GVL Falters on Required Hand Pumps for Communities

August 22, 2024

Top: A spoiled hand pump in Tubmanville, Tartweh-Drapoh, constructed by an unnamed NGO. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Emmanuel Sherman

TARTWEH-DRAPOH, Sinoe County – Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) has failed to build hand pumps in landowning communities adjacent to its palm plantation, violating an MoU with locals, a DayLight investigation found.

In 2014, GVL signed an MoU with Tartweh-Drapoh. Per the MoU, GVL is obligated to erect hand pumps in towns and villages with 25 to 150 people. The provision is meant to prevent locals from drinking contaminated water, occasioned by the company’s palm plantation.

Documents, broken-down hand pumps and interviews show that GVL did not construct hand pumps in most affected communities. It largely rehabilitated boreholes in some towns, all of which have broken for several years now. Most of the pumps were constructed by NGOs.

“We told them in the MoU we wanted hand pumps,” said Nunu Broh, chairman of the Tartweh Agriculture Committee, a local group representing the interests of locals. “We can’t see [any] changes, we have not gotten any signs,” Broh added.

GVL sidestepped specific questions The DayLight posed, self-proclaiming a commitment to the communities. GVL had refused to grant the newspaper’s request for the MoUs. Alphonso Kofi, GVL’s spokesperson, claimed it had to consult communities, despite the Freedom of Information Act guaranteeing public access to such documents, and transparency being a global oil palm industry’s principle. (The documents are listed on the company’s website but cannot be downloaded.)

Liberia’s largest oil Palm company, GVL signed a 65-year agreement with the country in 2010, covering 220, 000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, and Maryland, River Cess and River Gee. The deal is worth US$1.6 Billion. In its 14 years of operations, GVL has been the subject of national and international reports, documenting its land grab, human rights abuses and water pollution.

‘No changes’

In Tubmanville, the most populous community in Tartweh-Drapoh with 2,000 people, GVL rehabilitated three hand pumps but only one is functional. Reporters photographed the two spoiled hand pumps, one by the roadside, overtaken by rust and bush.

Residents told The Daylight the situation worsened during the dry season when the water table drops, leaving them to depend on creeks. Reporters followed residents to fetch water at a creek about a 15-minute walk through a rocky hillside.

“We have been telling GVL we don’t have a hand pump,” said Comfort Bledee, a longtime resident of Tubmanville. She had made those same remarks one year seven months ago in an earlier interview.

“No changes, nothing,” Bledee added.

Nunu Broh, the chairman Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture committee in an interview with The DayLight in 2023. The DayLight/James Giahyue

Parleh Town’s 60 people might have dwarfed Tubmanville’s population but that does not spare them from the water problem. The pump in the small town—built by the German Agro Action (GAA) in 2009—works only during the rainy season.

To demonstrate the facility’s seasonal use, Philomena Quejue, the town’s chairlady, pumped several times before water came out, despite being the middle of the rainy season. Quejue said water shortage was a nightmare during the dry season and that they resorted to likely contaminated creeks.

The situations in Saywon Town, Kekpekan Town and Jukpadro are worse.

Home to 90 people, GVL did not build any of Saywon Town’s three hand pumps, residents said. Two of the facilities no longer work.

Philomena Quejue, the chairlady of Parleh Town pumps water from a borehole-well constructed in 2009 by the German Agro Action. Picture credit: Anonymous

A lone hand pump in Kekpekan Town built by the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in 2000 has two issues: broken down and close to a graveyard. Per the MoU, GVL is required to build at least one hand pump in the town. However, people now use the creek due to the absence of the facility.

“We are asking GVL to come and fix our hand pump for us,” said Catherine Tarpeh, a townsperson. The DayLight photographed the skeleton of the pump, with its head and handle missing. A long stick was crossed over its well, indicating abandonment.

“We don’t like the creek water because… people can pollute it,” added Elijah Tarpeh, chairman of Kekpekan Town and Catherine Tarpeh’s husband.

A spoiled hand pump in Kekpekan Town, near a graveyard. Picture credit: Anonymous

Similarly, GVL failed to build a hand water pump in Jukpadro Town, which has 125 inhabitants. The only one the town has was built by CRS 14 years ago but has spoiled, according to the community.

“We have been engaging and appealing to GVL for another hand pump,” said Jared Toe, a resident. “GVL tells us the town is small they cannot construct a hand pump there.”

‘Total breakdown’

Unlike Jukpadro and the other towns, GVL erected a hand pump each in Netenet Town and Wotto Town. However, those pumps are not working.

In Netenet, 125 inhabitants residents are drinking from creeks. The DayLight reporter photographed the spoiled pump, with the handle missing and a portion of its concrete foundation eroded.

Patricia Chelley, chairlady of Netenet Town, stands by a hand water pump GVL constructed hand pump in Netenet Town. Picture credit: Anonymous

“We can tell [GVL], and they can send people but it can’t be good,” said Uttere Jerboe, a townsperson.

“The creek gets dirty from the roadwork GVL is doing so the water quality gets bad,” said Patricia Chelly, chairlady of Netenet Town, as she stood by the ruined hand pump. “GVL did not treat us well, the Tartweh people.”

GVL constructed the hand pump in Wotto Town in 2019 with 150 inhabitants. However, the only pump has broken down and has not been repaired, residents said.

Patricia Koon, a resident of Wotto Town stands by a broken-down GVL hand pump. Picture credit: Anonymous

James Otto, a lead campaigner at the Margibi-based Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), blames GVL. Otto said GVL was skipping mandatory, quarterly meetings. “Those quarterly meetings have not been held,” said Otto. “Those are important spaces where the communities and the company can now discuss issues and find redress to them.”

Though it dodged The DayLight’s queries, GVL issued a press release following a pair of investigations the newspaper published earlier this month. In the release, GVL claimed it constructed 40 hand pumps and rehabilitated 70 others in Sinoe communities in the last decade. It even built pumps in areas below the MoU-set, population threshold without presenting any evidence.

Nevertheless, GVL concedes that some of the hand pumps require repair. “This is an ongoing process,” the press release read.. “GVL is negotiating revised MoUs with communities, which will include improvements to this process in the future.”

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

Over Land Grab, GVL Defies Watchdog with Impunity

August 13, 2024

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Top: A guard at a Golden Veroleum Liberia gate in Lower Kulu Clan in the Tarjuwon District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Matenneh Keita

By Esau J. Farr

WIEH TOWN – Before the Ebola epidemic in 2013, Levi Jarteh joined other townspeople from Tarjuwon to file a complaint against Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry.

They accused GVL of encroaching on their land and destroying sacred places. The Palloh Hill, believed by locals to host spirits that granted good harvest, gave way for the mill. The Slinee Creek, where women sought children, made way for an irrigation system for palm nurseries.

Five years after their complaint, the RSPO found GVL liable for land grab. It ordered GVL to stop work in that area until it signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tarjuwon, including the Lower Kulu Clan, where Jarteh was born. The rebuke called for GVL to remap its plantation in the disputed area. The RSPO gave GVL a three-month deadline to implement the order.

“Any deviation from the above-mentioned milestones and timelines by GVL will be viewed adversely and may lead to consideration of suspension and eventual termination of membership,” the RSPO said.

GVL’s appeal of the decisions was rejected and left the RSPO, only to rejoin about a year later. GVL is a member of RSPO through its parent company, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), a Singaporean multinational, one of the world’s largest oil palm firms.

But, more than six years after that ruling, GVL has not signed a new MoU with Tarjuwon. Instead, the company has defied the RSPO by constructing the mill, planting in some areas and building houses in others. It has not been punished as the global watchdog had warned.

The first of those violations happened just three months after the RSPO’s order. Satellite images published in a report by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), an NGO based in Margibi, show GVL cleared additional farmland in Lower Kulu.

Then in 2019 evidence gathered by Blogbo-Teh, a local advocacy group, and RSPO confirmed that GVL cultivated additional land in Lower Kulu and continued to construct the mill.

GVL admitted to the violation, saying, “It took what it believed was a precautionary approach and interpreted the order to apply to the whole of the Lower Kulu area.” RSPO reordered GVL to complete the mapping of its plantation bordering the Upper and Lower Kulu “without any further delay.”

Again in 2022, Blogbo-Teh filed another complaint with evidence that GVL continued to develop the mill, houses and palm nurseries. Blogbo-Teh rued GVL’s “snail-pace” implementation of the RSPO’s orders, saying, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’”

Levi Jarteh, the General Town Chief of Wieh Town, was one of the townspeople who filed a complaint with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2013. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“It is unfortunate that duty bearers who have responsibilities and have signed international treaties, conventions and laws in our country do not have the willpower to do the right thing,” Simpson Snoh, the chairman of Blogbo-Teh, told The DayLight. Blogbo-Teh, which means “round land business” in the Kru language. Blogbo is a section within Lower Kulu.

“We are advocating for justice to be done per RSPO’s principles,” Snoh added.

GVL confirmed Blogbo-Teh’s findings, saying it carried out “minor works” at the mill site, repaired machines, established a nursery and replaced dead palms. The RSPO is reviewing that complaint. The DayLight has emailed the certification scheme for comments and will update this story once a response is obtained.

‘No more farmland’

Just as the years have witnessed an array of credible complaints of violation, so too have efforts to map GVL’s plantation in Tarjuwon.

In 2018, when the RSPO made the decision, Earthworm Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit was appointed by RSPO to map Tarjuwon. However, Blogbo-Teh questioned the group’s independence, as it had worked for GVL before.

Subsequently, Proforest, a UK-based NGO, was appointed to conduct the mapping. But it came at the time the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) was about to conduct Liberia’s fourth census. So, Proforest supported LISGIS to carry out the national duty and submitted the report to the RSPO in November 2021.

But LISGIS’ map established clan boundaries, and not the size of GVL’s plantation in Lower Kulu, the crust of the matter.

“We want to know the total hectare of land and how many hectares of land is occupied by GVL or will be occupied by GVL before any MoU can be signed,” added Simpson Toby, an ex-chairman of Blogbo-Teh.

Golden Veroleum has a 65-year concession with the Liberian government to develop 220,000 hectares of land in Maryland, Grand Kru and Sinoe. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

“No more farmland [for us] because the palm bush is around us,” said Jarteh, the General Town Chief of the Lower Kulu Clan. “We have to travel beyond the palm plantation before we make farm and that distance is a [three-hour walk].”

The RSPO announced it would schedule a meeting with Proforest on the mapping report, whose draft the watchdog said it had received.

GVL dodged questions The DayLight emailed to it. However, it said in a periodic report to the RSPO that it would begin negotiation with Tarjuwon if the watchdog recommended that. The company has only reported for the first quarter of this year so far.

Meanwhile, locals of Lower Kulu say they are open to a negotiation with GVL. They want similar benefits that GVL-affected communities are entitled to, as they are excluded from the current MoU.

GVL’s current MoU calls for the payment of US$5 per hectare of developed land and gives citizens priority for jobs in affected communities. The agreement gives citizens access to healthcare services, schools and scholarships, especially employees and dependents. It also contains infrastructural development, including the construction of roads and bridges.

GVL, Liberia’s largest oil palm company, signed a 65-year agreement with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, and Maryland in a deal worth US$1.6 billion.

Ophelia Kumon, a resident of Wieh Town said, “Since they took the land, they should provide us safe drinking water, school for our children and job opportunities for the citizens here.”

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

Investors Invade Sinoe Palm Plantation

August 10, 2024

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Top: An elevated view of an oil palm mill at a plantation Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) abandoned five years ago. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By James Harding Giahyue, Derick Snyder and Varney Kamara

In August 2022, Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) purchased an abandoned palm plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in a deal worth approximately US$445,000

Publicity of the deal was scanty, limited to a LinkedIn post, a reference on LNPI’s website and an announcement hidden in EPO’s parent company’s annual reports.

The Liberian government has not approved of the takeover, with the Ministry of Agriculture and the lawmaker of that district unaware of the deal.

Yet, LNPI is forcibly operating the plantation, including a prewar oil palm mill. With the help of armed police officers, the company is throwing residents out of the plantation.

The company disregards local communities’ ownership of the land and their right to consent to the takeover.

SHAMPAY CAMP, Sinoe County – In June, armed police officers ordered Felecia Wesseh and other villagers to leave an abandoned palm plantation. A company called the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) told the residents they were taking over a portion of the 8,000-hectare plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had run it in 2019. Wesseh and other residents exploited the plantation and transformed the region into an artisanal palm oil hub ever since.

“I feel bad because number one, for me, this is my 25 years in this area. “The way the Emergency Response Unit [of the Liberia National Police] is coming here to take people from this place is not good,” said Wesseh, a mother in her late 30s. The DayLight interviewed her at her shop in Sankwehn Estate in Tarsue Chiefdom, Sanquin District locals have called Shampay Camp since the 1960s. A crowd of angry residents quickly gathered, questioning the legality of the takeover.

“By right, if you own the plantation or buy the area, I expect the Superintendent… to come with one of the lawmakers to show the people to us. Nobody brought them to show them to us,” Wesseh added.

Wesseh was right. There is evidence that LNPI bought the plantation from EPO. However, no one in the Sanquin District is aware of the takeover, and it has not been approved by the Liberian government.

In August 2022, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) of Malaysia, EPO’s owner, sold the plantation to Konnex Investments Limited, the parent company of LNPI, for approximately US$445,000, according to KLK’s annual report for that year. Uday Pilani, Konnex’s owner posted the deal on LinkedIn and LNPI mentioned it on its website a month earlier.

EPO owned the plantation through its subsidiary Liberia Forest Product Incorporated (LFPI). LFPI signed the concession with the Liberian government in 2008 for 50 years, covering 8,400 hectares. However, in 2019, EPO ceased operations because there “were insufficient plantable areas,” making it “uneconomic” to run. It devalued the plantation by RM145.3 million (approximately US$32.2 million).

Scores of local palm oil producers, including Felecia Wesseh, depend on the plantation, which covers about 4,000 hectares of palm trees. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

But the deal was not entirely transparent. KLK, required to declare such transactions under Bursa Malaysia or the Malaysian stock exchange rules, announced the takeover in its 2022 annual report. However, there is no record that EPO—under a similar obligation with the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange—publicized the takeover. This likely breaches AIM’s rule, which mandates companies to publish such transactions. EPO did not return questions for comments regarding the takeover and KLK said it would respond.

‘Into a hole’

The Shampay Camp part of the story began on August 23, 2022, when LNPI signed a six-month memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the people of Sanquin District. Per the MoU, LNPI bought a five-gallon tin of palm oil for L$1,300 and L$1,500. LNPI paid the community US$6,000 and paved a major road there.

Local palm oil dealers had welcomed the agreement as LNPI prices more than double the L$600 artisanal palm oil producers had set, while chiefs and elders saw it as an opportunity for development.

“When they came, it was correct because they paid our royalties,” recalled Alfred Pyne, an elder of Sanquin.

But the MoU was too attractive to be true. While the community was entitled to several benefits, the MoU restricted LNPI to “purchasing of oil palm products such as crude palm oil, palm kernels and other palm derivatives,” and to operate “without any embarrassment and undue restrictions.”

LNPI’s true intent surfaced when it unilaterally extended the deal by three months. Following a year of anger, the parties met in January this year when LNPI finally disclosed it had taken over the plantation. The company was not merely a party to an MoU; it was claiming possession of Shampay Camp.

LNPI, aided by armed police officers, asked artisanal palm oil producers out of a plantation abandoned in 2019 by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“When we saw Baccus Wiah with LNPI, I said, ‘A good thing is coming,’ not knowing we [were] getting into a hole,” said Eric Gbayon, the Township Commissioner of Tarsue Chiefdom. He was referencing LNPI’s administrative manager, who hails from that region.

In the end, the MoU was a disguise. By August 2022, LNPI had already signed the takeover, a negotiation it had started six months earlier, according to a document obtained by The DayLight. It had imported 117 consignments of electrical equipment and other instruments as of the 17^th of last month. They were imported from India, Pilani’s home country, according to Volza, a Russian online marketplace, citing international data.

Workers at a palm oil mill recently rehabilitated by the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The DayLight videotaped workers test the mill, which has a capacity of five metric tons of crude palm oil per hour. For the first time since the start of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, smoke billowed from the facility’s chambers into the gloomy Shampay Camp skies.

Before it disclosed the takeover to the people, LNPI had obtained an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year. It has asked for a renewal of the permit to extend the mill.

‘Not heard from them’

Tension has been brewing in Tarsue, particularly after the news of the takeover broke. After LNPI broke the news, locals asked to meet the company in Kommanah Town. LNPI instead requested to host the meeting at its headquarters in Shampay Camp, citing “continued threats of violence” from the community.

“If you are interested in meeting with me, please let me know so a time can be set that will be mutually convenient for both parties,” LNPI’s executive officer John Collie penned Paramount Chief John Koah a reply, seen by The DayLight.

Several receipts were issued by LNPI as part of its scam to operate a plantation it took over from Equatorial Palm Oil in August 2022 but has not been endorsed by the Liberian government. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Months later, locals lodged a complaint with Representative Alex Noah of Sinoe County District Three over LNPI’s illegal activities. In their letter, they listed the company’s takeover of the plantation and renovation of the mill without their consent. “We need our timely intervention concerning this matter before things go out of hand,” the letter read. Noah said he was unaware of LNPI’s operations and would visit the plantation when he returned from his travels out of the country.

LNPI’s disregard for the community’s right to consent violates the Land Rights Act, which recognizes ancestral land rights. Locals’ consent is a crucial principle of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry. Liberia has even domesticated the RSPO’s principles and criteria.

The Liberia Land Authority (LLA), which plays a role in land-related concessions, had recommended that LNPI get the locals’ consent but the company ignored the advice. LNPI had visited the LLA in Monrovia to seek counsel.

LLA’s Chairman Adams Manobah told The DayLight in a WhatsApp interview he had advised the community to first “formalize its land ownership before transacting business with an outsider or any investor.”

Manobah added, “Since that encounter, I have not heard of them.” Wiah did not respond to emailed questions on that conversation.

In an earlier interview at the company’s headquarters, Wiah justified LNPI’s use of force. “Due to the violence that took place here, since we have completed the factory and are ready for operation, we decided to bring [armed police officers] to be here to serve as [a] deterrent,” he said. “Our people are afraid of gunmen.”

Another elevated view of Shampay Camp with the smoke billowing from a palm oil mill at the background. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Wiah admitted the government had not approved the LNPI’s takeover. An ex-EPO employee, however, Wiah claimed the approval was being processed. “The Ministries of Justice, and Agriculture have signed,” he told The DayLight. It is left with the Ministry of Finance, then it will go to the Senate, and finally to the President for signature.”

The Ministry of Agriculture dismisses Wiah’s claim. “It is important that we address this lack of awareness immediately,” Comfort Whitfield of the ministry’s communication division said in an email.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on illegal oil palm operations in the Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The second part will focus on the legality of the existence of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated and its parent company Konnex Investments Ltd.

GVL Fails to Build Hand Pumps, Allegedly Dirties Creeks

August 7, 2024

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Top: Golden Veroleum Liberia has failed to provide hand pumps for communities who own the land the company develops. The DayLight/Esau Farr

By Matenneh Keita

DU-WOLEE, Sinoe County – Nimely Teah, an 80-something-year-old great-grandfather has two problems. At his farm in Teah Village, rainwater allegedly laced with chemicals from a Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) palm plantation runs into a creek he uses for drinking, cooking and washing. In Panama, a large neighborhood where he lives, there is just one hand pump, and the creeks are far away.

“I want to sue GVL so, we can go to the court for the water business,” Teah told The DayLight at his farm. “They say I must die from the germs.”

Teah is one of thousands whose water sources have been polluted by the GVL oil palm plantation. GVL, Liberia’s largest oil Palm company signed a 65-year agreement with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Cess and River Gee in a deal worth US$1.6 billion. GVL also signed individual MoUs with landowning communities, including Du-Wolee Nyennue Township in Kpanyan District, Sinoe County.

The Du-Wolee Nyennue MoU was signed in 2016, two years after GVL’s concession. The MoU guarantees the company more than 2,367 hectares of land. However, it obligates GVL to build hand pumps for populations between 25 and 150 people affected by its operations, among other things.

But a DayLight investigation found that GVL has not constructed mandatory hand pumps in the townships, violating the MoU. All of the old hand pumps the company renovated stopped working years back and have not been repaired.

Panama, the largest of its affected communities in Du-Wolee Nyennue, with some 2,000 people, is the most telling. GVL has not built a hand pump in the community, according to residents. The one the company renovated is insufficient for the population, residents say.

“When GVL came, they told us they did some inventory on the water system. They said even some of our community pumps that were built by some NGOs, they were going to rehabilitate them,” said Anthony Jerboe, a community leader in Panama. “But since that time, they have not come to the community, and we are suffering from water issues.”

Locals have used creeks for generations as the only source of drinking water in the communities, The DayLight gathered.

Old Man Nimely Teah of Panama, who owns the Teah Village. The DayLight/James Giahyue

But there is a problem with the creeks, too. Fertilizer from palm trees is washed into the creeks, residents say. This is even worse during the dry season when the water table drops, leaving townspeople with no other alternatives.

“We will just continue to drink it because there is no safe drinking water,” said George Sebeh, a resident of Panama and Old Man Teah’s son-in-law.

Sebeh was speaking to reporters in Teah Village, where reporters accompanied a villager to fetch water from the creek Old Man Teah had mentioned in his interview.

Empty palm husks

These accusations of water pollution are credible. A 2016 study by the Ghanaian Sync Consultant Limited found GVL polluted drinking water sources. Two years later, another study by Liberia’s Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) uncovered the same thing. In the eight years of its operations in Du-Wolee Nyennue, GVL has ignored these reports.

The situation in Zinc Camp is nearly the same, though GVL erected a hand pump there. Residents of the uphill community, which hosts a small-scale palm farm, cannot drink the water the hand pump produces.

“We boil the handpump water and bath with it,” said Kojay Glay, the chairlady of the community. “I’ve been here for three years. In those three years, I have not seen GVL come here to work on the hand pump.” Glay’s comments were corroborated by other Zinc Camp residents.

Due to the condition of the facility, the people of Zinc Camp fetch water from creeks. Initially, they were near the creek but now they walk a distance of between 15 and 20 minutes. Water from GVL’s empty palm husks—used as fertilizer—allegedly flows into creeks nearby, polluting them.

Residents allege rainwater from GVL’s empty husks or empty fruit bunches (EFB) flows into creeks they depend on for drinking water. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“We used to drink all of the creeks before the coming of GVL. Because of the palm, we can’t drink from everywhere in the creek. There are certain areas that you go to before you can drink the water,” said Wilfred Toboe, Zinc Camp’s General Town Chief.

Empty husks or empty fruit bunches (EFB) contain nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur. While the other gases are harmless, sulfur can be harmful, based on its concentration, scientists say.

‘Bad’ water situation

While the rainy season is good news for Panama and Zinc Camp, it is a nightmare for Blue Barrack and Mamakre.

Like Panama, GVL has not constructed any hand pump in Blue Barrack, according to residents. All five of the ones there were constructed by NGOs but are not in use, as verified by The DayLight.

Its 7,065 people depend on a creek, mainly during the dry season. During the rainy season, groundwater from the town’s main route—GVL often reconditions—seeps into the creek, residents say.

“Sometimes during meetings, we inform GVL. They can say, ‘Yes we will do it,’ but GVL doesn’t have time for Du-Wolee,” said Augustine Myers, Blue Barrack’s tribal chairman. Other residents The DayLight interviewed supported Myers’ story.

This hand pump in Blue Barrack was renovated by GVL but broke down some years ago, according to residents. Picture credit: Anonymous.

The DayLight could not independently verify Myers’ erosion-pollution claim. However, reporters photographed some of the spoiled hand pumps.

For Mamakre, GVL built a hand pump there but has needed repairing for about three years now, according to residents. The DayLight photographed the broken-down hand pump, its borehole sealed with sticks likely to protect children.

Mamakre’s creeks are also polluted due to erosion on the town’s main road paved and maintained by GVL.

“This water situation was alright when GVL never came,” said Anthony Tarpeh, the General Town Chief. “Since the GVL, the water situation is bad.”

Tarpeh said people, particularly children, were getting sick from drinking water from the creek this rainy season. Naomi Doe, Blue Barrack’s co-chairlady, had made the same accusation.

James Otto, a lead campaigner with the Margibi-based Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), blames GVL for the water situation. Otto believes the company was unaware of the scale of the problem because it did not hold MoU-required quarterly meetings.

“I think there is a total breakdown in the way the company engages with the communities,” Otto said in a Montserrado interview.

“I think the hand pump is just one example but there are many other things.”The water problem in the landowning, affected communities does not only violate the company’s MoUs and concession. It breaches a principle of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry.

Remnant of a hand pump constructed by GVL in Mamakre. The DayLight/Konwroh Wesseh

The principle calls on member firms to “respect community and human rights and deliver benefits.” GVL is a member of the RSPO through its parent company Golden Agri-Resources Ltd of Singapore.

GVL dodged questions for comments on the water situation in its project-affected communities. However, said in an email it was committed to its obligations. The company said it had worked with communities to provide clarity and timelines for resolution in cases where commitments are disputed or have not yet been fulfilled,” GVL said in an email.

Back in Du-Wolee Nyennue, people want GVL to build or repair hand pumps. Glay of Zinc Camp, Sebeh of Panama, Kumeh of Mamakre and Myers of Blue Barrack hope it happens soon.

“I will appreciate when GVL [builds] the hand pump,” said Old Man Teah of Teah Village. “I’m tired of drinking fertilizer water.”

[Konwroh Wesseh and an anonymous resident of Sinoe contributed to this report]

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

Sinoe Clan on the Path to Customary Land Deed

August 6, 2024

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Top: Gboyonnoh Karmbo awaits the Liberia Land Authority to conduct a survey and confirm its land area. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Harry Browne

TITIYEN, Sinoe County – Gboyonnoh Karmbo could not progress in its quest to get a customary land deed without resolving a boundary dispute with the Kwiatuoh Clan. Gboyonnoh Karmbo argued the Klinlin Creek was the boundary but Kwiatuoh was firm on Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s side of the water, some 30-minute walk.

“Via oral testimonies, we were able to come together and identify one place,” recalls Harris Togba, the chairman of Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s land leadership. Togba speaks to The DayLight in Titiyen, one of four towns that own the land. The other three are Jogbawon, Chernyenkpo and Gbankpo. Predominantly Kru, it has a unique culture, with a traditional school for boys and girls to preserve their way of life and culture.

“We believe in the history of our people,” Togba adds.

Following the mediation of the NGO Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI) and the Liberia Land Authority, both clans resolved the dispute, agreeing that the creek is the boundary. FCI has worked with the community since 2019. Its current work in the region is part of a US$4.45 million project funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, styled “Keeping the Promise.”

It has been five years since Gboyonnoh Karmbo, a clan with 1,300 plus people in the Jaedae District, declared its intention to acquire an ancestral land deed. It has established a land governance body—known as the Community Land Development and Management Committee (CLDMC). It had set up bylaws and a constitution and mapped its presumed land area.

Togba and Jah Nagbe Chea in Titiyen Town, Gboyonnoh Karmbo Clan. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

With the Kwiatuoh Clan dispute settled, Gboyonnoh Karmbo had now established all the boundaries with its neighbors and completed that stage of the deed process.

“We together agree to clearly and finally establish the boundaries between our communities, and to desist from any further boundary conflicts concerning this area,” the MoU reads. It adds to the MoUs with Brutroh, Berh and Sayoh, another major dispute Gboyonnoh Karmbo resolved in 2020.

Next for Gboyonnoh Karmbo is the official survey after which the clan will be granted a customary land deed, marking the final requirement under the Land Rights Act. Liberia passed the law in 2018, recognizing customary tenure, a monumental right for the empowerment of rural communities.

Alexander Cole, FCI’s project coordinator, says the official survey would start this month, using special technology to cement boundary markers.

“FCI is happy that these communities will forever resolve land conflicts that existed because of conflict on traditional boundary markers,” Cole says.

The Land Authority says it has received resources from the Tenure Facility to “adequately” survey Gboyonnoh Karmbo, covering 13,462 hectares of land. Parley Liberia, a Bong-based NGO that works with FCI and the Margibi-based Sustainable Development Institute, confirmed that disclosure. The survey is scheduled for later this month.

“When it comes to this survey in Sinoe County, we are fully prepared to carry on this survey.” Dr. Mahmoud Solomon, assistant director for survey and mapping at the Land Authority tells The DayLight. “We do not want to survey with the old technology.”

Gboyonnoh Karmbo and Lower Bokon will add to the Sansen Clan as the communities that will have completed the legal steps to acquire a customary land deed. Sansen Clan completed its process earlier this year, while Lower Bokon will complete it alongside Gboyonnoh Karmbo.

‘We are the land’

By law, when Gboyonnoh Karmboe finally formalizes its land ownership, it will become easier for the clan to benefit from the land directly. It will have the power to sit and discuss with would-be investors, a sharp contrast from the past, where rural dwellers were denied such benefits.

A drone picture shows illicit miners on the Dugbe River in Gboyonnoh Karmbo Clan in Sinoe County’s Jaedae District. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Gboyonnoh Karmbo has a forest and the potential for minerals. Next to the clan is an oil palm plantation run by Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). While there is no large-scale concession here, it currently hosts small and medium-scale miners, including illegal miners.

Reporters spot dredge miners on the River Dugbe, a form of mining prohibited by the Ministry of Mines in 2019, about the same time Gboyonnoh Karmbo started its process. There are two dredges on the right side of the Dugbe River Bridge. The miners had left their trail on the other side of the bridge along the riverbank, on farmland belonging to Francis Toe.

Toe admits to facilitating illegal mining. “When [miners] get the money, they give it to us and I take it to the committee board,” Toe says in an interview at his riverside home.

Togba, Gboyonnoh Karmbo’s chairman, promises that his leadership will combat illicit activities, using the community’s bylaws and constitution. “If we have the deed, we have to manage the land and go by regulations governing it,” he tells The DayLight.

“We are the land and we must have the land so that our generation now and the ones unborn can benefit,” Jah Nagbe Chea, Togba’s deputy buttresses. “This is our quest.”

An Unfinished Mud Brick Guesthouse for ‘26’

July 26, 2024

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Top: The unfinished guesthouse in Karquekpo, Sinoe County. Picture credit: Anonymous

By Esau J. Farr

KARQUEKPO, Sinoe County – The People who own the Central River Dugbe Community Forest had hoped that they would get a guesthouse for their Independence Day celebration—or their “26.”

A Nigerian-owned Iroko Timber and Logging Company leased 13,193 hectares of land from the leadership of the forest in exchange for the guesthouse and other benefits.

But photographs and a video The DayLight obtained captured on Thursday show the project barely at window level.

“Nobody is expecting the keys to that building tomorrow,” said Cyrus Kartor, a youth leader in Karquekpo, where the guesthouse is being constructed.

Bartee Togba, the chief officer of the forest in Sinoe’s Jaedae District, had said the guesthouse was being completed in less than a day. “They are working there presently as I speak to you. Tomorrow (July 26) they may also go to work. I am sure,” Togba said.

The pictures and video show there has been no work at the construction site for some time.

The guesthouse is one of several projects Iroko is required to conduct, according to the contract. It was initially expected to be turned over to locals in October last year but was extended by nine months.

The unfinished dirt block guesthouse indicates Iroko’s lack of capacity to run a community forest. Recent DayLight investigations found Iroko owes locals land rental, harvesting and others to the community, while it has abandoned an unspecified number of logs.

Another view of the unfinished guesthouse. Picture credit: Anonymous

An earlier DayLight investigation uncovered Iroko was unqualified for logging when the FDA approved its contract in 2021. Its majority shareholder, Timothy Odebunmi, is linked to another company, Akewa, which was fined for fraud in 2019.

A forestry regulation disqualifies companies whose shareholders have been involved in an act of public dishonesty for five years.

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

Illegal Company Dashes Sinoe Towns’ Hopes

July 18, 2024

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Top: An Iroko Timber and Logging Company log yard outside Greenville, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

KARQUEKPO, Sinoe County – In early 2022, there were widespread jubilations across the eight towns that own Central River-Dugbe Community Forest. They had leased the 13,193-hectare woodland to Iroko Timber and Logging Corporation for 15 years in exchange for development benefits.

But more than two years later, Iroko failed to live up to the agreement. It owes the villagers a huge debt and required projects.

“Our expectation was to bring development to our district and various towns…, including schools, clinics and safe drinking water for our people,” Alexander Slah, a member of the community leadership, said. “I am actually disappointed.”

As it stands, Iroko owes the Central River Dugbe Community US$20,368, based on interviews and official records. These fees include land rental, educational support, volunteer teachers and forest protection. Unpaid harvesting fees stand at US$8,927, according to official records.

The harvesting fees could be higher. Iroko declared 523 logs constituting 3,570.848 cubic meters, official records show. However, it abandoned some of the logs in the forest, locals say. Bartee Togba, the head of the community’s leadership, said he and other townspeople would scale the wood to determine Iroko’s full debt.

Besides unpaid fees, Iroko has failed to undertake contractual projects. It has not constructed five hand pumps it should have completed by last year, according to the contract.

Two Iroko machines in Polay Town, one of the communities that own the Central River Dugbe Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“Instead of installing the hand pumps between November and March, the company started in June to August. So, the water table goes low during the dry season…,” Slah said. Arthur Nagbe, a religious leader in Karquekpo, corroborated his account.

Iroko is yet to construct three boundary roads connected to Karquekpo and a guesthouse, which should have all been completed last October. The renovation of an elementary school and the construction of a library that should have been completed this December, according to the agreement, have not also started.

‘Handpicked’

Like Iroko’s external failures, there are indications of internal disappointments since its establishment in July 2021.

Iroko targets 100,000 hectares in 15 years but cannot even manage 13,193 hectares so far. The firm projected production of 50,000 cubic meters of logs as of this year but has produced only 3,570 cubic meters of logs since 2022, official records show.

It declared that it owned eight earthmovers and leased nine others. However, it has been seen with way fewer. One old machine is at the log yard near Greenville and two others were parked in Polay Town after Karquekpo.

Togba criticized the FDA for the Iroko situation. “They (FDA) must know that they have equipment that is up to standard but these things were not done,” he said.

But townspeople The DayLight interviewed blamed the community leadership for choosing Iroko. They said community leaders who vetted Iroko did not have the experience to do so. “They were handpicked,” said Ernest Slah, a resident, in an interview on Somalia Drive, outside Monrovia.

Togba dismisses that claim. He claims only the government has the responsibility to vet companies, though locals have that right in community forest.

Iroko is a new company and did not have a track record at the time it signed the Central River Dugbe contract but its majority shareholder, Timothy Odebunmi, was a red flag. The Nigerian has a record of persistent, perennial indebtedness to communities through his other company, Akewa.

Akewa had owed communities hundreds of thousands of United States dollars for over a decade. One of its contracts was cancelled with unpaid fees and another has been embroiled in a lengthy debt-related out-of-court settlement.

Timothy Odebunmi, the majority shareholder in Iroko Timber and Logging Company, also owns a fifth of Akewa Group of Companies’ shares. His ownership in the latter company disqualified the former from logging activities in Liberia. Facebook/Timothy Odebunmi

That aside, Odebunmi’s shares in Iroko disqualified the company from conducting logging activities in Liberia at the time of the Central River Dugbe contract. Odebunmi has a 20-percent stake in Akewa Group of Companies, which was fined for forgery in 2019. The FDA’s Regulation on Bidder Qualifications rules out companies whose owners are linked to public dishonesty for five years. The FDA ignored that rule and prequalified Iroko.

Lied under oath

Iroko shrugs off claims and indications of struggling to live up to its contract and denies any wrongdoing.

“We don’t know what constitutes a ‘capacity issue’ from your point of view, and can, therefore, not address your question,” Iroko said in an email.

“We would like to state that Mr. Timothy Odebunmi is not aware of having own a share in Akewa, and also Mr. Timothy [Odebunmi] has no knowledge of any tax clearance forgery issue as alleged,” it added.

Iroko’s claims are not factual. More than one year ago, The DayLight exposed Odebunmi’s connection to Akewa in which the newspaper emailed the company about its findings. Moreover, a recent review of the forestry sector lists Odebunmi as an Akewa shareholder.

Iroko’s machine photographed in its log yard near Greenville. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr

Iroko might have avoided the capacity issue. However, everything about the company’s operations is suggestive of a struggle for survival.

Two months ago, the FDA approved the export permit of Iroko to sell over 2,600 cubic meters but it has not exported the consignment. It has not exported any of the logs it harvested nearly two years ago. A recent DayLight investigation found the logs are abandoned, as some six months have passed since they were harvested, the longest period a log should stay anywhere before export. The FDA said it would investigate the abandoned logs accusation.

The FDA argued it approved Iroko’s contract because it had no list of debarred companies or individuals. The regulator further said it could not enforce the qualification regulation because Iroko did not bid for Central River Dugbe.

Those assertions are not backed by law. While the regulation requires the FDA to form a debarment and suspension list, it does not restrict a company or individual’s eligibility to the list. An individual’s eligibility is covered under the prequalification criteria, the standard for that person’s participation in logging activities.

The fact Iroko was prequalified with Odebunmi’s stakes shows that the company lied under oath. Per the regulation, the Nigerian firm should be prosecuted for perjury. The FDA referenced that provision when it certificated Iroko: “Any statement made under oath to the panel that is found to be false renders this certificate null and void.”

Locals are running out of patience over Iroko’s delay in meeting its contract obligations. They have planned a meeting to discuss their future with the company after the Independence Day celebrations. Some have already made up their minds.

“We are disappointed because the company failed us,” said Arthur Nagbe, a community leader. “I don’t even want to work with them again.”

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

Barred, Broke Company Abandons Hundreds of Logs in Sinoe

July 8, 2024

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Top: Iroko transferred most of the abandoned logs in February this year, one year and four months after they were harvested in the Central Dugbe River Community Forest. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Matenneh Keita and Esau J. Farr

KARQUEKPO, Sinoe County – In 2022, Timothy Odebunmi, joined two other Nigerian businessmen to establish Iroko Timber Logging Corporation in July 2021. Odebunmi has 50 percent shares, Samson Odebunmi, his relative, 45 percent, and Akinsiku Arinkan five percent.

The following year, Iroko signed a contract with the Central River Dugbe Community Forest. By October, it began harvesting logs in the 13,193-hectare woodland in Sinoe’s Jaedae District near the Grand Kru border.

Two years on, Iroko has not exported the logs, a violation of the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products.

It is unclear how many logs Iroko has felled. The FDA record shows 523 logs. However, Bartee Togba, the head of Central River Dugbe leadership, puts the number to about 700. Videos posted to Iroko’s Facebook page in July last year show workers hauling logs with an earthmover.

Under the regulation, logs are abandoned when unattended between 15 and 180 working days after felling, depending on their location.

The DayLight videotaped hundreds of logs on an open field in Dioh’s Town on the Greenville-Karquekpo route. Sources, including residents of that community, said the logs were only transferred there in February this year.

A screenshot of Iroko’s website shows the logs were harvested before or in October, nearly more than three times the legal time frame for a log anywhere to be abandoned.

Togba said some of the logs were still in the forest and wanted to document them. “I’m going to put the forest guards together… to carry them in the forest and record all of [that] information on those abandoned logs,” Togba said in an interview at his house in Karquekpo. He did not return queries on his findings after the interview despite repeated phone conversations.

The FDA has taken no concrete steps to deter Iroko or any other company from abandoning logs, now a sector normal. Between 2020 and 2023, Managing Director Mike Doryen made several pronouncements, including a public announcement in November last year, but never acted. Recently, current Managing Director Rudolph Merab toured the southeast, highlighting the issue but has done nothing more.

The FDA record shows that the agency approved Iroko’s permit to export 349 logs this May, something Iroko said it was “finalizing” soon. However, in an interview with The DayLight, William Pewu, FDA’s technical manager for community forestry, said the regulator would investigate.

“If Iroko has abandoned logs or woods, we are not aware of that,” Pewu said. “We have to first of all validate whether the information we are getting [is authentic]. We have to do a follow-up.”

Pewu’s assertion of being unaware of Iroko’s abandoned log situation is not backed by facts. The DayLight published an investigation on the issue more than a year ago. The FDA did not return questions the newspaper asked regarding Iroko at the time.

An elevated view of Iroko’s log yard with a solitary earthmover and a makeshift security booth. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The FDA must investigate a piece of abandoned log information, according to the regulation, and publish its findings. The regulation further mandates the agency to seize and auction said logs with a court warrant, following several public notices. Penalties for the offense include fines and contract forfeiture.

‘[Overvalued]’

Iroko’s struggles suggest it cannot conduct logging activities in Central River Dugbe.

It claims it owns eight earthmovers and leases nine others, according to one official document. However, it has been seen with only a few equipment in the last three years. An old machine at the log yard and two in Polay Town, one of the eight communities that own the forest.

The document shows Iroko targets 100,000 hectares of forests in the region in 15 years but it has grappled to manage just 13,193 hectares in three.

Iroko plans to run a centralized log yard near Greenville, from where it would produce about 50,000 cubic meters of logs each harvesting season. Yet, its current log yard is smaller than a football pitch. Reporters did not have to fly a drone high to capture all of the logs, a solitary earthmover and a makeshift security booth last month.

Togba said Iroko’s capacity troubles were glaring. He said the company had been “[overvalued],” accusing the FDA of not assessing Iroko’s financial and logistical capacities.

“The law says before FDA gives the company permit…, they should first of all view their equipment. They must know the company has an equipment that is up to standard but these things were not done,” Togba said.

Two Iroko machines in Polay Town, Sinoe County in 2023. The DayLight/James Giahyue

“What I suspect in their operation is there is no active equipment. Looking at the poor arrangement based on the equipment that brought all of that mess, the company doesn’t have the financial capability to operate,” Togba added.

Official documents appear to support Togba’s comments. It took Iroko barely two weeks to get prequalified for logging in Liberia. It registered as the company on July 7, 2021, and was prequalified on July 23, 2021, according to its article of incorporation and prequalification certificate.

Iroko’s situation mirrors that of Akewa Group of Companies, another Nigerian firm in which Odebunmi has 20 percent shares. Beginning in 2008, Akewa failed to live up to each one of its four contracts in Grand Bassa, Margibi and Grand Cape Mount. It is locked in an arbitration proceeding with the Margibi community over locals’ forest benefits.

Iroko dismisses indications of its capacity issues. “We are a business entity and we work with positives and challenges of the business environment,” Iroko said in emailed responses to The DayLight’s queries. It would not make specific comments on challenges.

‘Null and void’

The FDA could have prevented the situation had it disapproved of Iroko’s contract, due to Odebunmi’s shares in Akewa. Back in 2019, Akewa was fined US$1,000 forging another company’s tax clearance to acquire a contract in Grand Cape Mount County.

Approving the Iroko-Central-River-Dugbe contract—with Odebunmi as a shareholder—violates the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications. The regulation debars shareholders of companies that commit any acts of public dishonesty for five years. Only three years had passed when the FDA approved Iroko’s contract.

Iroko said Odebunmi was unaware of his shares in Akewa and “has never signed any document to that effect.” It said Odebunmi did not know of Akewa’s tax fraud.

But those statements are not backed by facts. Odebunmi has owned a fifth of Akewa’s shares since 2010, through two amendments, Akewa’s legal documents show. A recent review of the forestry sector by the U.S.-based Forest Trends also captures Odebunmi as an Akewa shareholder.

Speaking on its illegal approval of Iroko’s contract, the FDA said it did not have a list of debarred companies and individuals, and that it needed a court action to enforce debarment. The FDA further said it could not enforce the qualification regulation because Iroko did not bid for Central River Dugbe. Like Iroko’s, the FDA’s assertions are not backed by facts.

Up: A page from Akewa’s article of incorporation shows Timothy Odebunmi as a 20-percent shareholder in the company. Here: A page from Iroko’s legal documents reveals Timothy Odebunmi as a 50-percent shareholder.

Though the qualification regulation mandates the FDA to form a list of debarred persons, other provisions on eligibility are not subject to the list. For instance, the Yes-or-No Prequalification Criteria requires a firm seeking prequalification not to have any shareholders connected to forgery.

The FDA’s claim that it could not apply the regulation because Iroko was not bidding for a contract contradicts its actions. The qualification regulation does not only cover bidding. It also contains requirements for the rights to conduct forestry activities in Liberia.

Moreover, the FDA applied such a provision by warning Iroko against perjury, which has nothing to do with the debarment list.

“Any statement made under oath to the panel that is found to be false renders this certificate null and void,” Iroko’s prequalification certificate reads. The three-year document will expire later this month.

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

Locals Want New Company For Forest

June 21, 2024

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Top: The Tarsue Community Forest covers 9,714 hectares of forest in Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Emmanuel Sherman

SANQUIN – The Tarsue Authorized Community Forest in Sinoe County wants a contract with a new logging company.

Tarsue signed an agreement with the West Africa Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) in 2019. Locals leased the forest to the Chinese-owned company in exchange for roads, bridges, a school and a clinic. That was in addition to annual land rental and harvesting fees for the 9,714 hectares of forest in the Sanquin District of Sinoe County.

However, the WAFDI abandoned the agreement from the onset, with the community embroiled in an internal wrangle until the contract expired earlier this year.

“We made several efforts for the company to come to find a way forward but nothing was achieved…,” Tarsue said in an April letter to the Forestry Development Authority, seen by The DayLight.

“Now that the period for the contract has ended, we are calling on the FDA to support us in this situation kindly…,” the letter added.

In a reply to Tarsue’s letter, the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab said the agency would address Tarsue’s in-house dispute before settling the WAFDI issue. Like the WAFDI agreement, all tenures of the members of the leadership of Tarsue have elapsed.

“This communication is timely and corresponds with [management’s] plan… to send a team to conduct [an] election and to address the expired tenure situation…,” Merab’s letter, seen by DayLight, read.

‘You are… removed’

Tarsue’s problem began as soon as it selected WAFDI to operate its forest in 2019.

The Tarsue-WAFDI agreement was among several logging agreements whose terms were sliced from 15 to five years, breaching the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands.

The community accused the late Dennis Wiah, then leader of the forest, and Alfred Dolo, another leader, of unilaterally selecting WAFDI. Villagers had earlier agreed to lease the forestland to another company, according to Oliver Pyne, a member of the community’s leadership.

“Instead, they brought WAFDI, they only brought the name, but never brought any representative,” recalled Pyne in an interview in Komannah Town.

“So, when they brought the agreement, it became an argument on the ground.”

Oliver Pyne, a member of the community forest management body of Tarsue Community Forest. The DayLight/James Giahyue

In 2021, Towns and villages that own forests asked Wiah to leave the position. “You are hereby removed and dismissed from your position as chief officer of the Tarsue Community Forest by the decision of the community assembly (CA) in our sitting on September 30, 2021,” the letter said. The community informed the FDA of its decision in October the next year. Wiah died later.

Following his death, an ad-hoc committee, comprising Pyne’s brother Ericson Pyne and others, assumed the leadership role.

That did not solve the problem. WAFDI remained inactive, failing to pay the community land rental and scholarship fees. WAFDI also did not conduct any of its mandatory projects in Tarsue, including hand pumps, town halls, roads and bridges. It did not cut down a single tree throughout this time.

With the contract expired and community forest leaders’ tenures elapsed, locals are mounting pressure on the FDA. Under the law, the regulator should supervise the elections of officers on the governance structure of the community forest.

It has been more than two months since Merab said the FDA would visit the community but nothing has happened.

Nora Boweir, FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Community, Conservation and Carbon Harvesting, had not gathered the resources to visit Tarsue.

“Our plan is to go there and deal with the challenges they are facing, and give them the support as soon we are able to raise the required resources, funds,” Boweir said.

Paramount Chief John Koah hopes a new company will bring development to the Tarsue Chiefdom. The DayLight/James Giahyue

John Koah, Paramount Chief of Tarsue Chiefdom has not lost hope. He dreams that one day a new company will come to take over the community forest.

“We are expecting school building, hand pumps, hospital and the old people here to be getting [a] small thing,” Koah said in an interview in Teacher’s Town.

Augustine Johnson, an affiliate of WAFDI, said he was not authorized to speak on the Tarsue matter. He told The Daylight through a mobile phone interview was only responsible for WAFDI’s contract with Gheegbarn One Community Forest in Grand Bassa County.

Efforts to reach out to Wang Chenchen, the owner of WAFDI, proved futile. Someone else answered the phone number on the company’s article of incorporation. Johnson, who said Mr. Wang had traveled to China, declined to share his contact.

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

Police Arrest ‘Black Sand’ Miners in Sinoe

May 13, 2024

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Top: Four of the Vietnamese mineworkers arrested by the police in Bannah, Sinoe County. Picture credit: Facebook/Butaw Radio TV

By Gabriel M. Dixon

GREENVILLE – Police in Sinoe County have arrested nearly a dozen Vietnamese nationals for allegedly violating a mining moratorium, local media reported.

Eight men were detained on Saturday on the order of Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyenswah.

“This initiative is intended to buttress the national government’s effort in the fight against illicit mining,” Nyenswah told Radio Butaw.

The men work for STT Heavy Mineral Resources Limited, a medium-scale company that mines zircon sand commonly called “black sand” in Greenville. The Vietnamese-owned company has five active black sand mining licenses in Sinoe County, the ministry’s records show.

Nguyen Thanh Truc, STT’s majority shareholder, did not immediately respond to queries.

An STT mining plant in Morrisville, Sinoe County in January 2023. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Last month, the government of Liberia banned black sand mining across the country after a video of an illegally extracted stockpile of the minerals, posted by a citizen journalist, went viral on Facebook. Before that, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined Quezp Mining Company in Brewerville and Royesville for operating without an environmental permit.

Tag: Sinoe County

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