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SALAYEA TOWN, Lofa County \u2013 In 2019, the Sehyi Clan in Sanniquellie-Mahn District, Nimba County began the legal process of acquiring a customary land deed. Sehyi\u2019s community land development and management committee spearheads that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another clan group has exercised similar functions over Sehyi\u2019s forest since 2017. The Sehyi Ko-doo Community Forest’s community forest management body comanages the 1,538-hectare forest alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA). \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a problem, though. The forest leadership does not have a good relationship with its land counterpart. Like several communities, they are at loggerheads, with mounting calls for a national conversation to resolve these disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But things are different in the Salayea District of Lofa County over 200 miles away. There, three\u2014not two\u2014community land and forest bodies, peacefully coexist and solve some of the district\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2009, the district has had a community forest development committee, representing locals’ interests in a large-scale logging concession<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, the Salayea Community Forest was established, with a community leadership to co-manage the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in 2019, Palama, a clan that hosts a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, established a governance structure to help develop and manage its land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t merge and work together, things will not work well for us,\u201d says Yassah Mulbah, the chief officer of the Salayea Community Forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are working together as a team for a goal to protect the forest, to take it from illegal activities for the community’s development,\u201d adds Eva Kpandah, the chairperson of Palama Clan\u2019s land committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All three of the district\u2019s bodies combat community challenges, including land conflicts and illegal mining activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, Kpandah tipped off Mulbah when she spotted miners entering the forest. Kpandah and Tokpah Koiwu supported Mulbah in filing a lawsuit against the miners. Koiwu is a member of Salayea District\u2019s committee regarding the district\u2019s large-scale logging concession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another instance, Mulbah and Koiwu are supporting Kpandah in Palama\u2019s boundary dispute with Gbarlain, a neighboring clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Not invited\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Sehyi, the stakes are even higher. Like Salayea, its forest and those of its neighbors Zor, Gba and Blei are all adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve<\/a>. The four communities run conservation programs that help protect the reserve\u2019s endangered and endemic species, including chimpanzees and the Nimba toad. However, confusion among community leaders undermines livelihood programs that benefit locals and keep the forest standing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe [community forest] leadership said\u2026 they can\u2019t accept to collaborate with us,\u201d says Peter Dolo, Sehyi\u2019s land leadership. \u201cWhen they are having meetings, [we are] not invited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ericson Flomo, the leader of Sehyi\u2019s forest leadership, \u00a0denies that accusation. \u201cThey have not called us in any of their meetings,\u201d Flomo says. He claims he is the one who has invited Dolo to several meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dolo refutes Flomo\u2019s comments, saying he has attended Flomo\u2019s meetings as a townsperson, not the land leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This crisis has rocked communities outside of Nimba. In River Cess, the leaders of Gbarsaw and Dorbor<\/a> Community Forest have refused to recognize<\/a> land leaders of the clan. \u201cThey are only there to take care of the land after the loggers have left. They have no authority over the forest,\u201d James Gbordoe, the forest leader of Gbarsaw and Dorbor, said in 2021. \u201cWhen the logs have been cut from there, they will have the whole land to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The intensity of the crisis was displayed at a workshop in Ganta last month. Things got so heated that Silas Siakor, the Country Manager of Dutch NGO IDH, who helped organize the event, had to suspend the topic after a discord of claims and counterclaims from participants. The event was being held to gauge communities’ views on what they would need to manage their forest sustainably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Forerunner\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaigners foretold this result. \u00a0A few months after the passage of the Land Rights Act<\/a> in 2018, the Margibi-based NGO Sustainable Development Institute published a report, predicting the power struggle<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report argues that \u201cconflicting provisions\u201d in the law, which created the community land leadership, and Community Rights Law\u2026<\/a>, which established the forest leadership, would escalate tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur thinking is the crisis will increase because part of the reasons the law was crafted was to address issues of rural marginalization in respect to managing resources in the country but also conflicting, overlapping rights,\u201d Ali Kaba, the then-head of SDI\u2019s community land protection program, said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a good law. However, there are loopholes, there are gaps and there are contradictions,\u201d added Kaba, who is now a Commissioner at the Liberia Land Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_1726-1024x683.jpg\")
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