{"id":4200,"date":"2023-09-18T15:34:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/?p=4200"},"modified":"2023-10-04T10:58:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T10:58:05","slug":"weary-of-logging-contracts-locals-doubtful-of-carbon-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/09\/18\/weary-of-logging-contracts-locals-doubtful-of-carbon-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Weary of Logging Contracts, Locals \u00a0Doubtful of Carbon Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Top: Liberia\u2019s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By Emmanuel Sherman<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

MONROVIA – Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia\u2019s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon<\/a> fearing it would fail them like logging contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Carbon, owned by a member of the Royal family of the United Arab Emirates, signed a carbon credit memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March with the Liberian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal intends to cover over one million hectares of forestlands in River Cess, Sinoe, Gbarpolu, Lofa and Margibi, places that have had bad experiences with logging contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are already challenged with [logging] that has a legal framework,\u201d says Andrew Zelemen, the national facilitator of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC), comprising some 500 logging-affected communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur fear is the actual benefit community should get may not get because we don\u2019t know how it is and how it will be,\u201d adds Zelemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logging companies began signing contracts with forest communities over 15 years ago, a major component of Liberia\u2019s forestry reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most contracts have failed, with companies owing huge sums of land rentals and harvesting fees. They have failed to start or complete mandatory projects.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Walley, an affected community leader of a 57,287-hectare forest that the proposed agreement targets, questions the proposed MoU\u2019s payment method.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I get 57,000 hectares preserved as carbon area, what will be the calculation? How will it be done? Through what kind of benefit-sharing mechanism,\u201d says Walley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government can\u2019t just come and say this place is declared as a carbon area. We will not accept it,\u201d says Walley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Andrew Zelemen, national coordinator, National Union of Community Forest Development Committee (NUCFDC). The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blue Carbon intends to avoid the pitfall of logging, according to the draft agreement, seen by The DayLight.  Communities stand to receive a credit royalty of 10 percent of the value of the carbon credits the forest will generate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It proposes a payment scheme through a five-person committee, two each from the community and the government and one from Blue Carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunity will directly benefit from a dedicated Account, not the consolidated account,\u201d says Adams Manobah, the Chairman of Liberia Land Authority (LLA). \u201cAnd that benefit will go directly into their own account that will be controlled by the people themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International community has criticized the proposed payment mode for being vague, according to a document seen by The DayLight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But communities should not depend on Blue Carbon\u2019s contract for their shares of carbon credits, according to Zelemen. There should be a \u201croadmap\u201d for carbon trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the roadmap, develop a legal framework that will guide the process of carbon trade like we have law guiding timber trade,\u201d says Zelemen. NGOs have made the same call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Blue Carbon and Liberia want the deal to help their climate targets.  Liberia has a commitment to reduce carbon emissions in its forestry sector in halves by 2030.  Blue Carbon, on the other hand, intends to remove carbon from the global economy<\/a> with such MoUs in line with the UN agenda to combat climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But communities have not been consulted, a violation of Liberia\u2019s Land Rights Act (LRA) and the Community Rights Law of 2009 with Respect to Forest Land, and other legal instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These laws give the communities the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to land and forest-related concessions. A UN-backed doctrine, FPIC requires that villagers give their consent to contracts prior to any project or negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not aware [of] the negotiation between the government of Liberia and the Blue Carbon company from UAE,\u201d said Jerome Poye, a member of an affected community in Gibi District, Margibi County, that the draft agreement also targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top: Liberia\u2019s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue By Emmanuel Sherman\u00a0 MONROVIA – Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia\u2019s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon fearing it would fail them like logging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3],"tags":[1888,107,1258,2022,118,1890],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-climate-change","category-rainforest","tag-blue-carbon","tag-liberia","tag-lofa-county","tag-margibi","tag-sinoe-county","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Weary of Logging Contracts, Locals Doubtful of Carbon Deal - The DayLight","description":"Top: Liberia\u2019s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue By Emmanuel Sherman MONROVIA - Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia\u2019s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon fearing it would fail them like logging","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/09\/18\/weary-of-logging-contracts-locals-doubtful-of-carbon-deal\/","robots":"noindex, nofollow, max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"msvalidate.01":"CA6BD2F84653EA44942A55ABC0B35372","miscellaneous":""},"schema":null,"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"The DayLight - The DayLight is a nonprofit, environmental news website. Our evidence-based, independent and quality news contents tell you all the happenings across nature\u2019s frontiers and the extractive sector in Liberia. From forestry and fisheries to wildlife conservation and climate change, from renewable energy and land rights to oil\/gas and oil palm, we bring you news on everything about the environment you need to know. The DayLight is published by The DayLight Incorporated in Vahnwin Community, Congo Town.","og:type":"article","og:title":"Weary of Logging Contracts, Locals Doubtful of Carbon Deal - The DayLight","og:description":"Top: Liberia\u2019s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue By Emmanuel Sherman MONROVIA - Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia\u2019s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon fearing it would fail them like logging","og:url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/09\/18\/weary-of-logging-contracts-locals-doubtful-of-carbon-deal\/","og:image":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DSC_0199-scaled.jpg","og:image:secure_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DSC_0199-scaled.jpg","og:image:width":2560,"og:image:height":1714,"article:published_time":"2023-09-18T15:34:21+00:00","article:modified_time":"2023-10-04T10:58:05+00:00","article:publisher":"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/news.thedaylight","twitter:card":"summary","twitter:title":"Weary of Logging Contracts, Locals Doubtful of Carbon Deal - The DayLight","twitter:description":"Top: Liberia\u2019s proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon of the United Arab Emirates targets areas in Lofa County, which hosts logging agreements. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue By Emmanuel Sherman MONROVIA - Forest communities across the country have shown reluctance over Liberia\u2019s negotiation with UAE-based Blue Carbon fearing it would fail them like logging","twitter:image":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cropped-site-identity.png"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"4200","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":[],"keyphrases":{"focus":{"keyphrase":"","score":0,"analysis":{"keyphraseInTitle":{"score":0,"maxScore":9,"error":1}}},"additional":[]},"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":"","og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":[],"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"BlogPosting","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":"-1","robots_max_videopreview":"-1","robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":"default","local_seo":null,"seo_analyzer_scan_date":"2025-08-14 23:43:07","breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"reviewed_by":null,"ai":null,"created":"2023-09-23 14:27:46","updated":"2025-10-21 23:46:24"},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"

\n\t\t\tHome<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tRainforest<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tClimate Change<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tWeary of Logging Contracts, Locals Doubtful of Carbon Deal\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68"},{"label":"Rainforest","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/"},{"label":"Climate Change","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/climate-change\/"},{"label":"Weary of Logging Contracts, Locals \u00a0Doubtful of Carbon Deal","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/09\/18\/weary-of-logging-contracts-locals-doubtful-of-carbon-deal\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4381,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/4381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}