{"id":1278,"date":"2021-08-06T13:11:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T13:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2021-08-06T13:17:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T13:17:57","slug":"womens-rights-cso-condemns-governments-failure-to-pay-communities-over-us5-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2021\/08\/06\/womens-rights-cso-condemns-governments-failure-to-pay-communities-over-us5-5m\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Rights CSO Condemns Government\u2019s Failure to Pay Communities over US$5.5M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Banner Image: women from logging-affected communities protest before the Ministry of Finance in Monrovia. The DayLight\/Harry Browne<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By William Q. Harmon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MONROVIA \u2013 The Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI)\u2014which advocates for women\u2019s land rights\u2014has expressed displeasure over the Liberian government\u2019s failure to pay communities their legal share of land rental fees it received from logging companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government owes communities affected by large-scale logging concessions more than US$5.5 million, according to Forest Trends in a report<\/a> last year, covering logging-related payments between 2007 and 2019. That report said the government has not paid the fees since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to join our voices to the [National Union of Community Forest Development Committee] in demanding the funds are paid now,\u201d Loretta Aletha Pope Kai, FCI\u2019s Executive Director, said in a statement on Thursday. \u201cThe government cannot continue to ignore the plight of its own people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease pay the people their money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union, which staged the protest early on Tuesday at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, hung the sit-in it had planned for a week following a discussion with the Comptroller and Accountant General of Liberia Janga Kowo. Kowo promised to get back the communities within a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The delayed payments are a violation of the 2006 National Forestry Reform Law of Liberia, which calls for the government to pay 30 percent of all logging-related land rental fees it receives to rural towns and villages, which host the forests from which the timbers are harvested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also breaches Liberia\u2019s Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EU), which mandates the west African country to harvest its logs in a sustainable manner. It also contravenes the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD), mainly its pillars on economic empowerment and power to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a reversal of the gains we have made in the forestry sector since the end of the war,\u201d the statement said in reference to the country\u2019s breakaway from a civil war era where forest resources fueled the killing of an estimated 250,000 people. \u201cWe are drifting away from the lessons we learned during our civil war from denying local communities benefits of forest resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Kai said the communities\u2019 land rental fee crisis will have an impact on women\u2019s participation in the upcoming elections for new corps of officers on local forestry governance structures, known across the forestry sector as community forestry development committee (CFDC). Out of 23 of those bodies, only one woman occupies a chairperson position, Ruth Gibson<\/a> of Grand Gedeh County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has the propensity to cause apathy among women who want to take up leadership responsibilities on these governance bodies,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAlready facing diehard, decade-long patriarchy, gender stereotype and societal marginalization, the government protracted indebtedness to communities will only exacerbate the challenges women face in terms of land rights and equal participation in forest governance across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement also said the government\u2019s indebtedness to the communities will compound poverty in the rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis further means, women in those communities will not have access to paved farm-to-market roads, clinics, schools for their children and other things logging money should provide for them.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Banner Image: women from logging-affected communities protest before the Ministry of Finance in Monrovia. The DayLight\/Harry Browne By William Q. 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