2023 Women gathered to get updates about their saving club activities SinoeCounty Liberia EdanaPhotography YCU 2024x1349 1
Top: Members of Kpanyan’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC). Picture credit: IDH
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – The community land leadership of Kpanyan District in Sinoe County has been named one of the 10 winners of the Equator Prize. The United Nations-led award recognizes the efforts of indigenous people and local communities globally to meet environmental, economic and public health challenges.
UNDP, which leads the Equator Initiative that issues the prize, praised Kpanyan’s CLDMC for setting aside 40,000 hectares of forest for conservation.
It also celebrated the district for embracing “sustainable agriculture interventions to improve food security, diversify income streams, and adapt to climate change.”
“Equator Prize winners inspire us to reimagine our approach to sustainable development, reminding us that real progress lies in empowering Indigenous people and local communities, embracing their invaluable wisdom…,” said Haoliang Xu, UNDP’s associate administrator and director for policy and program support.
People in Kpanyan jubilated when news of their victory broke, according to Alfred Clarke, the chairman of the CLDMC or community land development and management committee.
“Inasmuch we win that prize, we will increase the awareness and the community that is closer to the forest we are talking about, we will engage them to be the watchdog…”
Kpanyan’s CLDMC was formed in 2019, a year after Liberia established its Land Rights Act. The landmark law recognizes customary land ownership. It calls for the creation of a CLDMC to handle the affairs of communal lands across the country.
To manage that resource, Kpanyan established a production, protection and inclusion (PPI) pact. The partnership among local communities, NGOs, the private sector and local authorities tackles climate change, food insecurity and the disregard of ancestral land rights. The PPI also confronts deforestation, illegal forest activities and poor infrastructure.
“Our project has laid the foundation for conflict-free investment and inclusive development…,” said Silas Siakor, the country manager of IDH, a Dutch NGO that works with Kpanyan.
“With the prize, Kpanyan CLDMC is poised to launch a community-led conservation initiative that serves as a model for other communities,” Siakor added.
Gregory Kitt, the executive director of Parley Liberia, which helped established Kpanyan’s CLDMC, expressed the Bong-based NGO’s delight.
Kpanyan District in Sinoe County has set aside 40,000 hectares of forest for conservation. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Kitt said the townspeople’s decision to seek customary land rights as a district—rather than individual clans—contributed to its victory.
“This enabled the Kpanyan CLDMC to extend effective land and forest governance at scale throughout their territory,” Kitt told The DayLight. “The result is the extraordinary conservation outcome recognized by this Equator Prize.”
The other nine winners of the award came from Brazil, Bolivia, Burundi, Guatemala, Philippines, Zambia, Nepal, Greenland and Ecuador. They were selected from over 500 nominations from 108 countries, according to the Equator Initiative.
All 10 winners will be awarded US$15,000 and get an opportunity to attend key environmental events, including the UN General Assembly, the UN climate conference in Dubai and the Sustainable Development Goals summit.
Winners will receive their awards at a UNDP event in November. They will become part of a network of 275 communities that have helped combat climate change and poverty.
Top: The Superintendent of Lofa County William Tamba Kamba unlawfully imposed fees on planks produced in the county. Graphic by Rebazar Forte
By James Harding Giahyue and Mason Kollie
The Superintendent of Lofa William Tamba Kamba illegally collects money from plank producers and dealers in the county
Forestry laws and regulations do not give a superintendent any power to impose fees on wood
Vahun District fought against the Kamba toll system and halted all payments to him
Kamba has failed to account for the funds he has collected in three years and counting
VOINJAMA – The Superintendent of Lofa William Tamba Kamba collects fees from plank producers and dealers in the northwestern county, breaking the law and regulation governing a lucrative but secretive subsector of forestry.
Under the National Forestry Reform Law and the Chainsaw Milling Regulation, superintendents have no such power. Practically, only the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the plank workers union, communities or individuals who own forestlands have.
But since 2020, producers and dealers have had to pay Kamba up to L$1,500 to make or transport planks, according to documents and interviews.
Dealers who transport the woods outside Lofa pay L$1,000 or L$1,500 per truck, depending on the size of the vehicle. Dealers within Lofa pay L$1,500, receipts obtained by The DayLight show. In fact, truck drivers transporting planks must present their toll receipts to pass an FDA checkpoint. Our reporter witnessed some of the payments and checks in Voinjama and Zorzor.
“Now as we are talking, I get two trucks on their way coming I know they took the county fees and the town toll as well,” David Kesselly, a wood dealer in Paynesville, said earlier this month.
Even people who fell trees to make planks, known in the forestry industry as chainsaw millers, pay L$15 per plank and sometimes more.
Kamba introduced the fees in Vahun in 2020 before replicating it across Lofa, plank dealers in the district said.
A truck carrying hundreds of planks. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Initially, local officials supported the scheme, according to Duana Momo Kamara, a resident who collected the fees for Kamba at the time. “Many planks were piled in the area as the result of that conflict,” Kamara recalled.
Despite a partial ban on the exportation of planks, those who paid were permitted to export their planks to Sierra Leone, Kamara added. The ban is meant to stabilize the supply of planks on the domestic market, which largely depends on the chainsaw milling subindustry for everything from furniture to construction. Under the regulation, planks can only be exported when barcoded and registered into Liberia’s timber-tracing system, something forestry authorities are yet to put in place.
A toll receipt Superintendent William Tamba Kamba’s office issued to a plank dealer late last year. The DayLight/Mason KollieA receipt shows records of Superintendent William Tamba Kamba’s collection of illegal fees from plank dealers in Vahun, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding GiahyueA receipt a truck driver received from the Office of the Superintendent of Lofa after paying L$1,000 on New Year’s Day. The DayLIght/Mason Kollie
One receipt from Kamara’s records shows he collected L$53,125 at one point in 2021. Out of the amount, L$5,000 was for Kamara, L$10,000 for the Office of the Commissioner of Vahun and L$3,500 for Garmai Kennedy, Lofa’s chief accountant. Kennedy signed several other receipts seen by The DayLight. She declined an interview, referring our reporter to her bosses instead.
Kamba’s Vahun collection continued until last year when Julie Fatorma Wiah, the Representative of Lofa County District #3 halted it. Local officials began to oppose it, over allocation issues and control.
“I told them to stop giving [the] Superintendent money because he is receiving funding for operations from the government,” Wiah told The DayLight. “If the situation continues and we cannot find a common ground, we will have to inform the central government.”
Kamba eventually discontinued the toll system in Vahun sometime last year, with local officials now presiding over the illegal collection.
“I was not happy about the money that goes to the Superintendent because we’re supposed to use the money in the district,” said Christopher Brima, Vahun’s youth president. “We’re not supposed to give it to the Superintendent.”
There is no public record of the money Kamba has received in the three years of his toll system neither is there any account for its expenditure. Kamara claimed that some of the funds were used to transport players of Lofa in the 2022 County Meet but provided no evidence.
“Please help us as a journalist to find out from the FDA and the Superintendent where they are using the money they collect from us,” Armah Ansu, a wood dealer in Voinjama, told our reporter.
Kollie Zumah, a dealer at Liberia’s oldest wood dealership in Sinkor, expressed the same concern. “I cannot tell who the superintendent toll goes to,” he said.
The Office of the Superintendent evaded every effort by The DayLight to access the information. In November last year, Kamba referred our reporter to Kennedy, who said she needed permission from Flomo Jomah, the Assistant Superintendent for Fiscal Affairs.
A chainsaw miller at work in Kpasagizia, Lofa County in November 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
When contacted, Jomah said he was in Monrovia, promising that he would give The DayLight a copy of the toll record upon his return to Voinjama. He has since been out of the county and other efforts to obtain the document up to writing time were unsuccessful.
Plank dealers, who pay a variety of other fees, said Kamba’s toll hurt them. They said the toll—and a high gasoline cost—made them increase prices, with customers paying more for the same or lesser planks.
“As a business person, you will not like to lose. Therefore, for every expense made on the planks, I have to include it during the sale of the planks,” said Kesselly, the wood dealer in Paynesville. He said he pushed the price of his smallest plank from L$1,200 to L$1,350.
“So, obviously, the toll payment makes me increase the prices of the planks,” Kesselly added. The Liberian Chainsaw Miller and Timber Dealers Union (LICSATDUN) confirmed some of its members have complained about the toll.
‘Under our own creation’
Normally, plank dealers pay US$0.60 to the FDA and L$5 to the Liberian Chainsaw Miller and Timber Dealers Union (LICSATDUN) per plank. They also pay unspecified fees to the towns or villages where they fell trees, in some cases, farmers who claim forestlands or “bush owners.”
These fees might be normal but they are not entirely legal. The FDA has failed to regulate the plank sector over the past one-and-a-half decades since it emerged. It has not been transparent about the funds it collects from hundreds of chainsaw millers across the country. The agency did not respond to questions for comments on the matter.
Plank producers, known in the forestry sector as chainsaw millers, make planks in Berkeza, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
In that November interview, Kamba wrongly claimed that the Local Government Act gave him the right to impose the toll, which he said affected other goods.
“We organized the toll system that is intended to really aid the county to be able to address the number of administrative and some issues that affect the county,” Kamba told our reporter. He claimed to use the fund to maintain the county’s roads and buy stationery “under our own creation.”
But the Local Governance Act, one of the first two legal instruments President Weah signed into law back in 2018, does not give superintendents the power to levy fees on any good. It only gives local governments the authority to raise revenues, done by increasing prices and supplies of goods, etc.
The law gives the power to levy fees or taxes to county councils, governance bodies that comprise chiefs, the youth, the disabled communities and pressure groups. Moreover, the Lofa County Council has not been formed yet, only neighboring Bong County has so far. And Superintendents are not even members of county councils, according to the law.
During our interview, Kamba claimed that the toll system was “[un]functional in most parts of the county,” except in Voinjama, Zorzor and Foya. However, chainsaw millers in Kolahun, Berkeza, Kpasagizia and Salayea told The DayLight they were still paying superintendent toll and some provided receipts.
Kamba’s claim that he uses fees he collected from businesspeople for road repairs appears not to fit the reality. The main route to Lofa is generally currently impassable by vehicles, except for motorcycles and certain cars. It has been that way for decades.
[Emmanuel Sherman, Prince Mulbah and Tenneh Keita contributed to this story.]
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Graphic showing FDA Managing Director Mike Doryen and different illegal activities of West Africa Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Rebazar Forte
By Emmanuel Sherman
GONO TOWN, Grand Bassa County – At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Justice concluded an investigation into a Chinese-owned company accused of illegal logging.
The investigation confirmed that the West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) harvested logs in the Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest in excess of legal requirements. However, the investigation found WAFDI was not alone.
It turned out, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which had recommended the official inquest, had illegally awarded WAFDI about 14,460 hectares of extra woodland in Grand Bassa’s Compound Number Two. The agency had approved Gheegbarn’s entire 26,363 hectares to be harvested over two times faster than normal forestry regime demands.
What happened in Gheegbarn was the peak of illegal logging activities in at least seven community forests in four counties. It could be the biggest logging scandal after the FDA illegally awarded about 2.5 million hectares of forestlands to companies over a decade ago.
‘We hereby approve…’
It all began in December 2018 when WAFDI signed a seven-year agreement with the leadership of Gheegbarn #1. (They call it that way to distinguish it from Gheegbarn #2, a neighboring community forest). WAFDI is owned by a Chinese named Wang Chenchen. It has a link with Augustine Johnson, the manager of Mandra, an Asian-owned company the FDA recently penalized over its abandonment of thousands of logs.
One year on, WAFDI presented the FDA with its harvesting blueprint for five years, known in the industry as a forest management plan. Then it broke down the plan into seasons.
Season 2018-2019, the first, targeted about 3,700 hectares, the documents show. The other plans featured larger harvesting areas, including about 4,000 hectares for the season 2024-2025, according to The DayLight’s estimate.
The unlawful map of WAFDI’s operations in Gheegbarn #1 shows the company’s plan to harvest all the community forest within just seven years, more than two times faster than the normal rate.
The FDA confusingly illegally approved WAFDI’s plans twice, first on July 4, 2019, and then on August 26, 2020, according to official documents.
“We hereby approve said plans having met all basic requirements,” FDA’s Managing Director Mike Doryen said in communications to the company. It ironically hyped the plans for being “complete,” “accurate” and containing “quality information.”
“Therefore, management anticipates full compliance in the implementation of these plans as we strive to ensure sustainable forest management in Liberia,” the letters added.
Plans approved, WAFDI began to operate in 2019, according to official records.
But barely two years later, the FDA disapproved of WAFDI’s attempt to export 601.801 cubic meters of logs. The FDA accused WAFDI of harvesting timber in forest areas it had not permitted.
Later on, the FDA asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate, which it completed in about two months. SGS had reported the matter a month earlier in a monthly publication.
By that time, WAFDI had harvested 6,007 or 32,347.855 cubic meters of logs, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI), citing FDA and company records. It exported some 29,104 cubic meters. In 2021 alone, WAFDI sold US$531,460, LEITI records show.
The investigation did more than book WAFDI over the embattled swathe of forest. It found that the FDA was largely responsible for the situation.
Top: A worker watches as logs of West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) harvested with an illegal plan are loaded onto a container truck. Here: Four container trucks loaded with logs WAFDI illegally harvested in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“The investigation found that other logs from the purported unapproved blocks were previously approved and export permits were signed by the FDA… and SGS,” Minister of Justice Frank Musa Dean wrote to Harrison Karnwea, the chairman of FDA’s board of directors, on December 2, 2021.
“WAFDI took advantage of [FDA’s illegal approval] and requested to commence operations and same was granted by FDA beginning 2019,” Dean’s letter further read.
It said FDA and SGS had sanctioned the company’s harvest and export under the very illegal plan FDA. SGS is a Switzerland-headquartered firm that helps track Liberian logs from their sources to final destinations.
The FDA broke the law in the first place by approving the company’s plan to harvest all 26,326 hectares in seven years, the investigation found. The National Forestry Reform Law requires the FDA to monitor all harvests and ensure they are legal and sustainable. The Code of Harvesting Practices, on the other hand, restricts the rate of felling trees to 15 years.
The DayLight’s review of the illegal harvesting plan showed FDA awarded all of Gheegbarn’s 26,326 hectares in just seven years. The regulator further okayed the company to operate somewhere between 3,700 and 4,000 hectares. That was more than doubled the forest area the code requires.
Overall, the FDA granted WAFDI an area in excess of 14,460 hectares of humid, Bassonian forest, according to our calculations. And by the time of the ministry’s inquest, WAFDI had already harvested 11,600 hectares an unlawful bonus of 6,500 hectares. That means, in less than three years, WAFDI cut trees which would have taken seven years to do legally.
WAFDI was not the only company in the scandal. Within that same period, the FDA illegally approved six other agreements in Grand Bassa, River Cess, Nimba and Gbarpolu.
Like WAFDI, the FDA authorized the companies to harvest all of their contracted forests within the duration of their agreements.
The Ministry of Justice urged FDA’s board to take action against individuals “to restore the sanctity of the FDA.”
C. Mike Doryen oversaw the Forestry Development Authority’s approval of illegal community forest agreements from 2018 to 2020 that granted companies excess forest areas. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The board of directors heeded the ministry’s advice. It passed a resolution on January 26 last year, calling for the dismissal of Jerry Yonmah and Simulu Kamara, the technical managers of the commercial and legality verification departments, respectively.
The resolution also called for the dismissal of Abraham Sheriff and Jessie Vannie, the operations and data information managers of the legality verification department, correspondingly. They deny any wrongdoing.
Gualberto Ojo, right, and some of WAFDI’s workers at an event in March. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Five days after its resolution, the board asked President George Weah to sack and retire Joseph Tally, FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Operations. The board accused Tally, who the resolution listed, of aiding in the illegalities.
“This will send a strong message to would-be violators,” Karnwea’s letter to President Weah read. It said the scandal had “eroded the credibility of the management team, thereby affecting donors’ behaviors.”
Though the resolution spared Doryen, who approved all of the illegal documents, he was clearly reprimanded. The resolution advised him not to sign any future documents without the counsel of the FDA’s legal department and that he must attend important meetings to be abreast with forestry matters.
President Weah did not heed the board’s recommendation and Tally remains in his position. Tally told The DayLight in June the matter was now “water under the bridge,” praising “dynamic” and “prudent” President Weah for retaining him.
Also, none of the accused masterminds was fired. However, they were all replaced, giving way to new heads of the commercial, legality and community forest departments.
The Aftermath
In the end, WAFDI’s agreement with the villagers was amended from seven years to 15 years. Subsequently, work in Gheegbarn ceased for about 11 months. It was unclear whether the FDA and WAFDI corrected its harvesting plan as the Ministry of Justice had instructed. The FDA did not grant The DayLight’s request for that and other documents, a violation of several forestry legal instruments.
As the scandal shook the FDA to the core, it took a toll on Gheegbarn.
In their agreement, WAFDI promised to build roads, schools, a clinic, and latrines, construct handpumps, and pay scholarship fees. However, the company has not met its obligations.
“They are using the halt as an excuse to not do our projects,” said Junior Wesseh, the head of the community leadership. “They have been operating for five years, only two handpumps and a latrine they dealt with.”
One of the two handpumps in Gono Town, WAFDI constructed. It is obligated to construct eight of them by now. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
Apart from community projects, the company also failed to pay harvesting fees before its operations ceased.
“They said they were not responsible for our cubic meters fee, because they lost US$1 million dollars,” said Larry Tuning, the secretary to the community leadership.
Based on The DayLight’s calculations, WAFDI should pay Gheegbarn US$64,695 for the logs it produced from 2019 to 2021, at least according to official data. We could not independently verify Tuning’s claim in the absence of payment records. By law, WAFDI and the FDA should have published the figures in the newspapers and the agency’s website.
Junior Wesseh, head of Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest leadership. The DayLight/Carllucci Cooper
WAFDI called off an interview with The DayLight in its third minute upon Johnson’s orders. Johnson said the newspaper had not given prior notice. He did not respond to emailed queries afterward.
But responding to criticisms from Gheegbarn’s leadership when the European ambassador visited the area in March, Gualberto Ojo, a WAFDI representative, blamed the company’s indebtedness and failures on the U.S-China trade war and illegal chainsaw milling. The ambassadors had chosen the region as a case study to understand the challenges of community forestry.
Ojo—and the FDA managers present—avoided talking about perhaps forestry’s biggest scandal in the last decade.
The FDA did not return The DayLight’s queries for comments.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
UAE sees the deal as part of its efforts to create a decarbonized world, according to the Gulf country, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.
But it has been hugely criticized for disregarding a number of Liberian laws.
National and international NGOs and the opposition Liberia People’s Party have criticized the draft agreement. All three groups called for the Liberian government to halt the negotiation and make the necessary legal corrections.
The DayLight takes a look at the laws the deal would violate if sealed:
The National Forestry Reform Law
The proposed Blue Carbon deal would be a complete violation of the National Forestry Reform Law because it would cover more than 1 million hectares of forest. The law restricts the size of any concession to not more than 400,000 hectares. That is nearly three times the size of the proposed Blue Carbon deal.
Section 55 of the law grants the Public Procurement and Concession Commission the power to sole source a concession but only in an “extreme urgency,” and other instances, none of which the deal qualifies for.
Section 101 of the act also provides for a sole source but limits it to a bidder with specialized expertise only that the bidder can provide, the concession involves research only the bidder can undertake or it would be against national security for a competitive bidding process.
But, none of those instances fits Blue Carbon, established only about a year ago and has not traded in the carbon market before.
The Land Rights Act
The Blue Carbon MoU fails to recognize customary land ownership since it did not seek the free, prior and informed consent information of rural communities.
Article 32 of the Land Rights Act of 2018 grants community ownership of customary land to rural community members. It states that “Customary land is acquired and owned by a community in accordance with its customary practices and norms based on a long period of occupancy and or use.”
Liberia has even created an FPIC policy and an FPIC guideline that reinforces villagers’ consent power.
Noteworthy, “free” means that locals must be allowed to say yes or no without fear or coercion. “Prior” implies that consent must occur significantly in advance and there must be ample space for consultation. “Informed” means villagers must have all the information about the project, including nature, size and duration. And “consent” can be granted and withheld, even with consultation.
The Community Rights Law…
Nine years before the law, rural communities already owned forestlands under the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands. That law also guarantees communities’ right to consent to any concession on their forestland.
The law clearly states in Section 2.2, “Any decision, agreement or activity affecting the status or use of community forest resources shall not proceed without the free, prior and informed consent of [the] said community.”
Section 10 of the National Forestry Reform Law had three years earlier guaranteed community “informed participation” in forestry governance and management.
In fact, community along with, commercial logging and conservation were the “three Cs” of Liberia’s forestry reform process before carbon credit made it “four Cs.”
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Liberia is one of 144 countries that have ratified that instrument, which is not legally binding but shows the direction of the international community on indigenous people matters.
An excerpt of the September 13, 2007, UN Resolution, the precursor of the principle, states, “Convinced that control by indigenous peoples over developments affecting them and their lands, territories, and resources will enable them to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs.”
Community right to consent is also a major part of other human rights instruments, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the very United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that guides the carbon market.
The Liberian Constitution
Since the right to property is clearly protected in the Constitution of Liberia, it would be unconstitutional for the government to interfere with community property. The government can only grant concessions for forest carbon on forest lands it owns.
The forest areas concerned in the Blue Carbon, are, however, not owned by the Government. There is a good chance that communities own much of the proposed agreement-affected area.
So, there is an uncertain legal basis for the Liberian government to negotiate a concession for land it potentially does not own.
This is a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: A pair of elephants in Grand Gedeh. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Mark B. Newa
GBARMA, Gbarpolu – In June, Boakai Momo and 14 other members of his family fled the Bongomah village from a herd of elephants.
The elephant had eaten his rice and potato farms, turning the once flush greenery into dirt in one night.
“There is no more safe area to make farm,” Momo tells The DayLight in an interview at his refuge in the town of Zuo. “People want to make farms but when the elephants start coming, they will make things hard for us.”
Momo says more than a hundred people have fled their villages from the invading elephants, something other displaced farmers corroborate. Three of the five clans in Gbarma Chiefdom, according to Paramount Chief Henry Cooper, have been affected. Among the affected villages are Bongomah, Gbengar, Gbarlomehn, Jarjuah, Todeemehn and a place locals call Africa.
All the victims have the same story as Momo’s. An elderly woman named Fatu Lomehn, a widow and mother of 12 children and grandchildren, ran from the Gbarlomehn. Morris Tarweh, a young farmer abandoned the Yarjuah village because the elephants made it “scary.” George Anderson of the Torgboima clan, fled with his family to a new location when the herds damaged eight acres of cassava. Abraham Clarke, a father of six, fled Africa to Daniel village and then to Zuo.
A sanctuary—for now
Zuo might be a sanctuary for the displaced villagers. The largest town in that region, with the bulk of its estimated 1,900 people are farmers. However, it is also not safe from the herds. In fact, they have already begun visiting farms here.
Townspeople in Zuo are worried. Some of them had just finished plowing their farms when elephants ravaged them in late June. A week earlier, the herds had ravaged a farm about a 30-minute walk from Zuo.
The elephants travel from the Bopolu District and cross the Maher River to their communities and back each year, locals say. In the last five years or so, the tuskers have, however, frequented their daily and nightly raids. A trail of footprints and elephant dung is seen on one potato and rice farm. Two farmsteads are abandoned.
“They are getting closer to us now. When they cannot find food there, they will enter on us in this town,” says George Anderson, a farmer. “This is their eating place now.”
Elephants eat according to their bodies. The animals eat up to 169 kilograms (375 pounds) of food daily, according to experts. Fruits, vegetables, grasses, leaves and roots form a big part of their everyday menu.
Experts blame farming, hunting and mining for what they call the human-elephant conflict.
“When the villagers are making farms on the elephants’ tracks, we will see them appearing,” according to Raymond Kpoto of the Society for the Conservation of Nature Liberia (SCNL).
Elephants dumped their dung after eating from a potato farm that lies less than a kilometer away from Zuo, a town located between Gbarma and Weasuo. The DayLight/Mark B. NewaVillager and his grandson holding the residue of rice the passing herds of elephants have eaten. The herds ate off the fresh green leaves of a rice field. The DayLight/Mark B. Newa
There is an atmosphere of insecurity in Zuo due to the elephant situation. Villagers are afraid to go into the forest, affecting farming and other activities.
Recently, one farmer who had gone to harvest palm fruit sat in the tree for nearly six hours, Clarke tells me in a phone interview.
Motorcycle taxi drivers are afraid to ply the routes for fear of encountering the animals, with few plying the routes, according to villagers.
This has led to a surge in the costs of rice, gasoline and transportation, locals say.
No Compensation
Villagers say they have used other means to cope but all seem not to work. They clang pots, blow horns and burn pepper. Some have even installed solar lamps on farms but not enough to drive away their unwelcome tusked guests.
In the first quarter of this year, the Elephant Research and Conservation (ELRECO), a German NGO, successfully tested a device with the sound of honeybees. In the video posted to the NGO’s website, an elephant is seen walking away after hearing the buzzing sound of honeybees from BuzzBox. However, villagers in the region say they have no idea about the technology.
Satta Mambu, an influential woman in Zuo, urges the government to set up a program to help them repel elephants.
“When the government [does] not come in, in the next four to five years, the elephants will drive us from here,” Clarke says.
There is no compensation for villagers who have lost farms to elephants, according to Saah David, national coordinator of REDD+ at the Forestry Development Authority (FDA). REDD+ means Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.
Melvin Goeh, a ranger at FDA’s checkpoint in Sawmill, says his unit is not aware of the elephant situation in the region. Sawmill is less than 10 kilometers away from Zuo.
Alfred Bai Commissioner of Gbarma District, says his office is not aware of any elephant situation. He promises to follow up on the matter.
Top: Liberia’s proposed deal with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates is expected to cover over a million hectares of rainforests. Graphic by Rebazar Forte
By James Harding Giahyue
Liberia and Blue Carbon should halt carbon credit negotiation, as the deal violates Liberian laws, according to a group of international NGOs
The deal must comply with procurement, forestry and land laws, and seek the consent of local communities to continue
The NGOs say the United Arab Emirates wants to use the agreement to “greenwash,” its own carbon emissions
NGOs say the “vague” and “secret” deal is not good for the Liberian government and indigenous communities and undermines Liberia’s own climate targets
MONROVIA – A group of 16 international NGOs has called for a halt to an ongoing carbon credit deal between Liberia and Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates until it complies with Liberian laws and is clear on how the country and local communities would benefit.
The Liberian government and Blue Carbon negotiating the terms of the agreement. The government wants to give the company over 1 million hectares of land over 30 years for US$50 billion, according to a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU).
But the deal would be a violation of Liberia’s procurement forestry and land laws, the statement said.
“We, therefore, call upon the Government of Liberia and Blue Carbon to halt these negotiations until there is clear evidence that the contract is in line with Liberian law,” the NGO said in a statement released last week.
“This risks the livelihoods of up to a million people. It would also extinguish community land ownership in the selected areas while violating peoples’ legal right to provide free, prior and informed consent for any developments on their land,” it added.
In March, Liberia and Blue Carbon penned the agreement, in which Liberia is expected to lease Blue Carbon a number of protected areas and proposed protected areas to solely manage. Blue Carbon’s mission is to use bilateral agreements to help reduce carbon emissions globally, according to its website.
“This bilateral association marks another milestone for Blue Carbon to enable government entities to define their sustainable frameworks and help transition to a low-carbon economical system…,” Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, Blue Carbon’s chairman and senior member of UAE’s Royal Ruling Family.
Minister of Finance and Development Planning Samuel Tweah, Jr. said the deal marked an “era of sustainability.”
“It should also prove that the financial support provided protects threatened forests and restores degraded forests with strict monitoring and control mechanisms in place,” the statement said.
A forest in Sinoe County is one of the places that would be affected by the proposed Blue Carbon deal. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The Liberian cabinet endorsed Blue Carbon as a sole source on June 3, based on a letter from the Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Mike Doryen to the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC).
In the letter, Doryen asked PPCC’s Officer-in-Charge Stevenson Yond to approve Blue Carbon as a sole bidder for the concession.
Section 55 of the procurement law allows for “sole sourcing,” except in an “extreme urgency,” and other instances, none of which the deal qualifies for.
Section 101 of the act also provides for a sole source but limits it to a bidder with specialized expertise only that bidder can provide. It also requires the concession to involve research only the bidder can undertake or it would be against national security for a competitive bidding process. However, none of those instances fits Blue Carbon, established only about a year ago and had not traded in the carbon market before.
Doryen did not immediately respond to The DayLight’s queries for comments.
‘Greenwashing’
The international NGOs accused the UAE, a country that has one of the highest emission rates in the world, of using the Blue Carbon deal to offset its own greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, the Arab nation, which hosts the United Nations climate change conference later this year, allegedly wants to invest in Liberia’s rainforest and continue its energy, oil/gas and infrastructure projects.
“The revenue model described in this contract generously allows for that,” the statement said. “This contract seems to give Blue Carbon, a private UAE company, the authority to act on Liberia’s behalf to negotiate [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] Article 6 rules.” Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement talks about carbon credits and trading.
The NGOs critique the draft document’s intent to award Blue Carbon the exclusive right to use carbon credits. Blue Carbon would exclusively manage the forest resources, including reforestation, conservation and ecotourism, according to the MoU.
“If they are sold, Liberia will not be able to use the carbon credits to meet its own climate targets,” the statement said. Liberia committed at the Paris Summit to reduce deforestation by 50 percent by 2030.
“It is unclear what the benefits for Liberia and its communities will be. The contract is confidential and extremely vague, and a [MoU]… signed in March this year has not been widely discussed,” it added.
Top: A forest and a village in River Cess County. Pictures by William Q. Harmon and Derick Snyder Graphic by Rebazar Forte
By Esau J. Farr
MONROVIA – The Liberian People’s Party (LPP) of Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe has called on the government of Liberia to discontinue a carbon credit deal with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the agreement fails to recognize the rights of indigenous people and exceeds the area threshold for a forestry concession.
“Blue Carbon must therefore discontinue negotiation with the government of Liberia until it is presented with evidence that would-be affected communities have given their free, prior, and informed consent as required under Liberian law,” the party said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The Government has an obligation to protect the land rights of customary communities across the country – entering into this agreement with Blue Carbon would contravene that sacred responsibility,” the statement added.
The Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism did not immediately respond to queries for comments.
“We are honored to sign this MoU with The Republic of Liberia,” said Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, Blue Carbon’s chairman.
“This bilateral association marks another milestone for Blue Carbon to enable government entities to define their sustainable frameworks and help transition to a low-carbon economical system…,” he added. Blue Carbon’s mission is to use bilateral agreements to help governments and UAE-based firm’s clients achieve a de-carbonized economy in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, according to its website.
Minister of Finance and Development Planning Samuel Tweah, Jr. stated the deal would help Liberia prevent forest degradation and deforestation. “We are confident that this collaboration is another step forward for us to mark an era of sustainability…,” Tweah said. (President George Weah proposed to the United Nations climate conference in Scotland in 2021 the establishment of an African Carbon Credit Trading Mechanism.)
But the deal would violate a number of Liberian laws, including on land and forestry as it fails to recognize local communities’ rights.
Under Liberia’s Land Rights Act, communities have the right to control the use, protection, management and development of forest resources. The law guarantees local communities’ right to consent.
A draft of the MoU, seen by The DayLight, has provisions for local communities’ consent but after the agreement would have been signed.
Also, one million hectares of land would contravene the National Forestry Reform Law, which restricts a forestry concession to 400,000 hectares.
“Allocating one million hectares under a single contract and including communities’ customary land in [the] said contract would violate the forestry law,” the party, vying to unseat the government in October, said.
On Monday, a group comprising several civil society organizations, the Independent Forest Monitoring Coordination Mechanism, also criticized the deal.
Under the deal, Liberia would give Blue Carbon exclusive rights to manage several protected areas and proposed protected areas. That includes the Sapo National Park and the Krahn Bassa Proposed Protected Area. The firm would singlehandedly run reforestation, ecotourism and conservation programs, and trade carbon credits.
“The status of that agreement is currently unclear given the Norway funds have not been fully utilized and the agreement remains in effect until 2025,” the group said.
Top: A poster shows views, elevation images and actors of an agreement between Coniwein in Grand Bassa and Local Farm Inc. Images by Carlucci Cooper and Harry Browne, and graphic design by Rebazar Forte for The DayLight.
By Esau J. Farr and Carlucci Cooper
GBIAGAYE TOWN –In 2007, villagers in Coniwein in District Number Two, Grand Bassa County jubilated after signing an agreement with Local Farm Inc., a Liberian-owned agriculture company.
But 15 years on, things have turned out to be the exact opposite. Controversies with Franklin Jackson, Local Farm’s owner and CEO, have changed the inspiration for hope among townspeople into despair.
“[Franklin Jackson] told us that Local Farm was a pumpkin and he was planting the pumpkin to spread in Coniwein. But the pumpkin is not spreading. Now we are suffering,” says Anthony Ben, a resident of Gbiagaye Town, the headquarters of Coniwein.
Coniwein leased Local Farm Inc. 2,500 acres of land to plant crops, with profits from their sales to be shared equally between the parties, according to their 2007 agreement.
The villagers wanted development in the area, following decades of neglect by the state like much of the countryside. They would use the funds to pave roads, build a school and a clinic, and erect handpumps, among others.
Local Farm planted palm trees on about 750 acres of the land found in the Marblee Clan, the villagers and the company say. Production started in 2010, according to the community, or 2013, according to Jackson.
But except for US$20,000 in 2013, Jackson has made no payments to Coniwein over the years. It did not make any financial reports—to announce profits or losses—as the agreement mandates.
This soured the relationship between the community and the company.
Franklin L. Jackson, Managing Director of Local Farm Inc./The DayLight Esau J. Farr
The peak of their conflict was when Coniwein sued Jackson in 2018 for economic sabotage and misapplication of entrusted property. He had used the community’s deed as collateral to acquire a US$160,000 loan from the Afriland First Bank, US$90,000 of which he received. However, the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County cleared him of all charges, according to court documents.
‘I take full responsibility’
In an interview at his home in Paynesville, Jackson says he cannot pay the community any money because he has not made a profit, despite investing US$1 million in the plantation. He says the US$20,000 in 2010 was an upfront payment.
An elevation view of a dormant mill at Local Farm Inc. in District Number Two, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
Jackson concedes breaching the agreement and blames the Ebola epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic for his farm’s woes. He says Ebola, which broke out in Liberia in 2014, disrupted the farm’s initial efforts to produce palm oil. And when it was recovering, coronavirus came in 2020.
“Like all businesses, we shut everything down. If we don’t make a profit, you can’t divide nothing,” he tells The DayLight.
Jackson claims that he informed the community he was shutting down due to the epidemic. However, there is no record that Local Farm activated the force-majeure provision of the agreement with Coniwein.
Apart from the contract issues, Local Farm owes its workers several months of unspecified, unpaid wages.
“First, from the brushing, they paid us by cash and second, they paid us by oil but the oil that we were supposed to receive, we [did] not receive all,” says Ben, also a former contractor.
Jackson again blames Ebola for owing workers and says he is willing to pay them once he resumes production on the farm.
“We thought that Ebola could have lasted a few months. That resulted in us owing ex-employees,” Jackson says. “We had to lay off the employees and we didn’t have the money to pay them. This is where that employees’ liability comes in.”
Joseph Ben, a former worker of Local Farm Inc./The DayLight/Harry Browne
Matters are worsening at the plantation by the day. Two months ago, chiefs and elders halted operations. Villagers are harvesting the plantation in Gbeal Town. Reporters of The DayLight photographed and video-recorded one man carrying a container of palm oil from the plantation. There were signs of no guards at the plantation.
“The agreement we [entered] in, we can’t get our share. That’s why we put [a] halt to the farm,” says Joseph Karngbo, president of the Coniwein-Gbeal Development Association, the group established to manage the section’s land.
This elevation image shows a portion of a palm plantation Local Farm Inc. developed in Coniwein in Compound Number, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
Jackson fears the plantation could be lost soon because villagers are not trained to harvest palm bunches.
“We trained particular people to harvest. Handling palm during harvesting is one of the most delicate things because if you don’t know how to harvest, you kill it (palm tree) prematurely,” Jackson notes.
The action of the townspeople to halt operations at the farm violates the agreement. It requires the community to embark upon an arbitration process to resolve its dispute with the company.
But Jackson appears resigned already. “I have come to understand that I was wrong, I was naive, stupid and I made the wrong decision; I take full responsibility.”
Top: Dugbormar Kwekeh, a member of Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest tells European envoys about challenges with commercial logging in that part of Liberia in a March meeting. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
JIMMY DIGGS TOWN – A logging contract between a community forest and a Chinese-owned company in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County is perhaps forestry’s most troublesome agreement today.
But women on the leadership of Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest, which has a contract with West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI), desire to continue their roles as elections draw near.
“We will be willing to work again if elected because we want to develop our place,” says Dugbormai kwekeh a member of Gheegbarn’s community assembly (CA). She and other women spoke in the Bassa language through an interpreter.
“We want our children to go to school, we don’t want them to be like us,” Kwekeh added.
Elections for a new corps of officers for the community’s forestry leadership are slated later this year.
Every five years, a forest community elects new members to its community assembly, which represents towns and villages that own the forest. Members of the new assembly then elect officers of its executive committee, the highest decision-making body in community forest governance. The assembly also elects members of the community forest management body (CFMB), which runs the affairs of the community forest. The CFMB tenure ranges from two to five years. The Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands requires at least a slot for a woman on the CFMB.
Oretha Toway, a member of the CFMB hopes to serve another term. “If appointed again, I will help the new leadership to build the community,” says Toway. “We don’t have any school, hospital.”
Illegal Logging
Gheegbarn’s trouble began from the very beginning in 2018. The FDA illegally approved the community’s Forest agreement with WAFDI with a lifespan of seven years, not 15 as required by law.
After that, the FDA authorized WAFDI harvest of more than three times the size of the forest as the law mandates. It took over three years for the Ministry of Justice to discover the scandal in an investigation.
The ministry later reprimanded FDA, SGS, the firm that created Liberia’s timber-tracking system, and WAFDI for breaking forestry laws and regulations.
The scandal tore off the roof of the FDA and the towns and villages of Gheegbarn. Logging activities in Gheegbarn were halted for nearly a year. FDA board of directors asked President George Weah to dismiss several senior managers of the agency. That did not happen but a major reshuffle took place. Gheegbarn and WAFDI have retroactively signed a new contract for 15 years.
The women-member of Gheegbarn are aware of the impacts of the scandal on the community, including the over-exploitation of the forest in the last three years. (WAFDI exported 29,104 cubic meters of round logs during that time, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, citing FDA figures). However, it motivates them more.
(L-R) Dubormai Kwekeh, Oretha Toway and Markoni Geezee, members of Gheegbarn Community Forest leadership. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
“I will agree to serve as a member of the assembly, provided there will still be logs in the forest,” says Etta Diggs an assembly member.
The women want to cancel the agreement with WAFDI because it has not lived up to the agreement.
By now, WAFDI should have constructed two schools, connected four farm-to-market roads, and 10 handpumps by now and employed 60 percent of its workforce from Gheegbarn.
“We don’t want the company anymore. They brought poverty on us,” Kwekeh adds. She had made the same point when EU ambassadors visited the community back in March. Kwekeh’s comments are backed by the law, as villagers can choose to cancel contracts with companies.
But amid the rigmarole with WAFDI, Gheegbarn also has an internal wrangle, which the women also want to address. The executive committee chair Robert Zeogar and the secretary to the CFMB Larry Tuning are at loggerheads with the chief officer of the CFMB Junior Wesseh, according to Wesseh and the women. Efforts to speak to Tuning and Zeogar on the issue did not materialize. Both men were not present during this reporter’s two-day stay in the area and their phones were off.
Wesseh, Zeogar and Tuning are signatories to the account, contrary to the community rights regulation. The regulation mandates the chief officer, the treasurer another authorized community member approved by the assembly.
“The EC chair [Zeogar] and CFMB secretary [Tuning] have been making unauthorized withdrawals with alerts coming to the CFMB chief officer [Wesseh],” says Jonathan Yiah. Yiah’s NGO, the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), works with Gheegbarn’s leadership.
Markoni Geezee, a member of the assembly would only serve another term given that Tuning and Zeogar are replaced. She accuses the duo of enriching themselves at the expense of the community.
“We walked till our slippers cut along the way for the company to come but now we are the losers,” says Geezee. “You only have a few people getting rich from the forest.”
Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest has been a scene of forestry’s biggest scandals in a decade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Funding for this story was provided by the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI). The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over its content.
Top: A collage of pictures of a crocodile and monkey seized by the Special Wildlife Investigation Unit now at the Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary
By James Harding Giahyue
The Special Wildlife Investigation Unit on Thursday seized crocodiles and monkeys at the home of a school owner
Crocodiles and monkeys are endangered species whose protection is mandated by law
The school owner said he runs a “mini zoo”
unauthorized possession of live animals violates the wildlife law, with a fine between US$100 and US$150 or a three-month sentence
MONROVIA – In the Bible, Noah gathered many animals in an ark to save them from a horrible flood, following God’s instructions.
But the owner of a school named after the prophet’s famous ship may have taken matters into his own hands.
The Special Wildlife Investigation Unit on Monday seized seven crocodiles and two monkeys at the home of Joseph Bestman, the owner of Noah’s Ark High School in Gardnersville Township.
The unit recovered the animals following an early morning combing of Bestman’s Gardnersville home, acting on a search and seizure warrant. Pictures on Facebook show armed officers deployed at the house.
In videos obtained from the unit, crocs can be seen in a concrete enclosure with darkened and rotting water. The monkeys appeared shaky in their metal cages as officers took them away.
“The hunting, trading, keeping as a pet, killing or rating of protected species is never acceptable in Liberia…,” the unit, which comprises the police Forestry Development Authority (FDA)/the Wildlife Crime Taskforce and the Liberia Revenue Authority, said in a statement.
Joseph Bestman. Picture credit: Facebook/Noah’s Ark High School
Bestman is being held at the headquarters of the Liberia National Police in Monrovia and would be sent to court, police spokesman Moses Carter said.
Efforts to speak to Bestman did not materialize up to writing time. However, Bestman told Prime FM earlier he had established the “mini zoo” to show students what the animals look like.
“The Liberian authorities together with their international partners will continue to work to bring wildlife traffickers to justice,” the statement added.
The animals were taken to Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary in Margibi, where a vet examined them, according to the unit.
The operation was the unit’s fourth in four months of its establishment. The first was the recovery of chimpanzees, the second was the detention of a pangolin scale trafficker, and the third was the arrest of an 85-year-old man with 26 live parrots.
