Sinoe Communities Try New Conservation Method

September 25, 2025

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Top: A footpath inside the Lower Wedjah Community Forest. The DayLight/ Esau J. Farr

By Esau J. Farr

GBOYEE TOWN; DIYANKPO, Sinoe County – In June, the people in Wedjah District signed an agreement with an NGO to protect 7,131 hectares of forest for yearly cash and other benefits.

“We have been waiting for this day to come for so many years,” said Savior Nyenbe, an elder of Soloe Town in Wedjah.

Two days later, the Jaedae District signed a similar agreement to keep 43,543 hectares of forest.

“I want to say that the people of Jaedae wholeheartedly welcome the [agreement],” said Mark Toe, a local leader in Jaedae.

The Lower Wedjah and Jaedea agreements are the first of a revolutionary approach to forest conservation in which communities receive funds for keeping their forests standing. A Paynesville-based NGO, Integrated Development and Learning (IDL), is championing the payment for stewardship.

“The agreement does not just deliver money to the community, it puts the community in charge of its own development agenda and priorities,” said Silas Siakor, IDL’s Executive Director.

Communities own about 75 percent of Liberia’s forest. This puts local people at the core of conservation in a country that holds the largest portion of West Africa’s remaining rainforests.

The Wedjah and Jaedae agreements are a two-year trial, with a possible 25-year extension. During this time, IDL will pay Wedjah and Jaedae a combined US$152,022, with the former receiving US$21,392 and the latter US$130,630. The first tranche would arrive this week, Siakor said.

In exchange, local people in Wedjah and Jaedae will not mine, farm, log, or build homes in their forests. They will, however, be allowed to harvest trees and other things for local development during the lifespan of the agreement.

Both communities have a rich biodiversity. Wedjah is home to several wildlife species, including chimpanzees. There are also important tree species. Jaedae, on the other hand, is part of the proposed Grand Kru-River Gee Protected Area, home to several species in West Africa.

During the trial, trained local volunteers or forest guards will conduct monthly forest monitoring. Over the years, illicit activities have undermined conservation efforts in Lake Piso, Nitrian Community Forest and the Sapo National Park next door. A Forestry Development Authority team has traveled to Sinoe this week to train the guards. Monitoring is expected to start early next week.

Siakor believes this will not repeat in Wedjah and Jaedae. Instead, it will increase the number of protected forest areas and prevent encroachment on those forests, he says.

“It also provides an opportunity for partnership between the community and the Wardens at Sapo, and guarantees community support for protection for the next two years.”

The trial comes at a time when commercial logging continues to fail communities. Wedja and Daedae’s neighbors, Sewacajua, Numopoh and the Central River Dugbe community forests have their share of the bad experiences.

WhatsApp Image 2025 09 04 at 183356 — A portion of the Jaedae District forest is in the background of a farm in Diyankpo. The DayLight/Esau Farr

Also, the Burkinabé cocoa crisis in the southeast is a new challenge for conservation.

However, evidence shows that community-based conservation programs work. There are programs similar to the one in Wedjah and Jaedae elsewhere in Salayea, Lofa, Zor, Nimba, and Central Morweh, River Cess.

Campaigners say putting locals in charge of forest conservation will help Liberia meet its climate commitments, including cutting deforestation by 50 percent in 2030. Global Forest Watch, an institution that tracks deforestation, reports Liberia lost 162,000 ha of natural forest in 2024, equivalent to 104,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

“This initiative represents a significant step forward in forest conservation efforts,” says Andrew Zelemen, a leader of the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees. “For too long, forest communities have not received direct compensation for their role in preserving these critical ecosystems.”

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

Actors Want Regulation Amended to Enhance Communities’ Benefits

September 1, 2025

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Top: A log yard outside Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Varney Kamara

MONROVIA – Forestry actors in Liberia are calling for amendments to the regulation on benefit-sharing to enhance communities’ share of resources generated from the sector.

They spoke recently at a national conference that brought together representatives from civil society, environmental groups, lawyers, and the government. The change would improve governance, transparency, and accountability, and ultimately lead to better sector performance, they said.

“The idea is to ensure that we carry out a broader reform that includes other sectors that are important to leverage development across communities,” said Silas Siakor, lead campaigner at Integrated Development and Learning, which promotes development across communities.

“We are only looking back to see where we can strengthen the existing frameworks to move forward,” Siakor added.

The National Benefit Sharing Trust Board, created under the National Forestry Reform Law, serves as the main channel through which local people receive benefits from logging operations.

The law mandates that 30 percent of logging revenue from land rental be allotted to affected communities. A 2011 regulation also requires openness, transparency, accountability, and community participation in the management of forest resources.

Both the law and regulation empower the Trust to collect communities’ shares, consult with local land management committees, and identify and approve projects to be implemented within specific timeframes.

As of December 2024, the board had completed 44 projects across communities, including schools, clinics, and the rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads.

Despite progress, several challenges remain. The board continues to struggle to deliver quality services. Its implementation outputs are weak, hampered by limited capacity and compliance issues.

However, with the right reforms, combined with a more resilient internal structure, sector leaders believe these challenges can be overcome.

To achieve this, they have proposed revisions to include mining and representatives of other sectors on the Trust. Other proposed changes include the election of the trust’s president and a provision allowing it to seek continuous donor support to ensure regular audits.

“During the discussion, we agreed that the board needs to improve its capacity, outsource contracts, and conduct regular audits to ensure transparency and accountability,” said Renee Gibson, an official of the Rural Integrated Center for Community Empowerment.

At the close of the meeting, delegates agreed to submit a proposed plan of action to the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) following a review process that will finalize its details within three weeks.

Roadmap Offers to Pay Communities to Keep their Forests

July 24, 2025

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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.”

Communities Desire Direct Benefits to Conserve Forests

October 26, 2024

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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.

Tag: Silas Siakor

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