paynesville resident, claims that the FDA authorized C&C Corporation to harvest logs on the plot without his consent. He further alleges that the FDA honored a letter that forged Haider’s signature, ignoring his warning and approving C&C’s operations.
The land in question lies between the St. John River and Mt. Findley in the Vambo Township of Grand Bassa’s Compound Number Two.
The defendants challenged Haider’s claim and questioned the procedure through which he filed the lawsuit.
In its response, the FDA questioned the validity of Haider’s deed. The regulator argued that it was unlikely a deed was signed in 1958, 111 years after Liberia gained independence in 1847.
“Haider is a fabricator who would go to any length to tarnish the reputation of individuals managing the forestry sector, as evidenced by his assertions, which are all lies,” read the regulator’s petition.
The FDA added that Haider should have filed the lawsuit in his mother’s name instead of his own name. It denies receiving any communication from Haider, warning it about an alleged fake letter.
C&C’s only argument was about Haider filing the lawsuit in his name. It cited the Decedents Estate Law, a 1956 act that requires children to represent their late parents.
It is the prayer of [C&C Corporation] to dismiss [Haider’s] motion because it lacks legal basis,” the company’s petition read.
Haider’s counterargument
Haider insists on his US$5 million damages in his response to the FDA and C&C.
Khalil Haider. Picture credit: Khalil Haider
Haider counterargued that the FDA questioning of his deed’s validity was “unintelligible and lacked legal coherence.
“If counsel argument is that a deed executed in 1958 is invalid merely because Liberia gained its independence in 1847, such reason is unfounded,” read Haider’s response. “By that logic, all subsequent land transactions would be inherently fraudulent, which is patently absurd.”
On his lawsuit procedure, Haider said that Decedents Estate Law C&C referenced empowered him to sue in his name. He said his petition recognized his late mother as owner of the property. Haider’s response referenced a 1983 case and two 2001 cases.
“In view of the above, I pray respectfully that the Honorable Court deny Defendant’s request for dismissal,” said Haider, “as said request lacks legal merit.”
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Logs felled on 3,200 acres in the Mavasagueh Community Forest claimed by Khalil Haider. Mr. Haider has filed a US$5 million lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority and C&C Corporation. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – A man has filed a lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company for at least US$5 million over alleged damages to his private property in Grand Bassa’s District Number Two.
Khalil Haider accuses the FDA of authorizing C&C Corporation of harvesting trees on 3,200 acres of forestland in the Vambo Township, according to court filings.
“The FDA took my client’s property, and awarded it to a company, and the company has been [harvesting] logs on the property without the consent and acceptance of my client,” said Cllr. Vaani-Faate Kiawu, Haider’s lawyer.
The FDA and C&C Corporation did not respond to queries for comments.
Alleged forgery
Last year, the FDA authorized Mavasagueh as a community forest, covering 26,003 hectares. Then the new community forest signed a contract with C&C Corporation, co-owned and managed by Clearance Massaquoi, a logger active during the Second Liberian Civil War.
Shortly after, Haider wrote to the FDA, claiming the land in the company’s harvest blocks for this year. Haider, a resident of Paynesville, is the administrator of the interstate estate of his late mother, Rosa E. Dillion of Montserrado, court filings show.
Later, Haider asked C&C Corporation to settle with him or halt the harvesting. Instead, the FDA acted on a letter that the lawsuit alleges was forged, misspelling Haider as “Hajder,” ignoring the plaintiff’s notice.
The lawsuit alleges that Rudolph Merab, Haider’s “cousin,” appeared to be “exploiting the relationship to deprive [Haider] of his property rights by granting permission to C&C Corporation.
“The C&C has been cutting logs for over four months without the consent of [Haider] despite every effort to resolve the issue amicably,” it added.
The suit cited a decade-old survey, which found 21 species and 778 trees in every 100 acres of the land, valued at US$672 million, using approved prices.
The lawsuit referenced a provision of the National Forestry Reform Law, which recognizes that the state does not own forests on private plots.
“Although the FDA is a government agency responsible for… the regulation of forest resources…, it has illegally granted C&C Corporation to cull logs from the private property of the plaintiff.”
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.
People at a canoe landing on a Greenville beach in 2023.
Top: People at a canoe landing in Greenville, Sinoe County in 2023. One of the canoes, marked “The Lord is my Shepherd,” transports timber to Buchanan. There, the timber are uploaded to a larger canoe to Ghana. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
BIG FANTI TOWN, Grand Bassa – Planks are scattered at various sites on a beachfront, a stone’s throw away from the Port of Buchanan, a fishing hub and a transit point for fishermen and fishmongers. Some are old, others fresh.
The wood are leftover of timber smuggling that involves fishermen. Fisherpersons, canoeists, villagers and businesspeople in Sinoe, Grand Bassa and River Cess confirmed that fishermen used canoes to smuggle timber predominantly to Ghana. Smugglers, aided by villagers and artisanal loggers, paid Fanti fishermen to transport wood, including to other countries, a DayLight investigation found.
“All the canoes can bring the planks, they can carry them to Ghana,” said John Kwakue, a Ghanaian fisherman who lives in the Buchanan fishing community of Fanti Town.
“I saw it for the first time in 2014 and I did a little bit before but I am doing something else now,” added Kwakue.
Kojo Ittah, another Ghanaian fisherman and a 15-year Fanti Town resident, said he had witnessed the smuggling on several occasions. “Last year, we went fishing, and I saw the canoe carrying [the timber] to Ghana. They are not just sticks. They are the fat, short planks, heavy and thick,” Ittah said.
Ittah’s description matched banned timber blocks that are prone to smuggling. However, until now, canoes had not been known to be used in illicit timber trafficking—at least not publicly.
Ittah’s story was corroborated by James Banney, a Ghanaian owner of a canoe called Exodus; Praise Jlamontee, an ex-Fanti Town leader; and Zebedee Bowin, a businessman in Buchanan.
Bonwin disclosed that “I used the boat one or two times.” The DayLight has investigated Bonwin before for trafficking chewing sticks to Ghana amid a Liberian moratorium.
Banney, with a Ghanaian accent like Ittah and Kwakue, revealed that the timber are taken to Takoradi, Ghana’s western region. A person, who did not want to be named, spoke of ferrying wood even to Mali, Guinea and The Gambia.
Boys in a canoe in Compound Number Four, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
Timber smuggling is bad news for Liberia, which lost 386,000 hectares of primary forest. That’s a decrease of 8.7 percent of all the country’s humid primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide.
In 2023, the Associated Press reported that 70 percent of Liberia’s timber exports may have happened outside of the legal channel, citing diplomatic sources. Five years earlier, a report by the Switzerland-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime had listed Liberia as one of the main West African countries for illicit logging.
‘The Lord is my shepherd’
But where in Liberia do the fishermen get the timber from? The DayLight found the answer in Sinoe, River Cess and Grand Bassa, which lost nearly a combined 500,000 hectares of tree cover in the last 22 years, according to Global Forest Watch. Tree cover loss measures the removal of any woody vegetation at least five meters tall.
Evidence we gathered showed that smugglers transferred timber to Buchanan from Sinoe, River Cess and other places in Bassa. Once on the beach, they are transferred to larger, motorized canoes for at least a six-hour voyage outside Liberia.
In Sinoe, The DayLight interviewed Lama Jalloh, a Greenville resident and a Fulani canoeist, who spoke of a canoe with the service name “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Reporters caught up with the canoe on a Greenville beach, where local fishermen confirmed its suspected smuggling activities.
“Planks and timber are sawn and brought from various parts of Sinoe, and transported to Buchanan,” said Jalloh.
A fisherman who reporters encountered at the Lord is my shepherd canoe said he was not authorized to speak. Similarly, efforts to interview truckers allegedly involved in smuggling did not materialize because service names are unofficial, making tracking their owners difficult. And reporters were unable to get any license plate number.
‘King David’
While Sinoe smugglers used ocean routes to transfer timber, their River Cess counterparts utilize the roads. Earlier in Buchanan, Banney mentioned a place called Waterside in Cestos, River Cess’ capital. Now, reporters visited the seaside community and asked locals whether it was true.
“Yes, trucks can go to the waterfront to take goods and carry them,” said Michael Juludoe, a Cestos gardener, echoing other residents’ comments. “They pack [sand], sticks and planks.”
Two chainsaw millers in the Bush of Grand Bassa District Number four, while one is standing on the wood sawn, the other is looking on. The DayLight/Johnson Buchanan
Gathering timber in River Cess is the same as in Grand Bassa. Locals and fishermen alike identified a certain truck with the service name “King David” that hauled wood periodically. Also mentioned was another truck with the service name “Nimba Peking,” reporters spotted in a Compound Number Four town.
The DayLight tracked down the truck on the Big Fanti Town beach and Compound Number Four, where reporters videotaped villagers cutting trees.
In the footage, two men justify dealing with smugglers next to tree stumps and timber on the grass-carpeted forest floor. One of the men can be heard saying, “We have to survive.”
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Community Assembly members are drafting a resolution to present to the Grand Bassa County authorities. The DayLight/Franklin Nehyalor
By Franklin Nehyalor and Emmanuel Sherman
GBOR JIMMY TOWN – A community forest in Grand Bassa County has threatened to stop a logging company’s operation for failing to deliver on development projects, barely two months after protesting for the same reason.
The Grand Bassa District 3 B&C Community Forest has vowed to stop the West Water Group Liberia’s operations for failing to deliver on community projects.
“We will stop their operation until the community gets all its benefits. We will hold onto their machines and prevent them from working,” said Jeremiah Whoe, the community leadership head.
“West Water lied to us. They told us that they would do five hand pumps, 25 market tables, build a junior high school, and maintain the two Bassa-Gio roads in the first five years, but none of those things happened.”
In April 2021, District 3 B&C Community Forest signed a 15-year logging contract with West Water, a Chinese-owned company. The community leased 24,175 hectares of woodland to West Wood in exchange for hand pumps, roads, and a school.
Community Assembly members are drafting a resolution to present to the Grand Bassa County authorities. The DayLight/Franklin Nehyalor
However, West Water has not lived up to its promises. Four years after signing the contract, it owes the community a substantial amount in land rental, educational benefits and other fees.
Between April 2021 and now, West Water has only constructed three out of eight hand pumps, according to community leaders. It owes US$4,500 for health and educational benefits, US$17,000 for land rental, and an unknown amount for the timber it harvested.
The planned protest would be the second in about four months. In March, the community staged a protest, halting West Water’s operations following several failed attempts to get their benefits. The protest ended after county authorities intervened, with the company making new commitments.
“We are demanding West Water to pay the remaining land rental and cubic meter fees, complete all major projects earmarked, and provide all community benefits before it continues operations here,” said Jeremiah Whoe, the community leader.
Meanwhile, as tension rises against West Water, the Nyuinwein Administrative District Development Association (NADDA), a local pressure group, is threatening court action.
“NADDA intends to push arbitration because the company cannot be trusted,” said Omega Jimmy, an NADDA executive. West Water did not respond to The DayLight’s request for comments.
The District 3B&C-West Water deal is one of the most controversial in forestry. In 2024, a DayLight investigation found it had exported 797 logs that it had illegally harvested.
Exporting timber without community benefits violates the Community Rights Law of 2009 and the Regulation on Forest Fees. The law and the regulation require that communities manage and benefit from forest resources, mandating companies to settle with communities before shipment.
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Newly elected members of Mavasagueh Community Forest. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
VAMBO TOWNSHIP – Eleven townspeople have been elected to a community forest leadership in Grand Bassa County, calming months of tension over their towns’ alleged misrepresentation.
Mavasagueh Community Forest’s previous election, held in August last year, was marred by irregularities, prompting fresh elections. Those elected include representatives from Boe, Borbor Kaykay, and Togar Towns. Zeogar, the twelfth town, was disqualified because its representative serves as a town chief, debarred from direct community forest activities.
“Now that we have been elected, we will do the proper thing for the affected towns and the Vambo Township,” said Ojuku Kangar, a community assembly representative from Boe Town, one of the 11 elected persons.
Wooded areas get community forest status when they complete nine legal steps, including establishing a governance structure. This structure comprises a day-to-day forest management body, a supervising executive committee, and a topmost decision-making assembly.
“We will form unity with our counterpart as a community assembly to hold the company accountable to our contract,” added Kangar, a DayLight affiliate.
The election in Mavasagueh has eased tensions in the Compound Number Town area, following months of hostilities. Before the election, townspeople protested for representation in the leadership. There was an imbalance in the allocation of projects in the 39 towns that own the 26,003-hectare forest.
The elections could also lead to the unfreezing of the community forest’s account, which was frozen after funds were misapplied. Kangar said more signatories would be added to the account to reflect inclusion. “We will ensure the FDA includes us in the bank account,” he said.
Citizens blamed the FDA for the chaos. The regulator conducted inadequate awareness, leading to some towns not participating in Mavasagueh’s formation, according to civil society and locals. That finding was corroborated by an investigative series over the last five months.
Daniel Dayougar, the former Vambo Commissioner, was accused of handpicking representatives to serve on Mavasagueh’s assembly. Dayougar denies any wrongdoing.
Trucks carrying logs from the Mavasagueh Community Forest. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
Amid the chaos, C&C Corporation, the logging company Mavasagueh’s leadership signed a contract with, has been operating. So far, it has paved dirt roads in the area and has harvested logs that are being stored at Krish Veneer Industries, a sawmill in Buchanan, a few miles away.
“All of our logs are taken to Buchanan without benefit. This is what happened during RETCO days until we blocked the roads and chased them out,” said Zechariah Boima, of Togar Town. He was referencing RETCO Liberia Timber Industry, a company that worked here in the 1990s and paid the community L$10,000 (roughly US$90 today).
The FDA did not respond to queries. However, Kangar David, head of the agency’s sub-office in Buchanan, who conducted the election, urged the new leadership to work in Mavasagueh’s interest.
The election is yet another proof of Mavasagueh’s flawed formation. It has already been established that the FDA skipped legal steps in granting it a community forest status. C&C Corporation is illegitimate because its owner, Clarence Massaquoi, is an ineligible logger. Krish Veneer, the company’s buyer, operates on the FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab’s family land with an ineligible status. The forest overlaps a private land that two men are claiming.
This is a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Trucks transporting logs are stuck on a road in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County, after community protesters set up roadblocks, demanding benefits. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
VAMBO, Grand Bassa – People claiming landowners of a community forest have protested against a company for allegedly sidelining them in a logging contract.
The aggrieved citizens of Vambo Township set roadblocks to prevent C&C Corporation (CCC) from transporting logs to Buchanan. Over 10 towns and villages, including Gblorso, Vahzohn, Baryogar, Boe, and Cee, participated in the protest.
“We have decided to set roadblocks because of the mismanagement of our resources without understanding,” said Abel Payway, youth chair.
“We did not sign the agreement with them, only a few groups of people. They formed a clique and did what they could without consultation with the citizens,” added Payway.
Last year, CCC signed a logging contract with 39 towns and villages adjacent to the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a 26,003-hectare woodland, in exchange for development.
But everything about the deal was illegal. An environmental assessment of the impacts of the CCC’s operation left out 15 towns and villages. Mavasagueh had been illegally established, and the company is ineligible for logging activities, a report review found, which a DayLight series corroborated. Some towns had criticized the Mavasagueh process for excluding them.
The protest followed months of failed negotiation. It echoes the illegalities of CCC’s operations and foreshadows likely future hostilities.
Rebecca Gblorso, a middle-aged protester, did not mince her words during a Daylight interview. “The company started extracting our logs without any benefit. They started hauling our logs last week Thursday. We feel bad and angry so we set the roadblock,” Gblorso said.
Jacob Cee, an elder in his late 80s was among the protesters.
“I am here to protect my township. I speak for all my elders, so when something is happening here and is not right I represent my community,” said Cee.
“The protest is a wake-up call for the company to meet our needs,” said Vambo’s Commissioner Nathaniel Clarke.
Daniel Dayougar, Vambo’s ex-commissioner and now CCC’s community liaison officer, refutes the protesters’ claim. “Togar Town is out,” said Dayougar, who is accused of handpicking the forest’s leaders.
Horace backs Dayougar. “Those towns that did the protest are not within the [contract area].”
The protest lasted three days and ended when police arrived on the third day.
Misapplication of US$6,000
Clarke and the protesters also demanded accountability for a US$6,000 CCC paid to the community forest leadership. The company had deposited the money into the community’s account.
Askew Varney, CCC’s bush manager, confirmed the company deposited the fund.
“My boss called and said the money given to the community had been mismanaged. I expected the [community leaders to meet] to say, ‘This is what the company has brought to us.’ There is no awareness going on. So, if they are going on with the protest they are right,” Varney said.
One of the roadblocks in Vambo Township that stopped C&C Corporation from transporting logs. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
But instead of spending the money on community forest guards and health benefits, Mavasagueh’s leaders bought motorbikes and pills, according to Stephen Horace, one of the leaders. Horace said he had not seen the money but confirmed it had been misapplied.
Last week, at a Buchanan meeting to mediate between the protesters and the company, Representative Clarence Banks of Grand Bassa Electoral District Two and Superintendent Karyou Johnson suspended Mavasagueh’s leadership.
However, Representative Banks and Superintendent Karyou do not have any legal power to suspend the leadership. That power lies in Mavasagueh’s community assembly, its highest decision-maker, and the FDA. The FDA did not immediately respond to queries.
Isaac Tukar, Mavasagueh’s leader, denied any wrongdoing. “I am not in the know of any suspension,” Tukar said. “I am in the Guehsuah Section and doing my work.”
Representative Banks, told Okay FM, a DayLight affiliate, Vambo was awaiting the outcome of a three-week ultimatum CCC to address the protesters’ concerns.
“It is my citizens, that closed the roads. Give me three weeks, I will work with the Superintendent,” said Banks. “If the company does not listen to the issues that will be raised, “I will close it down legally.”
[Additional reporting by Ojuku Kangar]
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Logs appear undersized and spread out, with an earthmover in the background. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a series on the illegalities of a new community forest in Grand Bassa County.
VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – Early last month, The DayLight started a series on a newly established community forest, documenting a string of illegalities involving the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company.
So far, the series has published evidence that the FDA illegally established the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. The agency approved Mavasagueh’s logging contract with the C&C Corporation (CCC), owned by an ineligible logger, Clarence Massaquoi, who also, manages an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan.
The DayLight has, however, gathered additional evidence of the FDA’s breach of forestry’s legal provisions, cementing initial findings of the regulator’s wrongdoings.
‘Embarrassing’
Twenty-four out of 39 or nearly 40 percent of the communities that own Mavasagueh participated in an environmental and social impact assessment conducted on the community forest, according to a report. The study, which took place between October and November last year, after the FDA awarded Mavasagueh a community forest status, shows the signatures of representatives of the participating towns.
A legal requirement for logging contracts, the report clearly shows that 15 towns and villages were left out of the process, including Gblorso Town and others in the Vambo Township, which hosts a large portion of forest in that area.
This evidence confirms a previous finding that many communities did not participate in Mavasagueh’s formation. Townspeople alleged that ex-Vambo Commissioner Daniel Dayougar handpicked members of Mavasagueh’s leadership, with some unaware of their roles. Dayougar, who was involved with another bogus deal in 2020, denies the allegation.
Civil society organizations flagged those issues when they reviewed Mavasagueh’s documents last year. They asked that the FDA ensure people participate in the boundary process. Residents The DayLight interviewed corroborated the findings.
Mavasagueh Community Forest supposedly overlaps 3,200 acres of private land. Picture credit: James Giahyue
The new evidence shows the forest’s original name, Vambo-Marloi, was changed to Mavasagueh, a play on Marloi, Vambo, Gorzoah and Sawbein. Like Vambo, Marloi is a township, while Gorzoah and Sawbein are clans.
The name Mavasagueh remains an issue, though.
“The combined name is embarrassing to every one of us,” said Nathaniel Clarke, Commissioner of Vambo Township. “We were not combined with any other forest.
The FDA did not answer why Vambo-Marloi, the name recorded in last year’s forestry sector review, was changed to Mavasagueh. The regulator did not respond to the newspaper’s questions, for this story or previous parts of this series.
A 2018 letter
The first part of this series established that the FDA ignored a claim laid by Khalil Haider, a resident of Monrovia, to 3,200 acres of land between the St. John River and Mt. Findley, which overlaps Mavasagueh’s 26,003 hectares. A Google Earth map of the area Haider’s claim falls within in the first compartment CCC intends to operate.
Then a second person Amos Lewis, a resident of Marshall, Margibi, is also claiming the same plot as Haider. Like Haider, Lewis has informed the FDA about his claim. Both men have presented a Tubman-era deed to substantiate their claim.
Lewis and Haider’s claims are sufficient for the FDA to call off the contract between Mavasagueh. The community forest handbook requires the FDA to investigate and potentially slice the problematic plot from the community forest. The claims prove that the demarcation and mapping of Mavasagueh was not participatory.
Mechanics standing by a CCC earthmover parked for maintenance in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The Daylight/Emmanuel Sherman
The compromise has several implications, according to forestry experts. First, CCC has more forest blocks to cut in a season, as the size of the forest determines the number of blocks. Second CCC can harvest at a faster rate—even, if the company does not cut logs in the area Haider is claiming, since the forest contains the supposedly private plot. Third, Mavasagueh overlaps a private plot, contradicting a community forest’s description: a forest on a community or customary land.
But that is not all. One of the new pieces of evidence is a letter Haider wrote to the FDA in 2018, informing it about his claim to the 3,200 acres.
The letter, obtained by The DayLight, read, “We are getting ready to do some farming projects on our land. But because of the road condition and bridges, we are asking your authority to allow us to market the existing marketable species, which will enable us to generate some funds.” Haider claimed he wrote several other letters to the FDA over the years.
Haider’s letters prove one of two things: First, the FDA ignored his communication. Or the regulator lost it, leading him to write the agency again last year. Notably, this appears to confirm a flawed process, and a finding from last year’s forestry concession review that the FDA did not keep proper records.
An illegal compromise
FDA has sanctioned CCC’s operations despite the mounting illegalities associated with the Mavasagueh-CCC contract.
Photographs and videos shot by The DayLight show apparent undersized logs CCC harvested. The woods are visible in the video spread out in an open field.
Last week the Mavasagueh-CCC contract was read to residents. Though signed in August last year, it was the first time, the townspeople had seen or read the document.
Managing Director Rudolph Merab encouraged CCC and Haider to compromise to avoid the FDA from repeating the process, according to Haider, one of the private land claimants and CCC’s owner Massaquoi.
“I received a call from [Mr. Merab], stating that if I pursued it further, they would have to cancel everything until two to three years before anything,” Haider told The DayLight in January. He added he empathized with Massaquoi because CCC spent a lot of money paving over 15 kilometers of a major road in the community.
This Google Earth map shows Mavasagueh overlaps a supposedly private land, rendering the community forest area unlawful.
“Haider and I settled, and he would work with the community and me so, the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi told a DayLight interview.
Massaquoi, who conducted a failed logging operation in Grand Cape Mount in the 2010s, covering just 5,000 hectares, is confident of success this time around. He intends to sell logs to Krish Veneer Industries, an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan he manages. A DayLight investigation found that the Indian-owned Krish is not a corporation, a legal requirement for forestry companies.
As organized as the plan seems, it is not backed by law.
Per the community forest handbook—based on the law—the FDA must “review objections, contact and meet with objectors, and use customary dispute resolution mechanism.” It further requires the FDA to work with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Land Authority to establish a community forest area.
“If required, the FDA and [the] community repeat the demarcation process…”
Top: Clarence Massaquoi, the owner of Bassa Logging and Timber Company, and co-owner of C&C Corporation. By his admission, Massaquoi worked in the logging sector before January 2006, making him ineligible. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the second part of a series on illegalities associated with a newly established community forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
Evidence suggests the FDA conducted a flawed process that established the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Bassa
Then a DayLight investigation found several forestry offenses committed and associated with Clarence Massaquoi, the logger authorized to operate the unlawful community forest
Massaquoi owes US$56,550 from a previous contract in Grand Cape Mount, leaving hundreds of logs in the forest to rot
Massaquoi is a wartime logger, which makes his forestry activities and ownership of his companies illegal
Massaquoi is also the Manager of an ineligible forestry company in Buchanan, Grand Bassa
VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – Last August, local people signed a forestry contract with a new company. C&C Corporation (CCC) would conduct logging in the Mavasagueh Community Forest in exchange for hand pumps, roads and other things.
CCC has built a 15-kilometer dirt road through the Vambo and Marloi Townships, where the 26,003-hectare forest lies. The company has begun felling trees after the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) awarded it a harvesting certificate.
While townspeople celebrated the contract, a DayLight investigation established problems with the Mavasagueh-CCC contract. The evidence shows that the FDA skipped some legal steps in granting Mavasagueh a community forest status.
The investigation found that the FDA’s demarcation and mapping of the rocky forest did not involve all the communities as required. It also established that two men are claiming 3,200 acres, or about a fifth of the forest between Mt. Findley and the St. John River, overwhelming proof that authorities did a poor job.
The illegal contract thrusts Massaquoi into the spotlight, exposing his hidden and forgotten offenses, spanning over two decades. It was discovered Massaquoi had illegally acquired a contract, failed that contract and ran an unlawful sawmill.
Failed contract
Mavasagueh is the first contract CCC, established only in 2022, has had. However, it is not the only one for Massaquoi, who has 70 percent of the company’s shares. (One Joseph Varney holds the remaining shares)
Massaquoi has another firm, Bassa Logging and Timber Company, which failed a previous contract in Grand Cape Mount County. In 2009, Bassa Logging signed a contract with locals in the Porkpah and Gola Konneh Districts for 5,000 hectares.
Over five times smaller than Mavasagueh, Bassa Logging subcontracted the Lebanese-owned Alma Wood, though that contract was meant for only Liberian companies.
A broken-down timber jack with a log still attached to it is seen on an open field in Benduma in the Porkpa District of Grand Cape Mount County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Months before the report, the FDA had terminated the contract and nine others after they lasted over twice their maximum, legal lifespan.
‘Managerial role’
Massaquoi’s contracts with Bassa Logging had been illegally awarded.
By his own admission, Massaquoi operated for future FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab during the Second Liberian Civil War. “I worked with Merab from 1999 to 2007 in [a] managerial role,” he told The DayLight.
Liberia Wood Management Corporation (LWMC), Merab’s company Massaquoi worked for, was the subject of international investigations.
One report by UK-based Global Witness in 2000 found militiamen loyal to President Charles Taylor guarded LWMC’s facilities. It said Another report LWMC exported over 12,810 cubic meters of logs in the first half of 2000.
Another report established that LWMC enjoyed a US$1.4 million tax holiday from the Taylor regime during the Second Liberian Civil War (1999 – 2003). Merab claims the amount was less than that.
A 2005 review of the forestry sector reported, “At least 17 logging companies either supported militias… or facilitated illegal arms trafficking, or aided or abetted civil instability.” An estimated 250,000 people died during Liberia’s two wars, with President Joseph Boakai signing an executive order months into his administration to establish a war and economic crimes court.
Merab admits working in the Taylor era but denies any wrongdoing. “We never participated in the war, we never supported any members of the war,” Merab would later tell the Associated Press.
But forestry reformers created a deterrent against the logging industry’s contribution to any future crisis, formulating the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications.
The regulation disqualifies anyone who participated in forestry before January 2006, unless they confessed their wartime deeds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and worked with the FDA on how they would repay stolen funds. There is no record that Massaquoi, Merab, or any other wartime logger did that.
By his admission, Clarence Massaquoi, the majority shareholder of C&C Corporation (CCC) and sole owner of Bassa Logging and Timber Company, is a wartime logger. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Despite Massaquoi’s involvement in the “blood timber” trade, and Bassa Logging’s letdown, the FDA still qualified CCC. The regulator’s justification for endorsing CCC disregarded the war-accountability provision of the regulation.
The evidence shows that Massaquoi exploited a loophole in the regulation that allows a logger to create another company when a previous one failed. All its debt-related provisions pertain to companies, not their owners or managers.
“A thorough review of records and files available for the past five years…, including the cancelation of concession agreements/contracts, indicates no proof of the existence of CCC,” wrote then-FDA Managing Director Mike Doryen on CCC’s qualification in 2023.
“This instrument, therefore, serves as sufficient testimony… of no breaches of forestry laws or regulations… until otherwise proven,” Doryen added.
Massaquoi now adds to several wartime loggers illegally in forestry, a list that also includes Merab. Merab did not reply to queries for comments.
Plywood Company
A confident Massaquoi said he could operate in Grand Bassa, even after he failed in Cape Mount. CCC, according to an environmental study last year, has over 40 earthmovers and other equipment. The DayLight saw an earthmover along the newly paved dirt road being repaired by mechanics.
“I have eight machines on the road, a motor grader, and bulldozers. I used 700 gallons per two days,” Massaquoi said. “I had done more than 15 kilometers of dirt road and paid salaries while working. You must be financially strong.”
Massaquoi implied he had more business opportunities with CCC than he had with Bassa Logging. He referenced Krish Veneer Industries, a sawmill in Buchanan, Grand Bassa he manages, which exports timber and wood products.
“I can sell to my plywood factory. My buyers are right in Buchanan,” he added.
Mavasagueh Community Forest, which covers 26,003 hectares, overlaps a 3,200-acre private land. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
Krish Veneer Industries, which he declined to address, adds another layer to Massaquoi’s hidden or overlooked illegalities.
Krish’s legal documents and business registration certificate prove the company is a partnership. Atique Ahmed and Kamal Parwani, both Indians, hold 57 percent and 43 percent shares in the 2019 company.
The regulation restricts forestry companies to corporations.
The provision is in line with the Public Procurement and Concession Act. It comes from the fact that corporate entities, have limitless liabilities and lifespan, and present more taxable opportunities. Partnerships do not possess such advantages.
Krish is one of the most active companies in a largely dormant logging sector. Last year, it made several exports of round logs and veneer, according to official records. Those exports included 241 logs or 1,243 cubic meters last June.
By the FDA’s standard operating procedure, the regulator is required to verify a company’s legal documents before permitting it to export.
It is unclear whether Krish’s ineligibility went unnoticed or was just overlooked for over five years.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Bettoe Town Public School, Compound One, Grand Bassa County. The Daylight/Emmanuel Sherman
By Emmanuel Sherman
BETTOE Town, Grand Bassa County – Villagers have built a schoolhouse with funds they received from a logging contract.
Every week, schoolchildren from towns and villages trek to the Bettoe Town Public School to quench their thirst for education.
“Bettoe Town Public School… benefits the [community],” said Garsaweh Harris, the Community leader for areas affected by the Timber Sales Contract Area Three in Compound Number One, Grand Bassa County Three, known in forestry as TSC A-3.
The Bettoe Town School was the first of two projects in the area, costing US$900 and LD415,452. The school has 86 students and two teachers.
Proceeds used to erect the school came from land rental fees the community got from a concession between the Liberian government and the Nigerian-owned Akewa Group of Companies.
Akewa owes the community US$11,624.50, according to a 2022 forestry report.
The National Benefit Sharing Trust Board receives, manages and disburses funds logging companies remit to communities. Land rentals are calculated at US$1.25 per, hectare multiplied by the size of the forest. Of this, 55 percent is for the community and 45 percent for the government.
Last year, the government paid US$300,000 to logging-affected communities, according to a report by US-based Forest Trends.
Larry Gbomay, a member of the community’s leadership, urged the Benefit Trust Board to pay the balance.
“We want to tell the government that we need the balance to address [the school’s problems],” said Gbomay. “The children sit on benches because the chairs we have are too low.”
In 2021 the government terminated all TSCs across the country, including the one whose funding built Bettoe Town Public School. However, locals have stuck with the leadership.
Harris said, “We are just part of the [leadership] to hold our union together.”
