Top: A poster shows views, elevation images and actors of an agreement between Coniwein in Grand Bassa and Local Farm Inc. Images by Carlucci Cooper and Harry Browne, and graphic design by Rebazar Forte for The DayLight.
By Esau J. Farr and Carlucci Cooper
GBIAGAYE TOWN –In 2007, villagers in Coniwein in District Number Two, Grand Bassa County jubilated after signing an agreement with Local Farm Inc., a Liberian-owned agriculture company.
But 15 years on, things have turned out to be the exact opposite. Controversies with Franklin Jackson, Local Farm’s owner and CEO, have changed the inspiration for hope among townspeople into despair.
“[Franklin Jackson] told us that Local Farm was a pumpkin and he was planting the pumpkin to spread in Coniwein. But the pumpkin is not spreading. Now we are suffering,” says Anthony Ben, a resident of Gbiagaye Town, the headquarters of Coniwein.
Coniwein leased Local Farm Inc. 2,500 acres of land to plant crops, with profits from their sales to be shared equally between the parties, according to their 2007 agreement.
The villagers wanted development in the area, following decades of neglect by the state like much of the countryside. They would use the funds to pave roads, build a school and a clinic, and erect handpumps, among others.
Local Farm planted palm trees on about 750 acres of the land found in the Marblee Clan, the villagers and the company say. Production started in 2010, according to the community, or 2013, according to Jackson.
But except for US$20,000 in 2013, Jackson has made no payments to Coniwein over the years. It did not make any financial reports—to announce profits or losses—as the agreement mandates.
This soured the relationship between the community and the company.
Franklin L. Jackson, Managing Director of Local Farm Inc./The DayLight Esau J. Farr
The peak of their conflict was when Coniwein sued Jackson in 2018 for economic sabotage and misapplication of entrusted property. He had used the community’s deed as collateral to acquire a US$160,000 loan from the Afriland First Bank, US$90,000 of which he received. However, the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County cleared him of all charges, according to court documents.
‘I take full responsibility’
In an interview at his home in Paynesville, Jackson says he cannot pay the community any money because he has not made a profit, despite investing US$1 million in the plantation. He says the US$20,000 in 2010 was an upfront payment.
An elevation view of a dormant mill at Local Farm Inc. in District Number Two, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
Jackson concedes breaching the agreement and blames the Ebola epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic for his farm’s woes. He says Ebola, which broke out in Liberia in 2014, disrupted the farm’s initial efforts to produce palm oil. And when it was recovering, coronavirus came in 2020.
“Like all businesses, we shut everything down. If we don’t make a profit, you can’t divide nothing,” he tells The DayLight.
Jackson claims that he informed the community he was shutting down due to the epidemic. However, there is no record that Local Farm activated the force-majeure provision of the agreement with Coniwein.
Apart from the contract issues, Local Farm owes its workers several months of unspecified, unpaid wages.
“First, from the brushing, they paid us by cash and second, they paid us by oil but the oil that we were supposed to receive, we [did] not receive all,” says Ben, also a former contractor.
Jackson again blames Ebola for owing workers and says he is willing to pay them once he resumes production on the farm.
“We thought that Ebola could have lasted a few months. That resulted in us owing ex-employees,” Jackson says. “We had to lay off the employees and we didn’t have the money to pay them. This is where that employees’ liability comes in.”
Joseph Ben, a former worker of Local Farm Inc./The DayLight/Harry Browne
Matters are worsening at the plantation by the day. Two months ago, chiefs and elders halted operations. Villagers are harvesting the plantation in Gbeal Town. Reporters of The DayLight photographed and video-recorded one man carrying a container of palm oil from the plantation. There were signs of no guards at the plantation.
“The agreement we [entered] in, we can’t get our share. That’s why we put [a] halt to the farm,” says Joseph Karngbo, president of the Coniwein-Gbeal Development Association, the group established to manage the section’s land.
This elevation image shows a portion of a palm plantation Local Farm Inc. developed in Coniwein in Compound Number, Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/Carlucci Cooper
Jackson fears the plantation could be lost soon because villagers are not trained to harvest palm bunches.
“We trained particular people to harvest. Handling palm during harvesting is one of the most delicate things because if you don’t know how to harvest, you kill it (palm tree) prematurely,” Jackson notes.
The action of the townspeople to halt operations at the farm violates the agreement. It requires the community to embark upon an arbitration process to resolve its dispute with the company.
But Jackson appears resigned already. “I have come to understand that I was wrong, I was naive, stupid and I made the wrong decision; I take full responsibility.”
Top: Dugbormar Kwekeh, a member of Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest tells European envoys about challenges with commercial logging in that part of Liberia in a March meeting. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Emmanuel Sherman
JIMMY DIGGS TOWN – A logging contract between a community forest and a Chinese-owned company in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County is perhaps forestry’s most troublesome agreement today.
But women on the leadership of Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest, which has a contract with West African Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI), desire to continue their roles as elections draw near.
“We will be willing to work again if elected because we want to develop our place,” says Dugbormai kwekeh a member of Gheegbarn’s community assembly (CA). She and other women spoke in the Bassa language through an interpreter.
“We want our children to go to school, we don’t want them to be like us,” Kwekeh added.
Elections for a new corps of officers for the community’s forestry leadership are slated later this year.
Every five years, a forest community elects new members to its community assembly, which represents towns and villages that own the forest. Members of the new assembly then elect officers of its executive committee, the highest decision-making body in community forest governance. The assembly also elects members of the community forest management body (CFMB), which runs the affairs of the community forest. The CFMB tenure ranges from two to five years. The Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands requires at least a slot for a woman on the CFMB.
Oretha Toway, a member of the CFMB hopes to serve another term. “If appointed again, I will help the new leadership to build the community,” says Toway. “We don’t have any school, hospital.”
Illegal Logging
Gheegbarn’s trouble began from the very beginning in 2018. The FDA illegally approved the community’s Forest agreement with WAFDI with a lifespan of seven years, not 15 as required by law.
After that, the FDA authorized WAFDI harvest of more than three times the size of the forest as the law mandates. It took over three years for the Ministry of Justice to discover the scandal in an investigation.
The ministry later reprimanded FDA, SGS, the firm that created Liberia’s timber-tracking system, and WAFDI for breaking forestry laws and regulations.
The scandal tore off the roof of the FDA and the towns and villages of Gheegbarn. Logging activities in Gheegbarn were halted for nearly a year. FDA board of directors asked President George Weah to dismiss several senior managers of the agency. That did not happen but a major reshuffle took place. Gheegbarn and WAFDI have retroactively signed a new contract for 15 years.
The women-member of Gheegbarn are aware of the impacts of the scandal on the community, including the over-exploitation of the forest in the last three years. (WAFDI exported 29,104 cubic meters of round logs during that time, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, citing FDA figures). However, it motivates them more.
(L-R) Dubormai Kwekeh, Oretha Toway and Markoni Geezee, members of Gheegbarn Community Forest leadership. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman
“I will agree to serve as a member of the assembly, provided there will still be logs in the forest,” says Etta Diggs an assembly member.
The women want to cancel the agreement with WAFDI because it has not lived up to the agreement.
By now, WAFDI should have constructed two schools, connected four farm-to-market roads, and 10 handpumps by now and employed 60 percent of its workforce from Gheegbarn.
“We don’t want the company anymore. They brought poverty on us,” Kwekeh adds. She had made the same point when EU ambassadors visited the community back in March. Kwekeh’s comments are backed by the law, as villagers can choose to cancel contracts with companies.
But amid the rigmarole with WAFDI, Gheegbarn also has an internal wrangle, which the women also want to address. The executive committee chair Robert Zeogar and the secretary to the CFMB Larry Tuning are at loggerheads with the chief officer of the CFMB Junior Wesseh, according to Wesseh and the women. Efforts to speak to Tuning and Zeogar on the issue did not materialize. Both men were not present during this reporter’s two-day stay in the area and their phones were off.
Wesseh, Zeogar and Tuning are signatories to the account, contrary to the community rights regulation. The regulation mandates the chief officer, the treasurer another authorized community member approved by the assembly.
“The EC chair [Zeogar] and CFMB secretary [Tuning] have been making unauthorized withdrawals with alerts coming to the CFMB chief officer [Wesseh],” says Jonathan Yiah. Yiah’s NGO, the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), works with Gheegbarn’s leadership.
Markoni Geezee, a member of the assembly would only serve another term given that Tuning and Zeogar are replaced. She accuses the duo of enriching themselves at the expense of the community.
“We walked till our slippers cut along the way for the company to come but now we are the losers,” says Geezee. “You only have a few people getting rich from the forest.”
Gheegbarn #1 Community Forest has been a scene of forestry’s biggest scandals in a decade. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Funding for this story was provided by the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI). The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over its content.
Top: A collage of pictures of a crocodile and monkey seized by the Special Wildlife Investigation Unit now at the Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary
By James Harding Giahyue
The Special Wildlife Investigation Unit on Thursday seized crocodiles and monkeys at the home of a school owner
Crocodiles and monkeys are endangered species whose protection is mandated by law
The school owner said he runs a “mini zoo”
unauthorized possession of live animals violates the wildlife law, with a fine between US$100 and US$150 or a three-month sentence
MONROVIA – In the Bible, Noah gathered many animals in an ark to save them from a horrible flood, following God’s instructions.
But the owner of a school named after the prophet’s famous ship may have taken matters into his own hands.
The Special Wildlife Investigation Unit on Monday seized seven crocodiles and two monkeys at the home of Joseph Bestman, the owner of Noah’s Ark High School in Gardnersville Township.
The unit recovered the animals following an early morning combing of Bestman’s Gardnersville home, acting on a search and seizure warrant. Pictures on Facebook show armed officers deployed at the house.
In videos obtained from the unit, crocs can be seen in a concrete enclosure with darkened and rotting water. The monkeys appeared shaky in their metal cages as officers took them away.
“The hunting, trading, keeping as a pet, killing or rating of protected species is never acceptable in Liberia…,” the unit, which comprises the police Forestry Development Authority (FDA)/the Wildlife Crime Taskforce and the Liberia Revenue Authority, said in a statement.
Joseph Bestman. Picture credit: Facebook/Noah’s Ark High School
Bestman is being held at the headquarters of the Liberia National Police in Monrovia and would be sent to court, police spokesman Moses Carter said.
Efforts to speak to Bestman did not materialize up to writing time. However, Bestman told Prime FM earlier he had established the “mini zoo” to show students what the animals look like.
“The Liberian authorities together with their international partners will continue to work to bring wildlife traffickers to justice,” the statement added.
The animals were taken to Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary in Margibi, where a vet examined them, according to the unit.
The operation was the unit’s fourth in four months of its establishment. The first was the recovery of chimpanzees, the second was the detention of a pangolin scale trafficker, and the third was the arrest of an 85-year-old man with 26 live parrots.
Top: Elijah Kolleh (left) and Yarkpawolo Kollie are guardians of the Whorn Waterfall in Kokoyah District, Bong County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
SEEGAR TOWN, Bong County – The two elderly men take my colleague Derick Snyder and me on a tour of an enormous yet largely unknown waterfall.
Yarkpawolo Kollie and Elijah Kolleh are not just some random tour guides. They are guardians of Whorn Waterfall on the St. John River in the Kokoyah District Bong County.
Kollie and Kolleh spend a good portion of their time regulating access to the fall. Skilled basket weavers and fishermen, the men protect it and a Sande shrine nearby from unauthorized access and desecration.
“That area is a traditional area, the [largest] waterfall in the Republic of Liberia,” Morris Dukuly, a former chief of Seegar Town. The DayLight could not independently verify Dukuly’s claim but drone pictures show it is larger than the Kpatawee Waterfall. Whorn is about a 20-minute walk from Seegar Town through farms and a swathe of rocky, hilly forest.
“We can’t just permit anybody to just enter,” adds Dukuly, a descendant of the family that founded Seegar Town.
It was Dukuly and the rest of the town’s leadership who appointed Kollie and Kolleh. It is part of a tradition that has lasted since the early 1900s, Dukuly tells us.
The elderly men are not the fall’s only guardians. Other townsmen play that role, too. They belong to a legion of villagers who spend a lifetime protecting their land and custom.
The Whorn Waterfall is the largest in Liberia, according to local people. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Last month, Quikon Clan, where the waterfall is located, asked an NGO to assist it to get a customary deed. The clan wants to preserve that and benefit from their resources, following years of government neglect.
Under the Land Rights Act, Quikon owns the land, water and forest in Seegar and 23 other towns, covering more than 2,000 hectares. However, it must meet certain legal requirements to get a deed from the government.
Gbarnga-based NGO Parley Liberia is now guiding Quikon in its quest. The clan is one of 37 communities across eight counties benefiting from a US$3.54 million project, funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility of Sweden.
“Once we have a deed, we get the power to say anything to any investor that will come… to use that waterfall,” says Junior Tarr, the Paramount Chief of Kokoyah.
Kollie and Kolleh are aware of the new quest but are focused on their jobs.
They spend the rainy season at the waterfall, fishing and smoldering their catch. We are not allowed to go to where they fish—because of the shrine—but we can see a few rattan baskets.
One basket hangs not far from the doorway of a hut a few feet from the rocky riverbanks next to the fall. Two others are outside the hut and two more are in different locations.
“When the dry season comes, we go back in the town,” explains Kolleh 60-something, the younger of the two men. A lot of people come to see the fall at that time, he adds.
The waterfall makes a forest spectacle. Its brownish water pours down a rocky, steep hill, making a loud noise. Droplets form a cloud and reduce the green shading of the forest on both sides of the river. Big rocks line up the riverbanks, creating a stage for us to stand and behold nature at its best.
After nearly two hours here, it is time for us to go. Kollie and Kolleh gave us some worm fish from a drier to eat. We say goodbye and start our journey back to Gbarnga.
Top: The Whorn Waterfall is arguably Quikon’s most famous natural resource. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By Esau J. Farr
KOKOYAH DISTRICT, Bong County – A clan with a waterfall larger than Kpatawee has consented to a project seeking to assist it get an ancestral land deed.
Located on the boundary between Grand Bassa and Bong County, Quikon Clan hosts the Whorn Waterfall on the St. John River.
For decades, villagers in the clan have protected the fall, the forest around it and the land. They know that acquiring a deed to their clan would formalize their ownership of the land—and everything on it.
With Liberia having passed the Land Rights Act in 2018, the villagers cannot wait to end generations of longing.
“We’ve been bringing people to see [the waterfall] but we don’t have the deed for the land,” said Junior Tarr, the Paramount Chief for Kokoyah District in which Quikon is located. “Once we have a deed, we get the power to say anything to any investor that will come in the district to use that waterfall.”
The Land Rights Act guarantees rural communities ownership of their land, based on customs, norms and oral tradition, for at least five decades. However, communities must go through a legal procedure to get deeds for their land, the technical knowledge they lack.
And that is where civil society organizations come in.
At an event in Rock Crusher, Quikon’s busiest town, the clan officially asked a civil society organization to help it.
“We the citizens and residents of Quikon Clan… hereby declare our free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for customary community land formalization addressed to Parley Liberia,” locals said in a declaration recently.
A view of Rock Crusher in the Quikon Clan of Kokoyah District, Bong County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
That FPIC request to Parley Liberia, a Bong-based organization, recognizes the rights of the clan as an indigenous community, said Josephus Blim, Parley Liberia’s program officer. FPIC aligns with Liberia’s land law and other laws, Blim added. It is a United Nations-backed principle whose roots can be traced to the universal right to self-determination.
Parley Liberia—with other organizations—is assisting 39 communities in eight counties to get their customary deeds. The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, a Sweden-based charity, provided US$3.54 million for the project over a three-year period.
“The success of this work depends on the community, yourselves, the partnership with government, including the District Commissioner, Paramount Chief, Clan Chief and the Liberia Land Authority,” said Gregory Kitt, executive director of Parley Liberia.
Bendu Cheeks, a women’s rights leader in Quikon Clan, signs a consent declaration for assistance to get its customary land deed. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Isaac Freeman, the Acting Superintendent of Kokoyah Statutory District, said the deed would end illegal sales of land there. He said local authorities regularly resolve land disputes.
“We will work with you people so that this thing can be realized,” Freeman told an event marking the signing of the consent declaration. “We have been wishing for someone to come and help our people.”
Isaac Davies, another resident, said people were trading huge plots of land for less valuable materials. Home to some 6,000 people, Quikon is a farming community, covering an estimated 25,000 hectares.
“As a result, we the citizens and youths are beginning to suffer because we are vulnerable,” Davies said. Other townspeople we interviewed echoed his comments.
What Next for Quikon
Quikon must declare itself as a landowning community, communally map the land it claims and cut the boundaries with its neighbors and develop bylaws.
Thereafter, the Land Rights Act requires it to establish a governance body, known as the community land development and management committee (CLDMC).
Then the Land Authority will conduct a survey and give it a customary deed, according to the law.
Top: The Forestry Development Authority unlawfully authorized companies to harvest trees in forests in excess of the legal requirements. The DayLight/Derick Snyder
By James Harding Giahyue
For three years, the Forestry Development Authority illegally approved community forest contracts with reduced tenures, according to official documents
The FDA then authorized logging companies to fell trees in forest areas in excess of the legal requirements. Subsequently, the companies were to harvest up to three times more than the lawful timeframe
At least one of the companies harvested in an extra forest area for three years before the scandal broke out
A Ministry of Justice investigation found the FDA, its partner SGS and a company liable for at least one case
MONROVIA – From 2018 to 2020, the Forestry Development Authority unlawfully approved several contracts in community forests with reduced lifespans. Then the FDA authorized some of the contracted companies to harvest logs yearly in areas more than twice the legal sizes, according to unpublished official documents and an investigation report by the government.
In those three years, the FDA sanctioned seven logging agreements whose lifespans were sliced from 15 years to between five and 14 years, the documents show.
Thereafter, the agency permitted five companies to operate thousands of hectares of excess forestlands, breaking legal frameworks. At least one of the companies harvested in the extra area about three years before it was discovered in 2021, according to the Ministry of Justice report.
“The advent of illegality in the forestry sector has eroded the credibility of the management team, thereby affecting donors’ behavior,” Harrison Karnwea, Sr., the chairman of FDA’s board of directors, told President Weah in a letter last January.
“We have started to see the negative impacts on their support to our National Budget,” Karnwea added.
The FDA suspended and replaced four top-level managers after the ministry’s inquest, including Jerry Yonmah, the former technical manager of the commercial department. Yonmah denied any wrongdoing.
FDA board of directors asked President Weah to dismiss Yonmah, the other managers and Deputy Managing Director for Operations Joseph Tally— particularly for Gheegbarn #1. It also asked for the retirement of Tally, who had served the agency for over 30 years at the time. Yonmah had denied any wrongdoing.
Joseph Tally, the deputy managing director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) speaks at an event when European Union ambassadors visited Gheegbarn #1 in March 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
But none of the dismissals happened. Yonmah and the other managers were transferred to new departments, while Tally retains his position. Tally dubbed the matter “water under the bridge” in an emailed statement to The DayLight on Wednesday and said he had a “creditable reputation.”
An agreement between Kparblee Community Forest in Nimba and Sanabel Investment Incorporated was reduced to 14 years. The same happened with Korninga B in Gbarpolu and Indo Africa Plantation Liberia Limited.
Another between Gheegbam #1 and the West African Forest Development Incorporated in Grand Bassa was shortened to seven years.
The FDA also sliced four other agreements to five years. They include Marblee & Karblee and African Wood & Lumber Company, Tarsue and West African Forest Development Inc in Grand Bassa. The Gbarsaw & Dorbor and African Wood & Lumber, Ziadue & Teekpeh and Brilliant Maju agreements in River Cess complete the quadruplet.
The reductions go against the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands and the Community Rights Regulation. The legal frameworks restrict community-forest contracts to 15 years, subject to a review every five years.
The frameworks are key pillars of Liberia’s agenda to share the benefits of forest resources with locals following decades of deprivation.
Leaders of the community forests affected scandal distanced themselves from the illegality of their contracts.
Abraham Cooper of Marblee and Karblee said last year, “We did not sign any agreement behind the government of Liberia.”
Forest Bonanza
While the FDA cut the lifespans of the seven unlawful contracts, it authorized the companies to cut trees at faster rates to match the legal 15-year period. In one case, the agency approved a company’s plan to harvest outside its contract area.
C. Mike Doryen oversaw the Forestry Development Authority’s approval of illegal community forest agreements from 2018 to 2020. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
For instance, the FDA approved African Wood & Lumber Company’s harvesting plan for 5,600 hectares in the Marblee & Karblee Community Forest from 2019 to 2020. It had authorized the company to cut trees on 28,000 hectares for all five years of the operations, according to one of the documents.
That means the FDA endorsed the company to harvest 3,645 hectares of forest in addition to the 24,355 hectares of the community forest. The FDA even authorized African Wood & Lumber to cut trees outside the community forest. Nearly seven percent of the area crosses over to territories belonging to adjacent towns and villages, one document shows.
“After thorough review… by the joint team…, we hereby approve said plan, having met all basic requirements,” Doryen wrote African Wood CEO Cesare Colombo, approving its plan for the 2019-2020 harvest season.
By law, African Wood & Lumber should have gotten 1,600 hectares per year, according to the guidelines and regulations Doryen cited. (It was unclear whether the company actually harvested in the extra area or outside the forest.)
Cesare Colombo, African Wood & Lumber owner and CEO, did not respond to emailed queries for comments.
A screenshot of a page of a harvesting plan the Forestry Development Authority approved that illegally gave Marblee & Karblee 5,600 hectares of land, instead of 1,600 hectares. It also shows that the FDA authorized the company to cut trees outside its contract area in Grand Bassa’s Compound Number Two.
The height of the scandal was the West Africa Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI). The company actually harvested logs in the extra forest area the FDA approved in 2018.
In late 2021, the Ministry of Justice uncovered that the company had been operating on an illegal harvesting plan. Ironically, the FDA and WAFDI had disagreed over the export of logs from the very illegal area the regulator had approved.
But by then, WAFDI had exported some 29,104 cubic meters of round logs from 2019 to 2021, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). In 2021 alone, WAFDI sold US$531,460 million LEITI records show, citing FDA and company figures.
Minister of Justice Musa Dean said in a letter to Karnwea that Doryen approved WAFDI’s plan “although such management plan violated… the National Forestry Reform Law… and the Code of Harvesting Practices…
“FDA was in gross violation of the law in failing to ensure that the approved management plan reflected the portion of the forest area that could be harvested within seven years… and not allow blanket harvesting of the entire area for five years,” Dean’s letter read.
FDA’s board of directors urged Managing Director Mike Doryen, who approved all the illegal contracts and harvesting plans, to sign future documents with the advice of the FDA’s legal department.
The board also suggested that Doryen attended sector meetings to abreast himself with governance and operational matters. Doryen still skips those meetings, according to two regular attendees of the regular gatherings. At an international climate and forest conference Liberia hosted earlier this year, he had promised to attend the meetings. Doryen did not return a thread of emails we sent to him between last February and this month.
WAFDI called off an interview in its third minute with The DayLight at the company’s camp in Compound Number Two. A company executive said The DayLight did not inform them about the interview beforehand.
Abandoned Agreements
All of the other companies involved in the scandal have deserted their responsibilities to the government and the communities.
African Wood & Lumber has not worked in Marblee & Karblee in the last three years. It abandoned some 2,682 logs in Marblee & Karblee. And it owes the company an estimated US$126,029 community in land rental and harvesting fees.
Indo Africa has abandoned Korninga B, which had filed for cancellation of the deal following years of stalemate.
WAFDI no longer works in Tarsue, which did not have the right to sign an agreement when logging began there. Locals had considered terminating the contract.
African Wood walked out of the agreement with Gbarsaw & Dorbor, where it illegally harvested 550 logs in December 2020.
Gbarsaw & Dorbor is one of the community forests for which the FDA approved an illegal logging agreement. The DayLight/William Q. Harmon
Similarly, Brilliant Maju has not been active for years, according to local media and a union of authorized community forests. The company has failed to fulfill its side of the agreement with Ziadue & Teekpeh.
Sanabel abandoned 710 logs in Kparblee, and owes the Nimba community in land and harvesting fees, according to villagers.
“The agreements are dormant,” said Bonathan Walaka, the lead facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body. “They are all dormant.”
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: Grass-covered culverts meant to construct handpumps for communities adjacent to the Central Morweh Community Forest. The DayLight/Gabriel M. Dixon
By Gabriel M. Dixon
BOEGEEZAY TOWN, River Cess – Cracks have started to emerge in this new logging agreement in southcentral Liberia.
Central Morweh Community Forest signed a contract with the Kisvan Timber Corporation In March 2021. To harvest logs in a 19,091-hectare forest, The company promised the villagers safe drinking water, roads, support for healthcare, and a school. It also promised to pay fees for harvesting and the use of the community’s land.
Now three years after the contract, Kisvan has yet to complete the handpumps, and schools and provide fees for clinics. It has outstanding payments for land rental and harvesting, according to the villagers.
“The time should have been last year December with the company for the completion of the hand pumps and the school,” said Clinton Cephus, head of the community’s forest leadership.
“From 2022 to this year we have not received scholarship benefits, [and]… this year we have yet to receive payment for land rental fees,” he said.
As part of their February 2021 agreement, the company agreed to construct a road from Boegeezay Town to Sameria Town, and three metal or concrete bridges over the Duahn, Guahn, and Nepu creeks.
The road from Boegeezay to Sameria should have been completed in December 2022, and the construction of the three bridges next year.
Kisvan also agreed to complete 16 handpumps and a 10-classroom school and offices in the first year of the contract from February 2021 to December 2022.
Apart from infrastructure, the company agreed to provide an annual scholarship fund of US$6,000 and healthcare services support of US$5,000.
The contract also requires the company to pay another US$6,000 per quarter for the services of community forest guards.
Van Ngo, the CEO of Kisvan, admits the projects are yet to be completed.
“This season, we started very late (middle of February) due to the very down market. We are doing our best to keep up with the social commitments and our operations,” Mr. Ngo tells The DayLight via email.
That was the exact opposite of what he claimed back in March in an interview in Kisvan’s log yard in Buchanan, Grand Bassa. Except for the school, claimed then every project. “We are always committed and we are always on top of it to ensure that we working well with them,” Mr. Ngo said at the time.
Amid his admittance, Mr. Ngo claims the company has done better than what Cephus and the villagers allege. He says Kisvan has completed 75 percent of a school project in Kporkon. This reporter saw the unfinished school building in Kporkon but could not independently verify Mr. Ngo’s claim.
A youth struggles to pump water out of a handpump well built by Kisvan in Kporkon. The DayLight/Gabriel M. Dixon
Mr. Ngo denies his company had outstanding payments to villagers. He claimed he paid all the fees as of last year without showing any evidence of the payments.
Mr. Ngo also claims the company has completed 50 percent of the handpumps and the community “appreciates” a 35-meter log bridge there. The villagers we interviewed did not give that impression.
Villagers say the school is substandard for a US$40,000 project. They say the project has no blueprint, there was no bidding process for the contractor and Cephus did not consult them.
Cephus concedes to those claims. “It (selection of company) was done through the [community forest leadership’s] office, which needed not to have been so,” he says.
Kisvan also owes the community one year in land rental and scholarship fees, according to Cephus, and has not paid any money for harvesting.
A US$40,000 uncompleted school in Kporkon Town, which has been rejected by the community people: The DayLight/Gabriel M. Dixon
The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) did not grant The DayLight access to Kisvan’s exports. The company also did not provide that information upon our request. Their denial violates a number of forestry laws and regulations.
Cephus claims the company has shipped some 5,700 cubic meters of logs but did not provide any proof.
Mr. Ngo said back in March that “We have 2,000 cubic meters of logs” at Kisvan’s log yard. The DayLight photographed several of the logs, marked with “KTC,” the company’s industry-recognized abbreviation. Some were in squared form.
Mr. Ngo’s comments in that March interview indicate Kisvan exported logs. At one point, he complained that it was expensive to export timber in containers through the Freeport of Monrovia.
The Forestry Development Authority breaks its regulation by permitting Kisvan to export logs while it remains indebted to Central Morweh. The Regulation on Forest Fees prohibits the FDA from granting companies with debt export permits. The agency did not respond to questions on the matter.
Roadblocks and ‘Devil’
In forestry, communities sign a forest management agreement with the FDA for 15 years, subject to a five-year review. Thereafter, they can enter logging agreements with third parties. The scheme is meant to share forest benefits with locals.
But the signs of the failure two years into their agreement with Kisvan, villagers in Central Morweh are concerned whether they would benefit from their forest.
“The community [is] vexed now and asked the… the leadership to call the company to tell them what they’re doing is not going down well with us,” says Sarah Neegar, a member of the community assembly from Kporkon Town. The community assembly comprises representatives of towns and villages that own the forest and is the highest decision-making body in community forestry.
Some of the logs Kisvan Timber Corporation Harvested from the Central Morweh Community Forest in River Cess County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
“We told the [leadership] to call the company so we can discuss with them but since that time they can’t come,” adds Neegar.
“If the company [doesn’t] come, we will put a roadblock, to put our Bassa devil and be dancing. Then now somebody will come in.” Devil is the Liberian parlance for a traditional mask dancer whose outing could connote celebration or chaos.
Neegar’s comments are echoed by Junior Gbatea, the youth chairman of Kporkon Town.
Cephus shrugged off any threat of a protest. “Well, I don’t know their thinking because every individual has his/her own understanding or doing things,” he tells The DayLight.
His comments align with the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Land. The law lays down specific ways forest communities can seek redress, and none has to do with protest or violence.
Top: FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Benjamin Tennessee Plewon III did not turn out for questioning over his alleged involvement with an illegal logging operation in 2022. Facebook/Benjamin Plewon
MONROVIA – The Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Benjamin Tennessee Plewon III Forestry Development Authority refused to cooperate with a police investigation into an illegal logging operation, court documents reveal.
The Liberian National Police invited Plewon over his alleged connection to men suspected of illegally harvesting logs in Gbarpolu County last year, according to the documents. The police filed the documents last year but The DayLight only obtained them last week.
The suspects, including Korean nationals, FDA rangers, a then-police commander and a customs officer, are accused of trying to smuggle timber valued at US$60,000, the documents say.
“The investigation notes that Benjamin Tennessee Plewon… failed to honor the invitation, which constitutes hindering law enforcement…,” reads a police report filed with Criminal Court A. No charges were filed against Plewon.
A copy of an export permit issued to Coveiyallah, which the Deputy Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Benjamin Tennessee Plewon III allegedly provided to an illegal logging syndicate. Members of the syndicates have been charged with various offenses, ranging from economic sabotage to bribery.
Plewon is accused of providing the export permit of Coveiyallah, according to the documents. Coveiyellah, which operates in Gbarpolu, owns the permit.
Plewon allegedly gave the permit to Isaac Railey, the head of the FDA law enforcement department. Railey then presented the permit to Dawoda Sesay, then a police commander in the Paynesville area, according to the filings. Sesay has since been disrobed and Railey suspended.
Plewon did not respond to WhatsApp questions or pick up calls for comments on the allegation.
The DayLight exposed the illegal operation in August last year after the FDA seized three trucks transporting the illicit timber. An alleged disagreement over the payment of a bribe had exposed the syndicate, according to court filings.
The police charged Railey, Sesay and several other suspects with economic sabotage and other crimes.
The men deny the charges. They have not been indicted, about six months after their arrest and release on bail by the Monrovia City Court.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
Top: The headquarters of Maryland Oil Palm Plantation in Pleebo, Maryland County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By James Harding Giahyue
PLEEBO, Maryland – The Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP) told the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) it paid US$4,774 to communities affected by its project between 2020 and 2021
The LEITI, which publishes public payments, reported the fee in its latest report on agriculture, covering the period.
But that payment did not take place. MOPP has not paid a cent to project-affected communities since 2018, records of a bank account through which the company pays the communities reveal.
Activities of the communities’ account at the International Bank (Liberia) Limited detail the communities’ transactions from January 2017 to February this year. It further reveals that MOPP has made just two payments in the 12 years of the concession with the Liberian government. The company paid the communities US$35,390 and US$35,570.20 in March 2017 and 2018, respectively, according to the document.
In 2011, MOPP signed the concession with Libera, covering 8,800 hectares of farmland in Maryland and Grand Kru with a total value of US$203 million in the course of 25 years.
A screenshot of the LEITI report that highlights the mystery US$4,770 payment
As part of the agreement, MOPP must pay the communities for portions of the land they develop at a rate of US$5 per hectare. That means the company has outstanding payments for the last years.
Residents from MOPP-affected communities who manage the fund corroborated the bank details.
Amos Quoh, secretary general community development fund MOPP, said the company had staff issues.
“They said they are in transition, some key officials are leaving,” Quoh said. We invited them and they told it was going to see [a] reason to put money into the account.”
MOPP did not respond to emailed queries The DayLight sent since February.
Funding for this story was provided by the Green Livelihood Alliance (GLA 2.0) through the Community Rights and Corporate Governance Program of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over the story’s content.
Top: Police officers at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By O’Neill Philips
Two Korean nationals suspected of illegal logging activities and their Liberian partners are yet to be indicted
Prosecutors drafted an indictment for the men but have not signed it.
A related case against an ex-police commander was dismissed because prosecutors failed to appear in court.
The men will walk away free if the Liberian government does not indict them in the next term of court
MONROVIA – Prosecutors are yet to indict members of a syndicate of the Liberian National Police charged with various crimes over an illegal logging operation in Gbarpolu County, nearly six months after they were arrested.
Korean duo Beomjin Lee and Jun Jeon Sik, and their Liberian partners were charged with economic sabotage, theft, criminal conspiracy, and criminal facilitation to forgery and bribery.
Their partners include Varney Marshall, Dawoda Sesay, Isaac Richmond Anderson, Jr., Edward Jallah, Isaac Railey, Peter Kpadeh, David Tawah and Prince Kwesi Wallace. The men deny any wrongdoing.
The Monrovia City Court jailed and then released the men back in January after the police forwarded the suspects there, following five months of investigation, court documents show.
Since their writ of arrest was issued by the court on November 10 last year, the matter has long lingered on.
Prosecutors have drafted an indictment but did not sign the document, seen by The DayLight.
Sources familiar with the matter told The DayLight Acting Montserrado County Attorney Boakai Harvey did not sign it because he is related to at least one of the suspects.
When contacted at his Temple of Justice office, Harvey admitted that he recused himself from the matter but did not provide any reason. It was not clear why another prosecutor did not sign the draft indictment, as is the procedure in such instances.
The government has the next term of court to indict the men, as the current term is about to close. If not, the court will dismiss the charges entirely in line with the Criminal Procedure Law of Liberia.
Case with Ex-policeman Dismissed
The Monrovia City Court, however, heard a case between the government and one of the accused men, Dawoda Sesay. That case was dismissed last month because the FDA did not appear in court. Legally, magisterial courts can hear a case without an indictment and dismiss it after a particular timeframe.
One of the trucks of illegal logs in Sawmill, Gbarpolu County. The truck has been allowed to leave, with the logs kept in at the FDA sub-office. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
Before the court dismissed the case, Sesay’s lawyer argued that the state was reluctant to prosecute him in violation of his right to a fair and speedy trial, according to court filings.
Prosecutors said they did not appear because they did not have the means to get witnesses from Gbarpolu and Bomi to Monrovia to testify in court.
They could still try Sesay during the next term of court in August, even in a circuit court, our judicial correspondent said.
Beomjin Lee and Jun Sik are accused of working with Isaac Richmond Anderson and Sesay and building a syndicate to smuggle logs to South Korea.
They went to Gbarpolu County and allegedly harvested an expensive species of woods over a month to be shipped to Busan, South Korea. The timber was valued at over US$60,000, according to court records.
Beomjin, Sesay and Anderson contacted Peter Kpadeh, an employee of the Ministry of Commerce, Kpadeh allegedly contacted Isaac Railey, the head of the FDA law enforcement department. They are suspected of conniving with Prince Kwesi Wallace and David Taweh, two custom brokers, according to court documents.
Sesay and Anderson then made arrangements for four trucks to transport the log from Gbarpolu to the Freeport of Monrovia. But two of the trucks were arrested at Klay in Bomi and impounded at the FDA sub-offices in Tubmanburg and Sawmill.
Rangers Edward Jallah and Varney Marshall had taken a US$600 bribe from Anderson and Sesay and allowed one of the trucks to pass the checkpoint, according to court documents.
The DayLight broke the story in a two-part series in August last year. The online environmental newspaper provided the police with evidence.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).
