Investigation Uncovers Illegal Timber Traffickers in Caldwell

January 20, 2025

Top: The headquarters of Libfor Forest Inc. in Riverview, Caldwell. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By James Harding Giahyue and Derick Snyder

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series that exposes Libfor Forest Corporation, an illegal timber trafficking company, operating in the Monrovian suburb of Caldwell.

CALDWELL – A DayLight investigation has uncovered an illegal timber trafficking company in the Caldwell neighborhood of Riverview. Libfor Forest Corporation. coordinates illegal logging activities in and out of Liberia, packages the wood at an unlicensed sawmill and smuggles them in containers, depriving the Liberian government of much-needed revenue.

Public records and other evidence obtained by The DayLight show that Libfor has never traded through the legal channel for timber harvested, transported, processed, imported, or exported from Liberia, known as LiberTrace.

Yet, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s records show that Libfor shipped 55,000 cubic meters of sawn timber in a 20-foot container on May 2 last year with a value of US$22,000.

Also, data compiled by British firm Experian, which tracks global trade, show Libfor has exported 51 times since June 2022. The latest shipments went to Turkey.

The US-based The Trade Vision, Another data company whose report is consistent with Experian’s, finds that Libfor’s exports to a single company last year were valued at US$71,447.

An internal document shows Libfor predominantly exports Iroko, a high-quality timber species selling for US$390 on the world market. Due to its durability, it is used in shipbuilding, outdoor construction and furniture.

The Iroko information is consistent with the one provided by the Ministry of Commerce, Experian and Trade Vision. The document suggests that Libfor predominately smuggles Iroko in different sizes via the Freeport of Monrovia 7.6 miles away.

Libfor’s setup matches a class A sawmill, which means the company has deprived the government of US$2,500 for each year it has operated. The same with export fees, local communities’ benefits and other payments, including for an environmental permit.

‘Black manager’

Libfor Forest Corporation, solely owned by Amara Fofana, a Liberian, was established in 2021. It is the one that has conducted the smuggling, the national and international trade databases.

But Süleyman Karabacak, a Turkish national, is Libfor’s practical owner.

Fofana recruits workers and runs the business’ errands, based on a previous DayLight investigation. Karabacak, on the other hand, manages the business, including finances and exports.

In 2023, Fofana signed a contract with Sierra Leonean chainsaw millers for illegal activities in Nimba, exposed in the investigation. The newspaper had published the bogus contract and oversized timber the chainsaw millers produced, compelling Fofana to admit to the wrongdoing. The contract also had Karabacak’s contact number, which a call app identifies as “Turkish buyer.”

“It is the white man who owns the company. Fofana is just the black manager,” one source said. “It is Süleyman [Karabacak] who has the money, who owns the machines.”

Karabacak also co-owns Libfor Forestry Inc., another company created on December 21, 2023, and registered earlier this month, per its article of incorporation and business registration certificate. Its other owner is Ibrahim Halil Sever, whose nationality The DayLight could not determine.

Before Karabacak, Hasan Uzan, another Turk, ran Libfor, Riverview residents and people familiar with the company, told The DayLight. Uzan was blacklisted by the Forestry Development Authority in 2023 for illegal logging in Nimba County. The sources identified Uzan in a picture with another Turk when police arrested the pair.

Photographs and videos The DayLight shot and obtained further unravel Libfor’s criminal world. Workers work with machines to rip thick, heavy timber into different dimensions. Loads of sawn wood adorned various locations, with a Caucasian person’s foot and fingers in some of the pictures. In another picture, men weld a truck destined to transport timber.

Screenshots of sawn timber export record of Libfor Forest Corporation also known as Libfor Forestry Inc. by British firm Experian

Drone shots of the sawmill corroborated the photographs and videos. They show guards manning the facility as men work. In one video, a person can be seen throwing something at the drone as it hovered over the walled property that headquarters Libfor.

‘In the bush’

But where do Libfors source their timber? Does it smuggle in sawn wood, too? The answers lie in our previous investigation of the company, interviews with customs and immigration officers, sources knowledgeable about Libfor’s activities, and public databases. Our 2023 investigation uncovered that Libfor had 20 chainsaws and deployed six Sierra Leoneans to operate them. The men, who were unregulated migrants, harvested some 460 pieces of Iroko in Karnplay in Nimba’s Gbeh-lay District.

Workers of Libfor workers operate a mobile sawmill to rip oversized timber in the company’s year in Riverview, Caldwell.

“We hauled some on the road, and the rest are in the bush,” Aruna Kamara, one of the men told The DayLight.

The Iroko timber were three inches thick, one inch more than the approved dimension for chainsaw-milled timber supplied domestically. Oversized timber are relatively a new illegal trade known across the industry as “kpokolo.”

By that time, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) had banned kpokolo after permitting it for over a decade. That ban would be followed by a prohibition on the issuance of permits that fueled the illegal trade, according to minutes of one of the FDA’s recent board meetings, seen by The DayLight.

Fofana, the company’s frontman, claimed that the men had failed to follow instructions. Libfor made furniture to compete with Lebanese merchants. He had recruited the Sierra Leoneans because “There are no good operators in Liberia.”

But he somersaulted when confronted with the contract Libfor had given the men, instructing them to cut timber three inches thick, 13 inches wide and 15 feet long.

“I will reduce it because I can’t fight the government,” Fofana said at the time. He later claimed he reduced the wood, Smart News reported.

Fofana provided no evidence the timber were reduced or used to make furniture. Unfortunately, The DayLight did not have any evidence that Libfor was exporting wood at the time. Drone shots and pictures The DayLight obtained last December show oversized timber in Libfor’s yard. In one of the pictures, two men operate a mobile sawmill with kpokolo fastened to it.

“First they used to bring round logs for sawing but now they saw the wood in the bush themselves,” one source said. “They only [rip] it into smaller sizes at the sawmill.”

Sierra Leone

Different sources said Libfor also gets its timber from Gbarpolu and Sierra Leone.

In an audio recording obtained by The DayLight, Foday Kallon, a cross-border trucker, can be heard explaining how he transports wood from Sierra Leone. Kallon says he does not present any documents to Sierra Leonean immigration and customs officers at Bo Waterside, Liberia’s western border with Sierra Leone the border. He only pays customs duties on the Liberian side of the border.

The DayLight interviewed Kallon via WhatsApp and he added more information. He revealed that he had transported timber up to 80 inches in thickness, sourcing the wood in Kono and other parts of Sierra Leone.

“When you buy the wood, you need to hire a car from me and you pay me. I can carry your wood from Sierra Leone to Liberia. I, Mr. Kallon, will be there for you anytime you are ready. I will invite you to Sierra Leone or if you want to see me in Liberia, we discuss how you will pay, and how we will come and buy the woods. You and I can come to Sierra Leone and buy your wood and I will transport your wood from Sierra Leone to Liberia,” he told our reporter.

Liberian and Sierra Leonean immigration and customs officers, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak, corroborated Kallon’s account. We obtained a picture of timber in a truck that eyewitnesses said Libfor imported over the weekend.

This supports a 2018 World Bank report that found Liberia imported over US$10,580 worth of timber from Sierra Leone, the third-largest importer of Sierra Leonean timber after China (US$20,295) and Belgium (US$14,230).

Sierra Leonean authorities did not respond to queries from a DayLight associate. The DayLight has reached out to the Liberia Revenue Authority and will update this story with the LRA’s response.

‘We can’t sleep’

Riverview residents have had issues with Libfor for causing noise pollution and spoiling the community’s road. The community—close to the St. Paul River, giving it a waterfront scenery—has watched as Libfor scars the secluded, suburban community.

Mary Toe, an elderly woman who lives behind Libfor’s fence, complained about the noise from the woodwork. “I can’t sleep at night,” she told The DayLight. “The people work all night.”

Other residents backed Toe’s comments. Hassan Kamara, a concerned youth, said Libfor’s container truck spoiled Riverview’s main road, sparking a protest.

French, Turkish, and Dutch

Libfor sheds light on the widespread irregularities and the general downturn of forestry. A recent review of the sector found only five out of 11 logging companies were active, and that none met legal requirements to operate. Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) reports that the sector generated US$7.65 million from July 2021 to December 2022, a far cry from 8.5 million in 2018 alone.

Sierra Leonean Timber blocks such as these are smuggled to Liberia on container trucks

The Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody requires all timber harvested, transported, processed, exported, or imported to pass through Liberia’s timber tracking LiberTrace. Trading outside LiberTrace is an offense, with violators facing a prosecution, forfeiture of their vehicles and equipment, and a prison term, according to the Regulation on Confiscated Logs…

Libfor did not answer questions The DayLight posed to it. Karabacak claims he only speaks French, even though documents prove he speaks and writes English.

So, The DayLight translated the questions into French, Turkish and Dutch, the two nationalities of Libfor Forestry Inc. Nevertheless, Karabacak did not respond.

Instead, Karabacak informed Fofana, who called the newspaper and scheduled an interview that day. However, Fofana, too, did not turn out. He evaded an interview in Cape Mount and two schedules for Monrovia.

River Cess Clans Receive Deeds, Empowering Local People

January 17, 2025

0

Top: Clan Chief Mary Garpu of Dorbor receives the clan’s customary land deed. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Harry Browne and Aaron Geezay

YARPAH TOWN – Several clans in River Cess recently received customary deeds, granting them the right to manage and benefit from lands left behind by their ancestors.

On December 10, 2024, the Liberia Land Authority(LLA) presented customary deeds to Gbarsaw, Dorbor, Ziadue, and Teekpeh Clans in River Cess County, formalizing the communities’ ownership.

Then 10 days later, the Siahn Clan in Central River Cess District and the Togba-Nyankun Clan in Fen River District received theirs.

“Today has become one of the happiest days of my life,” said Samuel Vonziah, chairman of the Gbarsaw Community Land Development Management Committee, fighting back tears.

“When you see me coming down with tears, it is tears of joy, tears of pain, the kind of struggle that we have been through, and other people who struggled with us in the past. All this represents the difficulties we underwent. As communities celebrate this historical moment, we hope for a new beginning that would improve their lives,” Vonziah added.

Edith Gbukpa, a women’s leader of Siahn, celebrated the milestone similarly. “In the past, our parents used to be caretakers of the land, but we are so happy today that we have right over our land.”

The latest issuance increases the number of communities with customary deeds to at least 27 from a list of 21 as of September last year, according to official records. Five more communities are poised to be issued customary deeds, while 30 have registered and conducted confirmatory surveys, representing over 1.3 million acres of land.

The six clans’ progress followed the completion of several processes that qualified the communities, including community self-identification, participatory mapping confirmatory survey, and. Before granting the property deeds, land authorities ensured all land disputes within the clans were amicably resolved.

An elevated view of a portion of Teekpeh Clan’s 65,224.61 hectares of land. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Obtaining the deed is a break away from the old days.

In the past, communities struggled to get their deed. The right of customary people to own land in Liberia was only recognized in 2018, 171 years after independence. Historically, customary land rights were often overlooked and disregarded.

The Aborigines Law enacted in 1956 weakened the rights of Indigenous people by disregarding customary land rights, experts say. The move denied native people legal ownership of land without written deeds, emphasizing control and ownership by the state.

Consequently, this lack of recognition contributed to significant land disputes and conflicts over resources across Liberia, posing sufficient risk to Liberia’s peace and stability.

In response to the growing threat posed by land disputes, Liberia, backed by the international community, enacted the Land Rights Acts, which recognizes and protects customary land ownership.

Hailed home and abroad as a landmark achievement, the law recognizes customary land ownership, following decades of deprivation.

“Our land is for us now,” said Nancy Garpu, Clan Chief of Dorbor Clan. “It wasn’t for us at first. It was for the government but now the land is ours. So, I am happy that we have gotten our deed. When I go to my home, it is dancing that we will carry on there.”

The deeds now give communities the freedom to decide how to manage and benefit from the resources of the land, providing them with a window of opportunities to attract investment for local development.

Six of River Cess’ 34 clans now have a customary land deed. The DayLight/Harry Browne

“This is the time to lobby for companies. The reason why we struggled for the deed,” said Onesimus Charles, chairman of the Teekpeh Community Land Development and Management Committee. “I am confident that this deed would ensure the protection and promotion of our customary land.”

The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), which supports Gbarsaw, Dorbor, Ziadue and Teekpeh, hailed the handing over of the deeds.

“We are grateful that we were able to educate our people on the processes leading to the acquisition of their deeds and awareness about their rights. This is a result of that engagement you see here today,” said Winston Siaker, a representative of the SDI. “It means we are graduating from the past, where people will no longer say women cannot own land but only boys children.”

Borbor Boeyon, River Cess County Land Administrator. Boeyon disclosed five other River Cess clans are in the process of obtaining their deeds. Boeyon added that many of River Cess’ 34 clans had started the deeding process but were at the boundary demarcation level.

“The land will now be under the clans’ protection and they are going to do what they can do,” Boeyon told The DayLight on the margins of the deeding ceremony in Yarpah Town. “Unlike before, the government will not just move in an area and say, ‘We are taking this portion of land from you.

“Today they have been set free.”

FDA Illegally Permits Abandoned Logs Export, Missing Over US$100K

January 16, 2025

0

Top: Some of the 431 logs Iroko Timber and Logging Company harvested and took about a year and six months to export. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted the export of 2,549 cubic meters of abandoned logs, failing to punish the company involved, and losing substantial revenue.

Iroko Logging and Timber Company exported two consignments of logs on May 7 and July 18 last year, based on official documents. The combined 431 logs were shipped to Chittagong, Bangladesh via the cargo ship MV Nimeh.

But that was more than one-and-a-half years after the logs were harvested in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe County.

Iroko had harvested the logs in October 2022, per the Nigerian-owned company’s website and Facebook page. It only transported the 431 logs from the Jaedae District woodland to an open field near Greenville in February and March last year, residents and other sources said.

That violates the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products. The 2017 regulation requires all logs to be transported, processed, or exported between three weeks and six months after harvesting.

If a log stays in a particular location outside the regulatory timeframe, the FDA is obligated to investigate, auction the logs, or fine the company that harvested them. The fine includes a tenth, a twentieth and a fortieth of twice the total value of the abandoned logs, depending on the species classes.

Because the FDA did not do that with Iroko, the government lost US$103,387, according to The DayLight’s analysis, based on the export permits and the regulation.

To arrive at the fine, the newspaper grouped each species of the logs and doubled their volumes. Next, it multiplied the total volumes by their corresponding, FDA-approved prices and added those products. Then it added all of the first-class species, based on the FDA’s categorization, and found 10 percent of that sum.

The newspaper did the same with the second-class ones, finding five percent of the sum this term. Finally, it added the percentage values of the two classes to establish what should have been Iroko’s fine and the government’s revenue.

The loss of US$103,387 comes when the forestry sector faces a downturn in revenue generation. From July 2021 to December 2022, the sector generated US$7.65 million, the least in the extractive sector despite Liberia holding the largest patches of West Africa’s remaining rainforests.

That figure could be more, though. Iroko left several logs in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest, according to residents.

A screenshot from Iroko Timber and Logging Company’s Facebook page showing the logs were harvested on October 14, 2022, more than one-and-a-half years before they exported.

Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the community forest, corroborated the residents’ account. Togba said villagers had counted over 60 logs in the woodland on the border with Grand Kru. “There were more logs,” he said, and there would be an additional counting.

Following the second of two DayLight investigations last year, the FDA promised to investigate Iroko over the logs’ abandonment but did not. The regulator did not respond to queries for comment.

From July to August last year, Iroko paid the Liberian government US$173,432, covering export, land rental and other fees. The evidence, however, shows that the company owed the government US$16,263 in land rental fees.

That August, Iroko asked the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) to pay the balance due in September and October. The LRA agreed.

“If we default on this agreement, our tax debt may be referred to the Ministry of Justice to sue for the unpaid tax and or court’s authorization to seize and sell our property,” the agreement’s terms and conditions read.

But the money has not been paid, according to Iroko’s tax payment record, seen by The DayLight. Despite months of notice, Iroko and the LRA did not respond to inquiries for comments.

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

FDA Pays Board Member Living in America

January 15, 2025

0

Top: The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) pays Mr. Isaac Grigsby a board sitting fee through a proxy despite the fact he lives in the United States of America. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By James Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) pays a member of its board of directors who lives in the United States fee for meetings he does not attend, according to official documents obtained by The DayLight.

In March, President Joseph Boakai appointed Isaac Grigsby, an 80-year-old resident of New Jersey, on the FDA board. Since then, Grigsby has been receiving board-sitting fees through Gabriel Flaboe, a project coordinator at the Ministry of Public Works.

Grigsby informed FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab about the payment procedure in May, based on a letter obtained by The DayLight. “You are hereby authorized to issue the board fees in the name of Mr. Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe each time he [serves as a] proxy for me,” Grigsby wrote.

Accordingly, Merab forwarded the communication to the Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Victor Kpaiseh to process Grigsby’s payment. “Please act accordingly,” Merab requested on May 13.

That same day, Flaboe received L$131,625, the equivalent of US$500 for sitting fees, US$50 for communication and 25 gallons of fuel for transportation.

The board of directors, which comprises seven other people, is crucial to the running of the FDA. It has oversight over the formulation of regulations, codes and manuals governing the forestry sector. It provides direction for the FDA, passes resolutions and approves the agency’s organizational structure.

A letter Isaac Grigsby wrote to the Forestry Development Authority appointing Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe to receive board sitting fees on his behalf.

One of the checks Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe, Sr. received on behalf of Isaac Grigsby, a member of the FDA board of directors

And the stakes are even higher now, with widespread violations and forest degradation, while the sector struggles to generate revenue.

Quorum

The board does not have a code or bylaw regulating its activities. However, Grigsby collecting board payments while residing in a foreign country violates the FDA Act of 1976. The law requires payment for directors who sit in board meetings, not absent ones through proxies.

In fact, it has a provision for absent board directors. “They may receive [from] the authority a stipend for each meeting attended and reimbursement for all expenses they incur in discharging their duties to the authority,” the law states. “A quorum for any meeting of the Board shall be a majority of its members.”

FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries for comment on the matter. Merab’s failure to respond comes barely a month after he bragged of denying journalists required access to public information and evading interviews.

“I don’t run my office in the press but when there is something like I told people I would call a press conference,” Merab told a media event last December. “I will speak once and I will try to make myself clear. After that, I will not speak again.”

Flaboe positively identified Grigsby in a photo The DayLight downloaded from Grigsby’s Facebook page. He said Grisby was his uncle. However, he did not answer why he was receiving board-sitting fees for his uncle who does not live in Liberia, and whether Grigsby was sharing the board fees with him.

Similarly, Grigsby did not respond to queries.

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

Nimba Clan Seeks Support to Protect Community Forest

December 13, 2024

0

Top: Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s members in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

SEHYI-GEH, Nimba County – Villagers in a northeastern clan seek support to keep their forest amid huge challenges.

On 22 February 2017, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest signed a community forest management agreement that authorized the community to manage its forest.

“We have planted trees and established a management body to protect the forest,” says Ericson Flomo, the leader of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest as The DayLight tours one of the replanting sites.

“We have also put in place other measures to empower the people. We did this realizing that conservation is the best way to save our forest and the environment,” adds Flomo.

“We need resources, training, and capacity building to maintain and grow this initiative. Strengthening our workforce is critical to these efforts.”

The 1,538-hectare forest is next to the East Nimba Nature Reserve (ENNR), a biodiversity hotspot home to rare wildlife, including African elephants, chimpanzees, and golden cats. The FDA and its international partners see Sehyi Ko-doo and neighboring community forests as important for the ENNR’s protection.

In the past, the region hosted logging, hunting, mining and farming, activities that caused deforestation, habitat loss, and threatened species.

Thus, locals are rethinking ways they can benefit from forest resources without cutting down trees or degrading the forests. From 2002 to 2023, Liberia lost 347,000 hectares of primary forest, making up 15 percent of its total tree cover loss, according to the Global Forest Watch, which analyzes satellite images to track deforestation worldwide.

Reforestation

To help solve this problem, Sehyi Ko-doo runs a reforestation program, a community forest guard service and alternative livelihood activities.

Launched in 2019, the project has seen the replanting of 30,000 trees, including 28,000 indigenous species. It is one of the largest reforestation initiatives in the country.

The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest covers 1,538 hectares in the Sanniquellie-Mahn District of Nimba County. Varney Kamara/The DayLight

Moreover, Sehyi Ko-doo has put 15,000 trees in nurseries, which have produced high yields. They plan to establish a regional laboratory for plant and medical research.

But there are challenges. Locals do not have a water pump machine so, they water the nurseries manually. Furthermore, the distance between the clan and where volunteers collect seeds on the Guinea border is too far. Volunteers, including Otis Flomo, must make the sacrifice. (The Flomos of Sehyi Ko-doo are all related one way or the other, according to a local legend)

“We can go in the bush, bring the seeds before putting them on the ground nursery,” Otis Flomo tells our reporter. The nursery site is on the banks of a river on the Sehyikimpa-Karnplay highway. “We want to appeal to the people to give us one motorbike to be carrying them.”

Forest guards

For effective monitoring, Sehyi Ko-doo has a team of townsmen who regularly patrol the forest to track illegal activities. ArcelorMittal Liberia the project’s main funder, provides a monthly compensation for the guards.

The company has backed conservation projects in the region, including Sehyi Ko-doo’s neighbors: Blei, Zor and Gba Community Forests. It sees the protection of adjacent forests as an important part of managing the ENNR alongside the FDA.

But the support has proved insufficient. Sehyi Ko-doo wants that to increase the guards from 12 to 20. Volunteers lack training, and equipment and need a pay raise.

“Each patrol we make helps us to ensure our forest remains a home for wildlife,” says Emmanuel Flomo. We are also appealing so that the people can add some money to our pay because it is small.”

Emmanuel Flomo’s voice echoes in the forest as he speaks. There were no sounds or signs of logging, mining, or wildlife hunting. The noise from chainsaws and earthmovers that once vibrated in the rocky woodland has been replaced by the original cawing of birds, hooting of chimpanzees and rustling leaves from the footsteps of forest guards.

“What we earn here is nothing compared to the work we do. But we continue to work because the benefits of this project extend to the entire community,” says Charles Mele, the nursery supervisor.

Alternative livelihoods

The forest guard service aside, Sehyi Ko-doo runs an alternative livelihoods program to keep locals from the forest. It offers a variety of skills such as women’s arts and crafts, traditional tie dye, tailoring, soap-making, and computer literacy.

Also, Sehyi Ko-doo is building its headquarters in Sehyi-Geh. When completed, the structure will consist of a 250-person conference center and four offices.

It was built with US$42,000 from Solway Mining Inc., which had an iron ore exploration contract with Sehyi Ko-doo, and funds from ArcelorMittal.

Sehyi Ko-doo headquarters will host a 250-person conference center and four offices. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“Our forefathers saw the need to protect the forest and its resources. As members of the current generation, we are under obligation to protect this heritage to save the unborn generation,” says Flomo.

“Now, we have a collective responsibility to repair the damage and ensure future generations benefit from the forest.”

Sinoe Community Forest Gets New Leadership

December 11, 2024

0

Top: Tarsue Community Forest covers 9,714 hectares. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – A community forest in Sanquin District, Sinoe County has a new leadership to steer its affairs for the next five years.

Last month, the Tarsue Authorized Community Forest elected members of its community assembly (CA), the executive committee (EC), and the community forest management body (CFMB). In forestry, the CA is the highest decision-maker, comprising representatives of towns and villages that own the forest. The CFMB manages the forest affairs, while the EC supervises the CFMB.

Teah Tolo, a townsman, was elected chairman of the EC, and Ericson Pyne was chief officer of the CFMB.

“Today, we are happy to be one of the leaders selected or elected for Tarsue Community Forest as chief officer after five years of struggle,” said Pyne. “We have a forest to benefit from.”

The elections end a year of internal wrangling over the selection of a logging company.

The elections were held because of an April request to FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab in which the community asked for a review of its contract with loggers.

Tarsue signed a five-year contract with West African Development Incorporated (WAFDI) in 2019. However, WAFDI did not harvest a single tree in the 9,714-hectare forest or honor other contract provisions.

The contract was part of several illegally awarded for less than the statutory 15-year period.

Tarsue now looks into the future.

Pyne added, “We anticipate any company or an NGO for conservation or commercial [logging].”

FDA Boss Brags About Denying Media Info

December 10, 2024

0

Top: The FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority Rudolph Merab has bragged about the FDA’s denial of the media access to information, guaranteed by several forestry legal instruments. Riddled with false claims and unrelated references, Merab’s speech appeared to throw hints at forestry reformers and international funders.

“I don’t run my office in the press but when there is something like I told people I would call a press conference. Merab made the statement as he presented a DayLight reporter with a forestry reporting award over the weekend in Sinkor.

“I will speak once and I will try to make myself clear. After that, I will not speak again,” added Merab.

His comments come months after the FDA’s refusal to grant The DayLight access to public information. It is the first time a head of the FDA—required proactively to disclose public information—has commented publicly on the subject.

Merab incorrectly likened his refusal to the Allied Forces withholding security information during World War II. He narrated an account involving General Dwight David Eisenhower, the American commander of the Allied Forces, and journalists.

“Every time the news comes, the… news people can patch it up…,” Merab said, wearing a wry smile. “Eisenhower called the press people, carried them into the bathroom, locked them up, and said, ‘I will tell you everything about the D-Day.’”

First, there is no record to support the story happened. Before the D-Day or Normandy Landings on June 6, 1944, which defeated the Nazi army, the Allied Forces withheld or censored media publication of certain information to protect the assault’s success.

Unlike that account, the information the media seeks from the FDA does not relate to state security or national investigations. Rather, they include contracts, payments, permits, and the agency’s response to issues.

The FDA’s refusal to share public information contrasts with the Merab administration’s prompt response to inquiries. That contrast contravenes the Freedom of Information Act, the National Forest Reform Law, and Liberia’s trade agreement with the European Union.

Increased media scrutiny and reports have coincided with the rise of forestry offenses, impunity, and the downturn of the logging sector.

Colonialism

Following his false World War II claim, Merab cautioned journalists against treating allegations as a conclusion.

He again aimed a dig at a 2006 executive order that terminated all the logging contracts, including Merab’s Liberia Wood Management Corporation (LWMC). The termination stemmed from the companies’ trade of “blood timber” during Liberia’s brutal civil conflicts (1989-2003) and non-compliance. Termination was a prerequisite for the lifting of United Nations sanctions on Liberian timber.

Rudolph Merab presides over an opaque forestry sector that coincides with widespread violations and impunity. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Afterward, Merab, his LWMC and other companies were partially debarred through regulation from forestry activities until they atoned for their alleged offenses. There is no record that Merab atoned for his alleged offenses. He vehemently denied any wrongdoing in an Associated Press interview earlier this year, except for taxes he somehow admitted owing.

Merab replayed those accounts in thinly veiled remarks as he handed DayLight reporter Esau J. Farr, Sr. his certificate.

“Our country is not a colonial system. In the old days, you were guilty until you proved your innocence,” said Merab. “That was how most of our brothers who were powerful African leaders were killed. [Patrice] Lumumba and the other people were arrested and said they were guilty.”

Equating his situation to the Congolese hero Lumumba aside, Merab’s comments are largely misleading. Though people in colonial days were found guilty even before trial, due process for an accused can be traced back to the 13th Century, more than 700 years before Lumumba’s death. The Magna Carta of 1215 in England provided that no man was above the law and everyone was entitled to due process as a fundamental human right.

The comments only add to Merab’s colonialism playbook. In 2015 when Liberia signed a US$150 million deforestation agreement with Noway, he criticized the deal, arguing it would hurt the West African country.

“The neo-colonial issue cannot continue to affect us,” Merab said, who was president of the Liberia Timber Association. “You got to learn to stop letting people fool us. They are the ones exploiting us, especially Norway.”

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

Locals Demand Contract Review After 5 Years of Problems

December 9, 2024

0

Top: Korninga wants the FDA to supervise the review of a logging contract between it and Coveiyala Investment Enterprise. The DayLight/James Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

KORNINGA CHIEFDOM – A Community forest in Gbarpolu County is demanding a review of its contract with a logging company, following five years of stalemate, contrasting with the celebrations that greeted the deal.

Korninga ‘A’ Community Forest and Coveiyala Investment Enterprise signed the 15-year contract in 2019 after the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) certified the community. Korninga leased 48,296 hectares of forest land to Coveiyala for logging purposes. However, the parties have not reviewed the contract as required by law.

“We are seeking renegotiation,” says Emery Ciapha, Korninga’s chief officer. “Up to the present, Coveiyala has failed to come and sit with the people of Korninga Community for the review.”

Legal battle

Coveiyala has had an internal conflict for over three years and counting, which has stalled the Korninga contract. In 2022, Lu Li, a Chinese national with 90 percent shares, and Anthony Urey, his Liberian partner and the company’s president, with the remaining shares, got into a fierce legal battle. It led the Commercial Court in Monrovia to halt the company’s operations.

The court lifted the injunction following an agreement between Messrs. Lu and Urey earlier this year. After that, Coveiyala began to focus on the contract’s renewal, with a series of communication exchanges with locals in May.

In an October letter, Urey suggested that the review be done in early November and the signing on the 15^th of that month.

But Ciapha rejected his suggestion because Urey had allegedly singlehandedly made the decision. “It was not signed or attested. It is not an individual that the Korninga Authorized Community Forest is working with. We are working with an entity called Coveiyala, [not with Mr. Urey as an individual],” Ciapha tells The DayLight in a phone interview.

Urey refutes Ciapha’s comments, saying he often writes on behalf of Coveiyala. He also argues that Korninga did not raise any contention with him when he sent the letter.

“If it were so, they should have written me back and informed me and say, ‘Mr. Urey, it should be this way or that way,’” says Urey via phone. “If there was any document, definitely, I was going respond to it. I was going to say, “Ok, I accept it,’ and the three parties could sign it.”

Amid the disagreement, Korninga has asked the FDA to review the contract, Coveiyala’s debts, and the company’s failure to implement contractual projects.

Coveiyala owed the community US$102,304.75 in land rental, US$30,000 in scholarship fees, and unspecified harvesting and other fees, based on the contract, the community and documents.

Regarding projects, Coveiyala did not build health facilities and a wood science college as promised. It built two latrines but Korninga rejected them based on the construction materials.

“None of the promises made were actualized by the company during the five years the company has operated in the community. Based on this, we are calling for an immediate review of the agreement,” Korninga’s letter to the FDA read.

Emery Ciapha, the leader of Korninga A Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue

It is unclear how much the Coveiyala owes locals for harvesting. However, before the lawsuit, the company left many logs in the forest and a log yard at Po River outside Monrovia.

Also, in August, Coveiyala sold over 237 cubic meters of logs to Kris Veneer Industries of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, FDA records show.

Saye Messah, the FDA’s media and communication consultant, did not respond to queries for over a month. However, in a June letter, the FDA urged Korninga to work with the company to find a suitable time to conduct the review.

“Management highly considers your concerns regarding the company’s alleged failure to abide by terms in the contract…. calling for review is by law as stipulated,” the FDA letter reads.

Internal conflicts

Besides the debt and abandoned logs, Korninga’s contract with Coveiyala has been marred by community-based corruption. In early 2022, three members of the community leadership were jailed for allegedly misusing US$76,000. The three men included Johnson Flomo, Austin Kamara, and Dennis Flomo, chief officer, Korninga’s executive committee’s chairman and co-chairman, respectively.

They were immediately suspended after an FDA inquest and the community’s account was frozen. As a result, an interim body was set up to manage the community forest for over two years.

The head of the interim body, Cephas says Coveiyala has to account for the three years it operated the forest.

“Failure to implement those plights would mean termination or cancellation of the agreement.”

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

Calls for EU not to End Timber Treaty with Liberia

November 25, 2024

0

Top: A drone picture of logs on a field outside Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

MONROVIA – Calls are mounting for the European Union (EU) to reconsider its decision to terminate a timber trade agreement with Liberia. The issue is high on the agenda as the bloc and the West African country discuss the deal this week.

In 2011, the EU and Liberia signed the voluntary partnership agreement, known as the VPA, enabling the West African country to trade legally sourced timber on European markets. The deal was hailed globally for breaking away from Liberia’s civil war era, where illegal Liberian timber flooded international markets.

But last month, the Head of the EU Delegation to Liberia Nona Deprez disclosed that Brussels had notified Monrovia about its decision to terminate the deal. “A formal notification to the [Liberian] government is in process,” Deprez said in a letter to NGOs.

Now national and international forest campaigners and experts say canceling the VPA would tarnish Liberia’s reputation, exacerbate illegal logging and undermine the country’s combat against climate change.

The NGO Coalition said the development was “deeply concerning, as the VPA has been instrumental in improving forest governance, curbing illegal logging and enhancing transparency in Liberia’s forestry sector.”

In a letter last week, the group called on President Joseph Boakai to use this week’s meeting to engage the EU to keep the agreement. The government has not spoken about the planned termination.

“The EU may cite slow progress, corruption, and illegal logging as reasons for termination, tarnishing Liberia’s international image. Neighboring countries retaining their VPAs will cast Liberia in a poor light,” the letter noted.

The EU has not cited any reasons for intending to terminate the 11-year agreement. However, recently, it blamed the failure to qualify for FLEGT licensing—which allows countries to export timber to EU markets—for terminating the VPA with Cameroon.

Cameroon’s scenario resembles Liberia’s. Liberia has not qualified for forest law enforcement, governance and trade. Though Liberia has made some gains since the end of its bloody civil wars, it has witnessed a string of logging scandals. Last year, the Associated Press reported that Liberia may have a “parallel system” to export illegal timber, citing diplomatic sources. A recent review paints the picture of a sector marred by noncompliance and impunity.

Apart from the tarnishing of Liberia’s reputation, experts say termination could dry out millions of much-needed funding the EU provides Liberia.

“Ideally, development partners would continue with support to communities,” said a forest governance expert who preferred anonymity, “but the question is whether such support would be as impactful without the structures and processes of the VPA in place.”

Liberia has some 43 percent of the Upper Guinea rainforests, the largest in West Africa. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

Dr. Arthur Blundell, an international forestry expert on Liberia, said losing the VPA would erode anti-deforestation efforts. Liberia has the largest portion of West Africa’s remaining rainforests, with its protection crucial to global climate targets. “Losing the EU’s financial and technical assistance must make it harder to fight climate change and protect biodiversity,” added Blundell.

‘Civil unrest’

This week’s meeting, which begins Tuesday and ends Thursday, is one of three events held at least once a year under the VPA. At those meetings, the Liberian government, the EU, international partners, civil society and communities discuss governance and transparency. Campaigners and experts say that civil space would be lost with the VPA.

“If this happens, so many of the gains that have been made over the years, in terms of strengthened government accountability for better forest management and distribution of benefits, will be undermined,” said the forest governance expert.

“It will become less representative,” added Blundell. “These groups suffer the most if the fight is lost. The loss of the VPA process will make their representation more difficult.”

The NGO Coalition believes the VPA’s absence could also undermine Liberian laws that guarantee communities’ rights and increase illegal logging. Warned the group: “Without it, enforcement could weaken, leading to social unrest.”

News of the termination comes as the EU published its Strategic Framework for International Cooperation Engagement on Deforestation, as it delayed the implementation of a new deforestation regulation. The Framework paves the way for the regulation’s implementation, proposing stricter requirements for countries to export to the EU.

Indra Van Gisbergen, a campaigner with the Netherlands-registered NGO Fern criticized the Framework for not being comprehensive and lacking of stakeholders’ participation. She wrote in October that the Framework had scrapped such participation for technical and development cooperation.

Gisbergen said it was “striking” that the publication coincided with the EU’s announcement of its unilateral termination of the Cameroon VPA. Similarly, Liberian civil society actors and community representatives were not informed of the EU’s decision beforehand.

“Ghosting the VPAs and unilaterally terminating them without any public assessment, does not set a good example for future partnerships,” she said.

In her letter, Deprez said Liberia was crucial for the region and the EU would continue its support. “We will continue to support and invest in the sector to strengthen it,” Deprez’s letter read, “to make it more sustainable and to fight illegality.”

The EU is expected to outline reasons for the planned termination at the City Hall of Monrovia. The bloc and the Liberian government are expected to discuss its implications.

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

Disappointed in Logging, Communities Look to Conservation

November 21, 2024

0

A signboard at the Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County, the setting for perhaps forestry’s largest scandal in the last decade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By James Harding Giahyue

BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – “The challenges in community forestry are self-explanatory. The companies will not perform. There will be some breaches by the community for tempering with the forest.”

Jefferson Zoegbeh, the secretary general of Gheegbarn #2 Community Forest’s executive committee in Grand Bassa County, speaks at a recent meeting in Buchanan. Over 50 community land and forest leaders brainstormed conservation possibilities. Gathering from the west-central county and River Cess next door, they discussed ways rural people could benefit from their forests rather than logging.

It has been some 15 years since logging was reintroduced in community forests following the end of over a decade of Liberia’s bloody civil wars. Though postwar forestry guarantees communities’ benefits, locals have gained little from dozens of logging contracts countrywide, covering 2.3 million hectares.

Official records show that of the 186 logging companies that have existed since 2009, just four or five are active. According to a recent report, they owe communities affected by large-scale concessions US$21 million.

The meeting was the second of a series of community-based consultations, the the previous held in Ganta, Nimba County. The events’ organizers intend to incorporate communities’ views—and a report—into a proposal to the Liberian government early next year.

“The best way for communities to get their benefits is to reserve their forest,” says Piyigar Gaybeon, Zuzohn Community Forest’s chief officer in the same region as Gheegbarn #2. Zuzohn signed a contract with the Chinese-owned Booming Green, which was terminated by mutual consent. However, the company did not settle its debt to locals, including contractual projects before pulling out.

“If we can get anything from any company to reserve the forest, we will agree. We need the generation to come and meet the forest there.”

Organizers seek locals’ views on three ways they can benefit from conservation. The first is performance-based, where they get paid for a specific forest area that is easily measurable. The second is direct funding, which empowers communities without a third party and is less bureaucratic. And the third is enterprise development, where communities’ alternative livelihood programs are funded to keep locals away from the forests.

Silas Siakor, the country manager of Dutch NGO IDH and one of the organizers, explains that the idea is to enhance communities’ sense of forest ownership and management.

“By protecting their resources, they can access funds tied to conservation ownership,” said Siakor. “For example, payments linked to forest management should be transparently managed within community bank accounts, fostering a sense of collective responsibility and preventing misuse.

The idea is to balance conservation with community needs.”

Community forest leaders at a conservation workshop in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Locals did not dwell on REDD+ or reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, which activists have warned against. They also avoided carbon credits, trading and markets for which Liberia is still developing policies and legal frameworks.

Ziadue, a landowning River Cess clan, has its own experience with carbon. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency shut a deal between the clan and a company over alleged bribery.

But that glitch is nothing compared to the logging nightmares Ziadue and its neighbors—Teekpeh, Gbarsaw and Dorbor—have experienced. Ziadue seeks termination of a logging contract for a forest it shares with Teekpeh, while loggers fled Gbarsaw and Dorbor after illegally harvesting 550 logs in 2020. These experiences have inspired locals here to look to conservation.

“We the leaders of Ziadue, Teekpeh, Gbarsaw and Dorbor, have decided to get into conservation and are united. This way, we can get benefits and develop our communities,” says Emmanuel Marcus Roberts, CLDMC Chairman of Ziadue Clan’s community land development and management committee.

Caution

The community leaders at the event, including Kennedy Kaiuway of Gheegbarn #2, are convinced that his community should run one of the three workable conservation programs.

“That will be better for us than for one man to come to our forest, ship his US$10 million [worth of] logs, and we are left destitute,” says Kaiuway. A company called L&S Resources Inc. deserted the 12,000-hectare Gheegbarn #1, leaving behind debts, abandoned logs and unfulfilled projects.

Zoegbeh shares Kaiuway’s views but urges rural people to tread with caution. “This is a new approach. For us to know it, we have to investigate and do due diligence on it,” says Zoegbeh.

Like Zoegbeh, Paul Kahn Jr., the chief officer for Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest, has doubts in conversation and believes logging can still work.

Bordering Gheegbarn #2, Gheegbarn #1 has seen perhaps the worst forestry scandal in the last decade. A Ministry of Justice Investigation found that the FDA had awarded the West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) 14,000 hectares, exporting thousands of the illegal logs.

Amid the illegal activities, WAFDI did not pay locals their fair share of logging resources. Paul Kahn Jr., Gheegbarn #1’s chief officer, puts the debt at US$193,000 in project fees, US$3,125 in land rental and, an unspecified amount in harvesting. Kahn’s predecessors are accused of mismanaging US$200,000. There has been no work there since a community protest last December.

“I think it can change [a lot] of things in the communities,” says Kahn. He had been elected to his post last month after leading the protest.

“Train officials of the community forest. Raise more awareness in communities, making them understand how to manage their funds. The responsibilities of [members of the community forest leadership]. The responsibilities of the company.”

Tag: Liberia

Podcasts

ABOUT US

FOLLOW US