Evidence Mounts FDA Signed Illegal Logging Contract

March 14, 2025

Top: Logs appear undersized and spread out, with an earthmover in the background. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar

By Emmanuel Sherman

Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a series on the illegalities of a new community forest in Grand Bassa County.

VAMBO, Grand Bassa County – Early last month, The DayLight started a series on a newly established community forest, documenting a string of illegalities involving the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company.

So far, the series has published evidence that the FDA illegally established the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. The agency approved Mavasagueh’s logging contract with the C&C Corporation (CCC), owned by an ineligible logger, Clarence Massaquoi, who also, manages an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan.

The DayLight has, however, gathered additional evidence of the FDA’s breach of forestry’s legal provisions, cementing initial findings of the regulator’s wrongdoings.

‘Embarrassing’

Twenty-four out of 39 or nearly 40 percent of the communities that own Mavasagueh participated in an environmental and social impact assessment conducted on the community forest, according to a report. The study, which took place between October and November last year, after the FDA awarded Mavasagueh a community forest status, shows the signatures of representatives of the participating towns.

A legal requirement for logging contracts, the report clearly shows that 15 towns and villages were left out of the process, including Gblorso Town and others in the Vambo Township, which hosts a large portion of forest in that area.

This evidence confirms a previous finding that many communities did not participate in Mavasagueh’s formation. Townspeople alleged that ex-Vambo Commissioner Daniel Dayougar handpicked members of Mavasagueh’s leadership, with some unaware of their roles. Dayougar, who was involved with another bogus deal in 2020, denies the allegation.

Civil society organizations flagged those issues when they reviewed Mavasagueh’s documents last year. They asked that the FDA ensure people participate in the boundary process. Residents The DayLight interviewed corroborated the findings.

Mavasagueh Community Forest supposedly overlaps 3,200 acres of private land. Picture credit: James Giahyue

The new evidence shows the forest’s original name, Vambo-Marloi, was changed to Mavasagueh, a play on Marloi, Vambo, Gorzoah and Sawbein. Like Vambo, Marloi is a township, while Gorzoah and Sawbein are clans.

The name Mavasagueh remains an issue, though.

“The combined name is embarrassing to every one of us,” said Nathaniel Clarke, Commissioner of Vambo Township. “We were not combined with any other forest.

The FDA did not answer why Vambo-Marloi, the name recorded in last year’s forestry sector review, was changed to Mavasagueh. The regulator did not respond to the newspaper’s questions, for this story or previous parts of this series.

A 2018 letter

The first part of this series established that the FDA ignored a claim laid by Khalil Haider, a resident of Monrovia, to 3,200 acres of land between the St. John River and Mt. Findley, which overlaps Mavasagueh’s 26,003 hectares. A Google Earth map of the area Haider’s claim falls within in the first compartment CCC intends to operate.

Then a second person Amos Lewis, a resident of Marshall, Margibi, is also claiming the same plot as Haider. Like Haider, Lewis has informed the FDA about his claim. Both men have presented a Tubman-era deed to substantiate their claim.

Lewis and Haider’s claims are sufficient for the FDA to call off the contract between Mavasagueh. The community forest handbook requires the FDA to investigate and potentially slice the problematic plot from the community forest. The claims prove that the demarcation and mapping of Mavasagueh was not participatory.

Mechanics standing by a CCC earthmover parked for maintenance in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The Daylight/Emmanuel Sherman

The compromise has several implications, according to forestry experts. First, CCC has more forest blocks to cut in a season, as the size of the forest determines the number of blocks. Second CCC can harvest at a faster rate—even, if the company does not cut logs in the area Haider is claiming, since the forest contains the supposedly private plot. Third, Mavasagueh overlaps a private plot, contradicting a community forest’s description: a forest on a community or customary land.

But that is not all. One of the new pieces of evidence is a letter Haider wrote to the FDA in 2018, informing it about his claim to the 3,200 acres.

The letter, obtained by The DayLight, read, “We are getting ready to do some farming projects on our land. But because of the road condition and bridges, we are asking your authority to allow us to market the existing marketable species, which will enable us to generate some funds.” Haider claimed he wrote several other letters to the FDA over the years.

Haider’s letters prove one of two things: First, the FDA ignored his communication. Or the regulator lost it, leading him to write the agency again last year. Notably, this appears to confirm a flawed process, and a finding from last year’s forestry concession review that the FDA did not keep proper records.

An illegal compromise

FDA has sanctioned CCC’s operations despite the mounting illegalities associated with the Mavasagueh-CCC contract.

Photographs and videos shot by The DayLight show apparent undersized logs CCC harvested. The woods are visible in the video spread out in an open field.

Last week the Mavasagueh-CCC contract was read to residents. Though signed in August last year, it was the first time, the townspeople had seen or read the document.

Managing Director Rudolph Merab encouraged CCC and Haider to compromise to avoid the FDA from repeating the process, according to Haider, one of the private land claimants and CCC’s owner Massaquoi.

“I received a call from [Mr. Merab], stating that if I pursued it further, they would have to cancel everything until two to three years before anything,” Haider told The DayLight in January. He added he empathized with Massaquoi because CCC spent a lot of money paving over 15 kilometers of a major road in the community.

This Google Earth map shows Mavasagueh overlaps a supposedly private land, rendering the community forest area unlawful.

“Haider and I settled, and he would work with the community and me so, the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi told a DayLight interview.

Massaquoi, who conducted a failed logging operation in Grand Cape Mount in the 2010s, covering just 5,000 hectares, is confident of success this time around. He intends to sell logs to Krish Veneer Industries, an illegitimate sawmill in Buchanan he manages. A DayLight investigation found that the Indian-owned Krish is not a corporation, a legal requirement for forestry companies.

As organized as the plan seems, it is not backed by law.

Per the community forest handbook—based on the law—the FDA must “review objections, contact and meet with objectors, and use customary dispute resolution mechanism.” It further requires the FDA to work with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Land Authority to establish a community forest area.

“If required, the FDA and [the] community repeat the demarcation process…”

Inside FDA’s Shady World of Chewing Sticks

March 6, 2025

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

By Emmanuel Sherman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On commission

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moratorium

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pyne and Bonwin claim the government has lifted the moratorium.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Harry Browne contributed to this Investigation]

Unlawful Contract Unearths Logger’s Hidden Crimes

February 16, 2025

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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

Massaquoi and El Zein Hassan, his partner, left hundreds of logs to rot in the northwestern forest. Hassan fled the country in 2019 after failing to settle a US$643,000 loan from Afriland Bank. Massaquoi still owes locals US$56,560 in land rental and other fees, according to an official report in 2022.

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).

FDA Permitted Export of 100% Illegal Logs

February 7, 2025

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Top: Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley seen here in 2020, was the technical manager of FDA’s legality verification department (LVD), and oversaw the export of 219 illegally harvested logs in August 2023. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue

By Esau J. Farr

BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – LiberTrace, a computerized timber-tracking system, can detect one illegal log from a consignment of a thousand. So, it is pointless to say whether the system can identify multiple dirty logs in a consignment.

When LiberTrace identifies illegal logs, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is required to compel the exporting company to correct issues or remove problematic logs from a consignment, according to the FDA’s special operating procedures (SOPs).

But that was not the case with 219 logs a Chinese-owned firm headquartered in Paynesville exported on August 20, 2023. A LiberTrace analysis of the consignment shows that all 219 logs West Water Group (Liberia) Incorporated shipped had been illegally harvested.

The timber, with a volume of 1,266 cubic meters, were shipped through the Port of Buchanan to China on board MV Sheng LEC, a bulk carrier sailing under the flag of Panama. Most of the timber had been harvested in a Grand Bassa County community forest on the same day, July 19, 2023.

Built by SGS, a renowned verification company based in Switzerland, LiberTrace traces timber from its origin to its final destination. The FDA’s legality verification department (LVD) co-manages the system.

Illegal timber undermines the system, a crucial part of forestry reform to ensure Liberia does not flood domestic and international markets with illegal timber as it was during the country’s civil wars between 1989 and 2003.

A LiberTrace screenshot of history of the 219 illegal logs shows that the FDA did not justify its approval for auditing purposes in line with its standard operating procedures.

Warnings and errors

LiberTrace flags issues as “warnings” and “errors,” with the latter more serious than the former.

A closer review of the warnings and errors in West Water’s consignment LiberTrace red-flagged paints a grim picture. All the logs had multiple issues. The FDA had not approved the felling of 166 logs or over 75 percent of the shipment. One hundred and sixty-four logs were undersized and details of 144 did not match the records in LiberTrace.

“Diameter class is different of the one declared during inventory,” some of the issues read.

“Diameter below the minimum felling diameter,” others said.

The FDA’s SOPs for export allow the regulator to override LiberTrace’s red flags. In such an event, the FDA must justify the override for second or third-party auditing purposes. However, LiberTrace’s history of the export shows no justifications were made.

Deputy Managing Director for Operations Gertrude Nyaley, who headed LVD in 2023, thrice rejected the consignment.

Mrs. Nyaley’s last rejection occurred on July 26, 2023— Liberia’s Independence Day—due to “major traceability errors.” But miraculously, it was approved in less than 48 hours. There were no inspections of the consignment or corrections of the issues with the logs.

Theodore Nna, SGS’ project manager, who did not respond to queries for this story, only cared about payments. “[Export permit] will be signed upon all clearing of invoices,” said Nna, making no further comments.

An entirely dirty consignment is rare, even by the FDA’s poor standards—repeatedly fuelled by capacity gaps, noncompliance and impunity.

Nna and the FDA did not reply to inquiries for comments, the same with Mrs. Nyaley who oversaw exports in 2023, and West Water.

Last year, the FDA rejected reports it approved an export half of whose consignment comprised illegally harvested timber as a “misinterpretation” of export data. The regulator argued the errors and warnings LiberTrace identified were “normal occurrences” but struggled to explain inconsistencies that characterized the export.

Last week, another DayLight investigation found that the FDA had okayed the export of 267 dirty timber for a Nigerian-owned company.

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

FDA Okays Export of over 250 Illegal Logs

January 28, 2025

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Top: Some of the logs LiberTrace red-flagged for having multiple issues but the FDA still allowed to be shipped. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted a company to export round logs mid-last year. However, the regulator ignored its computerized system—known as LiberTrace—red-flagged over 60 percent of the timber.

Out of the total 431 logs, Iroko Timber and Logging Corporation submitted for two shipments, LiberTrace identified 267 as problematic.

LiberTrace, which tracks logs from their sources to final destinations, found the logs’ details were inconsistent with the system’s information. Most of the logs had not been recorded during a pre-export inspection.

For instance, some logs had their butt-end diameters different from what Iroko declared. Others had volumes different from the ones submitted, while other logs had discrepancies with the lengths the Nigerian-owned company declared.

But the LiberTrace analysis and the export specs detailing each log shipped establish that the FDA allowed the tainted logs to go.

The combined 431 logs with a 2,549-cubic-meter volume, were loaded at the Port of Greenville, Sinoe County and departed on April 27 and July 2, 2024, on the Panamanian cargo ship MV Nimeh, destined for Bangladesh.

‘Nothing to add’

Based on the FDA’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) the regulator should have investigated the red flags and sought correction. If not, the SOPs provide the export to be disapproved. “Wood products that are not compliant with the legality definition shall not be authorized for export,” according to SOPs for export.

A screenshot from some of LiberTrace’s analysis of one of two Iroko exports last year the FDA unlawfully approved

The SOPs allow for the FDA to override LiberTrace’s alarms. However, in such a case, the FDA is required to record the justification for overriding the red flags for auditing. Screenshots of LiberTrace’s history of the logs prove there were no justifications for the FDA’s decision to approve the exports.

Those standards contribute to LiberTrace ensuring tax-complaint companies’ logs are legal, not just traceable. LiberTrace plays a critical role in the forestry sector, particularly in combating illegal logging and enhancing transparency in the timber trade. SGS, a Swiss verification company, built the system and the FDA co-manages it.

Confronted with the red flags, Theodore Nna, SGS’ project manager, did not respond to queries. Nna did the same last year in a similar incident. He had sarcastically offered The DayLight a tutorial in interpreting LiberTrace’s data and analysis.

The FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab declined to speak on the matter. “I believe my team handled this Iroko issue last year…,” Merab said in a WhatsApp chat. “I have nothing new to add!”

A screenshot of LiberTrace’s history of one of Iroko’s exports shows that the FDA did not justify why it overrode errors with several logs for auditing purposes.

Last year, the FDA dismissed reports as a “misinterpretation” of data. It argued that the errors and warnings LiberTrace sounded were routine “minor occurrences.”

Similarly, Iroko did not return emailed questions. The company had initially responded to the DayLight’s inquiries but ceased after the newspaper exposed a series of its wrongdoings.

This investigation adds to the logs’ taint and Iroko’s notoriety. A previous investigation found the logs spent over a year in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe County’s Jaedae District. One unearthed Iroko owed local people a good sum. Another revealed an Iroko shareholder was unqualified for logging over a co-ownership of a company punished for fraud.

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

FDA Aborts Process to Seize CARI Stolen Timber

July 15, 2024

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Top: The Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County. The DayLight/Wilmot Konah

By Rebazar D. Forte

GBARNGA, Bong County – The Forestry Development Authority aborted its process to obtain a court order to seize thousands of timber abandoned by smugglers at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).

Multiple sources told The DayLight that the FDA would petition the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga last Monday for the warrant, the first step in confiscating the wood.

Before then, Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley had appeared to have corroborated that information when she gave a hint on the Forest Hour radio show on Okay FM.

When Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the FDA’s lawyer, arrived at the court on Monday, July 8, at 10:20 am, it looked like the process had begun. The FDA’s Lawyer entered the courthouse and exited it about 15 minutes later, according to our reporter.

Dolo declined an interview with The DayLight, hopped into a white vehicle, and left the courtyard.

Daniel Porlenkollie, the court’s clerk, confirmed that the FDA had not sought a warrant from the court.

The atmosphere at CARI was similar to that of the court. A police vehicle tried to enter the area where the illegally harvested planks were but did not. The vehicle left the area after honking for minutes, an indication of an abruptly aborted plan.

Dr. James Dolo, CARI’s officer in charge, said he was unaware of any plan by the FDA to seize the wood.

“The only team that came here was the Crime [Service] Division, based in Gbarnga,” he told The DayLight. They came to make a follow up on the Chinese guys who operated here in the fence, a group from the Economic Crimes Division,” Dr. James Dolo added. The division did not immediately respond to queries.

Cllr. Yanquoi Dolo, the FDA’s lawyer, entered the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court on Monday, July 8, 2024, reportedly to seek a warrant to seize thousands of timber at the Central Agriculture Research Institute but abandoned the plan shortly after. The DayLight/Rebazar Forte

It would have been the first time the FDA had enforced the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products since it was formulated in 2017.

Under the regulation, the regulator must seek a court warrant to auction the planks. However, to do so, it must obtain court warrants to seize and confiscate the timber. If the planks are unsold at the auction, they must be given to the community or civil society.

The smugglers face a fine of thrice the value of the planks, a six-month prison term, or both fine and imprisonment upon a conviction.

The DayLight investigation discovered the network’s ringleaders were two Chinese Chaolong Zhong and Guoping Zhang, a Turkish Mehmet Onder Erem, and a Liberian named Terrence Collins.

The traffickers ran a company called CTL Industries in the China Aid compound of CARI for over two years. They purchased timber from Lofa, Nimba and vendors in Suakoko, Bong County, and processed and smuggled the wood via containers, the investigation found.

A screengrab of LiberTrace shows CTL Industries has never paid a dime for timber export, further proof of its trafficking activities.

Pictures and documents obtained by The DayLight show CTL trafficked timber in containers with the help of about 33 workers.

However, they halted their operations just before last year’s elections, abandoning an unspecified number of planks and equipment.

Records of LiberTrace, Liberia’s timber-tracking computer system, show no activities for CTL Industries, further proof of the illegality of its activities.

A collage featuring timber CTL Industries trafficked the abandoned at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko, Bong County. The DayLight/Rebazar D. Forte

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

Loggers Illegally Cut Logs for Unlawful Bridge

July 11, 2024

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Top: Masayaha’s bridge in Gbargbo, River Cess County breaks the FDA’s standards for a log bridge. The Ministry of Public Works disapproved of the construction. Picture credit: An anonymous villager

By Aaron Wesley Geezay

GARGBO VILLAGE, River Cess – Masayaha, a Lebanese-owned company, known for its repeated logging offenses, has harvested about 500 logs in River Cess County, outside of its area of operations.

In November 2021, Masayaha had a 15-year logging contract with the 43,792-hectare Bloquiah Community Forest in Gboe/Ploe Administrative District, Grand Gedeh County.

One year later, Masayaha entered a verbal logging deal with Gbargbo, a River Cess’ Norbor Clan village about 80 kilometers away from its contract area. Under the deal, villagers would allow the company to harvest the logs and build a temporary bridge over the Cestos River, which would later be transformed into a partial concrete structure.

The log bridge was good news for both parties.

Masayaha needed it to transport logs from Grand Gedeh to Grand Bassa since heavy vehicles were disallowed to use the Timbo River Bridge between Sinoe and River Cess.

The villagers saw the bridge as an opportunity to connect the Norbor Clan in the Yarnee District to the Kploh Chiefdom in the Central River Cess Administrative District.

“They asked us to allow them to cut 250 pieces of logs to fix the bridge,” Samuel Gbargbo, a resident of Gbargbo Village, told The DayLight. “And because we have been suffering for the road we agreed.”

Masayaha abandoned several logs on this field and other areas in Gbargbo Village it illegally harvested last year. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

‘The people… fooled us’

Per the agreement, Masayaha paid the community US$1,500 and began harvesting. However, the logs were insufficient to complete the bridge so the parties signed another verbal agreement. This time, Masayaha only paid US$700, with the remaining US$800 yet to be paid, our investigation found.

And there were other problems. There was no concrete component of the bridge as Masayaha had promised. The bridge had been completed over a year ago, yet the company had failed to construct any concrete pillars. Besides, it abandoned several logs that they felled in Gbargbo’s forest.

This and the debt issue angered the villagers, who threatened to protest.

“The people came and fooled us and made us work for nothing,” said Melvin Wolloh, town chief of Norbor Clan.

Ali Harkous, Masayaha’s CEO and owner, said the Forestry Development Authority permitted it. “We applied to FDA to permit us to get the logs from around the area and they approved and we also approached community and they agreed,” Harkous said. He refused to share a copy with The DayLight or allow this reporter to see it.

A stump of a tree in Gbargbo Village, River Cess County Masayaha illegally harvested last year. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

Harkous would not speak to the villagers’ claim but budged after persistent inquiry. “Frankly, tell them they should not worry, we are going to give [them] their money.

“We invested all we have and credited from some financial institutions. We are really into [a] financial problem,” Harkous said.

Harkous was right. The FDA permitted Masayaha to harvest logs for the bridge. However, his company grossly violated the permit’s terms.

The document and other papers, the FDA provided, did not permit Masayaha to harvest logs in River Cess, but rather Sinoe County. Two letters written by then-Senator Milton Teahjay of Sinoe County and Bloquiah Community Forest, seen by The DayLight, mentioned the Tarjuwon District.

Also, the permit ordered Masayaha to work with the FDA staff in that area to identify targeted trees and calculate the volume logs for the project. That, too, did not happen.

FDA’s record of the Masayaha felling in Gbargbo Village shows that the company felled 200 trees, not 500 the villagers said.

Then of the 200 logs, 62 were untagged, according to the FDA record. Similarly, the logs on the bridge, on an open field on the riverbank and in the bushes were untagged. Even the tree stumps this reporter photographed were missing obligatory tags.

The DayLight photographed several untagged logs abandoned by Masayaha in Gbargbo Village, River Cess. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

This is a violation of the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System. In forestry, every log must be marked, tagged and entered into the system to ensure its legality. It is crucial to Liberia’s timber-trade agreement with the European Union.

The dates on the harvesting record and the communications are inconsistent, further proof of a dishonest operation. It shows rangers identified targeted trees on November 29, 2022—William V.S. Tubman’s birthday—for the harvesting. However, Masayaha’s request and the FDA’s response were written in December and January, respectively. This reveals that rangers had already counted, and tagged some of the trees before the FDA approved the harvesting.

Roadside logging

It is not the first time Masayaha has harvested logs outside its contract area. In 2022, a DayLight investigation exposed Masayaha’s illegal logging activities outside the Worr Community Forest in Grand Bassa County, where it exploited villagers’ need for roads. The report cited an August 2021 FDA publication in which investigators found evidence Masayaha connived with locals to steal timber. No actions were taken against the company for those activities, despite a protest.

William Pewu, FDA’s technical manager for commercial forestry, said Masayaha would go scot-free for its Gbargbo Village activities. Pewu claims the FDA does not record the logs in LiberTrace, a computer system that verifies the legality of timber.

“No, those logs are not for sale,” Pewu told The DayLight in an interview last week. “You only enroll logs in LiberTrace when they are for export. Those logs are for [a] bridge construction.”

Pewu’s comments are not backed by facts. The phrase “chain of custody” covers everything from “transport, interim storage, processing, distribution, and export.” In short, it extends from a log’s “source of origin in the forest to [its] end use.”

Furthermore, roadside logging does not derive from any law or regulation. In fact, in 2009, the FDA even fined a company for harvesting a hundred logs along a path outside a concession in Grand Bassa, according to a United Nations report. A 2017 regulation imposes a fine of twice the value of logs harvested outside a contract, a six-month prison term, or both fine and imprisonment upon a conviction. Other penalties include forfeiture of harvesting rights or a logging contract.

Masayaha illegally harvested over 500 logs from the Gbargbo Village in River Cess, 80 kilometers outside a Grand Gedeh forest, where it has a contract. The DayLight/Aaron Geezay

Masayaha’s illegal operation in Gbargbo bears a remarkable resemblance to the one conducted by a company nearly a decade ago. In 2016, an investigation by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) found that Liberia Hardwood Company (LHC) harvested many logs outside the Bloquiah Community Forest. Strangely, some of the logs were felled in the very Gbargbo Village.

The FDA admitted at the time that roadside logging was illegal but said the logging would continue while it addressed “gaps” in the regulation. It took no action against LHC, which denied any wrongdoing, and there is still no regulation for roadside logging.

‘Not possible’

The bridge built from the illegal logs is equally tainted. It violates the standards for bridge construction, per the Code of Harvesting Practices. The code requires a log bridge to be built on a high portion of a riverbank so as not to stop or interfere with the water’s flow.

Masayaha engineers placed the logs directly in the water, stalling its natural course, photographs of the construction show.

Ministry of Public Works did not authorize the construction, a contravention of the precondition the FDA set for the construction. The Ministry said it had disapproved of the construction.

“Approval/consent was not provided on the basis that the [width] of the Cestos River was [wider],” Minister Roland Layfette Giddings told The DayLight. By the ministry’s standard, it was not possible to construct a log bridge at the location under consideration.”

That violation has led to consequences. At the start of the rainy season, the Cestos River overflowed its banks, washing many logs away. Masayaha later repaired it. Masayaha has started to use the bridge to transport logs to Buchanan.

But Fishermen, who have fished on the river for generations, now have to lift their canoes over the controversial bridge to access the other side of the river.

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

More Evidence Emerges FDA Permitted Illegal Timber Export

May 29, 2024

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Top: The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted West Water Group (Liberia) to export 797 logs in March. However, over half of the consignment was illegally harvested. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By James Harding Giahyue and Derick Snyder

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth part of a series on the Forestry Development Authority’s approval of illegal timber exports.

In February, the FDA’s log-tracking computer LiberTrace red-flagged 413 logs in West Water’s consignment with multiple problems. Yet the Forestry Development Authority ignored the warnings and approved the shipment.

The FDA dismisses DayLight’s initial investigation of the illegal export as an “intentional misinterpretation” of the facts

But DayLight traced some of the illegal logs back to the stumps of the trees from which they were harvested, supporting LiberTrace’s findings

A relook at the LiberTrace analysis found several discrepancies, indicating a cover-up

Last year, West Water did not have a valid harvesting certificate, FDA’s records reveal

The illegal approval reduced government taxes on the logs and encouraged unsustainable logging and impunity

GAYEPUEWHOE TOWN, Grand Bassa County – Last month, a DayLight investigation uncovered the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) approved the export of 797 logs (4,702.679 cubic meters) valued at an estimated US$1 million for a company.

The investigation was based on an analysis of the consignment generated by the FDA log-tracking computer system or LiberTrace. The report cited a screenshot of LiberTrace’s history of West Water Group (Liberia) Inc.’s logs.

Details of the red-flagged logs appeared on the export permit and a National Port Authority document. That proved the FDA did not ensure West Water corrected the issues LiberTrace raised before sanctioning the export.

West Water had harvested the logs in the District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County, where the Chinese-owned company has a 15-year logging contract with villagers. The logs were loaded on the MV Tropical Star, a cargo ship that left Liberia on March 16 and arrived in China on May 26, according to the vessel information provider Marine Traffic. Satellite images show cranes offloading the logs.

The second part of this series found that West Water owed the community forests in Bassa and another in Nimba over US$100,000, a violation of a payment regulation.

The FDA dismissed the investigation, calling it an “intentional misinterpretation” of the facts, and an alleged smear campaign.

But additional evidence gathered from three visits to the forest and interviews with villagers knowledgeable about West Water’s operations corroborates the first investigation. Also, a relook at the LiberTrace analysis and other documents provided additional clues.

The DayLight traced several of the problematic logs to the stumps of trees from which they were harvested, using identification tags from the LiberTrace document. Once reporters matched the tag of red-flagged logs in the document to stumps, they measured the corresponding stumps with a tape rule, videotaping the process.

For instance, reporters traced one tree tagged “AF402RXT” that was red-flagged for multiple problems, including its size. When the reporters measured it, the reporters found the diameter of the tree was 65 centimeters. That is 10 centimeters less than the figure on the export permit and 15 centimeters less than the FDA-approved size for that species, dahoma (Piptadeniastrum africanum).

‘We will be the loser’

Unlike the tree stumps, reporters faced no difficulty in finding other pieces of evidence of undersized logs. A sea of immature logs with West Water tags decorated the forest and the roads leading to it.

A stump of one of the logs LiberTrace red-flagged for being unauthorizedly felled, undersized and other things. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

Villagers, including those knowledgeable about West Water’s operation, said undersized logs were a normal thing there.

“I saw many trees that did not reach the complete diameter and they harvested them,” said Isaac Doe, a villager and an ex-West Water worker.

“If they keep cutting the under-diameter trees, we will set up [a] roadblock and stop them,” said Isaac Jimmy, an elder of that region.

“We will be the loser when they continue felling young trees,” added James Kawee, one of the community forest leaders.

Evidence of undersized logs lay bare in the forest but hid in plain sight in the LiberTrace analysis. When reporters took a closer look at the document, they made a stunning discovery.

Of the 413 problematic logs, 217 were below their harvesting sizes, known in forestry as the diameter cut limit. A total of 266 had been harvested without the FDA’s approval, the sources of 46 logs were unknown, and 55 had no GPS coordinates for tracking purposes. Each log had multiple legality issues.

All of the problematic logs were harvested in two weeks between late January and mid-February, during the post-elections transition.

There were five rounds of harvesting. The first occurred on January 29 with a mammoth 251 logs. It was followed the next day with 11 and the day after 25. Harvesting resumed on February 12 with 106 logs and the following day with 10.

Some villagers said they witnessed West Water felled and transported the wood at night. Their accounts are consistent with LiberTrace, which shows some felling occurred between 8 pm and 9 pm.

“I want the government to implement their rules and regulations to stop them,” said John Flomo, an elder in Paygar Town, one of 14 towns and villages that own the forest.

Reporters filmed West Water trucks transporting logs at night on a major route during their third visit to the forest. FDA’s regulation on timber traceability prohibits nightly transport of logs on public roads. West Water did not respond to queries for comments on this story.

Undersized logs adorned West Water’s contract area of the District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

LiberTrace is a crucial component of timber traceability or the chain of custody system. Meant to prevent illegal wood from entering domestic and international markets, the system traces logs from their origins to their final destinations. The European Union and the United Kingdom funded LiberTrace.

But that was not all the evidence The DayLight gathered. The investigation found that West Water did not have a harvesting certificate when the felling took place. The one Merab shared with The DayLight was not signed by then Managing Director Mike Doryen or a deputy.

The invalid certificate ran from March to September last year and the valid one runs for the same period this year. Once more, this proves that all 413 logs West Water harvested in January and February this year were illegal, even by the FDA’s lowered standards.

A portion of the District Three B&C Community Forest in Wee District, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Philip Quwebin

That likely explains why LiberTrace red-flagged the dates all the 413 problematic logs were felled. It also appears to explain why the FDA’s legality verification department (LVD) provided a flawed breakdown of LiberTrace’s warnings.

“Out of 797 logs, 50 percent are traceable with red label because of diameter…,” Gertrude Nyaley, the Deputy Managing Director for Operations, who was the technical manager of LVD at the time of the export, handwrote the document.

“Based on the above results, we recommend that West Water… export permit be issued.”

Nyaley reduced the magnitude of the issues LiberTrace highlighted. The computer had listed up to 13 legality issues with the logs, including unauthorized harvesting.

The LiberTrace screenshot of the logs’ history shows West Water requested the export several hours before conducting the last harvesting.

Christian Barh, an LVD staff, rejected the request on February 19, 2024, by 3:03 PM, citing “major traceability errors.”

From L-R: FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab approved the illegal timber, based on Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley’s advice. The DayLight/Harry Browne

The next day, Barh accepted the request and passed it on to Theodore Nna, SGS’ forestry project manager. SGS is a Swiss verification firm that built and powers LiberTrace. Nna okayed the request less than 48 hours later. Rudolph Merab would approve the illegal export in one of his first acts as the Managing Director of the FDA.

Nna flouted SGS’ sustainability standards by endorsing the export. The standards ensure traders and users that the timber they trade or use comes from sustainably managed forests, according to SGS’ website. Nna did not respond to emailed queries for comment on this story.

Cover-up exposed

Merab claims the errors and warnings were usual, and that some of them were corrected. “After log yard verification and physical scaling, the log will be exported,” Merab told The DayLight in a letter. “It’s a normal occurrence and we are open to [verifying] such an occurrence with you the DayLight.”

Those comments are not backed by facts. The export permit spec, which details the information on each log in the consignment, shows the issues were never fixed.

“[Merab’s] explanation is in line with the SOP but in contradiction of the action on the export permit approved,” one chain of custody expert, who prefers anonymity over fear of retribution, said.

“If and only if measures were taken to do the timber yard correction, this action could not reflect in the approved export permit.”

The expert was referencing LVD’s standard operating procedures (SOPs), which require errors corrected at different levels, not only during export. For instance, the FDA’s felling SOP requires LVD to ensure a company corrects any errors LiberTrace catches upon felling.

The FDA’s records show West Water exported more logs than it produced

Several documents the FDA provided contain inconsistencies, suggesting they were forged as part of an all-around cover-up.

One document is dated 2019 and 2024, listing Nyaley as head of LVD. Nyaley was the technical manager of the community forestry department that year, appointed to LVD in 2022. And West Water did not have a contract in Grand Bassa or anywhere in 2019, at least not a direct one.

Another document puts West Water’s export (3,275 logs) above its production (2,782). That is a difference of 493 logs.

Unlike for the initial investigation, Merab did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for comments on this story. He did not grant the newspaper’s access to West Water’s contract and harvesting maps, guaranteed under various legal provisions. The FDA had said it would not return future questions from DayLight regarding export permits.

A screenshot of LiberTrace’s history of the 797 logs shows the FDA some of the trees were still standing when West Water requested to export them. It took the FDA’s legality verification department less than 48 hours to approve the request after rejecting it over “major traceability errors.”

By approving the export, the FDA violated its laws.

Cutting trees without authorization and harvesting undersized logs constitute a fine per the FDA’s confiscated logs regulation. A violating company faces a fine of two times the value of the illegal logs and a public auctioning of the wood. That means West Water would have paid more revenue for the March export.

Jonathan Yiah, the lead forestry campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute, criticized the FDA for not confiscating the logs and undermining LiberTrace’s credibility.

“Focusing on enforcement,” Yiah said, “will demonstrate and ensure both revenue generation and sustainable management and harvesting of our forest resources.”

[Emmanuel Sherman and Philip Quwebin contributed to this report]

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

Company Exports Timber Amid Outstanding Community Projects

May 27, 2024

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Top: A West Water skidder in District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Philip Quwebin

By Emmanuel Sherman and Gerald Koinyeneh

Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a series on the Forestry Development Authority’s approval of illegal timber exports.

TONWEIN, Nimba and GAYEPUEWHOE, Grand Bassa – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) authorized a company to cut thousands of logs. However, it did not execute its social agreement with communities, violating a harvesting regulation.

West Water Group (Liberia) Inc. has operated in Blinlon and District Three B&C Community Forests in Nimba and Grand Basaa, respectively. During this time, it harvested 2,782 logs (20,095 cubic meters), according to the FDA.

But West Water has completed just a few out of dozens of mandatory projects for the communities, a DayLight investigation found.

“We will make sure they do that. I just want our people to be patient because these projects have been overdue,” said Eric Dahn, a leader of Blinlon’s community forest leadership.

“So, if it causes us to stop the company from operating until they fulfill all the promises, we will do it,” Dahn added.

This investigation adds to another published earlier this month, which found the FDA violated a payment regulation by approving West Water’s exports amid its indebtedness to the communities. Both payment and harvesting regulations empower local communities to benefit from forest resources.

The villagers’ plight had been thrust into the spotlight after an initial DayLight investigation found the FDA approved the export of West Water’s illegally harvested timber in District Three B&C.

West Water did not respond to questions for comment.

Failed promises

In 2020, West Water, a Chinese-owned company, signed a 15-year contract with Blinlon Community Forest for its 39,409 hectares of forestland in the Yarweh-Mehnsonneh District near the Nimba- River Cess border.

A West Water camp in Tonwein, Nimba County. The DayLight/Gerald Koinyeneh

The company promised the villagers a series of projects across Blinlon including a school, clinic, handpumps, roads and concrete bridges.

Nearly four years on, West Water has only done two out of 14 handpumps and has just started paving mandatory roads, which should have happened at the beginning of the contract. It has not done the school and clinic, which should have commenced in 2021, according to the contract.

The company only jumpstarted the roads after townspeople protested, blocking its workers from entering the forest in March. Both parties later resolved on March 5 to end hostilities.

“We will make sure they fulfill all the promises,” added Dahn.

Protest and Interference

The tension in District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa is higher. It mirrors a string of controversies, which have marred the community since it obtained community forest status in 2014. (communities own forestlands but must complete legal requirements to sign logging contracts)

At that time, the community forest contracted Renew Forestry Group to operate its 49,728 hectares of forest on the border of Grand Bassa, River Cess and Nimba.

However, a conflict erupted. The forest leadership recognized Renew Forestry Group, while the local and county authorities sided with West Water.

Ultimately, the forest was split between the two logging companies. Renew Forestry Group took Community Forest One, and West Water Community Forest Two.

Then in 2021, West Water signed a 15-year contract with District Three B&C Community Forest of 24,175 hectares of woodland. The company promised to build roads, concrete bridges, a clinic, a school, market tables, town halls and hand pumps.

Like its Blinlon contract, West Water has not lived up to its contract with District Three B&C. It has completed just one out of eight hand pumps, while villagers drink from polluted creeks. Three years into the agreement, it has not done the major roads, bridges, clinics, town halls and market tables. According to the contract, most of these projects should have been completed in two years.

“West Water is not doing anything good for us,” Alex Bonwin, a member of the community leadership said. “If the company is not doing what they’re supposed to do we revoke their document to get out.”

West Water’s failure to honor the contract has led to tension, with three protests already this year. In the latest one, which occurred last week, townspeople stopped seven log-loaded trucks from leaving the community.

Alfred Flomo, the representative of Grand Bassa Electoral District Four, where the community forest lies, interferes in the matter.

Gayepuewhoe Town is one of 14 communities that own the District Three B&C Community Forest. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

In a May 12 meeting, Flomo asked the company to stay off the forest until it addressed issues the villagers raised, according to the meeting’s minutes seen by The Daylight. That was the second time he had taken such action.

Under the community forest law, lawmakers are members of the community assembly, the highest decision-maker, and the executive committee. However, they cannot unilaterally halt a company’s operations.

Flomo and the townspeople’s actions also violate the contract between West Water and the community. Both parties agreed to settle their dispute between themselves or through an arbitration procedure. Flomo did not reply to The DayLight’s emails and text messages for an interview.

The FDA did not respond to queries for comment on this story. However, in a recent interview, Director Rudolph Merab told the Associated Press he would work to scale back regulations. Those comments echoed ones he made during his induction in February, saying forestry reformers created laws “that cannot work.”

[Additional reporting by Philip Quwebin and Derick Snyder]

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

FDA Lets Loggers Ship US$3.5M Logs, Denying Villagers’ Share

May 11, 2024

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Top: West Water has a 15-year contract with District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. The company is indebted to the owners of the forest but was allowed to export timber. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Emmanuel Sherman and Gerald Koinyeneh

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a series on the Forestry Development Authority’s approval of illegal timber exports.

TONWEIN, Nimba and GAYEPUE TOWN, Grand Bassa – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted a company to export several consignments of timber while the firm was indebted to communities where the logs were harvested, a violation of a forestry regulation.

From June last year to March 2024, West Water Group (Liberia) Inc. shipped seven loads, totaling 3,275 logs or 18,683.309 cubic meters, FDA’s records show. The shipments are valued at an estimated US$3.5 million, based on the FDA-approved prices and details of logs in the consignments.

Yet West Water owes Blinlon Community Forests and District Three B&C in Grand Bassa and Nimba Counties over US$100,000, according to the leaderships of both community forests. The debt—approximately three percent of the estimated value of the exports—includes fees for land rental, harvesting, scholarships, and health services.

“The money from those logs that were shipped has not come to the community,” Jeremiah Gayepue, the head of District Three B&C leadership, told The DayLight. “The people are suffering.” West Water did not respond to queries for comment.

The FDA’s approval of the exports violates the Regulation of Forest Fees, requiring West Water to make all outstanding payments before shipment or harvesting.

The exports came to the spotlight after a DayLight investigation found half of the logs in the March consignment had been illegally harvested. The FDA denies the report, saying the newspaper “misinterpreted” the export dataset.

‘[Get] them out’

In July 2020, West Water signed a contract with locals to operate the 39,409-hectare Blinlon Community forest in the Yarwin-Mehnsonnon District near the Nimba-River Cess border.

The contract mandates West Water to pay the community yearly land rental, harvesting and scholarship fees.

However, as of last month, the company owed the community over US$32,000, based on an interview with Junior Jacobs, the head of Blinlon’s leadership. The DayLight could not update that information at press time due to the lack of mobile phone connectivity in that part of Nimba.

Things are worse in District Three B&C, where West Water harvested four of the seven consignments of logs it exported.

The new Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Rudolph Merab approved one of the exports for West Water Group (Liberia) Inc., while the company owed community forests in Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties. The DayLight/Harry Browne

West Water signed a contract with the Grand Bassa villagers about a year after it sealed the Blinlon deal. The new contract covers 24,862.5 hectares along Grand Bassa’s borders with Nimba and River Cess.

West Water owes District Three B&C nearly US$80,000, according to The DayLight’s calculation, based on interviews with the community forest’s leaders. It has outstanding land rental, harvesting, scholarships and health services payments.

These outstanding payments and other issues have sparked two protests this year, the latest last month. Locals set up roadblocks and prevented West Water’s workers from going into the forest as the company has always been indebted to them.

“If the company is not meeting its obligation we will revoke their documents to get [them] out,” Alex Bonwin, a member of the community forest leadership, said.

Indebtedness

Created in 2007, the Regulation on Forest Fees is one of several reform provisions to ensure forest resources “directly benefit local communities and the government.”

Jonathan Yiah, the lead forestry campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), blames West Water’s persistent indebtedness to the communities on the failure of the FDA to enforce the regulation.

Jeremiah Gayepue, the chief officer of the District Three B&C Community Forest in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/ Emmanuel Sherman

Yiah said the lack of enforcement of the regulation would lead to the termination or suspension of West Water’s contract.

“If the current government of Joseph N. Boakai means business, then forestry laws must be enforced in totality so that both the government and the communities can benefit from our resources,” Yiah told The DayLight.

Yiah is not the only person to have said this.

A World Bank report released last month calls on the Liberian government to prioritize forest communities by managing forestry resources sustainably for peace and prosperity. The report found that climate change will push 1.3 million people into poverty and reduce the size of Liberia’s economy by 15 percent by 2050 if nothing is done.

‘Very repressive’

The FDA dodged queries for comment on its failure to enforce the Regulation on Forest Fees. The agency disclosed that the company also owed the government US$59,319.50, which also breaches the regulation.

“Yes, we confirm that West Water has tax liabilities,” Merab said in a letter to the newspaper. “However, [the Liberia Revenue Authority] is the lead determinant of tax obligation.”

Merab is a staunch opponent of forestry laws and regulations.

In an interview with the African Report in 2015 after Liberia signed a US$150 million deforestation deal with Norway, he claimed that logging’s legal regime had impoverished rural communities.

West Water’s camp in Tonwein, Nimba County. The DayLight/Gerald Koinyeneh

During his induction as Managing Director of the FDA, Merab aimed a dig at the crafters of the legal framework for creating laws “that cannot work.”

He stated that in a recent interview with the Associated Press, adding he would work to scale back regulations.

“Sometimes regulations become too cumbersome and it stifles productivity,” he said in the interview. “Same thing with laws. Sometimes the law becomes very repressive.”

Tag: illegal logging

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