Visual of charcoal shortage in Grand Gedeh over cocoa farming
An AI-generated visual depiction of the charcoal crisis in Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel T. Jabba
By Samuel T. Jabba
ZWEDRU, Grand Gedeh County – At any time five years ago, Josephine Nyenkor’s charcoal warehouse would be filled. She would have to stand on one bag of charcoal to reach the next.
Today, there is no charcoal in the warehouse, a concrete structure located in Zwedru’s main market. Several large bags filled with empty bags stand on the wall, and folded tarpaulins lie on the blackened floor.
“It’s just by the grace of God I am surviving. Selling charcoal is my only means for survival,” says Nyenkor, 41, who has sold charcoal for nearly two decades here.
“Charcoal used to give better profit but not [any longer],” she adds.
Nyenkor’s struggle reflects the impacts of the shortage of charcoal in Grand Gedeh County. For the first time, charcoal is in short supply, driving the commodity’s prices high. This is happening as Burkinabé migrants and local landlords are clearing the southeastern region’s vast forests to plant cocoa, forcing charcoal producers deeper into the forest.
“In 2005 and 2006, we were buying a bag of charcoal for L$50. Today, charcoal is L$900, because of the deforestation,” says Marcus Toe, the executive director of One Health Advocacy Network. Toe works with local communities on health and the environment.
“Because the bush is being burned, you have to walk a far distance to get trees. So, the people who get them make them very expensive,” he added.
Burkinabés began migrating to Liberia from the neighboring Ivory Coast in the 2010s in search of farmlands. Once here, they entered an agreement with locals, who provided them with land. Immigration authorities recorded 55,000 Burkinabe migrants, with 48,000 in Grand Gedeh County alone.
Across Liberia, charcoal remains the leading cooking fuel and contributes to deforestation. Demand for it reached a record high in 2018, an estimated 337,000 metric tons valued at approximately US$46 million, according to a report by the Liberia Forest Sector Project.
Once a wholesaler, Josephine Nyenkor is bagging charcoal in a makeshift kitchen in front of her warehouse at the Zwedru market. The DayLight/ Samuel Jabba
However, cocoa cultivation has a larger impact on the forest. A 2024 study found that 15 percent of the deforestation in Liberia from 2001 to 2024 was driven by cocoa. During this time, Grand Gedeh lost 59,000 hectares of primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch, an online deforestation-tracking application.
Charcoal producers say Burkinabés aren’t giving them access to the forest, so they can’t produce the quantities they used to. They have to hire motorbikes to transfer charcoal from deep inside the forest, since cars cannot access the roads.
Margaret Ziahyee, a charcoal seller who shares the same warehouse with Nyenkor, confirmed this information.
“We will soon start using stoves to cook, because it is very hard to find trees to burn charcoal,” says Ziahyee. As she spoke, Daylight reporters saw a charcoal seller offload eight bags of the commodity from a motorbike at the front of her warehouse.
A chart breakdown of charcoal prices over the years in Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel T. Jabba
‘Zero to hero’
Across Grand Gedeh, the price of charcoal has risen to its highest ever. Between 2005 and 2006, a bag of charcoal was sold for only L$50. From 2010 to 2018, with the arrival of the Burkinabés, a bag was sold for at L$300 to L$450. Then prices soared to L$650 by 2020. Last year, the price climbed to L$750 and L$800. Currently, a bag costs L$900, the same as in Monrovia.
Due to the energy crisis, community dwellers switched to stoves. Townsfolk are now crossing to the Ivory Coast to buy stoves.
“My sister, who has a tea shop, has one and is using it already. To even find charcoal is not easy. Even I myself parked my coal pots because there’s no coal, and the small we have is very expensive. I’m using wood now. In a few times from now, I will send for my own stove.” Alice Doe, a resident of Boundary Town, said in an interview.
Konobo is the leading supplier of charcoal to Zwedru, thanks to its vast forest, according to Toe. Charcoal burning was less expensive, and producers had less work in finding mature and suitable trees. Charcoal producers found it easy to find trees and haul their chunks.
But now, it is the fastest-deforested region in the county. Producers travel beyond cocoa farms to fell trees and spend more money on chainsaw operators and haulers.
Amid the crisis, charcoal is losing ground to cocoa farming because of the less work associated with cultivating the crop.
“At least the cocoa business that came here is helping some of us, from zero level to hero,” says Alice Doe, another former charcoal producer and now a cocoa farmer from Boundary Town in Konobo district.
“Yes, before we used to just go into the forest and start felling trees. But now, you can’t just go into the forest and start felling trees. You will damage someone’s cocoa farm. So, everything is under restrictions because of the cocoa farms,” said Doe.
Civil Society Independent Forest Monitors provided the funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over its content.
Titus Morlu, a beekeeper in Beyan Town, Salayea, visits one of his beehives. The DayLight/Harry N. Browne
Titus Morlu, a beekeeper in Beyan Town, Salayea, visits one of his beehives. The DayLight/Harry N. Browne
By Esau J. Farr
SALAYEA, Lofa County – Back in the days, Titus Morlu hunted deer, raccoons and pythons. But in 2024, he put down his gun and trap and became a beekeeper.
Morlu no longer has to walk long distances at night to hunt animals, and he does not worry about contracting any diseases from his prey. He keeps bees in Beyan Town, in Lofa’s Salayea District, bordering Bong County, and expects his first harvest soon.
“For now, some of us have no interest in going to the forest to hunt or look for honey because we have [honey] right behind our vineyards,” says Morlu.
Like Morlu, Wolobah Nuapolor hunted in the Salayea forest for decades. When he learned of an opportunity to raise pigs rather than hunt deer and squirrels, he jumped on it. He now has 12 pigs.
The beekeeping and piggery projects are two of several programs the Salayea Community Forest is undertaking to provide alternative, sustainable livelihood opportunities for townspeople, aimed at reducing their reliance on the forest and protecting it. It also includes a wood shop, cocoa farming, village loan scheme, and guesthouse management.
A pigpen at a farm in Salayea Town, Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry N. Browne
Established in 2016, the Salayea Community Forest is an 8,270-hectare conservation forest with rich biodiversity. The livelihood programs have impacted the forests at different levels. There is no more forest farming, as many have turned to lowland farming, animal raising and local businesses. Organizers say the project is intended to cut deforestation and forest-induced emissions.
“We are doing beekeeping, cocoa farming, village savings and loan program, and piggery in the six affected communities to fight against all forms of illegal activities in our forest,” says Yassah Mulbah, Salayea Community Forest’s chief officer.
“The village saving loan has empowered the women within the six affected communities in Salayea. They no longer receive credit from outsiders like in the past; their children are no longer being sent out of school for fees.”
A drone shot shows a partial view of the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Samuel T. Jabba
‘A part of me’
In 2023 and 2024, Palladium Group, a UK-based NGO, trained people from the six communities that own the forest in different areas for two weeks. Beneficiaries of the piggery training received two pairs of pigs to begin their farming, while beekeeping trainees got beehives.
A team of DayLight reporters, which visited Telemu and Beyan Towns, observed that the beehives were ready for harvest.
Beekeepers in Salayea have chosen next month to harvest their beehives, all of which have colonized. The beekeepers want the community forest to help find buyers for their honey. One beekeeper told reporters that a liter of natural honey is sold for L$1,200 (US$6.66) in the area.
“I have decided to have my own beehives, about seven or eight, to help send my children to school and to help my family,” said John Tokpah, a former forest farmer-turned-beekeeper in Telemu Town, who has spent a year in the program.
“This (beekeeping) will be a part of me. I will not let it go from me.”
The piggery program is a little faster than the beekeeping program. It has already begun providing income for beneficiaries.
The piggery program recruited more than a dozen people, including women in Beyan, Telemu, and Salayea Towns. It started with 12 pairs of pigs, which have now multiplied. Currently, there are 18 pigs at three functional pig farms.
The Salayea pig farm has been sold at least three times. Proceeds from those sales have been added to the community forest’s savings of over L$400,000 (US$2,222), according to Mulbah.
“We have been using some of the pigs for other programs here in Salayea,” says Wolobah Nuapolor, a piggery manager. “Even last week, we killed some and sold it and the money was put into the community forest’s account.”
Wolobah Nuapolor, a piggery manager in Salayea, prepares food for pigs. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
“When these pigs are plentiful here, our men will not be hunting in the forest,” says Nenei David, a pig farmer in Telemu.
In the next five years, Mulbah, Salayea’s chief officer, wants the community to be independent of the forest. Illegal activities in the forest have reduced since 2024, she says. This, however, was propelled by a string of legal victories against illegal occupants—farmers, miners and loggers.
“These livelihood programs will make Salayea Community Forest financially strong and put an end to illegal forest activities in the years ahead,” Mulbah says.
The story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Kpokolo harvested by businesswoman Binta Bility in Compound Number One, Grand Bassa County, in 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
ByJames Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA – On September 29, 2022, Emmanuel Sherman, The DayLight’s Editor-at-large, and I set off on a logging investigation in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County. While on our way, we saw several suspicious timber blocks by the roadside in Boyah Town and decided to investigate.
Our investigation found that Joe Jarvis Boyeah, a townsman after whose family the town is named, ran the kpokolo operation. Boyeah worked for Othello Teah, a regular caller on radio talk shows in Buchanan. Teah had been hired by Chanda Cole, the owner of one of Buchanan’s oldest businesses, the Cole Joe Wood Workshop.
The story that exposed the Boyeah Town syndicate was one of several DayLight investigations that led the government to “ban” kpokolo, though it was never a legal trade. The so-called ban might have marked the end—at least on paper—of the trade. However, each investigation untangled the criminal world of Kpokolo—how it prospered private individuals and public officials, costing the Liberian government millions.
“We have ordered all our checkpoint staff members to stop the issuance of waybills for all sawn timbers with a thickness above two inches because this is the dimensional range of thickness that is prone to illegal exportation,” said Edward Kamara, FDA’s manager for forest marketing and revenue forecast, in February 2023. Kamara was responding to a DayLight email about the spiraling of kpokolo countrywide, saying the regulator had issued “tens” of kpokolo permits.
“It had been observed that most of the timber arrested for attempting to illegally export consisted of these dimensions. Therefore, it is the chainsaw milling block wood… that is banned…,” Kamara added. The ban was officially announced at an annual meeting of forestry actors four months after Kamara’s passive disclosure.
Kpokolo started somewhere in the 2000s, based on local people and actors in the illegal trade. The term means “thick and heavy” in the Kpelle language. Logs are shaped into blocks to fit neatly into containers, and then are shipped to Asia, especially China and Vietnam.
By 2022—the year the ban was imposed—Kpokolo had peaked. Illicit operators ran advertisements on social media, and kpokolo had well been normalized. The Associated Press reported that 70 percent of Liberia’s timber exports were likely illegal, citing a diplomatic document. A 2023 report by the US-based Forest Trends found that kpokolo was a growing threat to Liberia’s forests, undermining the country’s climate change mitigation efforts.
“Flora crimes, particularly illegal logging and timber trafficking, are a significant criminal market in Liberia. Illegal practices like chainsaw milling large blocks of timber for export, known locally as kpokolo, further contribute to the scale of the trade,” reads the 2025 Global Crime Index. The annual report by organizations, including Interpol, chronicles the state of organized crime across the world.
Kpokolo has contributed to the toll that forestry activities have on Liberia’s rainforest, the largest in the West African region. In 2022, Liberia recorded the tenth-largest forest loss in the world, according to Global Forest Watch, an online tool that tracks deforestation in real time. The country lost 23 percent of its primary forest that year alone.
Leaked videos, pictures
Before the Boyeah Town investigation, The DayLight exposed Varney Marshall, a ranger with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) at the Klay checkpoint, Bomi County. The newspaper published videos and pictures from a WhatsApp conversation between Marshall and an illegal logger.
The evidence exposed a reel of the ranger’s illegal operations: kpokolo being cut, large ones packed into a container, a picture of Marshall’s equipped operatives, and a proud Marshall himself posing for a picture. He was eventually dismissed following the publication. However, the story showed that Kpokolo involved officials—not just loggers—a fact the newspaper would later further establish.
Seized Kpokolo at the Forestry Development Authority’s sub-office at the Klay checkpoint in Bomi County, in 2024. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
After the Marshall leaks, The DayLight investigated Binta Bility, a businesswoman, in Compound One, Grand Bassa. The investigation dug out that she ran a kpokolo camp in Zoegar Town with 17 accomplices, including townspeople.
The DayLight applied old-fashioned forensic techniques seen often in crime documentaries. We showed the businesswoman’s pictures to townspeople for identification, and we interviewed a man whose number was taken from the wall of the makeshift camp in the forest, near the Worr River.
About two months after the publication, Binta Bility, who denied she ran the operations, somersaulted and admitted her wrongdoing, and vowed to do things lawfully. However, that confession came after police in Bahn, Nimba County, seized a consignment of kpokolo she was transporting a month earlier.
Binta Bility might have been organized; however, a cartel of two Turks, two Chinese, and their Liberian accomplice push criminal timber trafficking, perhaps to the highest known level. With the aid of at least 33 local people, China Turkish Liberia Industries (CTL) transformed a portion of the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) into a kpokolo factory.
Videos and pictures The DayLight obtained show large pieces of boxlike timber and various machines used between 2019 and 2021. They were the most illegal timber and equipment the newspaper had ever seen at a single location.
“They got over there with a different plan,” said Dr. James Dolo, then-Officer in Charge of CARI. “They said they wanted land to set up some demo and start some production… but those guys came, and they started bringing logs in overnight.”
In the end, the Forestry Development Authority sued the syndicate’s ringleaders. Though the trial has yet to start, the syndicate claimed they bought logs from Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company, which operated in Lofa County. In all, the CARI investigation further proved that large-scale logging companies were involved in the illicit trade, not just small ones as previously perceived.
Collusion
Another investigation into a Turkish company pinpointed the collusion between kpokolo operators and government officials. The unravelling of the crimes of Marshall, the now-dismissed FDA ranger, provided a clue; this investigation uncovered the whole story.
Kpokolo in a forest in Gbaryama, Gbarpolu County, in 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The 2023 publication established that Askon Liberia General Trading Inc., run by a Turkish family—Hasan, Umit, and Yeter Uzan—illegally operated between Ganta and Sanniquellie, Nimba County. The Uzans advertised their kpokolo business on social media and online business platforms.
In 2020, Askon exported two container trucks of timber to India for US$19,800 with the help of Peter Somah, then-Assistant Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The export of timber occurred outside the legal system, known as LiberTrace.
The investigation led the FDA to blacklist Askon. Its executives, including Hasan Uzan, the majority shareholder, were arrested days later in Nimba and reportedly deported, ending the company’s years of illegal activities in the north-eastern countryside.
Askon proved the collusion between public officials and kpokolo operatives existed, but it was an investigation into a kpokolo kingpin that cemented that fact.
With 25 men and 30 chainsaws, Emmanuel Gongor’s operations spanned four of Nimba’s nine districts. People called the miner-turned-logger “Emmanuel the Investor” for his habit of conducting community projects such as bridges and roads.
Documents and interviews with Gongor revealed that the FDA colluded with him for several years. During this time, he paid the agency tens of thousands of United States dollars in permit fees and waybills. One waybill showed that he paid the FDA US$424 for 212 pieces of kpokolo in May 2022, a few months before the ban.
The money Gongor paid the FDA did not go into the government’s consolidated account at the Central Bank of Liberia. Instead, it was paid into accounts at commercial banks, controlled by the FDA’s top management, a legal breach.
“The FDA agents are always informed when we are going to bring wood from the bush,” Gongor told The DayLight in 2023. “We make more money for forestry.”
Gongor’s kpokolo reign came to an end late 2022, barely a month before our explosive interview with him. Police seized 80 pieces of kpokolo from him at a checkpoint in Bahn, Nimba, ending an hour-long car chase.
The Gongor and Askon stories uncovered collusion among officials and Kpokolo businesspeople. However, a landmark investigation last April unearthed other individuals’ roles in the crime.
The April publication dug into a trove of documents to expose Ben Wesseh, a veteran customs broker, who smuggled timber for over a decade. The evidence showed that Wesseh, alongside his daughter, Benetta Wesseh, forged documents from the FDA and the Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate his crime.
Kpokolo by the roadside in Boyeah Town, Compound Two, Grand Bassa County, in 2022. Spotting them proved essential to unravelling the illegal trade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The newspaper obtained recordings and screenshots of a WhatsApp chat between Mr. Wesseh and a client. The documents revealed Wesseh charged the client US$325 for two FDA documents and US$75 for a phytosanitary certificate, issued to certify that the consignment was pest-free. These revelations corroborated other evidence from an undercover investigation in Totoquelleh, Gbarpolu County, in 2024, as kpokolo resurfaced.
A police probe into Mr. Wesseh’s alleged crimes faltered. However, The DayLight investigation sparked reform of the Ministry of Agriculture’s phytosanitary department to prevent forgery of such a certificate.
But the samplings of the illegal trade remain.
The first evidence of this came from Gbaryama, a town in Gbarpolu’s Gbarma District. There in March 2024, reporters photographed hundreds of freshly-sawn kpokolo. Reporters also documented logs in a nearby forest that illegal loggers had harvested to mill kpokolo. They gathered that smugglers had contracted local chainsaw millers to produce the wood they trucked at night.
“They can hide it and take it away at night; people can’t easily see them in the day,” Armah Dukuly, Gbaryama’s Town Chief. “We don’t get that power to stop them.”
The DayLight’s latest kpokolo investigation occurred last January. The subject was Libfor Forest Corporation, which ran an unlicensed sawmill in Caldwell. Since 2022, Libfor has exported 51 times, valued at US$71,447, according to data compiled by British export tracker Experian. In May 2024, it shipped 55,000 cubic meters of kpokolo, valued at US$22,000. The company brought in workers from Sierra Leone, from where it smuggled wood into Liberia, official documents revealed.
Four days after the publication, two executives of Libfor were jailed and later charged. Their case at the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court has yet to begin.
Kpokolo might not have gone away. Certainly, there is evidence that the ban—as the result of the investigations—has significantly minimized the illicit trade. The FDA no longer issues permits for it or approves its transport, something it did for over a decade. Kpokolo operatives have switched to other things, based on our recent interviews and observation, and social media advertisements of the trade have disappeared.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: A view of the Gola National Park from Fonnor Town, Grand Cape Mount County. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
By Esau J. Farr
FONNOR TOWN, Grand Cape Mount County – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is exploring forests for potential ecotourism sites.
The exercise recently started with a visit to portions of the Gola National Park and other areas in Grand Cape Mount and Gbarpolu Counties. FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab led a delegation of FDA staffers and tourism stakeholders on the mission.
“Some people want to come to Liberia to see and explore other things, especially when we talk about the rainforest. People from the West and the Americas want to come here, but we will have to come and set the stage…,” Merab told reporters.
“[What] we are trying to do is for people to know our forests. They’ve got to know the tree and animal species we have. We need to bring researchers to research the forests to find which trees can help us with our own health.”
Established in 2016, the Gola National Park is an 88,000-hectare forest that extends into neighboring Sierra Leone. It has a rich ecosystem with diverse wildlife. The park has 300 bird species, including the Gola Malinbe and the white-necked Picathartes, 49 mammal species, reptiles and amphibians.
The tour followed a recent trip to neighboring Sierra Leone last month to understand that country’s park management structure and operations.
The FDA Managing Director, Rudolph J. Merab, speaks at the agency’s Camp Fonnor. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
Merab said showcasing Liberia’s tourism potential would attract tourists to its forests and generate revenue. Tourism is one of the pillars of President Joseph Boakai’s developmental agenda for inclusion, a sector that has been underdeveloped for decades.
“This is meant to amplify the voice of the President on his tourism pillar in the ARREST agenda. That is why you are seeing me here in the forest,” adds Merab. The FDA intends to train young people in tourism so they can develop the sector in the future.
The tour was conducted jointly with the Liberia National Tourism Authority and the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), a Monrovia-based NGO that helped establish the Gola Park.
A delegate of the Tourism Authority said the it was working with the FDA to map tourism activities in the country.
“We will tap into all the opportunities that these forests have and we are going to develop them sustainably,” said Juanita Yiah, the Tourism Authority’s technical director. “We want to do everything to make Liberia ecotourism-friendly.”
Tour delegates, including the FDA, the Tourism Authority and SCNL representatives at the FDA camp in Tima Town, Gbarpolu County. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
Calling birds
James Mulbah, SCNL’s landscape manager, praised local communities for the protection of the Gola Park. said locals needed support to maintain the park’s rich biodiversity.
“We have come to overlook this place to see how well we can attract national and international tourists to come,” said Mulbah.
“The community people have a way of calling birds and other animals and you see them coming to you live,” Mulbah mentioned several local tourism sites, including an elephant fall and a famous bird watch site.
The FDA, the tourism authority and conservationists acknowledge the community’s efforts in preserving the park over the years and assure them of tourism benefits.
The FDA is seeking support for researchers to conduct a study of tree and animal species and potential tourist sites.
“Whatever we do, whether it is commercial, conservation, or even carbon, it has to impact the lives of our people for the positive,” said Merab.
Top: A worker labels logs in Akewa’s log field in Beyan Poye Community Forest, Margibi. Photo credit: Akewa Group of Companies via Facebook
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – A court in Monrovia has terminated a logging agreement between a community forest and a company after an arbitration process, ending over four years of legal battle.
The Commercial Court at the Temple of Justice handed down the ruling recently after Akewa Group of Companies failed to honor the arbitration with the Beyan Poye Community Forest in Margibi County.
“The community forest management agreement… between the Beyan Poye Community Forest and Akewa Group of Companies is hereby deemed terminated as a matter of law…,” read the ruling.
“Failure to appear in open court to make a case, this court has no other option after hearing the informant’s argument and giving due recourse to the parties pleading than to grant the informant’s Bill of information,” added the ruling.
Abigail Funke Odebunmi, Akewa’s manager and co-owner, did not immediately respond to queries.
A long legal battle
Beyan Poye Community Forest, on March 25, 2017, signed a 15-year logging agreement with Akewa to harvest its 33,338 hectares of forestland in the Gibi District.
In 2022, Beyan Poye invoked an arbitration clause in its logging agreement with Akewa after nearly five years of stalemate. Subsequently, the FDA set up a panel, and the process began.
The panel awarded Beyan Poye over US$80,000 in forest-related benefits and granted Akewa the right to continue its operations unhindered.
Akewa opposed the arbitrators’ decision and petitioned the Commercial Court to review it.
When that review ended unsuccessfully, Akewa, owned by Nigerian businesswoman Abigail Funke Odebunmi, petitioned the Supreme Court. However, the company committed procedural errors in its petition to the high court.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Commercial Court to enforce the arbitration award, granting Beyan Poye’s motion for dismissal.
Then Beyan Poye petitioned the Commercial Court to terminate Akewa’s contract for failing to resume operations. The petition referenced a provision of the arbitration award that the company restart activities in January 2023.
The Commercial Court sided with Beyan Poye, terminating Akewa’s contract.
Samuelle Hare-King of the Heritage Partners and Associates, Beyan Poye’s lawyer, told The DayLight the law firm had contacted another firm to seek a court’s order to freeze Akewa’s bank accounts until it could settle its debt to Beyan Poye.
Jehudi Barnyou, Beyan Poye’s chief officer, reveled in the victory and has advice for community forests across the country.
“As a community leader, if you have a problem with a company concerning land rental, royalty, or whatever, take the lead and go to court,” said Barnyou. He promised to present the ruling at the community meeting with members of the community later this month.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia.
Top: A drone shot of a zircon sand mine in Greenville, Sinoe County, in 2023. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Liberia’s mining sector failed to report US$2.7 billion in gold and iron ore exports between 2007 and 2023, likely due to underreporting and/or smuggling, a new reportfound.
The US-based Forest Trends found that Liberia reported US$5.1 billion from mining exports over the 16 years. However, researchers established that importing countries reported US$7.8 billion from Liberia, resulting in the US$2.7 billion discrepancy.
“The scale of the problem is massive,” said Arthur Blundell, one of the report’s co-authors. “There is no reason to believe that what the government reported was a mistake because Liberian sources agree with the numbers.”
The report—”A Rapid Assessment of Liberia’s Mining Sector…”—determined that underreporting of export commodities and smuggling were the potential reasons for the revenue loss. Moreover, there are strong indications that the country could be giving away valuable revenue at a staggering rate. For instance, Liberia’s sales of rough diamonds and iron ore fell below the international benchmark during the reporting period.
Weak enforcement likely enabled underreporting, smuggling, and tax evasion, as well as environmental violations, costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
The report recommends that the government halt illegal mining, improve trade oversight, protect ecologically critical areas, ensure transparency, uphold community rights, and enforce companies’ legal obligations fully.
The report utilized legal review, trade data, and geospatial analysis. Data used in the study were collected from various government agencies, including the Ministry of Mines & Energy, Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Central Bank of Liberia, Liberia Revenue Authority, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers analyzed Liberia’s minerals exported to Switzerland, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and other countries.
A mine in Vaguay, Grand Cape Mount County, in 2020. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue
Overall, the report found that it was impossible to calculate all losses due to a lack of transparency in the reporting process, as there were likely losses from unpaid import fees and withholding taxes, social security payments, surface rental, license fees, etc.
The Ministry of Mines did not return queries for comment on the report’s findings.
Community benefits and the environment
The report also established that unfulfilled promises, human rights abuses, and environmental damage, among other things, hinder the mining sector, which accounts for a fifth of Liberia’s GDP, while dominating exports and generating a significant share of government revenue despite the losses.
Mining impacts across communities have been staggering, the report found. The study revealed that communities were not benefiting from their natural resources. It shows companies are not complying with their legal obligations to communities.
There is no official reporting on whether mining companies are paying two percent of their exploration budget on local health and education, as required by the mineral exploration regulation, nor is there reporting on whether companies are giving five percent equity to communities as required by the Land Rights Act.
Overall, it found that 1.4 million hectares of community forest lands were overlapped by mining licenses, undermining local people’s economic opportunities, and thus their autonomy and right to self-determination. The mining environmental laws require permits for semi-industrial scale or class ‘B’ licenses.
Benefits legally guaranteed to communities remain unrealized, while affected communities increasingly face degraded lands, abandoned open pits—deepening their vulnerability and leaving them with more burdens than they can actually handle.
“We only know what has been reported for communities, not what has actually been done. Additional payments may have been made that were unreported, but also payments reportedly made for communities may also have been misdirected elsewhere,” said Blundell, noting that since 2012, rather than putting the revenue into community funds, the government has required all payments to first be deposited into the County accounts. “What has happened to these funds is not clear.” However, the report noted that the General Auditing Commission, in its most recent audit on County Development Fund spending, found gross violations and lack of oversight by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which they said may “lead to fraud…through the processing and disbursement of illegitimate transactions.”
“Any reform should include immediate steps to stem financial losses, compel compliance, and ensure accountability of compensation and other benefits sharing with local communities,” Blundell concluded.
The report revealed Liberia’s forests are at risk, with licenses overlapping more than 2 million hectares nationwide. Mining is undermining the environmental health of these forests, citing a report by Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency. For example, the EPA found that many Class ‘B’ license holders are not obtaining environmental permits, a major requirement under the mining law, and that companies were using heavy machines to pollute major watercourses.
Dredges on the Dugbe River in Sinoe County in 2023. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
The assessment found mining-linked deforestation, hazardous chemical mismanagement, and water pollution at an increasing rate, while monitoring and enforcement remain major challenges to tackling those issues nationwide.
Moreover, the Forest Trends assessment cautioned that these statistics do not include widespread artisanal, unlicensed mining because these mines go unreported by the Ministry of Mines & Energy.
Between 2021 and 2024, Liberia lost 390,000 hectares of primary forest to deforestation due to logging, agriculture expansion, and illegal mining, according to the Global Forest Watch. The recent boom in cocoa farming in the country’s southeast has increased the pace of deforestation.
The report recommends that the government stop illegal mining, enforce existing mining laws and regulations, increase consultations between miners and communities, urging miners to refill holes they dig across communities.
“What is needed now is more transparency, accountability, and a fundamentally different model of resource governance—one that prioritizes social equity, environmental sustainability, and community rights,” the report concludes.
Top: An illegal mine in the Sapo National Park. File picture/Forestry Development Authority
By Myer Saydi
GREENVILLE – A court in Sinoe County has fined 28 suspects and ordered them to do community service for illegal mining in the Sapo National Park.
The Greenville Magisterial Court fined the men US$1,300. It also ruled that they cut grass at the Presidential Palace in Greenville for seven working days.
The suspects had pleaded guilty to theft of property and criminal trespass following their arrest in February by park rangers. They escaped imprisonment because prosecutors did not prove they had any prior convictions for the crimes.
“I am happy for my clients despite government fines and community services because they are not going to jail,” said Franklin Myers, the convicts’ lawyer. “The court ruling is not based on public sentiment but on what the law says. So, I am happy for them.”
John Smith, Chief Warden of the Sapo National Park, said the ruling would serve as a deterrent to illicit occupants. Smith added that Liberia’s protected areas are critical to biodiversity conservation. He urged citizens to respect conservation laws and support sustainable practices.
Joint security forces arrested the men in February 2026 during an enforcement operation, court documents show. Security forces seized 4.2 grams of gold, a half-filled 25-kilogram bag of rice, six gallons of gasoline and eight pieces of carpet.
Authorities reported that the group was actively involved in unauthorized mining, a direct violation of Liberia’s forestry, mining, environmental and wildlife laws.
The ruling comes amid ongoing efforts to curb environmental degradation inside Liberia’s largest park. To date, thousands of illicit occupants have been removed from the 697-square-mile park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
This story is a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: A partial view of the Konobo Community Forest in Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba
By Esau J. Farr
BOUNDARY TOWN, Grand Gedeh County – Lawrence Koolor woke up one cool morning, his face beaming with a smile and joy pouring out of his heart. Koolor’s dream became a reality late last year when he moved his family into his new house. He had lived in his uncle’s house for decades.
Koolor built his home out of money he received from Burkinabé cocoa farmers he hosts in Konobo. His house—part-mud, part-concrete with metal roofs— stands out among huts with thatched roofs in Boundary, a town on the border between the Konobo and Tchien Districts in Grand Gedeh County.
“I felt so happy that day for me to go and live in my own house at that time,” recalls Koolor. “That was a complete relief for my family to [move from one bedroom] to a whole house.”
Koolor is one of several residents of Konobo, who, along with their Burkinabé guests, have encroached on Grand Gedeh’s largest remaining rainforest. Townspeople in Konobo say the arrival of Burkinabé cocoa farmers in their communities has transformed their lives.
The map of Konobo. File photo/Forestry Development Authority
Konobo has 390,000 hectares of natural forest, according to Global Forest Watch, an application that tracks deforestation. Gbarzon and Tchein Districts are second to Konobo District in Grand Gedeh County, with higher rainforest, 360,000 hectares each.
Burkinabés likely started migrating into Liberia from the neighboring Ivory Coast in 2014 in search of cocoa farmlands. The Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) has profiled 55,000 Burkinabés in southeast Liberia, 48,000 in Grand Gedeh. Burkinabés, also known as “Mossi,” have agreements with locals in which they provide investment and labor, while the locals provide land.
“The cocoa business that came here is helping to take us from zero to hero,” says Alice Doe, who hosts six Burkinabé migrant workers in Boundary Town.
“Before, we could not get a dime to buy a sheet of zinc. But for now, that story has changed, because before the Burkinabés enter your [forest], they give you [money],” adds Doe.
Interviews and reporters’ observations show Konobo District—a low-income community of 26,588 people—is transforming in several ways. People are earning income from cocoa that they have never earned in their lives. New houses are being built, and one resident is sponsoring his son’s studies in Spain.
Cocoa farming might be transforming lives in Konobo, but it is wiping out the district’s forest. To plant cocoa, Burkinabés burn down the forest. Reporters saw trees losing their foliage, gradually morphing into woody skeletons.
Between 2002 and 2024, Konobo lost 9,300 hectares of primary forest. A 2024 study found that 15 percent of Liberia’s deforestation is linked to cocoa cultivation. Then, last November, the London-based Global Witness linked top European chocolate makers to deforestation in Liberia.
‘Under threat’
Satellite imagery confirms that cocoa farmers are encroaching on the Konobo Community Forest, a 49,625-hectare woodland meant for logging. Konobo and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) signed an agreement in 2020 to co-manage logging activities with the regulator. The agreement outlaws farming in the community forest.
And that is exactly the case. Drone shots show cocoa pods sprouting amid decaying trees and cultivated forests.
“When the Burkinabés enter the forest, they burn all the trees…,” says Beyan Woi, FDA’s regional manager in Grand Gedeh. “Most of [those] community forests that people wanted to do logging and conservation in are under threat by Burkinabés.”
Burkinabé migrants set fire or apply chemicals to the base of trees in clearing the forest for cocoa cultivation. File photo/Forestry Development Authority
Woi says the FDA has made efforts to curtail encroachment on forests in the southeast, including prosecution.
Wulu Gaye, the chief officer of Konobo Community Forest, echoes Woi’s comments. The encroachment is the biggest challenge Gaye, who was recently elected, faces.
“As we speak, the forest is not well protected. There are illegal farmers farming in the forest,” says Gaye.
Burkinabés-hosts in Konobo deny farming in the community forest, claiming the farmland was their private property.
“I have more than 20 Burkinabés working for me on more than a-kilo-hectare of our farmland here in Boundary Town,” said Dennis Jakar, a classroom teacher and a resident of Boundary Town. Jakar claimed he is using ancestral land for his cocoa farm.
The DayLight could not independently verify Jakar’s and other townspeople’s comments due to the distances to the farms and the security of the reporters. Furthermore, the newspaper could not identify the owners of the farms the drone captured.
However, farmers hosting the Burkinabés say people are farming in the community forest because logging has failed them. Their position is a reference to an inactive logging agreement locals have.
In May 2021, Konobo and Horizon Logging Limited, a Monrovia-based firm, signed a contract. Horizon agreed to construct health facilities, handpumps, and latrines in the affected communities in addition to land rental and harvesting fees. The company failed to carry out the projects, leaving behind unpaid debts and abandoned logs. Horizon did not respond to queries for comment on the contract.
The contract’s failure is visible throughout Konobo. Several logs are abandoned in Boundary Town, behind a clinic and at other locations. Locals drink from creeks, and there are no public latrines.
“They (Horizon) lied to us; so, we were left with no other option but to put Burkinabés in the concession area to [farm for us],” says Christian Menyeah, a Konobo resident, who hosts three Burkinabé migrants.
“The money we are now getting from cocoa farming is plenty and quicker than what a logging company would give us,” adds Bill Yallah, a host of dozens of Burkinabés migrants.
Gaye, Konobo’s chief officer, says his leadership is working with county authorities to remove the encroachers from the community forest.
Gaye says, “Well, all the local authorities [bought] the idea that there’s a need that we remove the illegal farmers…”
Samuel T. Jabba contributed to this story.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The payment for stewardship enables communities to get direct cash benefits and livelihood programs for keeping their forests standing. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba
By Varney Kamara
MONROVIA – Years ago, women in Wedjah and Jaedae Districts in Sinoe County processed cassava with their bare hands. Their story has changed for the better. They now use motorized mills, locally called garri machines, to grind their cassava before processing it. The grinders significantly reduce their labor inputs while increasing production, enhancing their businesses and improving their livelihoods.
“Since it was introduced, women’s involvement in business activity in the community has increased. We see more provision shops being built,” says Wratee Boyee, a community leader in Jeadea District.
The flourishing cassava businesses are some of the results of a trial of a new conservation method known as payment for stewardship. Launched last July, the program enables communities to receive direct cash benefits and livelihood interventions to help keep their forests standing. Experts say the program shows great potential to improve lives in rural communities, though it is too early to measure its full impact.
The program intends to protect between 300,000 and 500,000 hectares of forest, with a total investment of US$3.4 million by 2030. It is jointly implemented by Integrated Development and Learning (IDL), a Margibi-based NGO, and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).
“FDA strongly believes that this project will lead to the enhancement of sustainable forest management, forest conservation, including legal compliance and enforcement,” said Myers Tweh Jr., assurance and compliance manager at the FDA. “It will lead to the implementation of reward-based mechanisms that would reduce pressure on the forest.”
Under the trial, Wedjah is protecting 7,131 hectares, and Jaedae 43,543 hectares after meeting payment requirements. Both communities have received a combined payment of US$150,622 at the rate of US$1.50 per hectare yearly, according to payment records. Wedjah got US$21,393 for the two years the trial has been running, while Jaedae secured US$129,229 for the same period. Moreover, local forest guards receive training, a monthly compensation, protective gear, and GPS-programmed gadgets for monitoring.
Both Wedjah and Jaedae are on the buffer with the Sapo National Park, Liberia’s largest protected area, and the Proposed Grand-Kru-River-Gee Protected Area. They host wildlife such as chimpanzees and other species typical of Liberia’s rainforest, the largest remaining in West Africa.
In exchange for cash and the other benefits, Wedjah and Jaedae do not mine, farm, log, or build new homes in their forests. They harvest timber and non-timber products for community use only. They signed an agreement last June.
Environmentalists say the payment for stewardship helps reduce local communities’ dependency on the forest resources and contributes to the fight against climate change. Between 2002 and 2024, Liberia lost 390,000 hectares of primary forest, according to the Global Forest Watch. Agriculture, logging, mining, illicit activities and a recent cocoa boom in the southeast are the contributors, undermining conservation efforts.
Game-changer
Payment for stewardship breaks away from the past, when communities were at the margins of conservation efforts. In contrast, the program places communities at the core of conservation efforts. They protect the forest and decide what to do with the resources.
“We ensured that no one was excluded from the process,” recalls Silas Siakor, the executive director of IDL, “because, when you exclude others, there is a natural tendency for a whole community to go against you.”
“We wanted to do something very simple: we wanted communities to be provided direct incentives to protect their community forests,” adds Siakor.
Overall, the stewardship is intended to develop a community-led benefit-sharing mechanism. Currently, that is the duty of the Benefit Sharing Trust Board, which regulates resources for logging concessions. However, the new program recommends a channel that incorporates mining, agriculture, and climate finance.
Similarly, the payment for the stewardship program readies communities for climate financing, environmentalists say. Liberia is developing a carbon policy framework.
An independent assessment reviewed the new program’s activities and payment performances, and found positive behavioral changes among locals.
The most visible success of the scheme comes from the investments in livelihood activities, largely driven by village loan groups that provide savings and low-interest loans to members. IDL works with more than 52 in Sinoe; 20 in Wedjah and Jaedae.
“In 2025 alone, the [village loan scheme] generated more than L$50 million (US$263,000) from their village saving activities, more than what the amount the communities received for keeping their forest standing,” says Silas Siakor.
A section of a farm on the edge of a forest in Jaedae District, Sinoe County, in 2025. The DayLight/Esau Farr
For the cassava processing, four machines have been strategically deployed in Wedjah, replacing the traditional method of grinding the cassava. The investment in livelihood is the primary attraction for women, according to Siakor.
In addition to the machines, Wedjah received three motorbikes to improve women’s access to the market and secure better prices for their garri.
“We see that women are forming more financial clubs in the community, the movement of goods and services has increased, and businesses are also flourishing,” Lasting Kadee, a community leader in Wedjah, said in an interview with The DayLight. “We want to give it out to them 100 percent for this program. It is really helping our people.”
Additional feedback
Despite the success stories, the independent assessment found the payment for stewardship to be “moderately strong” in that it was too early to grade the overall impact. The review took place six months into the program, needing more than to conduct a full-scale assessment. This, too, was compounded by bad weather and terrible road networks.
However, the assessment was conclusive regarding the challenges associated with the payment for stewardship. It found that the youth and elderly townspeople disagreed on how potential land disputes could be settled.
Also, it found that townspeople in Wedjah and Jaedae faced difficulty meeting and agreeing on projects due to long distances between communities. Townsfolk said they did not afford transportation to attend meetings, the assessment revealed.
“We saw that planning for the project was a difficult thing to do because you cannot get everybody in one location at the same time,” says Saah David, an environmentalist who led the assessment. “Nevertheless, based on our interactions with the different actors, I think it is a game-changing initiative with a lot of potential.”
David’s report recommends that youth participation, coordination, and improvement in communication and compliance safeguards would address challenges. It also recommends improvement in performance requirements and governance safeguards to meet the program’s challenges.
To meet these challenges, IDL wants to engage communities and support local forest bodies for long-term success.
“We intend to organize more discussions around these issues,” says Siakor. “The idea is to generate additional feedback from the different stakeholders, so that we can derive effective solutions to those issues that have been identified.”
Top: A deforested area in Polar Town, Neezonnie Clan, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba
By Carlucci Cooper
KUEBO TOWN, Grand Gedeh — Princess Monjolo, the Town Chief of Kuebo, a forest-enveloped town situated within the Neezonnie Community Forest, was there from the formation of Neezonnie in 2011. The community obtained the right to co-manage logging activities alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).
However, in recent years, French-speaking men from the neighboring Ivory Coast have begun arriving there on foot, on motorbikes, and by canoe. They encouraged locals to farm cocoa, assuring them it would improve their lives in no time. Townspeople here, including Monjolo, agreed.
“We used to plant rice and other crops before; our lives didn’t change. Now, seeing how the livelihood of the people in the next town is improving, we don’t want to be left behind,” Monjolo says in an interview in Kuebo. “That’s why we agreed to enter the cocoa business.”
Like Monjolo, local people and Burkinabé migrants they host have encroached on the Neezonnie Community Forest to cultivate cocoa. The people here say low living conditions push them towards illegal cocoa cultivation, citing a failed logging contract as their justification.
It was not a tough decision, though, just as Monjolo, who has a six-hectare cocoa farm and hosts eight Burkinabé migrants, puts it. Neezonnie’s neighbors, Marbo-1 and Marbo-2, had done the same years ago and were benefiting from their cocoa production. Modern houses are mushrooming, and businesses are booming.
The transformation here from logging to cocoa, known as the “brown gold,” is touchable. Young cocoa farms line both sides of the road from Polar Town to Tiah Town, as it was in other communities. In Tiah Town, Burkinabé migrants spread cocoa beans on a platform to dry, with the migrants everywhere, outnumbering their landlords. The Liberia Immigration Service has recorded 55,000 Burkinabe migrants in the country, with 48,000 in Grand Gedeh County alone.
Burkinabé migrants pose for a picture before cocoa beans in B’hai District, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Samuel Jabba
The Burkinabés have an agreement with their Neezonnie hosts: The landlords provide land, while the migrants invest cash and labor. In some cases, locals hire Burkinabé to clear the forest for cocoa.
The people in are hopeful that when their cocoa harvest they will begin to experience a better life, like their neighbors in Marbo-1 and Marbo-2.
“My three boys have graduated from high school, and I’m depending on my cocoa to support my children in the university,” says Amelia Sioseoh, a 10-hectare cocoa farmer in Polar Town, one of the communities that owns Neezonnie.
“I inherited eight hectares of cocoa farmland from my parents. The farm was giving me a hard time, but when the Burkinabes came, they transformed the farm, and I will be harvesting soon,” adds Eddie Gaye, a cocoa farmer in Kuebo Town.
Morris Totaye, a Polar Town resident and, like Sioseoh, has a 10-hectare farm in the community forest, is already benefitting from cocoa. Totaye says he has generated US$22,000 from his cocoa farm. His new house—a two-storey building, part mud, part concrete, with a metal roof—is near completion.
“Without this farm, I am not sure that I would be successful,” Tataye tells The DayLight.
“Those who are saying that the Burkinabes should go back have a point. As for me, I would like to apologize: Let the Burkinabés stay because they are helping,” he adds.
But the forest pays a great price for Neezonnie’s newfound prosperity. Since 2022, Neezonnie has lost most of its 42,424 hectares to cocoa cultivation. It is one of eight community forests, the FDA reports. Burkinabés and their hosts have encroached on Grand Gedeh, in addition to proposed protected areas and large-scale logging concessions.
Gbarzon District—where Neezonnie is located—is the worst-deforested region, accounting for 37,000 hectares of primary forest loss between 2002 and 2024, according to Global Forest Watch, an application that tracks deforestation in real time. Permanent agriculture accounts for over 86 percent of that primary forest loss.
“For now, I cannot tell you there’s any forest left in Neezonnie that the government can utilize. Except the government wants to use the dry logs by doing clear-felling. They are burning trees daily, and community dwellers themselves are involved,” says Beyan Woi, the FDA’s deputy regional management officer in Grand Gedeh and Sinoe.
Drone footage of a dying forest in The Neezonnie Community Forest, where deforestation is at an alarming rate. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
‘Cocoa money’
Townspeople might be thrilled with their cocoa prospects; however, their farms violate the agreement they signed with the FDA. Under the agreement, Neezonnie cannot clear-cut a forest for agricultural processes.
People here use the failure of a contract between Neezonnie and a logging company to justify their encroachment on the forest. In 2019, the Liberian Hardwood Corporation deserted the contract, abandoning hundreds of logs to decay and failing to deliver on required projects.
Then Neezonnie filed a lawsuit against the company, winning an initial judgment of US$123,332 for damages at a local court. However, in 2021, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling, ordering Liberian Hardwood to vacate the forest.
“We know the forest is for concession, but they are not working. We can’t be sitting down while other towns are getting rich from their forests.
The FDA is in a daily struggle to save the region’s forests. The agency creates awareness, but those efforts have proved unsuccessful. Last year, it arrested 31 Burkinabés at the border between Marbo-1 for encroachment, one of the single-largest apprehensions of the West African migrants. The group was later charged with criminal trespassing and criminal mischief. They deny any wrongdoing.
Neezonnie’s leadership is aware that planting cocoa in the community forest is illegal, but it struggles to prevent intruders. It is the direct opposite of the Bloquia Community Forest, where Sampson Zammie, its leader, works with townspeople there to keep out intruders.
“Our people’s lives are improving, but it will embarrass us in the future. We will not have anywhere to farm in the next five or six years,” says Albert Mohwen, an advisor to Neezonnie’s community forest leadership.
Monjolo acknowledges the negative impacts of cocoa farming, but does not change her stance.
“When we cut down all the trees in the forest,” Manjolo says, “we will buy planks and cement to build our homes from the cocoa money.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia.
