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Land Authority Charges Towns Nearly US$12K to Resolve Boundary Dispute

Cocoa farmland

Top: A screengrab of a drone video showing a portion of a cocoa farm in Bargblor, Cavala District in Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper

By Carlucci Cooper

‎ZWEDRU – The Liberia Land Authority has charged two communities in Grand Gedeh County US$11,900 to cut their boundary, dragging a dispute over Burkinabe cocoa farmers.  

Early last year, Bargblor and Tojallah in the Gbao and Cavalla Districts started a boundary dispute involving Burkinabé cocoa farmers. After a police probe and a court intervention, the matter was passed to the Land Authority for a settlement, which imposed the fee.  

The majority of the money covers transportation, allowance and data collection, and administrative costs, according to an estimated budget obtained by The DayLight.

Townspeople in Bargblor said they paid US$500 against the charge, but presented no evidence. Those in Tojallah, on the other hand, said they had paid US$170 for “registration, transportation and mediation” to Daniel Togbasie, County Land Dispute Officer.

“They told us we had to pay a hundred US dollars each just for them to listen to us,” said Peter Carr, a Tojallah elder. “That’s just to hear the case, not even to get the survey done. And now, they want us to cough out nearly US$12,000 before they can even step on our land.”

‎The charge is inconsistent with the Land Rights Act, which puts the responsibility for boundary harmonization on the government.  The law was passed in 2018, granting customary communities ownership of their ancestral territories, ending decades of marginalization. However, neither Tojallah nor Bargblor has established their boundaries, a crucial part of the law.

Campaigners, who have seen the document, said the Land Authority was pricing the communities out of their rights. 

“Yes, it’s true the Land Authority charges fees to carry out customary land activities under the fees and regime, but it’s wrong to charge customary communities this much,” said Alphonso Henries, the coordinator for NGOs working on land reform in Liberia.

“The law is intended to build the economic strength of the people and not to deprive them. The Land Authority’s action was wrong and hasty. I think they went too far to exploit the situation,” added Henries.

The Liberia Land Authority has charged Tojallah and Bargblor US$11,900 to resolve their dispute.

Togbasi and Paye Freeman, Grand Gedeh’s Acting Land Administrator, who approved the charge, said they were not authorized to speak on the matter. Kweshie Tetteh, the Land Authority’s communication director, who has that authorization,  justified the charge in a Monrovia interview.

‎‎“Tojallah and Bargblor are not just a case of customary land formalization,” said Tetteh. “This is a dispute referred from the court. In these instances, we don’t follow the customary process, so the payment responsibility falls on both parties.”

Tetteh added that Tojallah and Bargblor were not project communities and that the Land Authority did not have funding for formalization activities. “The fees could even be higher than this, depending on the size of land and workload,” Tetteh said. He added that the Land Authority, which has US$1,715,260 in the current National Budget, had no money for customary land processes, except for donations.

But the facts contradict Tetteh’s comments. The Land Rights Act Regulation does not mention fees for any activities, except for a “reasonable” amount that communities determine. In the last five years or so, the Land Authority has been drafting a fees regime, but has yet to complete the process. Even so, the breakdown of the US$11,900 is inconsistent with the draft fees regime seen by The DayLight.

The budget the Land Authority’s Grand Gedeh Office presented includes: US$6,300 for allowance for employees, US$2,000 for survey, US$1,200 for Monrovia-based personnel transportation and US$1,600 for administrative costs. This is a far cry from the US$50 and US$100 for most transactions in the draft fees regime.

“To ask communities to pay any money outside of the law can be interpreted as an attempt to deprive communities of their deeds,” said Daniel Wehyee, the lead land rights campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI).

“If the Land Authority says communities need to pay money before intervening in boundary disputes, then it means the Land Authority is undoing, is undermining the implementation of the Land Rights Act.”

Furthermore, Tetteh’s suggestion that the court case erases the communities’ customary profile is misleading. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) also applies to customary communities, meant to prevent or resolve land conflicts. It was the fear of these conflicts causing Liberia’s next civil conflict that led to the establishment of the Land Authority.

Stalled

The Tojallah-Bargblor dispute started when men of Tojallah abducted a group of Burkinabe farmers working for Bargblor on a farmland in a place called Karblee. Local people are hosting Burkinabes to plant cocoa in a cross-border joint venture.  As of last month, the  Liberia Immigration Service registered over 36,000 Burkinabes in Grand Gedeh alone.

Tojallah claims Burkinabés working for Bargblor crossed the Thwanee Creek, their boundary with Bargblor.  On the other hand, Bargblor insists that the creek falls within their traditional territory and that the true boundary was Dulee, further into Tojallah. 

After several failed mediation attempts, Bargblor filed a complaint with the police, which jailed a host of Tojallah townsmen. Later, the matter was forwarded to the Zwedru Magisterial Court, which then transferred the matter to the  Land Authority for settlement.

An elevated view of the Thwanee Creek, which Tojallah argues is the boundary with Bargblor. Their neighbors, however, disagree, sparking a yearlong dispute. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper

“Most of the cases we receive are customary land cases, so we forward them to the Land Authority with an arbitration team, who will establish who the rightful owner of the land is. And we’ve been able to achieve this with the help of the community leaders,” said  T. Shad Dweh, Senior Associate Magistrate.

The Land Authority’s excessive request has dragged the dispute, with tensions flaring in the area. People from both sides of the conflict accuse the other of spoiling their crops and people fear walking alone in an area known for intermarriages.

‎‎‎Paul Rancy in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, contributed to this report.

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Rebuttal To The ‘Proposal For The De-Gazettement Of The Sapo National Park’

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By Saah A. David, Jr.

Introduction

Sapo National Park (SNP) is one of Liberia’s greatest natural treasures. Globally, it is recognized as both an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, underscoring its irreplaceable value for avian conservation and biodiversity. Regionally, SNP contains the second-largest area of intact tropical rainforest in West Africa, after Cote d’Ivoire’s Tai National Park, and stands as Liberia’s first and largest protected area.

The park provides critical habitat for the pygmy hippopotamus–found only in the Mano River Union countries–with Liberia hosting the largest population. It also shelters the largest population of western chimpanzees in Liberia, making the country second only to Guinea in West Africa for this endangered species. Moreover, SNP holds Liberia’s most significant population of African forest elephants, a species now severely threatened across the region.

Concerns with the De-Gazettement Proposal

Hon. Thomas Romeo Quioh’s proposal to partially or fully de-gazette Sapo National Park (SNP) raises serious concerns. While socio-economic development and community welfare are essential, any alteration of SNP’s legal status must be consistent with Liberia’s constitutional mandate, national legislation, and international commitments to environmental protection and sustainable development. De-gazettement would violate these obligations, undermine conservation gains, and risk irreversible ecological damage.

This initial response highlights key legal frameworks that support the preservation of SNP, emphasizing the importance of upholding Liberia’s environmental obligations and the long-term ecological and socio-economic consequences of de-gazettement. A subsequent response – scheduled for release in the coming days – will examine the economic benefits Liberia can gain (monetary and non-monetary benefits) from ecotourism, carbon sequestration, and other sustainable practices associated with the park and other protected areas in the country.

1. International Legal Frameworks Upholding Conservation of Sapo National Park

  • Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992): Liberia has committed to conserving biological diversity (Articles 6 and 8) and to meet the 30X30 target under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which requires protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and sea areas to be under effective protection and sustainable management by 2030. De-gazettement would directly undermine this goal.
  • Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971) and UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme: SNP’s wetlands provide vital ecosystem services such as water regulation, carbon storage, and climate resilience. Downsizing or de-gazetting the park would diminish these services and harm local livelihoods.
  • UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) & REDD+ Initiatives: Liberia commits to forest protection to mitigate climate change through reducing deforestation. De-gazettement of SNP would lead to deforestation, forest degradation, carbon emissions, and loss of international climate financing opportunities

2. National Legal Protection and Policy Frameworks

  • Constitution of Liberia (Article 7): Mandates sustainable use and conservation of natural resources for present and future generations.
  • Liberia Forestry Reform Law (2006):  Mandates the protection of forest reserves and national parks for sustainable development and environmental preservation. It provides mechanisms for review but strongly emphasizes conservation and does not facilitate facile removal of protected status without stringent assessments and multi-stakeholder consultation.
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act of 2003: Demands comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) before any action that could harm protected ecosystems. No such ESIA has been conducted for SNP’s de-gazettement
  • Land Rights Act (2018): While affirming customary land ownership, this law requires coordination with environmental protection efforts. The presence of communities within the park’s boundaries necessitates integrated land-use planning without compromising ecological integrity, not wholesale de-gazettement.
  • National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 2017): Commits Liberia to expanding, not reducing, its network of protected areas.

3. Conservation and Sustainable Development Interdependence

  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Particularly SDG 15 (Life on Land): Obligates countries to sustainably manage forests and halt biodiversity loss. De-gazettement of SNP would contravene this goal and risk isolating Liberia from international development partnerships.
  • Long-Term Socio-Economic Impacts: While some short-term economic gains may arise from legalizing mining and logging, these are outweighed by biodiversity loss, disruption of ecosystem services (such as water regulation and soil conservation), and increasing vulnerability of local communities to environmental degradation.

4. Addressing Enforcement and Governance Challenges without De-Gazettement

The proposal rightly identifies enforcement and governance as challenges, yet de-gazettement is not the sole or best solution. Alternatives supported by conservation laws include:

  1. Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Forestry Development Authority, EPA, and law enforcement with adequate financing, training, and community empowerment.
  2. Enhancing community-based natural resource management, offering genuine benefit-sharing schemes under existing legal frameworks to incentivize conservation.
  3. Creating the enabling environment and infrastructure for sustainable ecotourism as part of diversified local economies, consistent with national forest and wildlife policies.

5. Risks of Creating a Precedent for Protected Area Downgrading

Partial or full de-gazettement would set a dangerous precedent, inviting similar moves across other protected areas and emboldening illegal encroachment, contrary to the global principle of “no net loss” of biodiversity or natural ecosystems.

6. Conclusion

Sapo National Park is not only a symbol of Liberia’s heritage but also a cornerstone of its environmental obligations and sustainable development ambitions. De-gazettement would cause lasting ecological, social, and economic harm, eroding Liberia’s credibility in global environmental governance. The responsible path forward is to improve governance, strengthen enforcement, empower communities, and pursue sustainable economic models that keep SNP intact for future generations.

Author: Saah A. David, Jr. – Development Practitioner, REDD+ and Climate Change Specialist. Former Natural Resource Management Specialist – USAID-Liberia, former National REDD+ Coordinator Liberia. Co-authored two books – Sustainable Forest Management (SFM in Liberia – The 4 Cs Approach and Sustainable Forest Management in Liberia (SFM) – Practices and Approaches

‘Landowner’ Sues FDA for US$5M Over Logging Deal

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Top: Logs felled on 3,200 acres in the Mavasagueh Community Forest claimed by Khalil Haider. Mr. Haider has filed a US$5 million lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority and C&C Corporation. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – A man has filed a lawsuit against the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a logging company for at least US$5 million over alleged damages to his private property in Grand Bassa’s District Number Two.

Khalil Haider accuses the FDA of authorizing C&C Corporation of harvesting trees on 3,200 acres of forestland in the Vambo Township, according to court filings.

“The FDA took my client’s property, and awarded it to a company, and the company has been [harvesting] logs on the property without the consent and acceptance of my client,” said Cllr. Vaani-Faate Kiawu, Haider’s lawyer.

The FDA and C&C Corporation did not respond to queries for comments.

Alleged forgery

Last year, the FDA authorized Mavasagueh as a community forest, covering 26,003 hectares. Then the new community forest signed a contract with C&C Corporation, co-owned and managed by Clearance Massaquoi, a logger active during the Second Liberian Civil War.

Shortly after, Haider wrote to the FDA, claiming the land in the company’s harvest blocks for this year. Haider, a resident of Paynesville, is the administrator of the interstate estate of his late mother, Rosa E. Dillion of Montserrado, court filings show.

Later, Haider asked C&C Corporation to settle with him or halt the harvesting. Instead, the FDA acted on a letter that the lawsuit alleges was forged, misspelling Haider as “Hajder,” ignoring the plaintiff’s notice.

The lawsuit alleges that Rudolph Merab, Haider’s “cousin,” appeared to be “exploiting the relationship to deprive [Haider] of his property rights by granting permission to C&C Corporation.

“The C&C has been cutting logs for over four months without the consent of [Haider] despite every effort to resolve the issue amicably,” it added.

The suit cited a decade-old survey, which found 21 species and 778 trees in every 100 acres of the land, valued at US$672 million, using approved prices.

The lawsuit referenced a provision of the National Forestry Reform Law, which recognizes that the state does not own forests on private plots.


“Although the FDA is a government agency responsible for… the regulation of forest resources…, it has illegally granted C&C Corporation to cull logs from the private property of the plaintiff.”

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

Loggers Harvest Trees Outside Authorized Area

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Top: The stump of a tree Westwood Corporation harvested outside a 450-acre authorized area in the Gba Community Forest, based on satellite imagery. The evidence also established that the firm even harvested outside the community forest. The DayLight/James Flomo  

By Esau Farr and James Flomo

SEHYI-GEH – Earlier this year, Westwood Corporation, a firm with no known logging experience, harvested timber outside its authorized area in the Gba Community Forest in Nimba’s Yarmein and Sanniquillie-Mahn Districts, a DayLight investigation has found.

In 2016, ArcelorMittal Liberia signed an MoU with Gba, giving the community US$150,000 to clear 450 acres of rocky forestland to construct a mine waste plant.  However, Gba misapplied the money and turned to loggers to do the job multiple times in eight years. 

Those efforts failed until this January this year, when Gba signed the agreement with West Wood, known for roadworks. The agreement included logs that previous companies had abandoned in the 11,538-hectare forest.

Westwood soon began the felling, and exported 216 logs (921.124 cubic meters) in two March shipments, according to the FDA’s records. An initial DayLight investigation found that the exports were illegal in several ways. The logs had been harvested under an agreement that did not match a legal forestry contract. The logs were exported to Europe despite not being from a legal source, violating Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union.

But this investigation established that things were a lot worse. Geolocations of tree stumps with Westwood tags show the company harvested outside the designated area, apparently targeting expensive, first-class timber. Reporters photographed a dirt road that the company paved inside the forest to access the logs.

Using official dataset and geolocation technology, The DayLight used coordinates fitted into pictures taken of stumps of trees Westwood harvested to draw a map, exposing the illegal harvest.

It was unclear how many logs were illegally harvested. However, DayLight estimated 250 first-class logs in the Makingo Town. Their species—ekki and niangon—matched those Westwood exported in March.

It is unclear how many logs were harvested outside a 450-acre designated area in the Gba Community Forest. Picture credit: Anonymous
 

Westwood’s activities were an open secret. Three DayLight visits found that people and the Gba leadership were aware of the illegal harvest.

“They went to Gbarpa, where they did not send them, felled logs and carried them,” said Paul Gahnto, Sehyi-Geh Town’s assistant youth chairman.

The illegal harvesting adds to Nimba’s deforestation. Between 2002 and 2024, Nimba recorded 393,000 hectares of tree cover loss, second only to Bong (434,000 hectares), according to Global Forest Watch, which tracks countries’ deforestation. A tree cover is any vegetation that is at least three meters high.

World Heritage Site

The illegal harvest is counterproductive to a region known internationally for conservation.

Gba and its neighbors—Blei, Sehyi Ko-doo and Zor—serve as a buffer with East Nimba Reserve, a part of the Nimba Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, running through Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The region is home to the Nimba flycatcher, the Nimba toad and other endangered and common species.

Based on the region’s importance, Gba and the other communities have an agreement with the Liberian government and ArcelorMittal to protect the forest there. As part of the agreement, the steel giant supports the communities’ conservation programs, including a monthly stipend for forest guards and tree planting.

Gba, in particular, has also received support for its conservation from other institutions. It had been established by a USAID project and continued to receive support from the United States Forest Service. Since 2023, Social Entrepreneurs for Development (SESDev) has worked with Gba’s leadership to strengthen its governance mechanism.  

Westwood adds to the list of companies Gba has contracted to clear the controversial 450 acres. In 2016, LTTC Thanry signed a contract with Gba but did not deliver. Later in 2021, Six S International entered the picture, but, like LTTC Thanry, it failed.

A map utilizing satellite imagery shows areas affected by the illegal harvest outside the Gba Community Forest
Rudolph Merab’s letter approving Westwood’s harvest in the Gba Community Forest, bypassing forestry regulations

Before those deals, Gba was among several community forests whose status the FDA’s board canceled in 2014 for errors. The agency had mistakenly combined Gba with Zor and had to be split into two community forests.

‘Hereby granted’

The Forestry Development Authority played a part in the illegal harvest. Managing Director Rudolph Merab ignored legal requirements and authorized West Wood.

In normal logging practices, the FDA counts and marks trees in a mapped area before harvest. Then, there are FDA fieldworkers who monitor the process and verify the legality of the log before export.

In Gba’s case, a warning letter replaced that rule, even though more crucial, given the nature of the harvest.

“You are obligated to ensure your operations comply with the legal framework,” wrote Merab. “You are required to tag all standing trees.

“You are hereby granted approval to commence operation in the Gba Community Forest.”   

Interestingly, Merab lowered the bar Mike Doryen, his immediate predecessor, had set for Gba. Doryen, whose administration was characterized by forestry offenses, ensured that previous companies obeyed the rules.

Rules aside, the FDA did not verify West Wood’s legal documents before approving its operations in Gba. The company’s article of incorporation does not list its shareholders. The document has only two articles in the legal documents: I and III. This violates the Beneficial Ownership Regulation, which mandates businesses to name the people who own them.

Westwood’s illegal article of incorporation


That rule does not only apply when registering a business. It is also a forestry requirement. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications requires a company’s owners or “significant individuals” to be scrutinized. It curtails conflicts of interest involving public officials and prevents forest resources from being placed into the hands of broke or dishonest individuals.

The FDA and Samuel Cooper, owner of Westwood, did not respond to requests for comments.  

The Forestry Development Authority investigated the harvest following the initial DayLight publication, but has not released any report months on.  Logging outside an authorized area is a crime, punishable by a fine, imprisonment and penalties.

Nyan Flomo, a Gba leader, fears locals will bear the brunt of West Wood’s actions. Flomo now runs Gba’s affairs due to the death of Samuel Johnson, Gba’s leadership head, in March.  

“What we heard is that the FDA will investigate, declare the logs abandoned, auction [them] and give the community its benefits,” said Flomo, who initially supported Westwood and was critical of The DayLight investigation. “We are still looking up to the FDA to give us the [official] outcomes of the investigation they carried out.”

The story was produced by the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ).

Roadmap Offers to Pay Communities to Keep their Forests

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A bird’s-eye view of a forest in Sinoe County in 2018. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

ByEsau J. Farr

CONGO TOWN – A local NGO, Integrated Development and Learning (IDL), has launched a roadmap that proposes payment for communities that keep their forests.

The “Roadmap for Pursuing Alternative Options for Liberia’s Forest Benefits” is a partnership among IDL, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and communities. It offers to pay locals who do not farm, build houses, mine, and log in forests for commercial purposes. Organizers call it payment for stewardship.

“Today, there is emphasis on conservation because we realized that the misuse of forests [negatively] affects the lives of people,” said FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab at the roadmap’s launch recently in Congo Town. “We are committed to managing forests sustainably so that the forest canopy will not be depleted.”

Leaders of Wedjah and the Jaedae Districts, Sinoe County, where the strategy is being tested, said they were committed to it. Last and earlier this month, the communities signed agreements for a two-year trial with 50,000 hectares in exchange for US$152,022. Customary communities own most of the forests in Liberia, which hosts 43 percent of West Africa’s largest rainforests.

Stakeholders in a group photo after the launch of the Roadmap for Pursuing Alternative Options for Liberia’s Forest Benefits. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

“We want to encourage our people in our forest communities to ensure that we play our role well in managing our forests for us to get money and develop our communities,” said Lasting Kadee, a Wedjah community forest leader.  

IDL intends to scale up to 202,342 hectares by 2027, setting the stage for international financing in line with the Paris Agreement. This will lead to forest communities being merged to meet the minimum standard for climate finance, according to IDL’s Executive Director, Silas Siakor.

“IDL wants the pilot communities to begin climate mitigation and anti-deforestation activities by properly managing their forest and get paid for keeping their forests standing,” said Siakor at the launch of the roadmap recently. 

The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Emmanuel Urey Yarkpawolo, urged the communities to obtain environmental permits to allow the EPA to help protect their forests. “From the EPA’s point of view, I think the whole idea is good,” Yarkpawolo said. “It seems that the process will be smooth.”

Immigration Registers 40,000 Burkinabées Amid Cocoa Crisis

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Top: A Burkinabé man displays his immigration document at the FDA regional office in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

GBOLEKEN, Grand Gedeh – The Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) reported that it has recorded over 40,000 Burkinabé cocoa farmers to monitor and legalize their status.

“It is intended to establish how many of them entered the country and where exactly they crossed,” Alex Kpakolo, Assistant Immigration Comptroller of Grand Gedeh County.

“We are taking stock of their movements and actions across the different towns, villages, districts, and communities where they are hosted. By doing this, we can easily trace them if there is a problem.”

Burkinabés began to enter Liberia from the Ivory Coast in the 2010s to plant cocoa. Last year, France 24 reported 25,000, capitalizing on Liberia’s weak monitoring, large rainforests, and higher cocoa prices. Ivory Coast has lost 90 percent of its forest to cocoa farming in the last six decades, according to that report. The same is happening in Liberia, which has lost 386,000 hectares of primary forests between 2002 and 2024, according to Global Forest Watch, which tracks annual deforestation. 

Immigration records show over 1,000 Liberians host at least one Burkinabe farmer, known locally by their ethnic group, Mossi. They have settled mainly across Maryland, River Gee and Grand Gedeh. 

In Grand Gedeh alone, the number of registered Burkinabes has exceeded 36,000. To ensure a smooth process, immigration authorities have established 18 registration sectors. “As a result of this process, most of the Burkinabes are now coming out of the bushes and registering. Their hosts, too, encourage them daily to come for the registration. That’s why you see we have this kind of high number,” Kpakolo said in an interview at his office in Gboleken, Gbarzon District.

A Burkinabé man sets a tree ablaze in a forest in Grand Gedeh County. Picture credit: Forestry Development Authority

After the registration, the Burkinabes would be vetted and issued resident permits, in line with the Alien and Nationality Law of Liberia. The law requires non-Liberians to obtain a permit to reside in Liberia. ECOWAS citizens pay US$100 for the permit, with a fine or deportation for violators.

“After registration, we will review their status and find out whether they are here only temporarily or if they want to stay and work here permanently. After this process, LIS will decide to start issuing resident permits,” Kpakolo said.

Rising tension

Labor authorities are watching the process.  Robson Bah, Labour Commissioner of Grand Gedeh, said the ministry intended to formalize contracts between locals and their West African partners.

“We have noticed that people who don’t have titled deeds are cutting boundaries and giving out land to Burkinabés. And, as a result of this, you have confusion all over the place,” said Robson Bah, Labour Commissioner of Grand Gedeh.

“Today, everything appears to be going well between the Burkinabes and their Liberian hosts, but when money starts to come and things start to happen, they may not be peaceful.”

Across the southeastern region, cocoa farming is splitting families and communities, according to court records. The Zwedru City Magisterial Court has recorded at least 10 similar cases. Last week, 31 accused of illegally encroaching on concessions to plant cocoa were jailed at the Zwedru Correction Palace. 

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

31 Burkinabés Jailed for Alleged Forest Invasion

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Top: An FDA vehicle transports Burkinabés suspected of criminal trespassing in a community forest and a logging concession to the Zwedru Correction Palace. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

By Varney Kamara

ZWEDRU – Thirty-one Burkinabé cocoa farmers were jailed for allegedly clearing forestry concessions in Grand Gedeh County to plant cocoa.

The men, with ages ranging from teenagers to the 50s, were rounded up by rangers of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) during a routine patrol. They were recently arrested at two forestry contract areas.

“The Burkinabés are damaging these places with cocoa farming. We met them brushing in the park. We also caught some of them cutting demarcation in the FMCs,” Yei Neagor, FDA’s head for that region, told The DayLight at the Zwedru City Magisterial Court. Pictures shared by the FDA show the man setting up camps and setting trees ablaze.

“I can tell you that the situation is alarming. They are destroying the forest. It is on a massive scale,” added Neagor.

The suspects were arrested in the Gbarzon District at two locations. Fifteen were picked up at Marbo 1 Community Forest and 16 at a dormant concession known as Forest Management Contract Area K or FMC ‘K’.

They had been arraigned at the FDA’s regional office in Zwedru and later taken to the police station before being forwarded to court. They have been charged with criminal trespassing and criminal mischief, court documents show. They were jailed at the Zwedru Correction Palace after failing to post bail.

‘The land belongs to us’

In an interview with The DayLight, the suspects admitted to the charges but blamed their Liberian hosts for the situation.

“We fell into this problem because our host did not show us the actual demarcation of the boundary,” said Soré Sayouba, a spokesman for the Burkinabés.

Sayouba, 57, said he and the other men crossed the Ivorian border into Grand Gedeh through local people or hosts. Immigration records list Bamba Paye, a Gbarzon resident, as one of their hosts.

Paye denies any wrongdoing, saying his family farmed on the controversial land for decades.  “I don’t understand why they arrested my Burkinabé workers because my parents planted cocoa and orange way back on this land. In our traditional setting, life crops represent inheritance,” Paye said via phone.

“The land belongs to us.”

The suspects have been freed on bond and are expected to reappear in court on Tuesday.

Cocoa court cases

The case adds to several lawsuits involving Burkinabés, the FDA and individuals in Grand Gedeh, regarding cocoa cultivation.  

Burkinabés began flocking into Liberia in the 2010s, after a cross-border agreement between then-President Sirleaf and Ivoirian leader Alhassan Ouattara, according to immigration authorities.

Alleged Burkinabés forest invasion suspects head for the Zwedru Correction Palace. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

“From that time, we noticed that people started coming in. But they were not coming as agriculturists. Now, as we speak, they are all along the Cavalla belt,” said Alex Kpakolo, Grand Gedeh’s Assistant Comptroller of Immigration.

Last year, France 24 reported 25,000, capitalizing on Liberia’s weak law enforcement, large rainforests and high cocoa prices.

Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, has lost 90 percent of its forest to “brown gold” farming in the last six decades, the report said.

This trend continues in Liberia, which lost 386,000 hectares of primary forests between 2002 and 2024, according to Global Forest Watch.

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

Ministry Seizes Machines at Illegal Sinoe Mine

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The illicit mine in Paboken, Jaedepo District, Sinoe County, where the Ministry of Mines made the seizure. Picture credit: Ministry of Mines and Energy

ByVarney Kamara

ZWEDRU, Grand Gedeh – The Ministry of Mines and Energy has seized machines at an illicit mine in Sinoe County, ordering its closure.

Over the weekend, the Ministry held an excavator and a mini washing plant at the mine in Paboken, Jaedepo District. The mine owner, identified as Mohamed Kamara (no relation to this reporter), fled the scene, said Awell Aloysius Carr, the Director of Mines at the ministry.

“Based on the scale of illicit mining activities we saw in this area, we immediately issued a closure and seizure order,” Carr, the told The DayLight in the Zwedru.  “I saw massive footprints. I mean areas that were excavated, water courses were diverted, vegetation was destroyed.”

Carr said the ministry would take the matter, and had informed local chiefs and elders, urging them not to shield the alleged perpetrator. Mining without a license violates the Minerals and Mining Law, with a fine, a prison term, or both for violators.

The seizure forms part of a broader crackdown on illegal mining across the country, particularly artisanal and small-scale mines.  However, it was the authorities’ first visit to Paboken.

Recently, the ministry appointed a mining agent to the area after recalling the previous one in a move to reform one of the government’s most important yet challenging sectors. The ministry has established County Mining Offices to counter illegal mining.    

“I am not going to sugar-quote this,” Carr said.

“We want to say to people out there… that gone are the days you will come and destroy our forest, deplete our resources, and you think that you will go scot-free.”

Fishermen Smuggling Timber in Canoes

People at a canoe landing on a Greenville beach in 2023.

Top: People at a canoe landing in Greenville, Sinoe County in 2023. One of the canoes, marked “The Lord is my Shepherd,” transports timber to Buchanan. There, the timber are uploaded to a larger canoe to Ghana. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

BIG FANTI TOWN, Grand Bassa – Planks are scattered at various sites on a beachfront, a stone’s throw away from the Port of Buchanan, a fishing hub and a transit point for fishermen and fishmongers. Some are old, others fresh.

The wood are leftover of timber smuggling that involves fishermen. Fisherpersons, canoeists, villagers and businesspeople in Sinoe, Grand Bassa and River Cess confirmed that fishermen used canoes to smuggle timber predominantly to Ghana. Smugglers, aided by villagers and artisanal loggers, paid Fanti fishermen to transport wood, including to other countries, a DayLight investigation found.

“All the canoes can bring the planks, they can carry them to Ghana,” said John Kwakue, a Ghanaian fisherman who lives in the Buchanan fishing community of Fanti Town.

“I saw it for the first time in 2014 and I did a little bit before but I am doing something else now,” added Kwakue.  

Kojo Ittah, another Ghanaian fisherman and a 15-year Fanti Town resident, said he had witnessed the smuggling on several occasions. “Last year, we went fishing, and I saw the canoe carrying [the timber] to Ghana. They are not just sticks. They are the fat, short planks, heavy and thick,” Ittah said.


Ittah’s description matched banned timber blocks that are prone to smuggling. However, until now, canoes had not been known to be used in illicit timber trafficking—at least not publicly.   

Ittah’s story was corroborated by James Banney, a Ghanaian owner of a canoe called Exodus; Praise Jlamontee, an ex-Fanti Town leader; and Zebedee Bowin, a businessman in Buchanan.

Bonwin disclosed that “I used the boat one or two times.” The DayLight has investigated Bonwin before for trafficking chewing sticks to Ghana amid a Liberian moratorium.  

Banney, with a Ghanaian accent like Ittah and Kwakue, revealed that the timber are taken to Takoradi, Ghana’s western region. A person, who did not want to be named, spoke of ferrying wood even to Mali, Guinea and The Gambia.

Boys in a canoe in Compound Number Four, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

Timber smuggling is bad news for Liberia, which lost 386,000 hectares of primary forest. That’s a decrease of 8.7 percent of all the country’s humid primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide.

In 2023, the Associated Press reported that 70 percent of Liberia’s timber exports may have happened outside of the legal channel, citing diplomatic sources. Five years earlier, a report by the Switzerland-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime had listed Liberia as one of the main West African countries for illicit logging.

‘The Lord is my shepherd’

But where in Liberia do the fishermen get the timber from? The DayLight found the answer in Sinoe, River Cess and Grand Bassa, which lost nearly a combined 500,000 hectares of tree cover in the last 22 years, according to Global Forest Watch.  Tree cover loss measures the removal of any woody vegetation at least five meters tall.

Evidence we gathered showed that smugglers transferred timber to Buchanan from Sinoe, River Cess and other places in Bassa. Once on the beach, they are transferred to larger, motorized canoes for at least a six-hour voyage outside Liberia.

In Sinoe, The DayLight interviewed Lama Jalloh, a Greenville resident and a Fulani canoeist, who spoke of a canoe with the service name “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Reporters caught up with the canoe on a Greenville beach, where local fishermen confirmed its suspected smuggling activities.

“Planks and timber are sawn and brought from various parts of Sinoe, and transported to Buchanan,” said Jalloh.

A fisherman who reporters encountered at the Lord is my shepherd canoe said he was not authorized to speak. Similarly, efforts to interview truckers allegedly involved in smuggling did not materialize because service names are unofficial, making tracking their owners difficult. And reporters were unable to get any license plate number.

‘King David’

While Sinoe smugglers used ocean routes to transfer timber, their River Cess counterparts utilize the roads. Earlier in Buchanan, Banney mentioned a place called Waterside in Cestos, River Cess’ capital. Now, reporters visited the seaside community and asked locals whether it was true.

“Yes, trucks can go to the waterfront to take goods and carry them,” said Michael Juludoe, a Cestos gardener, echoing other residents’ comments.  “They pack [sand], sticks and planks.”

Two chainsaw millers in the Bush of Grand Bassa District Number four, while one is standing on the wood sawn, the other is looking on. The DayLight/Johnson Buchanan

Gathering timber in River Cess is the same as in Grand Bassa. Locals and fishermen alike identified a certain truck with the service name “King David” that hauled wood periodically. Also mentioned was another truck with the service name “Nimba Peking,” reporters spotted in a Compound Number Four town.

The DayLight tracked down the truck on the Big Fanti Town beach and Compound Number Four, where reporters videotaped villagers cutting trees.

In the footage, two men justify dealing with smugglers next to tree stumps and timber on the grass-carpeted forest floor. One of the men can be heard saying, “We have to survive.”

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

Townsfolk Register Homes to Own Land

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Top: A townsman speaks with the Land Authority and Parley Liberia fieldworker in Gbarmue, a town in the Jorpolu Clan, Jorquelleh District in Bong County. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

By Varney Kamara and Harry Browne 

GBARMUE – Townspeople in a Bong clan have registered their homes to own the land on which their houses sit. It is the first since Liberia passed the Land Rights Act nearly seven years ago.

The law requires communities to set aside residential areas in parts of customary land for homes and protect residents’ rights; however, this provision has not been enforced since it was established in 2018.

“The fact that this project is going on in the community, people have already started coming together to settle land disputes, leading to reconciliation among our people,” says Moses Kotogboe, Jorpolu’s Clan Chief, whose house was registered earlier during the exercise.

“This will allow us to preserve our culture and inheritance from our ancestors. This is important and unique for us. It’s a blessing for our community.”

In Gbarmue, 17 kilometers from Gbarnga, the capital of Bong County, enumerators visit houses, recording GPS coordinates and collecting household details, including the owner’s name, number of rooms, and exact location.

Parley Liberia, a Gbarnga-based NGO, is leading this first residential registration, also taking place in Grand Bassa, River Cess, and Bong Counties.

Nearly 300 homes have been registered under the trial, and the process is expected to be replicated in other parts of the country. Fieldworkers are recording all structures in the town, using geolocation.

Roseline Mulbah, Parley Liberia’s senior project officer, marks a house in Gbarmue, Jorpolu Clan, as part of a residential plot registration. The DayLight/Harry Browne  

Gbarmue, for “tall palm tree” in the Kpelleh language, is the headquarters of the Jorpolu Clan, Jorquelleh District. It has applied and demarcated its borders with neighboring clans. It has only the Liberia Land Authority to conduct an official survey to acquire a customary land deed.

Though a moratorium on public land transactions, imposed in February, has stalled Jorpolu’s quest for a deed, the restriction does not affect the residential home registration. People will get a certificate at the end of the exercise, legalizing their ownership.

Gbarmue’s townspeople welcome the development, including women. Despite their legal rights to ancestral plots, their male relatives and traditional beliefs continue to deny them.

“Hearing about people like us receiving certificates for our homes and the land we are sitting on, I am too happy,” says Nancy Weedor, a Gbarmue resident and owner of a four-bedroom house. “This will enable us to plant our cassava to earn something … and allow us to support our homes.”

In the coming weeks, a full list of homeowners will be published for verification and thereafter, residents will apply for residential certificates, according to organizers.

“Residents will apply to the LLA for residential certificates, which will be signed by the [community land leaders] and the town chief before issuance,” says Roseline Mulbah, Parley Liberia’s senior project officer.

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