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KABADA, Sinoe County \u2013 Jackson Tweh makes a living from beekeeping. Tweh, 35, and a father of six children has six beehives, which produce up to seven gallons of honey every three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tweh was a farmer and hunter since his youth but in 2019 Universal Outreach Foundation<\/a>, a Canadian NGO, went to Kabada, a town in the Kpanyan District of Sinoe County. The NGO trained him and other townspeople in beekeeping. When the training ended, he received six beehives, enclosed structures where honeybees live and raise their young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom what I see, beekeeping is one of the best programs when it comes to human promotion in the conservation community,\u201d says Tweh. \u201cWhenever we harvest, the honey can\u2019t stay long with us because people can be standing by, waiting to buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Tweh, Ophelia Merrian, a mother of five children in her 40s, dropped farming in the forest for full-time shopkeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture trained Merrian to set up a village saving and loan association. The ministry came to Tweh Town, about half an hour’s walk from Kabada, and introduced her to swamp farming, which increased her yield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last five years, Merrian saved her income from the loan scheme, and the interest transformed her life dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I started, I was renting in someone\u2019s house, but right now I have my place,\u201d Merrian said. \u201cThis same program helps me to pay my children\u2019s school fees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tweh and Merrian are two of over 200 townspeople living adjacent to the Nitrian Community Forest<\/a> who have benefited from alternative livelihood programs. The schemes provide replacements for forest farmlands and bushmeat for locals to keep them away from forest farming in one of Liberia\u2019s few conservation community forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Established in 2011, the 958-hectare Nitrian<\/a> is home to different species, including chimpanzees, African elephants, buffalos and pangolins. Located in southeastern Liberia has a high stock carbon value, a 2018 study shows. \u00a0The forest is, however, being undermined by poachers, farming and other illegal activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dennis Broh, president of the Nitrian community assembly, tells The DayLight the beekeeping and loan schemes have helped to reduce unwanted occupants. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIntruding into the forest by farmers and hunters has been some of the challenges we have faced here,\u201d says Broh, in a Kabada interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCurrently, when you look at the farming activities, the way people were involved with the forest has been cut down,\u201d adds Broh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Universal Outreach Foundation introduced beekeeping in 2019. The NGO trained 40 men from six towns and 16 villages. In these six years, the trainees have multiplied their beehives from their initial six. Tweh now has 15. Johanson Wiah has nine, the same as Stanley Saydee, and Broh has 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Six beehives can produce at least three gallons of honey in as many months, according to the beekeepers, and five liters sell for US$20 on local marketplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to beekeeping, the village saving loan started in 2019. \u00a0It is a product of a partnership between Dutch NGO IDH<\/a> and the Ministry of Agriculture. It encouraged residents to do lowland farming to keep their forest standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Locals accepted the proposal and started lowland farming. The exercise produced more yields, increased villagers\u2019 incomes and introduced the village saving loan and association program there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, the association has had an annual saving of not less than L$1 million, except for 2019, the year the scheme was established. The highest income of the scheme was realized in 2023 when the association saved more than L$2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victoria Cooper, former Sinoe County\u2019s agriculture coordinator, explains it became clear that they needed to manage their proceeds. The ministry provided technical support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a very good project and I think everyone needs to welcome it to help rural communities fight climate change and strengthen conservation efforts,\u201d says Cooper, who is now a technical assistant at the Ministry of Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Not going into logging\u2019 <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents have seen the result of their actions. At the beginning of their conservation efforts, they would record bullet casings and illicit farms. Today, they no longer see those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Nitrian reckons there is a need for full-time forest guards to frequently monitor the forest, not leaders who conduct monthly patrols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also a need for other forms of animal husbandry in addition to beekeeping\u2014and loans\u2014according to Neboe Sarboh, Nitrian\u2019s secretary general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe way we are reserving this forest, by right, companies supposed to come here and bring goats, ducks and even cows to the community people to raise them so that anytime you want to eat meat\u2026 you can get one and kill it,\u201d says Sarboh. He adds there is a need for more awareness to prevent or curtail unauthorized entry and extraction of the forest\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lack of community benefits is a common reason why some communities have dropped conservation for logging or incorporated mining<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3998-1024x683.jpg\")