JOHNNY TOWN, Sinoe County — A community forest in Sinoe County has canceled a contract with a logging company owned by a wartime logger.
Last August, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) approved the Numopoh Community Forest’s request to terminate the contract with Delta Timber Corporation. The move marked the end of a years-long dispute over unfulfilled promises to local people, and wasted logs.
“[The FDA] is pleased to have you informed that it interposes no objection to your request.,” wrote Managing Director Rudolph Merab in an August letter only recently obtained by The DayLight.
“However, you are advised to identify and select a company that has both the financial and technical capabilities to manage the forest,” added Merab.
Delta signed a Community Forest Management Contract with Numopoh, securing the right to harvest timber from 7,220 hectares of woodland In 2016.
Under the agreement, Delta was required to construct schools and clinics in the district, providing scholarships and creating jobs for citizens.
Furthermore, Delta did not renew the contract after five years in 2021, a legal requirement in community forest agreements.
Gabriel Doe, Delta’s owner and CEO, did not respond to queries for comments on the termination.
The termination of the Numopoh-Delta contract is one of the rare occasions where the FDA acted without an arbitration process as the contract requires. However, several forestry legal instruments give the regulator the right to cancel failing contracts.
Wartime Logger
While the FDA eventually granted the community the legal authorization to terminate Delta’s contract, its decision to previously approve the company’s operations was unlawful.
During the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars, Doe owned Cavalla Timber Corporation, one of 17 logging companies accused of either supporting militias, participating in violence, or facilitating armed conflicts. An estimated 250,000 people died during the wars.
Rotten logs at the Ross Port of Greenville Delta Timber Corporation transferred from Numopoh Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue
In 2001, the United Nations imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Doe, then-President Charles Taylor, Dutch arms dealer Guss Kowenhoven, and over 100 individuals linked to the Taylor regime.
Two years after the travel ban, the UN sanctioned Liberian logs, aiming to cut the connection between timber revenues and arms smuggling. The sanctions were lifted in 2006, following reforms, leading to the cancellation of Cavalla’s and other companies’ contracts over irregularities.
Subsequently, reformers formulated the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications, which bars individuals involved in the logging industry before 2006, unless they fully and honestly confessed their past actions before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and worked with the FDA to repay stolen funds. No wartime logger ever did that.
But Doe resurfaced about a decade later with Delta, the FDA ignoring the qualification regulation’s war-accountability provision.
Numopoh views the termination as a break from the past, and an opportunity to be in line with the law.
“When [Delta] came here, they refused to consult the community on things they did,” said Sam Kandie, Numopoh Community Forest’s chief officer in an interview in Johnny Town.
“Now, we have taken a collective decision to get rid of Delta. We can only hope this will bring the much-needed development and prosperity to our land.”
Top: The Butaw High School in Butaw District is one of several schools affected by Golden Veroleum Liberia’s suspension of support to teachers in Sinoe. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
TARTWEH, Sinoe County – Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) has suspended a program through which it provided mandatory support to schools in its concession area in Sinoe County, crippling academic activities.
Inked between 2013 and 2017, the MoUs were a product of GVL’s 65-year concession agreement with Liberia. It granted GVL the right to develop 220,000 hectares of plantations in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.
Thus, GVL launched the scheme during the 2020-2021 academic semester in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the GVL Workers’ Union, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and local communities. Then it placed 90 volunteer teachers on GVL’s payroll, providing each a US$100 monthly stipend, compensating for GVL’s inability to build schools in line with its MoUs with communities.
But in March, GVL suspended the program allegedly without any prior notice.
“GVL regrets to officially inform you that the GVL Educational Support (GES) program for the academic year 2023/2024 has been suspended with immediate effect,” GVL wrote the Tartweh-Drapoh District in a March letter last year.
Suspension of an employee’s service without prior notice violates Liberia’s Decent Work Act. The law requires GVL to have notified the teachers before suspending their contract.
GVL claims it informed the teachers before announcing the suspension but provided no proof. Similarly, The DayLight found no evidence of that happening.
The suspension undermines the learning environment of the forested coastal county, leaving hundreds of students on their own.
“The lack of pay for teachers is destroying the learning environment badly. The teachers are not showing the required commitment to teach,” said Armstrong Panteene, principal of Tartweh High School in Tubmanville.
“They don’t have their minds set on teaching because they are out there to find food for their families. We no longer have control over them,” Panteene added.
Last December, The DayLight saw students in Butaw, Tartweh, and Tarjuwon discussing the issue in groups, while others engaged socially. The situation has overwhelmed administrators across the communities, reducing the quality of learning.
At the Butaw High School, where GVL has 95 percent of its employees’ dependents, there are currently 14 teachers from a previous list of 18. The number of teachers at Tarweh High School in Kpayan District, and the Teahjay High School in Tarjuwon, Myerville Township has also declined.
“At the moment, we don’t have math, physics, and chemistry teachers. This is shameful and embarrassing,” said King Chester Kun, principal of the Butaw High School. “The school is empty, and students keep asking us about what’s going wrong.”
“Most times, when classrooms are empty, the school rings the bell, and everyone leaves for home,” said Ralph Carpeh, a 12th grader at Butaw High School. “We just pack our bags and go home because we are not able to teach ourselves.”
GVL plantation in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
The suspension is likely to impact enrollment in Sinoe.
Between 2015 and 2022, Sinoe recorded a drop in primary school enrollment, according to a 2021-2022 school census. Only 13 percent of public early childhood students in the county met readiness benchmarks.
The suspension worsens GVL’s failure to implement agreements it signed with communities.
“We entrusted our land to GVL with the promise of education, healthcare, and other important benefits. Yet today, Tartweh’s children are left with little to no education, as the company fails to honor its commitments under the MoU,” said Nunu Broh, chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee.
Broken Promises
The aggrieved instructors, whose voluntary services range from six to 24 months, said the suspension had put them in hardship.
In May, volunteer teachers from Kpayan and Butaw districts sued GVL at the Greenville City Court for unpaid wages. GVL partially settled the claims, paying 24 teachers by July, court filings show.
However, dozens remain unpaid.
“GVL owes me three months of arrears,” said D. Swen Charles, a former volunteer teacher at Tartweh High School in Tubmanville. “They told us they would pay, but for now, that story has changed. There is no hope.”
Alphonso Kofi, GVL’s communications director, said the company did not commit any wrongdoing. Kofi claims that GVL is not obligated to continue the program.
“Volunteer teachers are recruited by the government to help support other teachers in those schools. GVL is only assisting them to compensate those who are not on the government’s payroll,” Kofi said in an emailed statement.
Kofi’s assertions contradict the MoUs between GVL and the communities. The documents obligate GVL to build schools and provide teaching materials in its concession areas free of charge.
“GVL will work with the Ministry of Education as appropriate, to confirm the location for schools, build schools it has agreed to provide, recruit and pay for teachers, maintain schools and provide study items in schools, which it builds or agrees to support,” says GVL’s 2017 MoU with Butaw.
The situation adds to the frail relationship GVL has with locals. In 2018, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) found GVL guilty of land grab. In 2022, the High Carbon Stock Approach, which addresses deforestation in agricultural practices, found that GVL cleared 1,000 hectares of high-carbon forests in the Kpanyan District.
The Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.
Top: Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated’s workers at a renovated prewar palm oil mill in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Varney Kamara
By Varney Kamara
KOMMANAH TOWN, Sinoe County – After nearly four years of illegal occupancy, villagers in a southeastern chiefdom are demanding the departure of an oil palm company from their ancestral land.
Early this month, aggrieved residents from various clans and sections in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District, Sinoe County staged a peaceful protest at the headquarters of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI), an Indian-Liberian investment, demanding its immediate withdrawal from their land.
In a six-count petition, locals accused LNPI of intruding on their land and intimidating residents.
“Based on these reasons, the citizens of Tarsue, including elders, women, youth, and traditional leaders, will not sign any agreement with Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated,” the petition stated. “The citizens of Tarsue demand that LNPI leave the plantation so that we can develop our land and improve our livelihoods.”
Representative Alex Noah, whose electoral district Tarsue falls, has appealed for one month to mediate the dispute. Locals granted his appeal, temporarily easing the tension, and suspended a three-day ultimatum for the company to evacuate the palm estate. However, residents have vowed to resume their protest once the negotiation period expires.
“After the one-month grace period requested by the honorable representative, the company must either leave our land or face escalated community action,” said Ericson Pyne, the chief spokesperson of Tarsue in Kommanah Town, Tarsue’s headquarters.
“LNPI must leave,” Pyne told The DayLight. “We have endured their presence for over three years, and they cannot fulfill their obligations. The community is prepared to take further steps if necessary.”
Noah’s intervention differs sharply from Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensueh’s solution. Last October, Nyensueh dismissed the locals’ demand that LNPI vacate the plantation, claiming chiefs and elders had waived by signing an initial MoU with LNPI. But he was wrong as the MoU he cited was for LNPI to purchase locals’ palm oil, not to acquire the plantation.
‘We Cannot Keep Fighting Forever’
Amid the dispute, LNPI has expressed willingness to negotiate with the community. Acknowledging challenges since its arrival, the company promised improvements should negotiations resume.
“The community is our landlord. We have to negotiate and find a peaceful resolution,” said Baccus Wiah, LNPI’s spokesperson. “We cannot keep fighting forever.”
Wiah’s comments are a turnaround from the company’s previous stance. Until now, LNPI has failed to recognize the community’s right to the land and required consent, even though he admits that the company operates illegally.
Initially welcomed by locals as a much-needed investor, LNPI’s presence in Tarsue quickly turned sour, leading to rising tensions and confrontations. The company had hidden its intent to purchase the plantation, signing an oil purchasing MoU with chiefs and elders instead.
But a series of DayLight investigations last year shed light on LNPI’s deception and illegality, inspiring the community to hold LNIP accountable.
LNIP unauthorizedly renovated a prewar palm oil mill in Tarsue Chiefdom, Sinoe County, as part of the company intrusion into an abandoned palm plantation. The DayLight /Varney Kamara
Shrouded in Secrecy
In February 2022, Konnex Investments Limited, LNPI’s parent company, purchased an abandoned palm plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) for US$445,000. However, the agreement has not been approved by the Liberian government, and the community did not consent to LNPI’s operations.
Despite guidance from the Liberia Land Authority, LNPI pushed ahead with its operations, violating the Land Rights Act of 2018, which mandates community approval before land occupation. The law grants communities the right to own and manage land based on customary practices.
Tarsue residents only became aware of the deal in March 2023—nine months after LNPI convinced them to sign a six-month oil palm purchasing agreement. The MoU allowed LNPI to buy a five-gallon container of palm oil for L$1,300 and L$1,500.
The company paid the community US$6,000 and paved a major road but the deal lasted three months beyond the agreed period.
Despite warnings from locals about the MoU violations, LNPI continued its operations unchecked, provoking community anger. Since then, LNPI has forcibly controlled the plantation, including renovating a prewar palm oil mill. Backed by armed police officers, it evicted residents, ignoring their land ownership rights and the legal requirement for consent.
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: Mr. Ben Wesseh and his daughter Benneta Ben Wesseh, a father-and-daughter duo who forges official documents and smuggles timber out of Liberia. Facebook: Benneta Ben
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – The DayLight has obtained forged documents used by an unscrupulous father-daughter duo to smuggle timber out of Liberia. The newspaper also found evidence that the duo solicits money from other individuals.
Ben Wesseh, a customs officer at the Freeport of Monrovia and Benetta Ben Wesseh, his daughter, forged export permits and a log-disinfection certificate to smuggle timber to China.
Based on one of the documents, Ms. Wesseh, a resident of Caldwell, smuggled or attempted to smuggle 21.3 cubic meters of timber blocks known as “Kpokolo” last July. The consignment was part of 613 logs harvested in River Cess.
“You are further requested to work closely with relevant government agencies…who will monitor and supervise the process,” read the forged document.
There were grammatical errors that caught our reporters’ attention. However, the most noticeable evidence of forgery was that the document was purportedly signed by ex-FDA Managing Director Mike Doryen. By July last year, Doryen had been replaced by Rudolph Merab five months earlier.
The validity timeframe of the document was also questionable. It tried to imitate a special export permit the FDA issued for kpokolo that lasted for a year. However, this document lasted for only 45 days.
But the Wessehs did not know that the FDA had stopped issuing such export permits following a “ban” on kpokolo in 2022. However, the illegal trade persists. Recently, another Caldwell syndicate was jailed following two years of investigation.
There were other inconsistencies, though.
The forgers miscounted July 25 to September 25, 2024, as 45 days, instead of 60 days. This and all the other discrepancies show that the Wessehs focused on creating the documents rather than making them look convincing.
The fake timber export permit mentioned identification numbers for two receipts. When reporters checked, the payments had been made for or by two other individuals, including ex-Senate Pro-Tempore Albert Chie. The senator denied knowing the Wessehs.
After unraveling the forged export permit, reporters concentrated on the log disinfection or phytosanitary certificate purportedly issued by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Reporters contacted the quarantine department at the ministry, which issues the certificate, a requirement for all exports that is rarely enforced. Unsurprisingly, the department denied it issued Ms. Wesseh the document.
One of the forged documents, naming ex-FDA Managing Director Mike Doryen as the current head of the institution.
The Wessehs appeared to have done a better job with the certificate than with the export permit but slipped. Turns out, the stamp they used was no longer in use by the department.
“I want to categorically state here that this document is fake,” said Lawrence Massaquoi, the deputy director of the quarantine department. “I did not issue this certificate. People are using our names to carry on these criminal acts. We must get to the bottom of this,” added Massaquoi, who is mentioned on the bogus certificate.
The ministry has launched an investigation into the matter.
‘Take care’
Other evidence suggests that not only Mr. Wesseh supports his daughter but also sells forged documents to other people. In a WhatsApp message to a prospective customer, Mr. Wesseh shared a list of prices for several documents, including US$200 for an export permit and US$75 for a phytosanitary certificate. In all, Wesseh charged 2,370 to smuggle a 40-foot container.
The prices on the document were consistent with what sources familiar with the illegal trade told The DayLight. However, to rule out any alibi, reporters obtained an audio recording that backs up that conversation.
Screenshot of Mr. Ben Wesseh’s WhatsApp chat with an individual.
In the recording, Mr. Wesseh can be heard reinforcing the prices. “I sent the FDA paper for you first. Then, I sent the agriculture paper two or three times.” The pages of the documents matched the details Wesseh had provided.
In another audio recording, Mr. Wesseh can be heard pitching a business proposal to an individual, bragging about having connections at various public offices.
The National Customs Brokers Association of Liberia, of which the Wessehs are members, has launched a separate investigation into the situation.
The Wessehs deny any wrongdoing. After evading all efforts for an interview, Mr. Wesseh and Ms. Wesseh later replied to queries for comments.
The older Wesseh said he did not forge or share the documents and was investigating the matter himself but refused to call his company’s name.
Ms. Wesseh said the same thing.
“First of all, our company has never and will never get involved with fraud or exploiting [the] government. Instead of running with unclear information, the best will be to find the office and speak to us in person,” said Ms. Wessh via WhatsApp.
“Having said this, take care.”
The criminal Wesseh duo bears a striking resemblance to a syndicate comprising custom brokers and two Korean nationals who were jailed in 2022 but never indicted.
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.”
Top: Krish Veneer Industries operates illegally in Liberia. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – A DayLight investigation has unearthed a top-level forestry company that does not meet the requirements to operate in Liberia.
Krish Veneer Industries, a sawmill in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, and an exporter of veneer and round logs, is a partnership, rendering it ineligible to operate. Forestry companies are restricted to corporations, not NGOs, sole proprietorships, or partnerships, according to the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications.
The 2007 provision is in line with the Public Procurement and Concession Act, meant to provide the government with more tax opportunities and predictability. Corporations have limitless liabilities and lifespan, experts say. Partnerships do not.
The provision is part of measures to ensure forest resources are managed commercially sustainably.
Krish’s two partners are Atique Ahmed and Kamal Parwani. Both Indians, they hold 57 percent and 43 percent shares, respectively, according to the company’s legal documents. It was established in 2019, based on its business registration certificate enrolled at the Libera Business Registry.
A screenshot of the relevant provision of the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications prohibits partnerships from conducting forestry activities in Liberia.A screenshot of Krish Veneer Industries’ current business registration certificate, proving that the company is a partnership, not a corporation as it is required of forestry businesses.
‘My plywood factory’
Amid its illegitimacy, Krish has been one of the most active companies in a largely dormant logging industry. Last year, it made several round log exports, according to Ministry of Commerce and Industry and FDA records.
Trade Mo, a US-based company that tracks global supply chains, reports that Krish has imported assorted items 564 times and exported veneer eight times between 2021 and 2024. Those transactions are valued at US$1.2 million. (Derived from trees, a veneer is a thin decorative wood applied to materials).
Clarence Massaquoi, Krish’s general manager, did not return questions about the company’s status. However, in a recent DayLight interview, Massaquoi, whose contract with an unlawful community forest the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) recently approved, referenced Krish.
Addressing his capacity to manage a forest following an unsuccessful previous contract, Massaquoi said, “I have buyers. I can sell to my plywood factory. My buyers are right in Buchanan,” Massaquoi told The DayLight.
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
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.
Top: Amos Lewis displays an old map of Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County, where he claims to own 3,200 acres of land overlapped by a community forest. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the second part of a series on illegalities associated with the Mavasagueh Community Forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
MONROVIA – A second person has claimed a huge plot of land in a newly authorized community forest in Grand Bassa County, proving that authorities conducted a flawed process, requiring a redo.
Amos Lewis’s claim covers 3,200 acres of land in the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a 26,003-hectare woodland in Compound Two.
“This is to inform your office that my father, the late Duzoe Reeves had 3,200 acres of land beginning from Duzoe Town and its surroundings in the Vambo Township,” read the letter.
“It is my understanding that the FDA has mistaken my father’s private land and has certificated the C&C Corporation to harvest logs from the land,” it added.
Lewis is the second person claiming the land along the St. John River with Mount Findley overlooking it.
In November, Khalil Haider, a resident of Buchanan, laid claim to the same land. However, Haider dropped his contention for a compromise with C&C Corporation (CCC), which had signed a contract for the forest.
A DayLight investigation on Monday found that the compromise was unlawful as community forests cannot overlap private land.
A portion of the Mavasagueh Community Forest in 2020. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
The investigation established that the FDA had leapfrogged some legal steps leading to Mavasagueh’s formation, ignoring NGO warnings. It also established that the FDA brokered the compromise between the company and Haider, not wanting to re-demarcate and remap the forest.
The two claims make it more certain that the regulator would redo the process in line with industry guidelines. The claims prove that the FDA did not conduct the demarcation and mapping in line with the guidelines, which have several safeguards to resolve any claims.
The FDA did not immediately respond to queries for comments on the matter.
Khalil Haider was the first to claim ownership of 3,200 acres of forestland in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County, which a community forest overlaps. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
Lewis’s claim
Lewis is a stepson of the late Paramount Chief Reeves, who originally acquired the land. Lewis’s name is on a paper he claims is the original deed.
“Haider faked those things from his mother,” Lewis told The DayLight on Tuesday, displaying an old map of the Vambo Township.
Haider dismisses Lewis’ claim, saying Paramount Reeves transferred the ownership of the land to his late mother, Rosa Dillion. Like Lewis’, Haider’s deed was signed by the late President William V.S. Tubman.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The Mavasagueh Community Forest overlaps 3,200 acres of private land two individuals are claiming. New Narratives/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
Editor’s Note: This story is the first part of a series on the illegalities associated with a newly established community forest in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County.
VAMBO, Grand Bassa – One day in 2022, a logger visited Gblorso Town and asked elders to prospect their forest. The elders consented, and Clarence Massquoi found marketable timber species there, promising to return soon.
Then Massaquoi disappeared and returned in October last year with a surprising message: His company, C&C Corporation (CCC), would break ground for the construction of a major road from BIA through Vambo and Marloi Townships in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. CCC had signed a logging contract with the townspeople for 26,003 hectares of forestland in exchange for local development.
“The elders told him if you view the forest come back to us. He did not come back until last year October,” said Nathaniel Clarke, Commissioner of Vambo Township who helped organize a meeting between Massaquio and the community.
“I got a call from the development chairman asking me to go to [a place] because there is a company coming in there,” said Clarke.
The Commissioner was rightfully surprised. Evidence, backed by interviews with local people and forestry actors, shows the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) skipped legal steps in the Mavasagueh Community Forest’s formation. The evidence establishes that the FDA, CCC, and some community leaders rushed to enter contracts, ignoring several red flags.
The nine-step process, which made Mavasagueh a community forest, had begun in 2011 and ended in 2023. The forest covers 26,003 hectares and is owned by 39 communities across the Vambo and Marloi Townships. In August last year, locals entered a logging contract with CCC, a company established in 2022 and has no history of logging.
But a civil society review of Mavasagueh’s documentation last January reveals that the FDA did not do a good job. Seven organizations under the Community Forest Working Group (CFWG) found the process improperly documented and, that there was inadequate community awareness and participation.
The group also found that the community governance structure had not been established in line with the law, suggesting that civil society did not participate in Mavasagueh’s elections.
“Based on the final decision of the technical committee CFWG that reviewed the documents, it wasn’t clear whether CSOs that may have participated in those processes were member organizations of the CFWG,” said Jackson Nobeh, the committee’s facilitator in an emailed statement.
Nobeh’s comments were corroborated by Bonathan Walaka of the National Union of Community Forest Body, who said the group played no part in elections. Other organizations also deny participating, including the Sustainable Development Institute, which helped make the rules for community forestry.
There is no record the FDA fixed the issues. The regulator did not answer questions regarding the NGO’s assessment and other queries for comments in this story.
Not informed
The DayLight visited several of Mavasagueh’s 39 towns and villages, talked to townspeople, and attended four meetings between December and last month, confirming what the NGOs had unearthed.
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab signed a community forest agreement with locals in Grand Bassa, leapfrogging several legal steps on the way. The DayLight/Harry Browne
In the December meeting, citizens and elders said they were unaware of Mavasagueh’s formation and the logging contract.
“We were not informed about the company coming into our township,” said Martha Vondleh, a representative of Togar Town to Mavasagueh’s assembly.
“I have seen no document, we want to see the paper,” added David Key, a representative of Boo Town. He said he did not even know his role in the leadership.
Townspeople accused Daniel Dayougar, Vambo’s former Commissioner of handpicking members of Mavasagueh’s community assembly. The assembly, representatives of forest-owning towns and villages, is the highest decision-making body in community forestry.
“He selected people he had influenced over,” said Alexander Weegar, a resident of Gblorso Town.
This is not the first time Dayougar has been accused of selecting community leaders. In 2020, Dayougar was similarly accused when he chose signatories to a bogus MoU for a road project in exchange for Vambo’s logs.
Clarence Massaquoi, the CEO and co-owner of C&C Corporation, signed a logging contract with locals in Grand Bassa for a community forest that overlaps a private land. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Dayougar, now the liaison officer with CCC, denies any wrongdoing in the past or now, calling the accusation “false and misleading.”
“I believe people want to do things to spoil my reputation. The CAs from Vambo were sent by the dwellers, of their respective communities. Elders, chiefs, and youths were the ones who sent those people,” said Dayougar.
People in neighboring towns and villages said they did not play a required role in the demarcation and mapping of Mavasagueh’s area. Gblorso, Philip Town, and Reeves Town were among them. Interestingly, it was in Gblorso Town, where Massaquoi met the elders in 2022.
In one of the meetings last January, Massaquoi apologized for not making the contract available and shared it with the elders four days later.
Controversial private land
The lack of participation and awareness was not the only problem with Mavasagueh. Reporters uncovered a land conflict involving the community and two families.
Khalil Haider resident of Buchanan, is claiming 3,200 acres of land between Noway Town and Jesse Town, along the St. John River. The DayLight obtained copies of Haider’s 1958 probated deed signed by the late President William V.S. Tubman, and other documents.
In a November letter to the FDA, Haider informed the agency that he owned the land, about a fifth of Mavasagueh’s size.
CCC has begun harvesting despite about a fifth of its contract area overlapping private land. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
“I have learned the logging company has already sent a survey team, and that your entity has the boundary of the area,” read the letter. “Enclosed is a copy of my deed and coordination of my property to determine if it falls within the company’s operation area.”
Haider might have compromised with Massaquoi. However, his claim proves that the FDA did not conduct demarcation and mapping properly, flouting its guidelines for creating a community forest.
The guidelines—something USAID invested millions in—require the regulator to post notices in Mavasagueh and neighboring communities for at least 30 days at various levels of the process. The guidelines also require the FDA to work with other government agencies to resolve claims—or re-conduct the process.
The evidence shows that did not happen. Instead, the FDA asked Haider and Massaquoi to work together and iron out their differences. Managing Director Rudolph Merab called them for a meeting after Haider’s complaint, according to Haider and 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. He added he empathized with Massaquoi because CCC spent a lot of money paving over 15 kilometers of a major road in the community.
“Haider and I settled, and said he would work with the community and me so, the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi told a DayLight interview.
The evidence supports the men’s comments, as CCC has obtained a harvesting certificate and has begun felling trees in the rocky forest.
The guidelines aside, Merab’s mediation is unlawful. Community forests should not overlap private forestlands, and loggers are disallowed from conducting community forest operations on such plots.
By the National Forestry Reform Law, CCC will have to obtain a private use permit (PUP)—a logging right awarded for a private forestland—to operate on the 3,200 acres.
A PUP is, however, impossible at the moment. There is a moratorium on such contracts after it led to forestry’s biggest postwar scandal in 2013, where contracts for some 2.5 million hectares of forests were illegally awarded. Merab and Augustine Johnson, the FDA’s demarcation and mapping consultant, were involved in that scandal.
Amos Lewis claims the same 3,200 acres of land Khalil Haider claims in Vambo Township, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
‘Fake deed’
Haider might have a so-called arrangement with Massaquoi but not with some elders. Borbor Kaykay, an elder of a village that bears his name, contested Haider’s claim at a meeting last month. Haider and Kaykay fought after a series of verbal exchanges, according to our reporter, who witnessed the incident.
“He came and brought some paper and said he owned land up the mountain. I told him, ‘You don’t have land here. I have been the elder here since 2002,’” explained Kaykay.
Meanwhile, another person is also claiming ownership of the 3,200 acres Haider claims. A resident of Marshall, Margibi, Amos Lewis is the late Paramount Chief Reeves’ stepson. Like Haider’s, Reeves’ deed, which the DayLight obtained, was signed in the Tubman era.
Lewis counterclaims that Haider’s late mother, Rosa Dillion, secured the land for the late Paramount Chief Reeves, not for herself as Haider claims.
“My name Amos Lewis is on the deed,” Lewis said. “Haider does not know anything about that land. He faked those things from his mother.”
Haider refuted Lewis’ side of the story, saying the late Reeves “surrendered the deed to my mother.”
Lewis said he would lodge a complaint with the FDA on Tuesday.
[Ojuku Kangar contributed to this report]
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
