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

August 11, 2025

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:

Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Forestry Development Authority, EPA, and law enforcement with adequate financing, training, and community empowerment.
Enhancing community-based natural resource management, offering genuine benefit-sharing schemes under existing legal frameworks to incentivize conservation.
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

Ministry Seizes Machines at Illegal Sinoe Mine

July 17, 2025

WhatsApp Image 2025-07-15 at 163755 — #image_title

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

July 17, 2025

Greenville Beach — 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.

Lawmaker Allegedly Bribes Locals for Dirty Logging Contract

April 16, 2025

Top: Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh whispers to an African Finch Logging Limited executive at a program in Numopoh District, Sinoe County. File picture/Anonymous

By Varney Kamara

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series on Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh’s involvement with a Sinoe County community forest contract.

NUMOPOH – Sinoe County Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh allegedly bribed locals in Sinoe County to sign a community forest contract with a UAE-based company he appears to co-own. A DayLight investigation also found that the forest was unlawfully extended amid Quioh’s decades-long friendship with the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab.

Several residents and local officials said Quioh gave thousands of Liberian dollars to Numopoh Community Forest’s leaders, who then distributed the money to community members to endorse African Finch Logging Limited. One person alleged they received the money directly from the lawmaker.

“After the people refused to sign the MoU, then, he (Quioh) carried the [the community forest leaders] behind the house, and we saw them coming back with a black plastic bag filled with money,” said Numopoh’s Commissioner Alfred Harwood. “From this point, the chiefs and other people started signing the document.

“I was sick and did not attend the meeting that day, but afterward, Quioh visited my house and gave me LD5,000, and said I should buy soap,” said Christiana Neoh, Paramount chief of Doboe Chiefdom.

“He also encouraged me to support the company’s entry into our community [forest],” added Neoh.

The residents signed the document the same day it was introduced without making any input. Emmanuel Dapoe, a resident of Kilo Town, said he had to leave the signing ceremony due to his dissent.

Others said Quioh had promised to bring African Finch to the Numopoh when he campaigned for the district’s seat in 2023, which Quioh would clinch after defeating eight other candidates.

“This whole thing is part of that big promise he made to the community during the campaign,” said Alex Sanwon, a prominent Numopoh citizen, in Johnny Town.

The allegations were confirmed by Darius Nagbe, the Superintendent of Kpayan District, where Numopoh falls. In February, Nagbe wrote the Ministry of Internal Affairs, complaining Quioh.

“Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh… singularly took a logging company to the district…,” Nagbe said. He said he was unaware of the company’s presence, and asked Minister of Internal Affairs Sakila Nyumalin to investigate.

A statutory member of Numuoph’s community forest leadership, a representative scrutinizes a logging company wanting to operate there, not negotiate on its behalf. Also, a representative has oversight over the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which enforces the sector’s laws and regulations.

An official’s involvement with a company or in bribery violates the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which prohibits inducement and conflict of interest. The code defines bribery as anything promised, offered, given, accepted, or received by a public official for favors in the execution of official duties, including “cold water” or “eating.” It defines conflict of interest as “when a public official, contrary to official obligations and duties to act for the benefit of the public, exploits a relationship for personal benefit.”

Paramount Chief Christiana Neoh of Doboe Chiefdom, Numoph District, said she received L$5,000 from Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh to sign a logging MoU. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

Moreover, any inducement or intimidation violates the locals’ right to consent, guaranteed in several national and international laws, including the Land Rights Act and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These instruments provide that local people must be free to accept or reject a contract.

Quioh did not respond to the bribery claim and other allegations. In a phone interview, he appeared to accuse The DayLight of blackmail while ranting at this reporter.

“You cannot teach me forestry. You don’t know me. I am one of the longest-serving foresters in this country,” said Quioh.

“I know my rights, I know what I did. I’m not a kid.”

“Publish your story in the sky,” he added, hanging up the phone.

Sam Kandie, Numopoh’s chairman, who had celebrated the African Finch deal in a previous interview, did not respond to The DayLight queries.

‘Speak to the Hon.’

The allegation that Quioh led African Finch’s negotiation with Numopoh appears to be backed by photographs of the signing ceremony. In one photograph, the lawmaker is seen whispering to an African Finch representative sitting next to him. Another shows the two men sitting and watching as the ceremony unfolded.

Due to his alleged involvement with African Finch, locals believe Quioh co-owns African Finch. Kwadjo Asabre, African Finch’s CEO, appeared to corroborate that claim when he recommended that The DayLight contact Quioh on company matters. “Speak to [the] Hon..,” Asabre wrote in a WhatsApp interview.

Meanwhile, African Finch’s legal documents do not rule out the possibility that Quoih is its owner. Established last year, African Finch is a subsidiary of Finch General Trading FZE, located in Ajman, UAE, according to its article of incorporation. Finch General Trading primarily focuses on mining, engineering, and agricultural products.. However, the Liberia Business Registry has no record of African Finch’s beneficial owners.

Such a shady ownership structure violates Liberia’s Beneficial Ownership Regulation and renders African Finch ineligible to do business in Liberia. The 2023 regulation requires Liberia-registered businesses to declare their beneficial owners—the person or people who own them. This rule safeguards against transnational crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion.

The DayLight has written the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Liberia Business Registry about African Finch’s unlawful registration. The Registry is obligated to reject companies with hidden shareholders, while the Ministry supervises the Registry’s functions.

A forest in Sinoe County, southeastern Liberia. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

‘Rudolph is my friend’

But the hidden ownership is not the only violation associated with the African Finch deal.

July last year, Numopoh asked the FDA to cancel its agreement with Delta Timber Corporation, which had previously illegally operated in the forest. About two months later, the FDA granted the request and advised the community to select a new investor.

Numopoh did, but this time, the FDA expanded its size from 7,220 hectares to over 18,000 hectares without the participation of neighboring communities. The company has even started checking trees for possible harvesting.

“I only got to know about the expansion from the signed MoU when somebody posted it on social media,” said Kwankon Saytue of Tartweh-Drapoh Community Forest.

The 2017 Community Rights Regulation guarantees neighboring communities the right to participate in the demarcation and mapping of community forests. There is even a handbook that the USAID funded for that.

Land and forest rights campaigners criticized the extension.

“These are forest communities that were already created by metes and bounds. Their exclusion is not only impractical but also illegal,” said Borwen Sayon of The Nature Compact, a Montserrado-based NGO involved with natural resource management and development.

The illegal expansion could heighten tension in that area. Numopoh and the Do-Wolee township currently have an unresolved boundary dispute that has stalled Golden Veroleum Liberia’s palm plantation there for years.

In all, it appears African Finch is exploiting Quioh’s relationship with the FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab. Quioh and Merab have been friends for decades. “When I come to the FDA, I feel at home away from home. FDA is my baby,” Quioh said at Merab’s induction in February last year. Rudolph and myself have 36 years of relationship. I am happy to be here as a friend of Rudolph.”

Not just the Liberia Business Registry, the FDA is also under legal obligation to check a forestry company’s eligibility. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications requires the agency to reject any company whose owner is a lawmaker. This cannot be done with a company whose owners are unknown.

The FDA did not answer questions on the Numopoh extension and the African Finch’s owners. Last month, The DayLight asked the FDA for information on the Numopoh-African Finch contract, as the information was not on the FDA’s website as required by law. However, that request was denied.

CORRECTION: This version of the story corrects a previous version that named African Finch as Africa Finch.

GVL Finally Forms Clinic in Tartweh

March 10, 2025

Top: GVLcompletes the construction of a clinic in Tartweh, Drapoh Chiefdom, Sinoe County/ The DayLIght/ Franklin K. Nehyalor

By Franklin K. Nehyalor

TARTWEH-DRAPOH, Sinoe County – After more than a decade of protests, Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) has finally established a community clinic to serve its workers and residents.

“We are happy that our people no longer have to travel [far away] for treatment. They can now receive medical care right here in Tartweh,” said Nunu Broh, former Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Development Committee chairman. “This is a very significant step because seeking treatment [elsewhere] was a major problem for our community.”

In 2010, GVL and the Government of Liberia signed a 65-year Concession Agreement, granting the company rights to 220,000 hectares of land across Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Gee, and River Cess counties. This agreement required GVL to enter an MoU with affected communities and commit to constructing a school, hand pumps, and a clinic.

GVL signed the MoU with the Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom of Kpayan District, Sinoe County, obligating, Liberia’s largest oil palm investor to build a clinic in the area. However, the company failed to live up to its obligation.

Over a decade, residents walked three hours to Kabada in a neighboring for chiefdom treatment. The absence of a local healthcare facility led to growing frustration and mounting pressure on GVL.

In October 2023, residents protested against GVL, demanding that the company honor its commitments. In response, GVL signed a resolution with the community in May last year, agreeing to construct a temporary clinic to provide immediate healthcare services until a permanent facility could be built.

Several months later, GVL completed the Tartweh Clinic, following a series of DayLight investigations, holding the company to account.

The newly established clinic, which opened in October, now provides medical services to dozens of workers and residents from surrounding communities.

Located in a GVL estate, and painted in green and white, it has a team of five staff members recruited from Tartweh and neighboring areas. GVL did not answer emailed questions regarding the clinic.

“This is a major improvement from the past. It marks a new beginning in the relationship between GVL and the community,” said Broh.

“Moving forward, we expect GVL to honor all other commitments it made to the community.”

The Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Beekeeping and Loan Protect Sinoe Forest

March 3, 2025

Top: Ariel view of Nitrian Community Forest in Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

KABADA, Sinoe County – Jackson Tweh makes a living from beekeeping. Tweh, 35, and a father of six children has six beehives, which produce up to seven gallons of honey every three months.

Tweh was a farmer and hunter since his youth but in 2019 Universal Outreach Foundation, a Canadian NGO, went to Kabada, a town in the Kpanyan District of Sinoe County. The NGO trained him and other townspeople in beekeeping. When the training ended, he received six beehives, enclosed structures where honeybees live and raise their young.

“From what I see, beekeeping is one of the best programs when it comes to human promotion in the conservation community,” says Tweh. “Whenever we harvest, the honey can’t stay long with us because people can be standing by, waiting to buy it.”

Like Tweh, Ophelia Merrian, a mother of five children in her 40s, dropped farming in the forest for full-time shopkeeping.

In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture trained Merrian to set up a village saving and loan association. The ministry came to Tweh Town, about half an hour’s walk from Kabada, and introduced her to swamp farming, which increased her yield.

In the last five years, Merrian saved her income from the loan scheme, and the interest transformed her life dramatically.

“When I started, I was renting in someone’s house, but right now I have my place,” Merrian said. “This same program helps me to pay my children’s school fees.”

Tweh and Merrian are two of over 200 townspeople living adjacent to the Nitrian Community Forest who have benefited from alternative livelihood programs. The schemes provide replacements for forest farmlands and bushmeat for locals to keep them away from forest farming in one of Liberia’s few conservation community forests.

Established in 2011, the 958-hectare Nitrian is home to different species, including chimpanzees, African elephants, buffalos and pangolins. Located in southeastern Liberia has a high stock carbon value, a 2018 study shows. The forest is, however, being undermined by poachers, farming and other illegal activities.

Dennis Broh, president of the Nitrian community assembly, tells The DayLight the beekeeping and loan schemes have helped to reduce unwanted occupants.

“Intruding into the forest by farmers and hunters has been some of the challenges we have faced here,” says Broh, in a Kabada interview.

“Currently, when you look at the farming activities, the way people were involved with the forest has been cut down,” adds Broh.

Universal Outreach Foundation introduced beekeeping in 2019. The NGO trained 40 men from six towns and 16 villages. In these six years, the trainees have multiplied their beehives from their initial six. Tweh now has 15. Johanson Wiah has nine, the same as Stanley Saydee, and Broh has 15.

Six beehives can produce at least three gallons of honey in as many months, according to the beekeepers, and five liters sell for US$20 on local marketplaces.

Similar to beekeeping, the village saving loan started in 2019. It is a product of a partnership between Dutch NGO IDH and the Ministry of Agriculture. It encouraged residents to do lowland farming to keep their forest standing.

Locals accepted the proposal and started lowland farming. The exercise produced more yields, increased villagers’ incomes and introduced the village saving loan and association program there.

Since then, the association has had an annual saving of not less than L$1 million, except for 2019, the year the scheme was established. The highest income of the scheme was realized in 2023 when the association saved more than L$2 million.

Victoria Cooper, former Sinoe County’s agriculture coordinator, explains it became clear that they needed to manage their proceeds. The ministry provided technical support.

“This is a very good project and I think everyone needs to welcome it to help rural communities fight climate change and strengthen conservation efforts,” says Cooper, who is now a technical assistant at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Vincent Swen, a community leader, led a tour of Nitrian Community Forest in 2019. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

‘Not going into logging’

Residents have seen the result of their actions. At the beginning of their conservation efforts, they would record bullet casings and illicit farms. Today, they no longer see those things.

But Nitrian reckons there is a need for full-time forest guards to frequently monitor the forest, not leaders who conduct monthly patrols.

There is also a need for other forms of animal husbandry in addition to beekeeping—and loans—according to Neboe Sarboh, Nitrian’s secretary general.

“The way we are reserving this forest, by right, companies supposed to come here and bring goats, ducks and even cows to the community people to raise them so that anytime you want to eat meat… you can get one and kill it,” says Sarboh. He adds there is a need for more awareness to prevent or curtail unauthorized entry and extraction of the forest’s resources.

A lack of community benefits is a common reason why some communities have dropped conservation for logging or incorporated mining.

Others are considering abandoning logging for conservation.

For Nitrian, things remain the same.

“It has been difficult for us carrying out conservation,” says Broh “However, we know the importance of conservation and so we are not going to go into commercial logging.”

GVL Suspends Teachers’ Program, Hampering Sinoe Education

February 18, 2025

Top: The Butaw High School in Butaw District is one of several schools affected by Golden Veroleum Liberia’s suspension of support to teachers in Sinoe. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

By Varney Kamara

TARTWEH, Sinoe County – Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) has suspended a program through which it provided mandatory support to schools in its concession area in Sinoe County, crippling academic activities.

Inked between 2013 and 2017, the MoUs were a product of GVL’s 65-year concession agreement with Liberia. It granted GVL the right to develop 220,000 hectares of plantations in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.

Thus, GVL launched the scheme during the 2020-2021 academic semester in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the GVL Workers’ Union, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and local communities. Then it placed 90 volunteer teachers on GVL’s payroll, providing each a US$100 monthly stipend, compensating for GVL’s inability to build schools in line with its MoUs with communities.

But in March, GVL suspended the program allegedly without any prior notice.

“GVL regrets to officially inform you that the GVL Educational Support (GES) program for the academic year 2023/2024 has been suspended with immediate effect,” GVL wrote the Tartweh-Drapoh District in a March letter last year.

Suspension of an employee’s service without prior notice violates Liberia’s Decent Work Act. The law requires GVL to have notified the teachers before suspending their contract.

GVL claims it informed the teachers before announcing the suspension but provided no proof. Similarly, The DayLight found no evidence of that happening.

The suspension undermines the learning environment of the forested coastal county, leaving hundreds of students on their own.

“The lack of pay for teachers is destroying the learning environment badly. The teachers are not showing the required commitment to teach,” said Armstrong Panteene, principal of Tartweh High School in Tubmanville.

“They don’t have their minds set on teaching because they are out there to find food for their families. We no longer have control over them,” Panteene added.

Last December, The DayLight saw students in Butaw, Tartweh, and Tarjuwon discussing the issue in groups, while others engaged socially. The situation has overwhelmed administrators across the communities, reducing the quality of learning.

At the Butaw High School, where GVL has 95 percent of its employees’ dependents, there are currently 14 teachers from a previous list of 18. The number of teachers at Tarweh High School in Kpayan District, and the Teahjay High School in Tarjuwon, Myerville Township has also declined.

“At the moment, we don’t have math, physics, and chemistry teachers. This is shameful and embarrassing,” said King Chester Kun, principal of the Butaw High School. “The school is empty, and students keep asking us about what’s going wrong.”

“Most times, when classrooms are empty, the school rings the bell, and everyone leaves for home,” said Ralph Carpeh, a 12^th grader at Butaw High School. “We just pack our bags and go home because we are not able to teach ourselves.”

GVL plantation in Butaw, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The suspension is likely to impact enrollment in Sinoe.

Between 2015 and 2022, Sinoe recorded a drop in primary school enrollment, according to a 2021-2022 school census. Only 13 percent of public early childhood students in the county met readiness benchmarks.

The suspension worsens GVL’s failure to implement agreements it signed with communities.

“We entrusted our land to GVL with the promise of education, healthcare, and other important benefits. Yet today, Tartweh’s children are left with little to no education, as the company fails to honor its commitments under the MoU,” said Nunu Broh, chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee.

Broken Promises

The aggrieved instructors, whose voluntary services range from six to 24 months, said the suspension had put them in hardship.

In May, volunteer teachers from Kpayan and Butaw districts sued GVL at the Greenville City Court for unpaid wages. GVL partially settled the claims, paying 24 teachers by July, court filings show.

However, dozens remain unpaid.

“GVL owes me three months of arrears,” said D. Swen Charles, a former volunteer teacher at Tartweh High School in Tubmanville. “They told us they would pay, but for now, that story has changed. There is no hope.”

Alphonso Kofi, GVL’s communications director, said the company did not commit any wrongdoing. Kofi claims that GVL is not obligated to continue the program.

“Volunteer teachers are recruited by the government to help support other teachers in those schools. GVL is only assisting them to compensate those who are not on the government’s payroll,” Kofi said in an emailed statement.

Kofi’s assertions contradict the MoUs between GVL and the communities. The documents obligate GVL to build schools and provide teaching materials in its concession areas free of charge.

“GVL will work with the Ministry of Education as appropriate, to confirm the location for schools, build schools it has agreed to provide, recruit and pay for teachers, maintain schools and provide study items in schools, which it builds or agrees to support,” says GVL’s 2017 MoU with Butaw.

The situation adds to the frail relationship GVL has with locals. In 2018, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) found GVL guilty of land grab. In 2022, the High Carbon Stock Approach, which addresses deforestation in agricultural practices, found that GVL cleared 1,000 hectares of high-carbon forests in the Kpanyan District.

The Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Sinoe Chiefdom Demands Intruders ‘Must Leave our Land’

February 17, 2025

Top: Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated’s workers at a renovated prewar palm oil mill in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Varney Kamara

By Varney Kamara

KOMMANAH TOWN, Sinoe County – After nearly four years of illegal occupancy, villagers in a southeastern chiefdom are demanding the departure of an oil palm company from their ancestral land.

Early this month, aggrieved residents from various clans and sections in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District, Sinoe County staged a peaceful protest at the headquarters of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI), an Indian-Liberian investment, demanding its immediate withdrawal from their land.

In a six-count petition, locals accused LNPI of intruding on their land and intimidating residents.

“Based on these reasons, the citizens of Tarsue, including elders, women, youth, and traditional leaders, will not sign any agreement with Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated,” the petition stated. “The citizens of Tarsue demand that LNPI leave the plantation so that we can develop our land and improve our livelihoods.”

Representative Alex Noah, whose electoral district Tarsue falls, has appealed for one month to mediate the dispute. Locals granted his appeal, temporarily easing the tension, and suspended a three-day ultimatum for the company to evacuate the palm estate. However, residents have vowed to resume their protest once the negotiation period expires.

“After the one-month grace period requested by the honorable representative, the company must either leave our land or face escalated community action,” said Ericson Pyne, the chief spokesperson of Tarsue in Kommanah Town, Tarsue’s headquarters.

“LNPI must leave,” Pyne told The DayLight. “We have endured their presence for over three years, and they cannot fulfill their obligations. The community is prepared to take further steps if necessary.”

Noah’s intervention differs sharply from Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensueh’s solution. Last October, Nyensueh dismissed the locals’ demand that LNPI vacate the plantation, claiming chiefs and elders had waived by signing an initial MoU with LNPI. But he was wrong as the MoU he cited was for LNPI to purchase locals’ palm oil, not to acquire the plantation.

‘We Cannot Keep Fighting Forever’

Amid the dispute, LNPI has expressed willingness to negotiate with the community. Acknowledging challenges since its arrival, the company promised improvements should negotiations resume.

“The community is our landlord. We have to negotiate and find a peaceful resolution,” said Baccus Wiah, LNPI’s spokesperson. “We cannot keep fighting forever.”

Wiah’s comments are a turnaround from the company’s previous stance. Until now, LNPI has failed to recognize the community’s right to the land and required consent, even though he admits that the company operates illegally.

Initially welcomed by locals as a much-needed investor, LNPI’s presence in Tarsue quickly turned sour, leading to rising tensions and confrontations. The company had hidden its intent to purchase the plantation, signing an oil purchasing MoU with chiefs and elders instead.

But a series of DayLight investigations last year shed light on LNPI’s deception and illegality, inspiring the community to hold LNIP accountable.

LNIP unauthorizedly renovated a prewar palm oil mill in Tarsue Chiefdom, Sinoe County, as part of the company intrusion into an abandoned palm plantation. The DayLight /Varney Kamara

Shrouded in Secrecy

In February 2022, Konnex Investments Limited, LNPI’s parent company, purchased an abandoned palm plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) for US$445,000. However, the agreement has not been approved by the Liberian government, and the community did not consent to LNPI’s operations.

Despite guidance from the Liberia Land Authority, LNPI pushed ahead with its operations, violating the Land Rights Act of 2018, which mandates community approval before land occupation. The law grants communities the right to own and manage land based on customary practices.

Moreover, the deal was poorly publicized, with only a LinkedIn post, a mention on LNPI’s website and references hidden in EPO’s parent company’s annual reports.

Tarsue residents only became aware of the deal in March 2023—nine months after LNPI convinced them to sign a six-month oil palm purchasing agreement. The MoU allowed LNPI to buy a five-gallon container of palm oil for L$1,300 and L$1,500.

The company paid the community US$6,000 and paved a major road but the deal lasted three months beyond the agreed period.

Despite warnings from locals about the MoU violations, LNPI continued its operations unchecked, provoking community anger. Since then, LNPI has forcibly controlled the plantation, including renovating a prewar palm oil mill. Backed by armed police officers, it evicted residents, ignoring their land ownership rights and the legal requirement for consent.

FDA Okays Export of over 250 Illegal Logs

January 28, 2025

Top: Some of the logs LiberTrace red-flagged for having multiple issues but the FDA still allowed to be shipped. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted a company to export round logs mid-last year. However, the regulator ignored its computerized system—known as LiberTrace—red-flagged over 60 percent of the timber.

Out of the total 431 logs, Iroko Timber and Logging Corporation submitted for two shipments, LiberTrace identified 267 as problematic.

LiberTrace, which tracks logs from their sources to final destinations, found the logs’ details were inconsistent with the system’s information. Most of the logs had not been recorded during a pre-export inspection.

For instance, some logs had their butt-end diameters different from what Iroko declared. Others had volumes different from the ones submitted, while other logs had discrepancies with the lengths the Nigerian-owned company declared.

But the LiberTrace analysis and the export specs detailing each log shipped establish that the FDA allowed the tainted logs to go.

The combined 431 logs with a 2,549-cubic-meter volume, were loaded at the Port of Greenville, Sinoe County and departed on April 27 and July 2, 2024, on the Panamanian cargo ship MV Nimeh, destined for Bangladesh.

‘Nothing to add’

Based on the FDA’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) the regulator should have investigated the red flags and sought correction. If not, the SOPs provide the export to be disapproved. “Wood products that are not compliant with the legality definition shall not be authorized for export,” according to SOPs for export.

A screenshot from some of LiberTrace’s analysis of one of two Iroko exports last year the FDA unlawfully approved

The SOPs allow for the FDA to override LiberTrace’s alarms. However, in such a case, the FDA is required to record the justification for overriding the red flags for auditing. Screenshots of LiberTrace’s history of the logs prove there were no justifications for the FDA’s decision to approve the exports.

Those standards contribute to LiberTrace ensuring tax-complaint companies’ logs are legal, not just traceable. LiberTrace plays a critical role in the forestry sector, particularly in combating illegal logging and enhancing transparency in the timber trade. SGS, a Swiss verification company, built the system and the FDA co-manages it.

Confronted with the red flags, Theodore Nna, SGS’ project manager, did not respond to queries. Nna did the same last year in a similar incident. He had sarcastically offered The DayLight a tutorial in interpreting LiberTrace’s data and analysis.

The FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab declined to speak on the matter. “I believe my team handled this Iroko issue last year…,” Merab said in a WhatsApp chat. “I have nothing new to add!”

A screenshot of LiberTrace’s history of one of Iroko’s exports shows that the FDA did not justify why it overrode errors with several logs for auditing purposes.

Last year, the FDA dismissed reports as a “misinterpretation” of data. It argued that the errors and warnings LiberTrace sounded were routine “minor occurrences.”

Similarly, Iroko did not return emailed questions. The company had initially responded to the DayLight’s inquiries but ceased after the newspaper exposed a series of its wrongdoings.

This investigation adds to the logs’ taint and Iroko’s notoriety. A previous investigation found the logs spent over a year in the Central River Dugbe Community Forest in Sinoe County’s Jaedae District. One unearthed Iroko owed local people a good sum. Another revealed an Iroko shareholder was unqualified for logging over a co-ownership of a company punished for fraud.

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

Sinoe Community Forest Gets New Leadership

December 11, 2024

Top: Tarsue Community Forest covers 9,714 hectares. Picture credit: James Harding Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

MONROVIA – A community forest in Sanquin District, Sinoe County has a new leadership to steer its affairs for the next five years.

Last month, the Tarsue Authorized Community Forest elected members of its community assembly (CA), the executive committee (EC), and the community forest management body (CFMB). In forestry, the CA is the highest decision-maker, comprising representatives of towns and villages that own the forest. The CFMB manages the forest affairs, while the EC supervises the CFMB.

Teah Tolo, a townsman, was elected chairman of the EC, and Ericson Pyne was chief officer of the CFMB.

“Today, we are happy to be one of the leaders selected or elected for Tarsue Community Forest as chief officer after five years of struggle,” said Pyne. “We have a forest to benefit from.”

The elections end a year of internal wrangling over the selection of a logging company.

The elections were held because of an April request to FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab in which the community asked for a review of its contract with loggers.

Tarsue signed a five-year contract with West African Development Incorporated (WAFDI) in 2019. However, WAFDI did not harvest a single tree in the 9,714-hectare forest or honor other contract provisions.

The contract was part of several illegally awarded for less than the statutory 15-year period.

Tarsue now looks into the future.

Pyne added, “We anticipate any company or an NGO for conservation or commercial [logging].”

Tag: Sinoe County

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