Top: Smith Sulonteh is claiming a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, including where he makes charcoal and planks. The DayLight/T. Prince Mulbah
By Prince Mulbah
SALAYEA, Lofa County – Last year, townsmen were stunned when they discovered a huge pile of planks and the sound of a chainsaw deep in the forest in Gorlu during a routine patrol. When local guardians investigated, they found that a man was making planks and burning charcoal in the forest.
Angered by Smith Sulonteh’s actions, the community forest sued them at the Salayea Magisterial Court. It would turn out to be the beginning of a legal battle that has pitted the family against the community.
“We are managing this forest for the future generation, so we cannot allow a family just to come and claim the forest themselves,” said Yassah Mulbah, Salayea’s chief officer, outside of the courtroom.
“If they had their deed, they should have made it available during the establishment of the forest. The establishment of the forest was all on the radio; everyone knew about it,” added Mulbah. She was referring to a 30 or 90-day required period for a person with a private land claim to register their claim before a community forest is authorized.
However, Mr. Sulonteh said they decided not to make any claims at the time, based on their lawyer’s advice. He said their families purchased 2,244.27 acres or nearly 11 percent of the forest from chiefs and elders in 1967. He presented the families’ deed to the court, case files show.
“These people are claiming our land because they have few local authorities of Gorlu who are supporting them,” said Solunteh. If it is for this land business, they will kill me. I’m ready to die fighting for my rights, but our side is the law and the law is for everybody.”
A charcoal mass production machine with some processed coals in bags, Mr. Solunteh produced. The DayLight/T. Prince Mulbah
Lawsuits
Salayea Community Forest was established in 2019, comprising six communities: Salayea, Yarpuah, Telemu, Gorlu, Ganglota and Beyan’s Town. It covers 8,270 hectares of rocky forestland in the Salayea, Lofa County, and is home to species, including monkeys, pangolins, and elephants.
Since its formation, Salayea has been involved conservation programs, including animal husbandry, village saving loan schemes, a mini-wood shop and Cocoa farming. It outlawed hunting, mining and other commercial activities.
Following Salayea’s lawsuit, the Salayea Magisterial Court imposed a stay order on Mr. Solunteh’s plank and charcoal. The court would later fine him for violating that order.
During courtroom proceedings, Mr. Solunteh presented a deed to the court to back his claim. The court handed the document to Salayea to verify at the Center for National Documents and Records Agency in Monrovia.
Mr. Solunteh disagreed with that judgment and filed a petition with the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Voinjama to overturn the lower court’s decision.
The circuit court sided with Mr. Solunteh, according to the case files. The higher court reprimanded the lower court for not verifying the families’ deed itself, and for fining Mr. Sulonteh. The higher court then lifted the stay order on his activities in a March 18 verdict.
Three months later, Lofa County Attorney Cllr. Luther Sumo re-imposed the stay order following complaints from chiefs and elders of Gorlu. This term, Sumo sent in the police to enforce the stay.
“I have received several phone calls and complaints from the commissioner that the chiefs have threatened that if they cannot stop the pit-sawing and charcoal burning, they are going to protest and take unspecified actions, which we do not want,” Sumo said in a telephone interview.
“If I sit here and allow things to go off hand, who will be blamed at the end of the day… and we do not want chaos in our communities in Lofa.”
Piles of planks in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/T. Prince Mulbah
Despite Mr. Sumo’s order, Mr. Sulonteh continued to operate, sticking with the circuit court’s decision. Only the court could tell him to stop, not any individual.
His insistence fueled the townspeople’s anger. In July, Gorlu townsmen stopped him from transporting planks from the area, seizing a truckload of wood that was headed to Monrovia because he was defying the County Attorney’s stay mandate.
Mr. Sulonteh sued the townsmen for alleged “menacing, theft of property and disorderly conduct.” However, the Salayea Magisterial Court dismissed the case, citing a lack of evidence, court filings show.
After the September 11, Mr. Sulonteh halted his operations—for the time being.
“Presently, we are not doing anything in the forest,” he told The DayLight. “We are running after some documents for the same land in question to allow our lawyer to advise us on the next action to take.”
This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.
Top: Miners operate with an expired license in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Esau J. Farr
SALAYEA TOWN – In late May 2024, the Salayea Authorized Community Forest filed a lawsuit against a group of illegal miners for alleged unauthorized entry.
The Salayea Magisterial Court threw the case out, saying Ford Tabolo, the miners’ head, had a legal class ‘C’ or small-scale license. The court called on the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to resolve the matter.
But Tabolo’s miners continued to mine after the expiration of his license in August last year, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s records. This means that Tabolo has illegally exploited the 8,270-hectare woodland for five months, nearly half of the lifespan of a small-scale mining license.
In a follow-up to previous investigations, reporters walked six hours to and from the community forest late last year and gathered evidence of Tabolo’s illicit mining activities.
“He (Ford Tabolo) is aware of our operation [mining activities] here and he is the one sponsoring us. If anybody has a problem with us, they will put it before our leader,” said Daddy Kanneh, the head of the mining camp.
Illicit miners Water wash gold at a mining camp in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
The camp is first from Salayea Town towards Telemu deep into the forest at the foot of a red, muddy hill. Mine pits spread beneath a hill, with two tents made of palm thatches and tarpaulins. Five miners panned and sieved for gold with a water pump machine, which is prohibited for small-scale mining.
“If the forest people say we should stop mining, that one should be an agreement between them and our boss man,” added Kanneh.
The reporters walked another hour to Tabolo’s second goldmine. Perched on the banks of a stream, some 10 miners worked there—this time—with shovels, buckets, diggers and cutlasses.
Here, the miners built an inclined wooden stage with carpets. They poured muddy gravel on the carpeted stage, followed by water, which entrapped tiny gold nuggets.
Other mineworkers panned for the nuggets, while others dug gravels and transported them to the washing stage.
Miners wash gravel for gold in the Salayea Community Forest. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
“Right now, we have around 30 persons here in the forest. The way we used to receive gold here, we are not receiving it like that. When we were using the machine, we were getting more gold but the forest guards came here and took it away,” said John Kollie, the camp’s manager. Kollie disclosed they got between a quarter and half of a gram of gold daily.
Reporters could not visit Tabolo’s third goldmine more than two hours walk away, as evening approached. It would have meant sleeping in the dark, humid forest, and compromising their safety. So, they collected testimonies from the miners who had worked there.
They spoke about how Salayea Community Forest guards seized their tools, including a machine, carpets and shovels.
The DayLight could not determine whether Tabolo had a license for all three goldmines, as he has three other expired licenses in Lofa.
Efforts to interview Tabolo did not materialize, as his phone was always off, and he did not reply to text messages. However, in a previous interview with The DayLight, the mine owner said he would upgrade his small-scale license to a semi-industrial scale license.
Mining with an expired license constitutes a violation, with up to a US$2,000 fine, a maximum 24-month imprisonment, or both for convicted offenders.
Conservation undermined
The community forest wants the miners out as the forest is under conservation. Salayea Community Forest is important for conservation due to its rich biodiversity, which has empowered local people.
The community forest runs alternative livelihood programs, including beekeeping, piggery, village saving loans, woodshops and cocoa plantations.
“We want the government to make sure to get the miners out of the forest because it is undermining our conservation efforts,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest. “We will not rest as leaders of the forest until the right things are done.”
Miners in the Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
Last November, the current minister of Lands, Mines and Energy Minister, Wilmot Paye suggested that the mining law was superior to forestry laws and regulations. He made the statement in a WhatsApp chat with The DayLight.
“Your query should further focus on what the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000 says,” Paye texted and did not say anything thereafter.
Paye’s comments were incorrect. The mining law does not recognize community forestry—it is Liberia’s oldest extractive law. However, the Community Rights Law and the Land Rights Act of 2018 do. Both laws grant locals ownership of forestlands.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Local forest guards with carpet seized from artisanal miners in the Salayea Community Forest. File picture
By Esau J. Farr
TELEMU TOWN, Lofa County – Miners in Lofa County have intruded on the Salayea Authorized Community Forest, undermining locals’ efforts to conserve the woodland. The miners entered the 8,270-hectare forest without the community’s consent, violating the Community Rights Law, which created community forestry.
“They are knocking down the trees,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the forest, established in 2019.
The DayLight obtained photographs taken by local forest guards showing mining equipment, barrels of fuel, felled trees and a polluted waterway.
Townspeople said the miners had 13 dredges on a tributary of the St. Paul River, machines the government has banned. The DayLight could not independently verify that information regarding our reporters’ safety on a long road amid bad weather.
Salayea is one of a few conservation community forests in Liberia, the only one in Lofa County. The forest’s leadership runs alternative livelihood programs to keep locals off murky, rocky woodland, with a high potential for gold.
“We want to keep this area as a reserved forest for our children and future generations,” said Nathaniel Forkpa, the secretary general of the community land leadership of Palama Clan, which hosts a portion of the forest.
Illicit miners over the River Dugbe in Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
Forkpah, secretary general of the Palama Clan’s community land development and management committee. The clan hosts a portion of the forest. Forkpah and other townsmen had first spotted the miners in May.
In 2023, Lofa County lost 20,000 hectares of forest, according to the Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide. It was the county with the third-most loss.
Administrative proceeding
Angered by the actions of the illicit mining activities, forest guards seized the miners’ properties.
Later, Salayea filed a lawsuit against Ford Roy Tabolo, the mine owner. They sue him and two other men for mining without license, smuggling of minerals, criminal trespass and criminal facilitation, documents from the Salayea Magisterial Court show.
Tabolo and the men deny any wrongdoing. Tabolo argued that their activities were legal, producing a small-scale mining license.
Following a week of hearings, the court dismissed the case and removed a stay on the trio’s activities.
Judge Gabriel Ndupellar ruled that both parties had legal documents. Ndupellar said the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) needed to resolve the matter.
“The proceeding before this court is not ripe enough for judicial determination, except based on the outcome of an administrative proceeding,” the court said.
Reeling from the ruling, Salayea wrote the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) about the case. “We need your quick intervention,” read the June 8 letter. The FDA did not immediately respond to the DayLight’s queries.
The case is the fourth concerning mining in a community forest in the last five years, per media reports. Previous cases involved Korninga B and Bondi Mandingo in Gbarpolu, and Blei and Sehyi-Ko-doo in Nimba. Bea Mountain Mining Corporation and Solway Mining Inc. were penalized in the Korninga B and Nimba cases. The other Gbarpolu case implicates unlicensed miners and is still in court.
Meanwhile, Mulbah said Salayea was consulting lawyers for further legal actions against Tabolo.
Salayea forest guards with tools seized from an artisanal mine owner Ford Roy Tabolo. File picture
Water pollution
Back in Salayea, Tabolo and his team are digging in the forest. A DayLight review of the Ministry of Mines’ records shows Tabolo has four small-scale mining licenses, all expired in August and have not been renewed. That includes the license he presented to the court, based on court filings. Tabolo did not return queries for comments on this story.
Locals said another group of miners uses dredges on the St. Paul River, polluting creeks, driving away wildlife, and destroying the forest. It was due to such harmful environmental impacts the Ministry of Mines imposed a moratorium on dredging in 2019.
“The fishes in the water are also being affected and our people are eating the fish because they don’t know,” said Tokpah Koiwu, a community leader.
Villagers now carry drinking water from towns to their farms due to the pollution, Koiwu added.
The DayLight did not see the dredges. However, reporters obtained photos of royal blue plastic barrels, used by miners to make the makeshift machines. Furthermore, the color of the water in the pictures was consistent with a dredging operation.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Eva Kpandah, Palama Clan’s community land and development committee chairperson. The DayLight/Harry Browne
By Esau J. Farr
SALAYEA TOWN, Lofa County – In 2019, the Sehyi Clan in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County began the legal process of acquiring a customary land deed. Sehyi’s community land development and management committee spearheads that process.
Another clan group has exercised similar functions over Sehyi’s forest since 2017. The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s community forest management body comanages the 1,538-hectare forest alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).
There is a problem, though. The forest leadership does not have a good relationship with its land counterpart. Like several communities, they are at loggerheads, with mounting calls for a national conversation to resolve these disputes.
But things are different in the Salayea District of Lofa County over 200 miles away. There, three—not two—community land and forest bodies, peacefully coexist and solve some of the district’s problems.
Since 2009, the district has had a community forest development committee, representing locals’ interests in a large-scale logging concession.
In 2016, the Salayea Community Forest was established, with a community leadership to co-manage the forest.
Then in 2019, Palama, a clan that hosts a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, established a governance structure to help develop and manage its land.
“If we don’t merge and work together, things will not work well for us,” says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Community Forest.
“We are working together as a team for a goal to protect the forest, to take it from illegal activities for the community’s development,” adds Eva Kpandah, the chairperson of Palama Clan’s land committee.
All three of the district’s bodies combat community challenges, including land conflicts and illegal mining activities.
A portion of the 8,270-hectare Salayea Community Forest in Lofa County. The DayLight/Harry Browne
In May, Kpandah tipped off Mulbah when she spotted miners entering the forest. Kpandah and Tokpah Koiwu supported Mulbah in filing a lawsuit against the miners. Koiwu is a member of Salayea District’s committee regarding the district’s large-scale logging concession.
In another instance, Mulbah and Koiwu are supporting Kpandah in Palama’s boundary dispute with Gbarlain, a neighboring clan.
‘Not invited’
In Sehyi, the stakes are even higher. Like Salayea, its forest and those of its neighbors Zor, Gba and Blei are all adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve. The four communities run conservation programs that help protect the reserve’s endangered and endemic species, including chimpanzees and the Nimba toad. However, confusion among community leaders undermines livelihood programs that benefit locals and keep the forest standing.
Yassah Mulbah speaks to The DayLight at the margins of the National Land Conference in September 2024. The DayLight/Harry Browne
“The [community forest] leadership said… they can’t accept to collaborate with us,” says Peter Dolo, Sehyi’s land leadership. “When they are having meetings, [we are] not invited.”
Ericson Flomo, the leader of Sehyi’s forest leadership, denies that accusation. “They have not called us in any of their meetings,” Flomo says. He claims he is the one who has invited Dolo to several meetings.
Dolo refutes Flomo’s comments, saying he has attended Flomo’s meetings as a townsperson, not the land leader.
This crisis has rocked communities outside of Nimba. In River Cess, the leaders of Gbarsaw and Dorbor Community Forest have refused to recognize land leaders of the clan. “They are only there to take care of the land after the loggers have left. They have no authority over the forest,” James Gbordoe, the forest leader of Gbarsaw and Dorbor, said in 2021. “When the logs have been cut from there, they will have the whole land to take care of.”
The intensity of the crisis was displayed at a workshop in Ganta last month. Things got so heated that Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who helped organize the event, had to suspend the topic after a discord of claims and counterclaims from participants. The event was being held to gauge communities’ views on what they would need to manage their forest sustainably.
‘Forerunner’
Campaigners foretold this result. A few months after the passage of the Land Rights Act in 2018, the Margibi-based NGO Sustainable Development Institute published a report, predicting the power struggle.
(R-L) Peter Dolo, the chairman of Sehyi Clan’s community land development and management committee (CLDMC), and Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
The report argues that “conflicting provisions” in the law, which created the community land leadership, and Community Rights Law…, which established the forest leadership, would escalate tension.
“Our thinking is the crisis will increase because part of the reasons the law was crafted was to address issues of rural marginalization in respect to managing resources in the country but also conflicting, overlapping rights,” Ali Kaba, the then-head of SDI’s community land protection program, said at the time.
“It is a good law. However, there are loopholes, there are gaps and there are contradictions,” added Kaba, who is now a Commissioner at the Liberia Land Authority.
Speaking in 2021 at a conservation event in Monrovia, Cllr. Negbalee Warner, a senior partner at Heritage Partners and Associates (HPA) and one of the laws’ crafters, somehow acknowledged the “overlap” SDI spoke of.
“If there is anything, it is that the provisions of the two laws are in some instances [overlapped], although an argument can be made that the more appropriate term will be ‘reinforcing,’” said Warner. “The [land leadership] is therefore superior to all the structures established by the [Community Rights Law].”
‘Confusion will do nothing’
Bonathan Walaka, the lead facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body, says that understanding the roles and responsibilities of the two groups is crucial for progress.
The union intends to hold a forum with national stakeholders of the sectors to help ease the tension between community leaders. “The [forest leadership] should know that those who own the land are the community [people] and that they are only managing the forest,” Walaka says.
Augustine Dweh, the chairperson of a network of community land managers, agrees with Walaka, saying education and awareness are crucial to the solution.
An elevated view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
The same goes for Eddie Beangar, Nimba County’s Land Administrator. “Having both them to understand their roles and to ensure that their involvement impacts the environment positively,” says Beangar.
Back in Sehyi, Dolo and Flomo are willing to work together. Dolo promises to invite Flomo and his team to an impending meeting, hoping to pave the way for a renewed, smooth relationship. The same goes for Flomo
“[Anything] that is better for Sehyi, Sehyi Ko-doo will accept, Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview at an entrance of the mountainous forest. “Confusion will do nothing for us.”
Top: Illicit miners are ravaging the Wologizi Proposed Protected Area, according to a ranger and a community leader. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr
By Varney Kamara
GANTA, Nimba County – Illicit miners have encroached on the Wologizi Proposed Protected Area in Lofa County, according to a ranger and a community leader. Illegal miners have overrun this critical habitat, smuggling gold and diamonds into neighboring Guinea.
“We are just starting to tackle these issues. We are working hard to minimize them,” said Momo Ricks, an FDA ranger stationed there. “Illegal activities like these harm the environment.”
Ricks revealed this information at a recent community forestry meeting in Ganta, Nimba County, where regional leaders discussed sustainable ways for communities to benefit from forest resources.
Ricks’ comments were supported by Anthony Sumo, the community land and development committee (CLDMC) chairman of Zogoleemai Township, where portions of Wologizi and Wonegizi Proposed Protected Areas are located. Sumo added that locals were making efforts to combat illegal mining.
“We are actively fighting against these activities, especially in areas close to the river,” Sumo said.
The 28,894-hectare forest is a part of the Wonegizi-Wologizi Ziama (WWZ) cross-border landscape, linking Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. It hosts endangered species like chimpanzees and pygmy hippopotamus. It is one of Liberia’s protected areas, covering over 1.14 million hectares of humid rainforests.
Despite legal safeguards, unlawful practices continue in the vast forest. Community resistance, weak law enforcement, and limited deterrents have worsened illegal activities.
“The community has requested more forest guards, better salaries, and stronger partnership support, but resources have yet to materialize,” said Sumo. “For conservation to succeed, we need consistent backing. Without it, we risk losing the forest and its benefits.
“We are focused on resisting illegal activities, like logging while promoting sustainable practices that support our community,” Sumo added.
The news of illegal mining supports a 2020 report by Fauna & Flora International, which found habitat loss from unregulated activities.
CORRECTION: This version of the story corrects a previous version, which mistook Wonegizi for Wologizi. It also corrects Anthony Sumo’s title as the community land development and management committee chairman of the Zogoleemai Township, not the Wonegizi Proposed Protected Area.
The story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ).
Top: A view of the Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest in Nimba County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Varney Kamara
GANTA, Nimba County – Local communities are firm on conserving their forests but they want direct benefits from doing so.
“We’ve noticed that not giving funds directly to communities led to too many bureaucracies with limited social and economic impacts on the communities,” said Anthony Sumo, a community leader in the Proposed Wologizi and Wonegizi Protected Areas in Lofa County. The areas are part of the Wologizi-Wonegizi-Ziama belt, extending Guinea and connecting to Sierra Leone, and home to the critically endangered pigmy hippopotamus.
“Every day we hear about the money coming, but not much of how much development it brought to the community. There is a need to change things around.”
Sumo is one of 41 people from northern and northeastern Liberia who attended a recent meeting in Ganta, Nimba County to identify new ways local people could benefit from keeping their forests standing.
Their views and an emerging report on options Liberia could pursue to generate revenue will be developed into a proposal and turned over to the government and international partners for possible action.
The Community Rights Law… and Land Rights Act grant locals ownership of ancestral territories. Up to 75 percent of Liberia’s land is under customary control, including 1.3 million hectares of community forests and 1 million large-scale logging concessions.
Locals also support Liberia’s commitments to combat climate change, including halving deforestation, restoring a quarter of its degraded forests and reducing gases from forest use. A host of communities run conservation programs and support protected and proposed protected areas, covering 1.14 million hectares.
Yet those communities have not significantly gained from forest resources over the last one and a half decades. Failed logging contracts have left debts, abandoned logs and anger countrywide, while communities have struggled to profit from local conservation efforts.
“Any benefits that come from preserving the forests should go directly to the people, instead of passing through multiple organizations or international people,” said Sumo in an interview with The DayLight. “That’s what we have been asking for.”
Those views were echoed by other community leaders in Salayea, Blei, Sehyi Ko-doo and Zor and Gba.
Robert Mahn, a leader of the Zor Community Forest in the Sanniquellie-Mahn District of Nimba, said direct benefits were necessary for residents to manage and maintain ownership. The mountainous Zor, Gba and Blei are conservation community forests adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve, an 11,538-hectare forest that is home to chimpanzees and the Nimba toad.
Over 40 people and rangers from communities and the East Nimba Nature Reserve discussed local people’s benefits from keeping their forest standing. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“I feel that direct funding will boost our CLDMC’s involvement in decision-making, helping us use our benefits more effectively,” said Mahn.
“The people depended on these forests from our ancestral days. Now that you want them to manage and protect it in other ways, you need to provide benefits like soap-making, women’s arts, tailoring, village saving loans, animal raring, and more,” said Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Authorized Forest Community.
Eight thousand two hundred and seventy hectares Lofa County, Salayea, runs a conservation program, focusing on livelihood projects Mulbah mentioned.
But other attendees, including Grace Kotee, a ranger with the East Nimba Nature Reserve, caution against mismanagement. They referenced an instance in the Korninga A Community Forest in Gbarpolu, where townsmen were tried for allegedly misusing US$76,000.
“We think that providing direct benefits to communities is a good idea but we have a little bit of concern about this. There should be a process or system put in place that will make them to be accountable,” said Kotee.
All parties agreed NGOs were crucial to communities’ conservation efforts. However, most frowned on NGOs implementing projects for communities.
Ericson Flomo, the chief officer of Sehyi Ko-doo Authorized Community Forest, called on conservation donors and the government to empower communities.
The community has planted 30,000 indigenous and fruit trees, one of the highest totals in the country. Sehyi Ko-doo has an MoU with ArcelorMittal Liberia in which the company pays a dozen local forest guards a monthly stipend.
“We want to get things done,” Flomo told The DayLight at Sehyi Ko-doo’s border with Gba amid the hooting of chimpanzees. “We just need the right training and resources to succeed.”
Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who was one of the workshop’s facilitators, welcomed the participants’ views.
“By protecting their resources, they can access funds tied to conservation ownership,” said Siakor. “The objective is to identify other sources of economic benefits and revenue that you can use for your own development as a community, as an incentive for you to better manage your forest.
“The idea is to balance conservation with community needs.”
The next discussions will be held in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. After that, Inclusive Development Consultancy will draft the proposal on how communities can benefit from sustainably managing their forest.
Top: Garmai Kennedy, Lofa County Accountant, llegally collects L$1,000 from each truck transporting planks within and out of Lofa County. The DayLight/Mason Kollie
By Mason Kollie
VOINJAMA, Lofa County – In August last year, the Superintendent of Lofa County William Tamba Kamba abolished an illegal fee he imposed on planks leaving the northwestern county following a DayLight investigation.
Kamba had accepted that the collection was illegal.
“We stopped the toll collection [because] the county council comprising of representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, [the Ministry of Internal Affairs], CSOs, and the youths did not approve [it],” said Kamba then.
Yet, a few months after Kamba’s admission, Garmai Kennedy, Lofa County’s accountant, reintroduced the illegal toll system.
Like under Kamba, plank dealers pay Kennedy L$1,000 for a truckload of planks transported within and out of the county, receipts of the transactions show.
“As long you are taking wood from Voinjama to Monrovia, you need to pay the Superintendent fee…, which I did two weeks ago,” Vesselee Lakpawolo, a plank dealer, said.
“I sent wood in town [recently] to my brother. I paid for the Superintendent fee to Garmai Kennedy, the accountant of the county,” Lakpawolo added, brandishing a receipt.
Lofa County Accountant Garmai Kennedy writes a receipt for a plank dealer at a carpenter shop in Voinjama. The DayLight/Mason Kollie
Plank dealers pay the fees directly to Kennedy, who gives them a receipt. She collects the fees at her home, in the streets of Voinjama and at the city’s checkpoint. One picture shows Kennedy writing a receipt to a dealer at a carpenter shop.
Kennedy has refused to account for the funds she has received, saying the money was for office use. “We have to buy [a] new flag, and facilitate some senior staff’s movements around the county,” she said.
Kennedy has been a cornerstone of the illegal plank toll in Lofa. During Kamba’s administration, she was responsible for collecting fees from all parts of the county, documents show.
A receipt The DayLight obtained in 2022 as part of another investigation revealed she received L$53,125 from a toll agent in Vahun. Kamba had introduced the illegal payment scheme in Vahun, following a leadership issue there before duplicating it throughout Lofa.
A 2019 document shows that she made several disbursements from fees collected from chainsaw millers in Foya.
County authorities collecting fees on plank goes against the practices of chainsaw milling, even in its unregulated state.
A man head carries planks in a forest in Kpasagizia, Lofa County in 2022. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Local plank production or chainsaw milling began after the Second Liberian Civil War (1998-2003). It is the sole distributor of planks to domestic markets, with an estimated value between US$30 million and US$41 million, according to a 2017 report.
However, chainsaw milling has been unregulated since its emergence. Chainsaw millers get their wood by negotiating with forest owners in rural communities through verbal agreements. They pay the Forestry Development Authority (FDA)US$.60 per plank.
The Chainsaw Milling Regulation, completed by the FDA in 2022 and is yet to be enforced, recognizes community and FDA payments, but not the Office of the Superintendent.
Acting Superintendent Forkpa Roberts claims the toll collection is legal, citing a law. “Under the Local Governance Law (Act), the county authority has the right to generate revenue on [its] own,” Roberts told The DayLight.
Roberts’ claim is incorrect. The Local Government Act does not give superintendents or their staff any power to levy fees on any good. That power lies solely in the county council, a group that comprises chiefs, the youths, and the disabled community.
A county council has not been formed in Lofa, and superintendents or their staff are not members of the body, according to the law.
That was the same wrong claim Kamba made to defend the illegal toll system before admitting it was unlawful.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ).
Top: Liberia’s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
MONROVIA – Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia’s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon fearing it would fail them like logging contracts.
Blue Carbon, owned by a member of the Royal family of the United Arab Emirates, signed a carbon credit memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March with the Liberian government.
The deal intends to cover over one million hectares of forestlands in River Cess, Sinoe, Gbarpolu, Lofa and Margibi, places that have had bad experiences with logging contracts.
“We are already challenged with [logging] that has a legal framework,” says Andrew Zelemen, the national facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC), comprising some 500 logging-affected communities.
“Our fear is the actual benefit community should get may not get because we don’t know how it is and how it will be,” adds Zelemen.
Logging companies began signing contracts with forest communities over 15 years ago, a major component of Liberia’s forestry reform.
But most contracts have failed, with companies owing huge sums of land rentals and harvesting fees. They have failed to start or complete mandatory projects.
Matthew Walley, an affected community leader of a 57,287-hectare forest that the proposed agreement targets, questions the proposed MoU’s payment method.
“If I get 57,000 hectares preserved as carbon area, what will be the calculation? How will it be done? Through what kind of benefit-sharing mechanism,” says Walley.
“The government can’t just come and say this place is declared as a carbon area. We will not accept it,” says Walley.
Andrew Zelemen, national coordinator, National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC). The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Blue Carbon intends to avoid the pitfall of logging, according to the draft agreement, seen by The DayLight. Communities stand to receive a credit royalty of 10 percent of the value of the carbon credits the forest will generate.
It proposes a payment scheme through a five-person committee, two each from the community and the government and one from Blue Carbon.
“Community will directly benefit from a dedicated Account, not the consolidated account,” says Adams Manobah, the Chairman of Liberia Land Authority (LLA). “And that benefit will go directly into their own account that will be controlled by the people themselves.”
The International community has criticized the proposed payment mode for being vague, according to a document seen by The DayLight.
But communities should not depend on Blue Carbon’s contract for their shares of carbon credits, according to Zelemen. There should be a “roadmap” for carbon trading.
In the roadmap, develop a legal framework that will guide the process of carbon trade like we have law guiding timber trade,” says Zelemen. NGOs have made the same call.
Both Blue Carbon and Liberia want the deal to help their climate targets. Liberia has a commitment to reduce carbon emissions in its forestry sector in halves by 2030. Blue Carbon, on the other hand, intends to remove carbon from the global economy with such MoUs in line with the UN agenda to combat climate change.
But communities have not been consulted, a violation of Liberia’s Land Rights Act (LRA) and the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Land, and other legal instruments.
These laws give the communities the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to land and forest-related concessions. A UN-backed doctrine, FPIC requires that villagers give their consent to contracts prior to any project or negotiation.
“I’m not aware [of] the negotiation between the government of Liberia and the Blue Carbon company from UAE,” said Jerome Poye, a member of an affected community in Gibi District, Margibi County, that the draft agreement also targets.
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: A Sierra Leonean truck awaits locals in Vahun, Lofa County to smuggle planks into the neighboring country. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
A self-proclaimed aide of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a customs officer collect fees on planks exported to Sierra Leone through Vahun, Lofa County
But the export of such woods is strictly prohibited under forestry legal frameworks
The smuggling of planks is an open secret and has been going on in that region for years
Vahun’s bad road networks and its closeness to Sierra Leone fuel the illicit trade
The FDA said it is investigating the matter
VAHUN, Lofa County – Planks produced in Liberia are not allowed to be exported. They are made solely to support construction works within the country since round logs are meant entirely for foreign markets.
But that rule does not apply in Vahun, Lofa County’s district on Liberia’s northwest border with Sierra Leone. Locals here smuggle planks in broad daylight, thanks to agents of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA).
Instead of blocking the trafficking of wood, the agents do the exact opposite. Abraham Konneh, a villager who claims to be an aide, gets unspecified amounts on consignments of planks crossing the border. Richard Gbargondah, the LRA chief collector in that region, collects L$20 on each wood.
“The FDA people are aware that we sell the wood in Sierra Leone. LRA and the police, too,” said Daoda Kromah, a chainsaw miller in the region. The FDA and the LRA get toll.” Daoda Kromah is not his real. His and the names of other chainsaw millers in this story have been changed to protect them from any reprisals.
The DayLight obtained a number of receipts of the illegal transactions. That was also corroborated by chiefs, elders, and plank makers, known in the forestry sector as pit-sawyers or chainsaw millers. The term “chainsaw millers” come from the millers’ use of chainsaws or power saws. “Pit-sawyers” connotes a centuries-old method of producing planks with a handheld saw by placing a tree trunk over a pit.
It appeared the isolated nature of Vahun, one of the most forested places in Liberia, plays a part in the plank scam. The district is cut off from other parts of Lofa due to its bad road networks. People here conduct all of their businesses across the border, including the purchases of gasoline and spare parts for chainsaws. In fact, they even use Leone, the Sierra Leonean currency.
‘Just a token’
“Please allow the [bearer] of this document to carry his truck of planks,” Konneh said to the Vahun police depot in a note, seen by The DayLight. It was in reference to 200 planks that were to be trafficked on March 23 earlier this year.
Konneh said Ben Miller, an FDA ranger assigned at the Proposed Wonegizi Nature Reserve, appointed him as an aide, a claim supported by other villagers. He said he collected up to 200,000 Leones (L$1,700) on each transport of planks to Sierra Leone.
“The sawyers themselves declare [their production] and give what they have,” Konneh said in an interview. “Sometimes they don’t pay. It is just a token.” We caught up with Miller 139 miles away in Konia but he declined an interview.
Locals smuggle planks across Liberia’s border with Sierra Leone via Vahun, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Gbargondah’s LRA scam is more organized than Konneh’s FDA profiteering. It all started with a meeting on tax collection Gbargondah organized some time ago. He had convinced locals that paying taxes would record Vahun’s contribution to the Liberian government’s revenue.
“I did not want to be counted among the unproductive custom officers,” said Gbargondah, who controls the tax region from Barziwen, Zorzor District to the Sierra Leonean border in Vahun.
People started to comply with the tax code, including Gbargondah’s illegal plank scheme. He charges L$20 on each plank and only allows records from 100 pieces and above. Unlike the FDA agent, he provides official LRA receipts to make the payments look genuine, deceiving the townspeople that the money they pay goes into the government’s revenue.
Gbargondah claimed that he started to collect the duties on planks just four months ago. However, receipts of some of the illegal transactions show earlier dates. He collected L$8,000 on 1,000 planks valued at L$533,333.99 on May 14, 2022, for example, according to one of the documents.
Also, the procedure for payment in Gbargondah’s scheme is a red flag. Invoices for the exportation of timber do not come from the LRA. They are generated within the chain of custody, a system that tracks the wood from their sources to the buyers, and has become to be a game-changer in Liberia’s quest to tackle illegal logging. It is a major component of Liberia’s trade agreement with the European Union, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA).
‘We are not happy’
Abraham Konneh’s handwritten note to the police in Vahun.
A receipt issued by Richard Gbargondah, an LRA customs officer in Lofa
Vahun’s chainsaw millers said they were aware planks are not to be sold on foreign soil but had no option. Predominantly farmers and gardeners, incomes from smuggled planks help them clean their farms and take care of household needs, according to them. They said they sell construction and furniture woods between L$600 and L$1,400 in Leones. Ishmael Kamokai, a chainsaw miller in a town called Folima told The DayLight his main customer was a woman in the Sierra Leonean city of Kenema he only named Lucia.
Piles of newly milled planks lined up the route to the border in the Guma Mande Clan. Rotting planks, blackened from years of rain and sunbath, could be seen nearly everywhere on the 30-mile road.
A heavy truck with a Sierra Leonean license plate was parked in Folima. Kromah, Kamokai and townspeople interviewed said the vehicle crossed the border nearly every week, transporting up to 250 planks per trip. It is the most infamous of all the smuggling vehicles. Ibrahim Sannoh, its driver, evaded an interview.
“We are not happy as Liberians to take the resources of the country to carry in Sierra Leone but no other way,” said Kamokai.
“Vahun has lots of resources, including diamonds, gold and other things. Because of the lacking of road connectivity completely, this is why most of our resources can go to the neighboring country,” adds Mohammed Kamara, the central clan chief for Guma Mande. “You cannot expect people who live here with resources and they are not well connected to their own country.”
The road from Vahun to Kolahun is one of the worst in the country. Untrimmed bushes make it difficult to see the ground. Erosion caused by yearly rainfalls, rocks and steep hills feature almost permanently. At one point, it takes a deep left turn at the head of a cliff so deep that even the green and yellow coloring of a cocoa garden on its side could not cover the lurking danger.
Kromah narrated how he and other chainsaw millers attempted to transport some 800 planks to Voinjama in a truck in 2017 but lost all the woods. He said they had to pay for the repair of the vehicle and needed a full year to recover from the loss.
“If you go on the road, you will see some of the woods,” he said with a dry smile. “We lost more than L$1 million.”
The LRA did not reply to queries emailed them nearly two weeks ago up to writing time.
The FDA said it did not have a local office in Vahun, and that Miller had denied authorizing Konneh to collect fees in the name of the agency. Konneh also denied he collects tolls, despite admitting to doing so in our interview.
“We do not take this at face value and are investigating along with the authorities,” said Yanquoi Dolo, the head of the FDA legal team in an emailed statement.
Planks by the roadside toward Liberia’s border with Sierra Leone in Vahun, Lofa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Edward Blamo contributed to this report.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
