{"id":2397,"date":"2022-06-09T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2022-06-23T21:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T21:01:22","slug":"communities-aid-company-break-logging-laws-hurting-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2022\/06\/09\/communities-aid-company-break-logging-laws-hurting-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Communities Aid Company Break Logging Laws, Hurting Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Top: Varguaye is one of the towns affected by Akewa’s operations in the Gola Konneh Community Forest. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By Emmanuel Sherman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This story is the second<\/strong> of a two-part series on Akewa Group of Companies\u2019 operations in Liberia, focusing on the shortcomings of communities where the company operates. The first part emphasized the contribution of the Forestry Development Authority to the firm\u2019s violations.   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

VARGUAYE, Grand Cape Mount County \u2013 Something did not seem right to Willie Williams about Akewa Group of Companies\u2019 tax clearance when it bid for the Gola Konneh<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community\u2019s Forest. So, Williams, who had just been elected chairman of the community assembly of Gola Konneh (a powerful body in community forestry), wrote the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) to verify the document.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out Akewa\u2019s tax clearance was fake<\/a> as Williams had suspected all along. The tax clearance Akewa had submitted was \u201cforged and was definitely not obtained from the LRA,\u201d the agency said in a letter dated March 25, 2019. The communication added that the tax clearance Akewa presented belonged to Tiger Quarry<\/a>, a mining company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams\u2019 effort to disqualify Akewa was opposed by other members of the leadership and county officials.  Furious over that, he resigned and Akewa went on to win the bid for the 49,179-hectare forestland, beating Green Wood, Auzy International, Sing Africa Plantation Liberia Limited and Master Logger some of whose credentials were legitimate. Not long after that, Akewa signed the agreement with Gola Konneh. No records show it was punished.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not responsible for [the] fake tax payment. Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is there and has oversight, not me. I can\u2019t do their work,\u201d said James Momo, chief officer of the Gola Konneh\u2019s community forest management body, in a mobile phone interview. \u201cWe wanted somebody that we could work together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forestry laws do not back Momo\u2019s claims. The Community Rights Law of 2009, with Respect to Forest Lands<\/a>, which was created when Momo was a senator of Grand Cape Mount County, gives communities that very right. \u201cCommunities have the responsibility of ensuring transparency and accountability in community forest resource management,\u201d the law says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA refutes his comments. Managing Director C. Mike Doryen tells The DayLight in an interview that Akewa later presented a genuine document before acquiring Gola Konneh. \u201cWe prevented Akewa from doing further business until they could provide [their] tax clearance The clearance was given, they rectified it and they paid a fine and that\u2019s how we resumed business with them,\u201d Doryen adds without showing any proof of the fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberian laws require harsh punishments for faking a tax clearance. Under the National Forestry Reform Law, a person could get a 12-month prison term for forging bidding documents or a US$10,000 fine, or both. That person faces up to five years in prison under the Penal Code, as using false information in bidding constitutes perjury under Regulation 103-07 of the FDA Ten Core Regulations. They could pay a fine for breaking the Revenue Code<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation in Gola Konneh is typical of the contributions of community forest leaders to Akewa\u2019s violations of forestry laws and regulations, spanning over a decade. While the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has unlawfully approved one Akewa project to another and violated its own laws during this time, villagers have aided the company in exploiting themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting logging operations in 2008, Akewa is one of the most infamous companies in the postwar forestry sector, dogged by irregularities.  Apart from its tax clearance scam, it has been involved in the industry\u2019s biggest scandal and has been indebted to communities every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doryen says the Liberian government had given Akewa and other companies more time pay all overdue debts. \u201cAt one point in time companies requested from the previous government to give them time to settle forest-related fees because they were not making a profit,\u201d Doryen says. There was flexibility applied to some of these things at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I blame the elders\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expectedly, the expectations of townspeople in Gola Konneh over Akewa have not been met as it has not lived up to the agreement. Akewa owes the community US$83,620 in land rental and scholarship fees. The company has not paved roads, constructed handpumps, erected latrines and provided an ambulance for affected communities it is obligated to do within the first three years of its operations, according to the agreement.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parties signed a memorandum of understanding in November last year, giving Akewa up to August later this year to make all payments. It, however, has already missed monthly deadlines in the new payment scheme, according to Abraham Sirleaf, the chairman of the community assembly, Williams\u2019 successor.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe company has not employed a single youth,\u201d says Abubaker Jalloh, a youth representative, in reference to a clause in the agreement. \u201cI regret why Akewa took our forest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI blame the elders and other big people of the county for not allowing us as [community assembly] members to decide which company we wanted, and they took Akewa,\u201d says Miatta Pratt, a member of the community assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gola Konneh has itself to blame, according to Bonathan Walaka, the national facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Management Body (NUCFMB), which advocates for community forest leadership. Shortly before the  Akewa agreement, Gola Konneh\u2019s leaders visited the Beyan Poye Community Forest to share experiences. Walaka says Gola Konneh leaders ignored what they learned from their Beyan Poye counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Logs at the roadside into Gola Konneh Community Forest. The DayLight\/Emmanuel Sherman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe forest governance of Gola Konneh didn\u2019t follow the due-diligence process properly before contract negotiation with Akewa because the company has noncompliance issues with Beyan Poye,\u201d Walaka tells The DayLight in an emailed interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyan Poye has had a worse experience with Akewa over their 2017 agreement. The company owes the Margibi community US$85,679 for the rental of its land and the logs it harvested there between 2018 and 2021, according to that community\u2019s leadership. With an exception of a lone handpump, the Nigerian company has also not fulfilled its promises to the community. Now both parties are embroiled in arbitration<\/a>, with the community opting to terminate the contract with the company following nearly five years of chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Beyan Poye could have prevented this from happening if they had paid attention to Akewa’s track record. It was not Akewa\u2019s first logging deal in the Gibi District, after all.  In the early 2010s, it had obtained a private use permit (PUP) there, including a large portion of the Beyan Poye today. That PUP and 62 others, covering 2.5 million hectares of forestland or 23 percent of the country\u2019s landmass, had been illegally awarded. They became the biggest scandal in the postwar logging industry: the private use permit (PUP) of 2012<\/a>. Then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signed an executive order canceling all of them after an official inquest<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation found villagers in Gibi did not consent to the Akewa\u2019s use of their land, its PUP overlapped with private property and was never resolved, and that the company did not have a business plan, a major prequalification requirement that provides information on the companies\u2019 technical and financial capacity to operate and pay dues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was not the only record Beyan Poye had at its disposal. Akewa had left a similar trail in  Compound One in Grand Bassa County, just across the Farmington River. It had logged there for nearly nine years, leaving that community with a stretch of dirt road and US$10,000, according to the community\u2019s leadership. In March last year, the FDA canceled that contract, known in forestry as timber sale contract area three (TSC A3). Akewa still owes that community US$11,624 for rental of its land, according to official records<\/a>, and an unspecified amount for logs it harvested there, according to the community leadership.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyan Poye ignored all those things and leased its 33,380-hectare forest to the company.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[We] the community people were ignorant of the forest procedures,\u201d says Jehudi Barnyou, chief officer of Beyan Poye\u2019s community forest management body. \u201cWe did not go on any training to know how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had no experience yet,\u201d says Amos Boyer, co-chairman of the community assembly of Beyan Poye, who as commissioner of the Gibi District in 2017 introduced Akewa\u2019s owner and CEO Abigail Funke Odebunmi to the community. \u201cHaving all the needs for road connectivity, we were very much eager.  Since it was logging business, we felt we were blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loretta Pope-kai, a lead campaigner at Foundation for Community Initiative (FCI), thinks communities have to do better in managing their forest to harness their benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunity forest governance structures have the power to develop their communities. Ignorance is never an excuse,\u201d Mrs. Pope-Kai says. \u201cIf they continue like this, they will continue to push themselves into poverty and underdevelopment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akewa did not respond to any of The DayLight\u2019s queries for comments. Mrs. Odebunmi initially agreed to speak with us in December last year\u2014after many failed attempts\u2014and then declined a formal interview when we finally met her. We emailed her our questions as she had requested but she still did not respond. She again ignored our WhatsApp message in April earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was produced by the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ)  of Liberia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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