Illicit Miners Ravage Community Forest

November 5, 2024

Top: Local forest guards with carpet seized from artisanal miners in the Salayea Community Forest. File picture

By Esau J. Farr

TELEMU TOWN, Lofa County – Miners in Lofa County have intruded on the Salayea Authorized Community Forest, undermining locals’ efforts to conserve the woodland. The miners entered the 8,270-hectare forest without the community’s consent, violating the Community Rights Law, which created community forestry.

“They are knocking down the trees,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest, established in 2019.

The DayLight obtained photographs taken by local forest guards showing mining equipment, barrels of fuel, felled trees and a polluted waterway.

Townspeople said the miners had 13 dredges on a tributary of the St. Paul River, machines the government has banned. The DayLight could not independently verify that information regarding our reporters’ safety on a long road amid bad weather.

Salayea is one of a few conservation community forests in Liberia, the only one in Lofa County. The forest’s leadership runs alternative livelihood programs to keep locals off murky, rocky woodland, with a high potential for gold.

“We want to keep this area as a reserved forest for our children and future generations,” said Nathaniel Forkpa, the secretary general of the community land leadership of Palama Clan, which hosts a portion of the forest.

Illicit miners over the River Dugbe in Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Forkpah, secretary general of the Palama Clan’s community land development and management committee. The clan hosts a portion of the forest. Forkpah and other townsmen had first spotted the miners in May.

In 2023, Lofa County lost 20,000 hectares of forest, according to the Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide. It was the county with the third-most loss.

Administrative proceeding

Angered by the actions of the illicit mining activities, forest guards seized the miners’ properties.

Later, Salayea filed a lawsuit against Ford Roy Tabolo, the mine owner. They sue him and two other men for mining without license, smuggling of minerals, criminal trespass and criminal facilitation, documents from the Salayea Magisterial Court show.

Tabolo and the men deny any wrongdoing. Tabolo argued that their activities were legal, producing a small-scale mining license.

Following a week of hearings, the court dismissed the case and removed a stay on the trio’s activities.

Judge Gabriel Ndupellar ruled that both parties had legal documents. Ndupellar said the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) needed to resolve the matter.

“The proceeding before this court is not ripe enough for judicial determination, except based on the outcome of an administrative proceeding,” the court said.

Reeling from the ruling, Salayea wrote the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) about the case. “We need your quick intervention,” read the June 8 letter. The FDA did not immediately respond to the DayLight’s queries.

The case is the fourth concerning mining in a community forest in the last five years, per media reports. Previous cases involved Korninga B and Bondi Mandingo in Gbarpolu, and Blei and Sehyi-Ko-doo in Nimba. Bea Mountain Mining Corporation and Solway Mining Inc. were penalized in the Korninga B and Nimba cases. The other Gbarpolu case implicates unlicensed miners and is still in court.

Meanwhile, Mulbah said Salayea was consulting lawyers for further legal actions against Tabolo.

Salayea forest guards with tools seized from an artisanal mine owner Ford Roy Tabolo. File picture

Water pollution

Back in Salayea, Tabolo and his team are digging in the forest. A DayLight review of the Ministry of Mines’ records shows Tabolo has four small-scale mining licenses, all expired in August and have not been renewed. That includes the license he presented to the court, based on court filings. Tabolo did not return queries for comments on this story.

Locals said another group of miners uses dredges on the St. Paul River, polluting creeks, driving away wildlife, and destroying the forest. It was due to such harmful environmental impacts the Ministry of Mines imposed a moratorium on dredging in 2019.

“The fishes in the water are also being affected and our people are eating the fish because they don’t know,” said Tokpah Koiwu, a community leader.

Villagers now carry drinking water from towns to their farms due to the pollution, Koiwu added.

The DayLight did not see the dredges. However, reporters obtained photos of royal blue plastic barrels, used by miners to make the makeshift machines. Furthermore, the color of the water in the pictures was consistent with a dredging operation.

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

Salayea Shows Community Land and Forest Leaders Can Work Together

November 2, 2024

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Top: Eva Kpandah, Palama Clan’s community land and development committee chairperson. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Esau J. Farr

SALAYEA TOWN, Lofa County – In 2019, the Sehyi Clan in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County began the legal process of acquiring a customary land deed. Sehyi’s community land development and management committee spearheads that process.

Another clan group has exercised similar functions over Sehyi’s forest since 2017. The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s community forest management body comanages the 1,538-hectare forest alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).

There is a problem, though. The forest leadership does not have a good relationship with its land counterpart. Like several communities, they are at loggerheads, with mounting calls for a national conversation to resolve these disputes.

But things are different in the Salayea District of Lofa County over 200 miles away. There, three—not two—community land and forest bodies, peacefully coexist and solve some of the district’s problems.

Since 2009, the district has had a community forest development committee, representing locals’ interests in a large-scale logging concession.

In 2016, the Salayea Community Forest was established, with a community leadership to co-manage the forest.

Then in 2019, Palama, a clan that hosts a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, established a governance structure to help develop and manage its land.

“If we don’t merge and work together, things will not work well for us,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Community Forest.

“We are working together as a team for a goal to protect the forest, to take it from illegal activities for the community’s development,” adds Eva Kpandah, the chairperson of Palama Clan’s land committee.

All three of the district’s bodies combat community challenges, including land conflicts and illegal mining activities.

A portion of the 8,270-hectare Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

In May, Kpandah tipped off Mulbah when she spotted miners entering the forest. Kpandah and Tokpah Koiwu supported Mulbah in filing a lawsuit against the miners. Koiwu is a member of Salayea District’s committee regarding the district’s large-scale logging concession.

In another instance, Mulbah and Koiwu are supporting Kpandah in Palama’s boundary dispute with Gbarlain, a neighboring clan.

‘Not invited’

In Sehyi, the stakes are even higher. Like Salayea, its forest and those of its neighbors Zor, Gba and Blei are all adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve. The four communities run conservation programs that help protect the reserve’s endangered and endemic species, including chimpanzees and the Nimba toad. However, confusion among community leaders undermines livelihood programs that benefit locals and keep the forest standing.

Yassah Mulbah speaks to The DayLight at the margins of the National Land Conference in September 2024. The DayLight/Harry Browne

“The [community forest] leadership said… they can’t accept to collaborate with us,” says Peter Dolo, Sehyi’s land leadership. “When they are having meetings, [we are] not invited.”

Ericson Flomo, the leader of Sehyi’s forest leadership, denies that accusation. “They have not called us in any of their meetings,” Flomo says. He claims he is the one who has invited Dolo to several meetings.

Dolo refutes Flomo’s comments, saying he has attended Flomo’s meetings as a townsperson, not the land leader.

This crisis has rocked communities outside of Nimba. In River Cess, the leaders of Gbarsaw and Dorbor Community Forest have refused to recognize land leaders of the clan. “They are only there to take care of the land after the loggers have left. They have no authority over the forest,” James Gbordoe, the forest leader of Gbarsaw and Dorbor, said in 2021. “When the logs have been cut from there, they will have the whole land to take care of.”

The intensity of the crisis was displayed at a workshop in Ganta last month. Things got so heated that Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who helped organize the event, had to suspend the topic after a discord of claims and counterclaims from participants. The event was being held to gauge communities’ views on what they would need to manage their forest sustainably.

‘Forerunner’

Campaigners foretold this result. A few months after the passage of the Land Rights Act in 2018, the Margibi-based NGO Sustainable Development Institute published a report, predicting the power struggle.

(R-L) Peter Dolo, the chairman of Sehyi Clan’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC), and Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The report argues that “conflicting provisions” in the law, which created the community land leadership, and Community Rights Law…, which established the forest leadership, would escalate tension.

“Our thinking is the crisis will increase because part of the reasons the law was crafted was to address issues of rural marginalization in respect to managing resources in the country but also conflicting, overlapping rights,” Ali Kaba, the then-head of SDI’s community land protection program, said at the time.

“It is a good law. However, there are loopholes, there are gaps and there are contradictions,” added Kaba, who is now a Commissioner at the Liberia Land Authority.

Speaking in 2021 at a conservation event in Monrovia, Cllr. Negbalee Warner, a senior partner at Heritage Partners and Associates (HPA) and one of the laws’ crafters, somehow acknowledged the “overlap” SDI spoke of.

“If there is anything, it is that the provisions of the two laws are in some instances [overlapped], although an argument can be made that the more appropriate term will be ‘reinforcing,’” said Warner. “The [land leadership] is therefore superior to all the structures established by the [Community Rights Law].”

‘Confusion will do nothing’

Bonathan Walaka, the lead facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body, says that understanding the roles and responsibilities of the two groups is crucial for progress.

The union intends to hold a forum with national stakeholders of the sectors to help ease the tension between community leaders. “The [forest leadership] should know that those who own the land are the community [people] and that they are only managing the forest,” Walaka says.

Augustine Dweh, the chairperson of a network of community land managers, agrees with Walaka, saying education and awareness are crucial to the solution.

An elevated view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The same goes for Eddie Beangar, Nimba County’s Land Administrator. “Having both them to understand their roles and to ensure that their involvement impacts the environment positively,” says Beangar.

Back in Sehyi, Dolo and Flomo are willing to work together. Dolo promises to invite Flomo and his team to an impending meeting, hoping to pave the way for a renewed, smooth relationship. The same goes for Flomo

“[Anything] that is better for Sehyi, Sehyi Ko-doo will accept, Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview at an entrance of the mountainous forest. “Confusion will do nothing for us.”

FDA and the Abandoned Logs Lies

October 30, 2024

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Top: African Wood and Lumber Company abandoned hundreds of logs in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa, with people burning some. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – In the rainy season of 2020, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) investigated the scale of abandoned logs in Grand Bassa, River Cess, and Nimba Counties.

Investigators were stunned by what they discovered: several companies had left thousands of logs in the bush, on open fields, at sawmills, and other locations for long periods.

“Valuable species are continuously being harvested by logging companies without first securing sales contracts,” the investigators said in a report, “only to leave those logs unattended.”

A signboard at a log yard used by Coveiyalah on the Bomi highway supported the investigator’s findings. It read: “Timber sale.” Investigators recommended that the FDA curtail the situation. The signboard came down not long after.

Four years after the report—spanning two administrations—the FDA has yet to take any concrete action despite officially vowing on various occasions, to tackle the problem. Abandoned logs are symbols of the meltdown of the forestry sector, with companies deserting contracts, leaving debts and logs in their wake.

Abu Musa Kamara, campaigner at the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committee, calls on the FDA to verify companies’ capacity before approving contracts. He urges constant monitoring and enforce forestry’s legal laws and regulations.

A 2020 FDA investigation established that companies were felling trees before securing sale contracts as seen in this 2022 picture. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“If these things happen, there will be no abandoned logs in concession areas,” Kamara tells The DayLight in an email.

Logs are abandoned when left unattended at a location for a certain period. The Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber, and Timber Products imposes fines, a prison term, and contract termination.

The regulation replaced a previous one that had proven ineffective seven years ago and undermined the regulator’s mandate to avoid waste of forest resources. Under the current regulation, the FDA must investigate and petition a court to auction abandoned logs.

‘Learning curve’

In 2022, the FDA ordered all companies to declare their production in LiberTrace, Liberia’s log-tracking system. It was a bid to tackle the situation albeit two years after the investigators’ report.

Later that year, then-Managing Director Mike Doryen said in a DayLight interview the regulator would begin auctioning logs that month. “We… will continue in the northern region and then go down south and [the] western part,” Doryen said.

In the end, nothing happened, as more evidence emerged of companies leaving logs. The Italian-registered African Wood and Lumber left logs on a field in Grand Bassa, with some burned. The Lebanese-owned Masayaha abandoned some 600 nearby. At least 500 Sing Africa logs rotted outside of Buchanan alongside hundreds of logs other companies dashed. Elsewhere, a DayLight investigation uncovered about 5,000 logs abandoned by the International Consultant Capital in the Gbi-Doru District, Nimba County.

Doryen’s timeframe was legally impossible, and his comments were dishonest—or at least ignorant. Per the regulation, auctioning timber takes months. Moreover, there is no record that the FDA filed a required petition at any circuit court countrywide to seize abandoned logs.

Doryen would tell the Associated Press a year later that the FDA had approved exports of abandoned logs outside of the legal process as “part of the learning curve.”

A DayLight investigation established Iroko abandoned hundreds of logs it harvested latest October 2022. They were recently exported without any due process, according to community leaders. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

In early 2023, the FDA announced it had suspended several companies’ harvesting certificates in Sinoe. The list included Malaysian-listed Mandra, which had abandoned about 7,000 logs, likely the largest The DayLight recorded.

“This decision is prompted by the failure of these companies to honor the mandate from the FDA to enrol all logs harvested in LiberTrace,” read an FDA statement. “Companies in both categories, suspended certificates and otherwise, may be subject to further [penalties]…”

Again, no public records that show the FDA punished the companies.

Unlawful

The FDA’s biggest-known abandoned logs lie occurred during last year’s presidential elections. On October 31, it published a notice on suspicion of abandoned logs on its website and ELBC.

A week later, the FDA petitioned the Zorzor, Magisterial Court in Lofa County to begin the process. “We hereby request Your Honor and this honorable court for a search and seizure warrant,” read the petition.

A screenshot of FDA’s Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley exposing her involvement in an unlawful abandoned logs petition during last year’s presidential elections. Facebook/Gertrude Wade Korvayan Nyaley

But that petition was unlawful and may have exposed the FDA’s dishonesty. The abandoned logs regulation requires the FDA to file a seizure application at a circuit court, not a magisterial court.

Also, the time interval between the announcement and the petition was short. Per the regulation, the petition should have been filed over a month after several notices.

Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley was one of two attorneys who signed the petition. She was the technical manager of the FDA’s legality verification department (LVD) then.

Nyaley posted pictures of the petitioning and a court document to her Facebook page in July this year. She was responding to a DayLight fact-check of false claims she had made on Okay FM’s Forest Hour regarding abandoned logs processes.

She did not respond to two questions in 19 days about her direct involvement in the unlawful process.

International Consultant Capital abandoned 5,000 logs in Gbi-Doru District, Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

No progress

Things remain the same under Doryen’s successor Rudolph Merab. Like Doryen, Merab has not lived up to his commitment to confront the abandoned logs problem.

This April, two months after his induction as FDA’s boss, he happened upon mounts of sundried logs in the southeast. Merab vowed to tackle the problem head-on Spoon FM reported.

A July DayLight investigation—a follow-up to an initial one published over a year ago—found the Nigerian company Iroko Timber a Logging Company abandoned some 700 logs in Sinoe. FDA’s commercial department promised to investigate the company but did not.

The logs were recently exported, roughly two years since they were harvested, according to Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the Central River Dugbe Community Forest the company operates.

A recent review of forestry concessions by the US-based NGO Forest Trends recommends that the FDA documents the scale of abandoned logs and sets up a database. That, too, has not happened.

Many logs transported to log yards across Liberia remain there until they rot. The DayLight/Eric Opa Doue

Merab did not return The DayLight’s queries and follow-ups, reversing a trend he had set. However, Merab told the Associated Press last April that he intended to scrap regulations that were “cumbersome” and “repressive.”

Amid the FDA’s dishonesty and failure, the Commercial Court authorized the sales of abandoned logs to pay off companies’ debts.

Perhaps the first publicized one is the case between Alma Wood and AfriLand Bank, which occurred before Merab. Co-owned by Lebanese businessman El Zein Hassan, Alma Wood defaulted on a US$63,000 loan from Afriland Bank. The court ordered the bank to auction Alma Wood’s properties, including 5,000 cubic meters of logs harvested in Grand Cape Mount County between 2018 and 2020.

Other cases involve Sing Africa, Alpha Logging and Wood Processing Company, and Guaranty Trust Bank (Liberia) Limited. Sing Africa borrowed US$ 3 million from GT Bank on June 14, 2021. When it failed to pay the loan, the court authorized the bank to auction the company’s assets valued over US$7 million, including logs it abandoned in Lofa and Gbarpolu.

The Court had earlier permitted the bank to auction 15,000 cubic meters of logs belonging to Sing Africa and Alpha.

Forestry experts say the banks’ auctions will reduce the government’s revenue and communities, benefits, and expose the system failure. Normally, auction fees should go to the government and the communities where the logs were felled. In this case, the banks take a big portion of the money.

“If the FDA had enforced the abandoned logs regulation, the banks would be left with only other fixed assets,” says an expert who does not want to be named.

Jonathan Yiah the lead forestry campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), an NGO instrumental in formulating forestry’s legal framework, agrees.

“The bank shouldn’t be a priority at the expense of the community and the government,” Yiah says, “though sometimes it is the government’s negligence that we are having this conversation.”

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

Illegal Miners Encroach on Wologizi Forest

October 29, 2024

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Top: Illicit miners are ravaging the Wologizi Proposed Protected Area, according to a ranger and a community leader. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

By Varney Kamara

GANTA, Nimba County – Illicit miners have encroached on the Wologizi Proposed Protected Area in Lofa County, according to a ranger and a community leader. Illegal miners have overrun this critical habitat, smuggling gold and diamonds into neighboring Guinea.

“We are just starting to tackle these issues. We are working hard to minimize them,” said Momo Ricks, an FDA ranger stationed there. “Illegal activities like these harm the environment.”

Ricks revealed this information at a recent community forestry meeting in Ganta, Nimba County, where regional leaders discussed sustainable ways for communities to benefit from forest resources.

Ricks’ comments were supported by Anthony Sumo, the community land and development committee (CLDMC) chairman of Zogoleemai Township, where portions of Wologizi and Wonegizi Proposed Protected Areas are located. Sumo added that locals were making efforts to combat illegal mining.

“We are actively fighting against these activities, especially in areas close to the river,” Sumo said.

The 28,894-hectare forest is a part of the Wonegizi-Wologizi Ziama (WWZ) cross-border landscape, linking Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. It hosts endangered species like chimpanzees and pygmy hippopotamus. It is one of Liberia’s protected areas, covering over 1.14 million hectares of humid rainforests.

Despite legal safeguards, unlawful practices continue in the vast forest. Community resistance, weak law enforcement, and limited deterrents have worsened illegal activities.

“The community has requested more forest guards, better salaries, and stronger partnership support, but resources have yet to materialize,” said Sumo. “For conservation to succeed, we need consistent backing. Without it, we risk losing the forest and its benefits.

“We are focused on resisting illegal activities, like logging while promoting sustainable practices that support our community,” Sumo added.

The news of illegal mining supports a 2020 report by Fauna & Flora International, which found habitat loss from unregulated activities.

CORRECTION: This version of the story corrects a previous version, which mistook Wonegizi for Wologizi. It also corrects Anthony Sumo’s title as the community land development and management committee chairman of the Zogoleemai Township, not the Wonegizi Proposed Protected Area.

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

EU to End Timber Agreement with Liberia

October 26, 2024

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Top: The European Union has notified Liberia that it would terminate a trade agreement with the West African country. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Gabriel M. Dixon

Monrovia – The European Union has notified Liberia of its intent to terminate a timber trade pact between the bloc and the West African country.

The Head of Delegation to Liberia Nona Deprez confirmed the EU’s decision to end the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in a letter to the NGO Coalition, a network of Liberian organizations.

“I confirm that the European Union (EU) communicated its intention to terminate the VPA FLEGT,” said Deprez in the letter seen by The DayLight. “A formal notification to the [Liberia] government is in process.”

The VPA ensures logs Liberia exports to the EU and other countries come from legal sources. It is a key component of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan, known as FLEGT. It aims to address illegal logging and guarantees local communities’ benefits from forest resources.

The EU and Liberia began to negotiate the VPA in 2009 and signed the pact two years later.

The Liberian Legislature ratified the agreement in 2013, after which it became legally enforceable by both parties.

Deprez’s letter did not say the reason behind the planned termination. However, the news comes weeks after the European Parliament decided to terminate the VPA with Cameroon. It and Liberia are two of six countries in the agreement in Africa and Asia.

Most Liberian logs end up on Asian markets with lax timber regulatory regimes. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The EU based its decision on Cameroon’s failure to qualify for FLEGT licensing, which allows a country to trade timber to EU member states.

Cameroon had promised to complete legal reforms for FLEGT licensing in five years but has instead witnessed illegal logging.

The situation in Liberia mirrors that of Cameroon.

Liberia has not met the requirements for the FLEGT license, though it has been 11 years since it signed the VPA.

Like Cameroon, Liberia exports the majority of its timber to Asian countries.

A recent review of forest concessions paints a grim picture of logging in Liberia. it says none of the 11 concessions evaluated were compliant with national laws. Companies lack forestry licenses, legal identity, and performance bonds.

Last year, the Associated Press reported an EU-commissioned, independent investigation found illegal logging on a “significant scale,” with the Forestry Development Authority breaching the law. The FDA regulates the forestry sector.

The investigation was prompted by the illegal harvesting of US$3 million worth of logs by the logging firm, Renaissance Group Inc. The FDA was found to have made unlawful decisions in assessing the severity of offenses and downplaying the seriousness of violations.

The Associated Press also reported Liberia exports 70 percent of its timber outside the legal system built with EU support, citing diplomatic sources.

NGOs are making a last-minute attempt to have the EU reconsider its decision.

Andrew Zelemen of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committees (NUCFDC), fears the decision would undermine gains in the forestry sector. Termination means more illegal logs to Asian markets with lax timber regulations.

“The termination of the VPA would likely have detrimental effects on local communities by promoting illegal logging, undermining economic stability and threatening environmental sustainability,” said Zelemen.

Dayugar Johnson of the Independent Forest Monitor said the NGO Coalition would try to halt the decision. He said it would stifle climate change mitigation efforts.

“We have started engaging various stakeholders locally and internationally,” said Johnson. “Our next move is to engage with the EU parliament to reason with them not to pass the resolution canceling the VPA in Liberia.”

The EU and the FDA did not immediately respond to queries for comments. However, in her letter to the NGOs, Deprez said Liberia’s forest was crucial for the region, and the EU remained a partner.

“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.”

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

Actors Trained to Restore Lost Forests

October 23, 2024

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Top: Participants of a five-day training exercise in Yekepa prepare a site for planting. Picture credit: USFS

By James Harding Giahyue

YEKEPA – Twenty-four forestry actors have been trained to combat deforestation and degraded forestlands in and around the East Nimba Nature Reserve, a conservation hub in the northeast county.

The exercise was part of the United States Forest Service’s support of Liberia’s AFR100 pledge to restore a million hectares of forests by 2030. (AFR100 seeks to reforest 100 million hectares in Africa) It seeks to restore wildlife—plants and animal species—in one of Liberia’s important landscapes.

“The workshop contributes significantly to enhancing forest restoration efforts in Liberia,” said Benedictus Freeman, USFS Liberia’s country coordinator. USFS has worked alongside USAID in Liberia since 2003. The training is the collaboration’s latest effort.

“By providing participants with the necessary knowledge and skills, the workshop has empowered them to play a vital role in restoring degraded lands in Liberia and promoting sustainable forest management,” Freeman added.

Deforestation, forest degradation and wildfire are some of Liberia’s biggest environmental challenges. Between 2001 and 2023, Liberia lost 2.36 million hectares of tree cover— 17 hectares from fire—according to the Global Forest Watch.

Experts say harmful farming methods, logging, and mining are the key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Liberia.

So, for five days last week at the Nimba Ecolodge in Yekepa, the forestry actors learned different techniques. They learned how to manage native tree nurseries, including shade construction with local materials, bed preparation, seed selection and sowing.

A nursery was established at the East Nimba Nature Reserve to spark the restoration activities.

The FDA, USFS Liberia and Guinean NGO Resource Naturelles Sans Pauvreté facilitated the training. It followed an April-May study tour during which USFS’ Guinean partners shared their experiences with their Liberian counterparts.

Freeman said training laid the foundation for a potential collaboration between Guinea and Liberia, particularly in the Nimba landscape.

Participants came from the University of Liberia, the Forest Training Institute, and the Forestry Development Authority. Others came from the reserve, communities adjacent to the reserve and civil society.

They toured potential forest restoration sites and experimental plots created by ArcelorMittal Liberia, which comanages the reserve with the FDA. The company donated seedlings.

“It means a lot to me. All the people who participated will be able to apply the knowledge in their communities,” said Alphonso Kiedor, FDA’s restoration manager. “It will transform our learning field as well. I am sure that we are going to make a great change.”

Freeman said the next steps would be to maintain the partnership with the FDA, ArcelorMittal and other participants.

Court Says CARI Timber Smuggling Case Goes On

October 22, 2024

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Top: The Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Wilmot Konah

GBARNGA, Bong County – A court said it will hear the case against four suspected timber smugglers who operated at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).

Last week, Judge George S. Wiles Jr. denied a dismissal motion filed by a lawyer representing two Chinese Chaolong and Guoping Zang, a Turkish national Mehmet Onder Erem and their Liberian partner Terrentius Tidiboh Collins also known as Terrence Collins.

Defense lawyer Nathaniel Innis, Sr. had argued Forestry Development Authority’s board did not approve the lawsuit.

But Judge Wiles of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County said the petition was unlawful. “For a party asserting claim not to have legal capacity to sue, it must be done in accordance with our law and practice,” read the ruling.

The FDA is suing the men for a 12-month prison term, US$25,000 and the forfeiture of their equipment. The court has seized the equipment and thousands of timber the men left at CARI.

The suspects deny any wrongdoing, saying they operated legally.

The case is likely the first since the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products was formulated six years ago.

The trial starts this Thursday at 2 pm.

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

Invaders Run Sinoe Plantation with Impunity

October 21, 2024

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Top: Men work at a palm oil mill formerly owned by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) now run by Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) without the approval of the Liberian government or the consent of local people. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

SHAMPAY CAMP – Liberia National Produce Incorporated (LNPI), an oil palm company that encroached on an abandoned palm plantation in Sanquin District, Sinoe County about a year ago, continues to run the facility despite not meeting legal requirements, including the consent of the local landowners.

In 2022, LNPI purchased the 8,400-hectare palm plantation in the Sanquin District for about US$445,000 from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had abandoned the facility three years earlier. However, LNPI has not regularized the takeover to operate. A DayLight investigation in August found that the company forced residents out of the plantation with the aid of armed police officers.

Now two months after the investigation, LNPI continues to operate the facility. New evidence and interviews conducted by The DayLight show that LNPI is not compliant with several Liberian laws and international best practices.

This supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s claim that it was unaware of LNPI’s operations. Legally, the Inter-ministerial Concession Committee, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bureau of Concessions and the National Investment Commission (NIC), approves takeovers.

The DayLight has seen a copy of the LNPI draft concession agreement, without key signatures, including then-President George Weah and then-Minister of Finance Samuel Tweah’s.

In a September response to The DayLight’s queries, NIC appeared to corroborate the Ministry of Agriculture’s statement. “The Government of Liberia… provided consent to the transfer, contingent upon the new buyer’s commitment to resuscitate the plantation and ensure compliance with all applicable taxes and regulations under [the] Liberian law,” wrote the Executive Director of the NIC Melvin Sheriff.

Evidence of LNPI’s operations is aplenty. The DayLight witnessed workers active at a palm mill the company renovated, with smoke rising from the facility overhead. Fresh brushing spots along the main road to the Shampay Camp, where workers of the defunct Butaw Oil Palm Company lived. A giant-wheeled transporter plied the road.

Before announcing the takeover, LNPI secured an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year.

With the help of armed police, LNPI has forced camp dwellers out of the plantation and allegedly seized their personal belongings. Nestled between hills and forests, Shampay Camp once thrived and served as a palm oil hub. People in and out of the area exploit the plantation to produce palm oil.

“We are living in hell here. They always make us scared. They took my freedom mill machine and spoiled it. We have no space to breathe,” said Fatu Sheriff, an elderly woman.

“One man from the company came to my house. He told me that if I did not stop buying and selling oil on the camp, he would order the security to beat me and take me away from the camp by force,” Sheriff added.

“Then, I looked in his face and told him that if he wanted to, he should go ahead and kill me, but I was not taking one foot from my house to go anywhere.”

Smoke billows from a palm oil mill in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Sheriff’s comments and others The DayLight heard validate townspeople the newspaper interviewed in June this year. LNPI did not return emailed queries in response to issues in this story.

LNPI proposes that locals allow the company to operate. In the document, seen by The DayLight, LNPI proposes to pay benefits to the community, including a monthly payment of US$1,000 to the community development fund, rental fees, and engaging in community development. Once these conditions are satisfied, the agreement allows for the company to operate without “any disturbance or embarrassment.”

“This is manually agreed by the parties that the monthly payments are an advance on any community’s obligations the company needs to pay once the concession agreement has been approved by the Government of Liberia,” reads the proposed MoU.

The local community rejects the proposed MoU.

“The company is operating on our land without authorization,” said Ericson Pyne, a youth leader in Tarsue Chiefdom. “We have repeatedly asked them to show us the concession agreement, but they have refused.”

The Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah sides with the LNPI despite its glaring illegitimacy. In a letter to the Tarsue Chiefdom last month, Nyensuah urged locals to let the company operate.

“The Taruse community having received benefits under the now expired MoU from LNPI, the community lacks the standing to question the legitimacy of LNPI. The community can renew or renegotiate another MoU through the Office of the Superintendent,” read Nyensuah’s letter. Locals had filed a complaint with the Superintendent’s Office, expressing dissatisfaction over the company’s failure to present its concession agreement.

The people of Tarsue Chiefdom in Sanquin District, Sinoe County are unaware of the operations of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI). The DayLight/Varney Kamara

Nyensuah’s comments are not based on facts. In the MoU he referenced, the Tarsue Chiefdom did not empower the company to run the plantation. Instead, it granted LNPI the sole right to purchase palm oil from locals.

‘Organic palm oil’

LNPI’s involvement with the plantation violates the Land Rights Act and the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a watchdog writing rules for the global oil palm industry.

Both the law and the RSPO rules recognize ancestral land ownership and communities’ right to consent to projects intended for their lands. Liberia created the law in 2018 and adopted the RSPO rules three years later. This means they were not nonexistent when EPO took over the plantation from Liberia Forest Produce Incorporated in 2008.

James Otto, a lead campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), urges LNPI to inform the community of its intent to operate on their land and obtain a concession agreement.

“The company needs to have a well-designed concession negotiation through the FPIC process,” said Otto, whose NGO helped lodge the successful complaint against GVL in 2013 for communities. “The company needs to provide all the proper information to the community.

“There should be a formal lease agreement between the company and the landowners before the company starts operation,” added Otto.

LNPI is noncompliant with the Beneficial Ownership Regulation, which requires businesses in Liberia to declare their beneficial owners or the human beings who own them. This rule helps combat everything from money laundering to terrorist financing.

LNPI is a subsidiary of Konnex Investments Limited, with 51 percent of the company’s shares. The remaining 49 percent unsubscribed, according to LNPI’s articles of incorporation. However, the Liberia Business Registry said it did not have a list of the company’s owners, violating the regulation.

Also, there is no record of Konnex Investments Ltd. on the official public registry of all British firms. Konnex is not on OCCRP aleph, operated by the Organized Crimes and Corruption Reporting Project, one of the world’s largest public databases of companies.

A screenshot of a LinkedIn post of Uday Pilani, Konnex Investments Ltd.’s owner, claiming to be RSPO-complaint, producing organic palm oil and uplifting indigenous communities.

In a LinkedIn post last year, Uday Pilani, LNPI’s chairman per its website, identified himself as the owner of Konnex Investments Ltd. Pilani claims that the company uplifts indigenous communities, is RSPO-complaint and produces organic palm oil.

But the claims are the exact opposite of the company’s activities.

LNPI deceived locals into signing an MoU likely to gain control of the plantation before informing them about its takeover. It even violated the terms of the deceptive deal by extending it by several months.

That conduct breaks the RSPO’s first rule that requires oil palm companies to operate ethically and transparently. Because of the breach of that rule, the RSPO ordered Golden Veroleum Liberia to renegotiate an MoU with Tarjuwon, Butaw, and other areas after it was found GVL guilty of disrespecting those communities’ right to consent.

Then Pilani’s organic palm claim is not consistent with the definition of the phrase. Organic palm oil production involves sustainable farming that is environmentally responsible, socially equitable, economically viable, and prevents deforestation while protecting workers’ rights and the welfare of local communities, according to the RSPO. In contrast, LNPI’s activities undermine the descriptions of organic palm oil.

The Ministry of Justice, which negotiates concessions agreements, said it was investigating LNPI’s operations.

Group Formed to Tackle Land Conflicts

October 20, 2024

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Top: Some members of the network’s leaders at the Second National Land Conference last month in Ganta, Nimba County. The DayLight/ Harry Browne

By Esau J. Farr

GANTA, Nimba County – Communities in rural Liberia seek a customary deed to their ancestral lands but are plagued by boundary disputes.

Now, a new group, the Southeast Regional Network of Community Land Development and Management Committees, has been established to help resolve border conflicts and enable communities to acquire deeds much faster.

“We will identify the concerns and claims of communities, [and] involve the elders and traditional people for a peaceful resolution…,” says Augustine Dweh, chairperson of the network. Dweh spoke to The DayLight at the sidelines of the Second National Land Conference in Ganta last month.

“We understand that land disputes scare away development and that’s why we want to be serious about resolving disputes in our communities for us to live in peace,” adds Dweh.

Dweh’s community, Chedepo District, River Gee, does not have any dispute with its neighbors. However, several southeastern communities do. For instance, Lower Bokon, a clan in Sinoe’s Jaedae District, has had its quest for a deed stalled due to an issue with Neekleakpo, a town on the Grand Kru border.

Established this year, the network has more than 70 communities seeking a customary deed, according to the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), the Margibi-based NGO that helped form it.

The Land Rights Act of 2018 gives communities ownership of customary land, but their ownership must be formalized by meeting certain requirements.

The process begins with locals self-identifying as a landowning community. They are required to create a bylaw and constitution, organize a governance body and cut boundaries with their neighbors. Then the Liberia Land Authority should conduct an official survey and present that community a customary deed.

The network also seeks to build its members’ capacity and increase awareness of land rights and issues.

Communities in Liberia heavily depend on over a dozen NGOs and development institutions to guide them through legal requirements for customary land deeds.

To date, 30 communities have been issued deeds, according to the Land Authority. In addition, 21 statutory deeds have been issued, 50 communities have completed the survey process, and five are waiting for their deeds.

There is a growing call for the Land Authority to fast-track the process, while NGOs criticize the regulator for prioritizing certain communities. The Land Authority blames the delay on poor funding and the lack of coordination with NGOs.

SDI helped form the network with funding from the US-based Rights and Resources Institute (RRI). The network intends to use peaceful traditional means to resolve existing and future boundary conflicts without the direct involvement of NGOs.

Members of the SRNCLDMC and SDI’s staff. Photo credit: Sustainable Development Institute (SDI)

“Due to the absence of a regional and national body of the land sector, issues and challenges from the communities are difficult to handle or address,” says Daniel Wehyee, the coordinator of SDI’s community land protection program.

“The coming together of the communities will provide [them] opportunities to mobilize resources and strengthen its operations,” adds Wehyee. He says the establishment of the network presents an opportunity for community land rights actors to come together and champion their cause.

Last month, members of the network elected Dweh as chair, Mamie Freeman of Sinoe co-chair, and Jacob Nyamah of Maryland secretary general. Relevance Zeon of Grand Gedeh took the financial secretary position, while Tetoe Davis of River Cess and Anabel Sewon of Grand Kru clinched treasurer and chaplain, respectively.

The network seeks funding from national and international partners for the empowerment of its members at all levels. Lack of logistical support and funding to empower CLDMCs across the country delays customary land formalization processes.

“If we have bikes to visit our regional communities,” Dweh says, “it will help us settle boundary disputes to fast-track customary land formalization process.”

Sinoe Superintendent Supports Illegal Oil Palm Operations

October 15, 2024

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Top: Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah supports the illegal operations of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) without the Liberian government’s approval. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

GREENVILLE – Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah is backing an oil palm company’s illegitimate operations against a local community demanding its rights and holding the firm accountable.

In 2022, Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) purchased a palm plantation in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO). However, LNPI operates the plantation without the Liberian government’s approval, sparking a protest.

In a letter last month, seen by The DayLight, Nyensuah urged Tarsue to sign an MoU LNPI proposes, dismissing the community’s concerns over rights abuses and the LNPI’s illegitimacy.

“It is my strongest anticipation that you will work with the investors in our communities,” wrote Nyensuah. He even suggested he was open to playing a role in negotiating the MoU or drafting a new one.

Nyensuah had launched an investigation after tension brewed in the area following the community’s complaint.

He based his decision partly on a previous MoU that locals had signed with LNPI. “The Tarsue community having received benefits under the now expired MoU from LNPI, the community lacks the standing to question the legitimacy of the LNPI,” Nyensuah added.

But his reason for his decision is faulty. The document he referenced only gave LNPI an exclusive right to purchase oil from local producers, not to operate the plantation. A DayLight investigation established that LNPI likely used the document to gain control of the plantation during last year’s heated presidential elections.

In his finding, Nyensuah claimed that the government and LNPI amended the 2008 EPO concession agreement in March. However, there is no public record to support that claim.

Men at work at and palm oil mill in Shampay Camp, Tarsue Chiefdom. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The government and LNPI have said the company’s operations have not been authorized. The Ministries of Agriculture and Justice, responsible for authorizing oil palm concessions, said it was unaware of LNPI’s operations. LNPI itself admitted that in a June interview with this newspaper, a fact it included in the draft MoU to Tarsue.

‘Bogus MoU’

Nyensuah’s unlawful decision has inflamed the situation in Tarsue and may have soured his relationship with the community.

“We are rejecting the MoU because it is a bogus agreement. We want to see LNPI’s Concession Agreement with the government,” said Ericson Pyne, a youth leader. We want to see their letter of authorization.

“I think Superintendent Nyensuah is not capable of leading this county because, as a leader of the county, before coming up with such a proposal, you must have properly read and understood previous agreements. We totally disagree with his suggestion,” added Pyne.

Pyne’s comments reflect the views of the people of Tarsue who have endured threats and intimidations at the hands of LNPI, with armed police forcing people out of the plantation.

The DayLight investigation revealed that LNPI violates the Land Rights Act and the principles of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which writes rules for the oil palm industry worldwide.

The law and the RSPO rules recognize ancestral landownership and communities’ right to consent to projects intended for traditional territories.

Nyensuah did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for comments on the matter.

Tag: Liberia

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