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GARGBO VILLAGE, River Cess \u2013 Masayaha, a Lebanese-owned company, known for its repeated logging offenses, has harvested about 500 logs in River Cess County, outside of its area of operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In November 2021, Masayaha had a 15-year logging contract with the 43,792-hectare Bloquiah Community Forest in Gboe\/Ploe Administrative District, Grand Gedeh County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One year later, Masayaha entered a verbal logging deal with Gbargbo, a River Cess\u2019 Norbor Clan village about 80 kilometers away from its contract area. Under the deal, villagers would allow the company to harvest the logs and build a temporary bridge over the Cestos River, which would later be transformed into a partial concrete structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The log bridge was good news for both parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Masayaha needed it to transport logs from Grand Gedeh to Grand Bassa since heavy vehicles were disallowed to use the Timbo River Bridge between Sinoe and River Cess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The villagers saw the bridge as an opportunity to connect the Norbor Clan in the Yarnee District to the Kploh Chiefdom in the Central River Cess Administrative District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey asked us to allow them to cut 250 pieces of logs to fix the bridge,\u201d Samuel Gbargbo, a resident of Gbargbo Village, told The DayLight. \u201cAnd because we have been suffering for the road we agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018The people\u2026 fooled us\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Per the agreement, Masayaha paid the community US$1,500 and began harvesting. However, the logs were insufficient to complete the bridge so the parties signed another verbal agreement. This time, Masayaha only paid US$700, with the remaining US$800 yet to be paid, our investigation found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there were other problems. There was no concrete component of the bridge as Masayaha had promised. The bridge had been completed over a year ago, yet the company had failed to construct any concrete pillars. Besides, it abandoned several logs that they felled in Gbargbo\u2019s forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This and the debt issue angered the villagers, who threatened to protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe people came and fooled us and made us work for nothing,\u201d said Melvin Wolloh, town chief of Norbor Clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ali Harkous, Masayaha\u2019s CEO and owner, said the Forestry Development Authority permitted it. \u201cWe applied to FDA to permit us to get the logs from around the area and they approved and we also approached community and they agreed,\u201d Harkous said. He refused to share a copy with The DayLight or allow this reporter to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harkous would not speak to the villagers\u2019 claim but budged after persistent inquiry. \u201cFrankly, tell them they should not worry, we are going to give [them] their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe invested all we have and credited from some financial institutions. We are really into [a] financial problem,\u201d Harkous said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harkous was right. The FDA permitted Masayaha to harvest logs for the bridge. However, his company grossly violated the permit\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The document and other papers, the FDA provided, did not permit Masayaha to harvest logs in River Cess, but rather Sinoe County. Two letters written by then-Senator Milton Teahjay of Sinoe County and Bloquiah Community Forest, seen by The DayLight, mentioned the Tarjuwon District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, the permit ordered Masayaha to work with the FDA staff in that area to identify targeted trees and calculate the volume logs for the project. That, too, did not happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FDA\u2019s record of the Masayaha felling in Gbargbo Village shows that the company felled 200 trees, not 500 the villagers said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then of the 200 logs, 62 were untagged, according to the FDA record. Similarly, the logs on the bridge, on an open field on the riverbank and in the bushes were untagged. Even the tree stumps this reporter photographed were missing obligatory tags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a violation of the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System<\/a>. In forestry, every log must be marked, tagged and entered into the system to ensure its legality. It is crucial to Liberia\u2019s timber-trade agreement<\/a> with the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dates on the harvesting record and the communications are inconsistent, further proof of a dishonest operation. It shows rangers identified targeted trees on November 29, 2022\u2014William V.S. Tubman\u2019s birthday\u2014for the harvesting. However, Masayaha\u2019s request and the FDA\u2019s response were written in December and January, respectively. This reveals that rangers had already counted, and tagged some of the trees before the FDA approved the harvesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roadside logging<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not the first time Masayaha has harvested logs outside its contract area. In 2022, a DayLight investigation exposed<\/a> Masayaha\u2019s illegal logging activities outside the Worr Community Forest in Grand Bassa County, where it exploited villagers\u2019 need for roads. The report cited an August 2021 FDA publication in which investigators found evidence Masayaha connived with locals to steal timber. No actions were taken against the company for those activities, despite a protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Pewu, FDA\u2019s technical manager for commercial forestry, said Masayaha would go scot-free for its Gbargbo Village activities. Pewu claims the FDA does not record the logs in LiberTrace<\/a>, a computer system that verifies the legality of timber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, those logs are not for sale,\u201d Pewu told The DayLight in an interview last week. \u201cYou only enroll logs in LiberTrace when they are for export. Those logs are for [a] bridge construction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pewu\u2019s comments are not backed by facts. The phrase \u201cchain of custody\u201d covers everything from \u201ctransport, interim storage, processing, distribution, and export.\u201d In short, it extends from a log\u2019s \u201csource of origin in the forest to [its] end use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, roadside logging does not derive from any law or regulation. In fact, in 2009, the FDA even fined<\/a> a company for harvesting a hundred logs along a path outside a concession in Grand Bassa, according to a United Nations report. A 2017 regulation<\/a> imposes a fine of twice the value of logs harvested outside a contract, a six-month prison term, or both fine and imprisonment upon a conviction. Other penalties include forfeiture of harvesting rights or a logging contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-04-18-at-06.55.42-1024x768.jpeg\")
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