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SEEKON-PELLOKON \u2013 The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Rudolph Merab, is allegedly pushing a community forest to sign a logging contract with a dormant company owned by his friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaders of the Seekon Pellokon Community Forest in Sinoe\u2019s Seekon District said the FDA was on their backs to enter a contract with the Liberia Hardwood Corporation. The company is now scouting the 44,989-hectare forest, with the parties reportedly close to a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen they finish looking in the bush, we will all come back to the table to discuss the contract,\u201d Junior Kumah, a Seekon Pellokon leader, told The DayLight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur interest is to take our people from years of poverty. They need development, roads, schools, and clinics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, the FDA disapproved a deal between Seekon Pellokon and Universe Forest Group, a new logging company, because it lacked the capacity to operate two contracts simultaneously. Universe Forest has a contract with the Tarsue Community Forest in the Sanquin District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, locals said, the FDA welcomed a deal with the Liberia Hardwood Corporation, co-owned and run by Jihad Akkari<\/a>. He holds 15 percent of the company\u2019s share, while Khalil Zein Baalbaki and Giuliano Dassi hold 42.5 percent shares apiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akkari\u2019s relationship with Merab dates back to the 1990s, when both men operated logging companies. Akkari served as the vice president when Merab was president<\/a> of the Liberia Timber Association (LibTA) for nearly 20 years. Multiple sources said their friendship was playing out for Akkari in Seekon Pellokon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFDA is the one that is negotiating,\u201d said Kumah in a phone interview. \u201cThe FDA has all those documents in its possession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stanley Kreejarly, a member of Seekon Pellekon\u2019s leadership, corroborated the claim, adding another layer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFDA said it would not do business with us unless the community signed a contract with Liberian Hardwood,\u201d said Kreejarly. Like Kumah, he presented no evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFDA recommended that we should do business with the Liberian Hardwood, and we agreed because it is the one overseeing the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tarpeh Wluh-Sam, Seekon Pellokon\u2019s leader, would not speak on the matter but said they needed development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The claim that Merab is negotiating or pressuring locals for Liberian Hardwood is grave. Per the Community Rights Law\u2026<\/a>, the FDA does not negotiate contracts. Rather, it approves them. Negotiating for a company would violate the Code of Conduct for Public Officials<\/a>, which prohibits the violation of any law and using official positions for personal benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merab did not respond to queries for comments on the allegation, but Akkari did, defending his company and the FDA\u2019s boss. He denied that Merab favored Liberian Hardwood and that the people who made the claim were likely unaware of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Liberian Hardwood] reiterates that Hon. Merab never made any such intervention on its behalf vis-a-vis the people of Seekon-Pellokon for the management of their community forest(s),\u201d said Akkari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Liberian Hardwood] does not entertain any sliver of thought that Honorable Merab\u2026 would engage in flouting the law\u2026 and stoop to meddling in the award of Community [forest contract].\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Not a rocket scientist\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The FDA might have disapproved of Universe Forest Group. However, Liberian Hardwood may not have the capacity to handle Seekon Pellokon either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liberian Hardwood\u2019s previous contract in the Bloquia and Neezonnie Community Forests ended disastrously. It left the Grand Gedeh communities with debts, broken promises, and hundreds of logs<\/a> that are now rotting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, the FDA halted<\/a> Liberian Hardwood\u2019s operations until it could export timber it had abandoned in the forest. Three years later, the company\u2019s account was disabled in LiberTrace, the timber-tracking computer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sampson Zammie, the secretary general of the community forests union, said he warned Wluh-Sam against contracting Liberian Hardwood. \u201cI told him that he should not do it and if he does it, he will be doing it at his own risk,\u201d said Zammie. Tarpeh confirmed having that conversation with Zammie, who is also Bloquia\u2019s leader, promising to review Liberian Hardwood\u2019s records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Junior Kumah, another Seekon Pellokon leader, dismisses Zimmie\u2019s warning. Kumah said that Seekon Pellokon had put in place a mechanism to avoid the Bloquia-Neezonnie experience. They would sign a five-year contract, the company would pay after production, and they would terminate the contract if Liberian Hardwood breached it, common safeguards in community forestry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am not a rocket scientist to know whether Hardwood will fail or not. All I am telling you is that what happened in Bloquia will not be repeated here. What happened to John doesn\u2019t mean the same thing will happen to Paul,\u201d Kumah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akkari denies any wrongdoing in Grand Gedeh, claiming he lost US$4 million there. He referenced a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that cleared Liberian Hardwood of US$90,325.15 in damages to Bloquia and US$123,332 to Neezonnie in a contract-termination lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ruling, the Supreme Court said that a Grand Gedeh judge had \u201cimproperly\u201d executed its initial verdict. \u201cThis was a petition for cancellation, which proceedings do not give awards, as is done in an action of damages,\u201d read the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the high court ordered that local people were free to sue Liberian Hardwood for damages, which they would never do. The ruling concluded by ordering the 7th<\/sup> Judicial Circuit Court to allow Liberian Hardwood to remove its equipment from the forest. The case was filed by A&M Enterprise Inc., which had subcontracted Liberian Hardwood for its contract with Bloquia and Nezonnie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Logging amid controversies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are other capacity concerns, as Liberian Hardwood is not the only company Akkari manages. The Lebanese is also the manager of Euro Liberia Logging Company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Euro Logging operates the second-largest forestry concession<\/a> in Liberia, covering Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties, 254,670 hectares. Combined with Seekon Pellokon\u2019s 44,989 hectares, that would be nearly 300,000 hectares, and one of the largest managed by a single individual in Liberia\u2019s postwar forestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obtaining community forest contracts has proved counterproductive<\/a> in several cases for managers of large logging concessions. One example is Cesare Colombo, then manager of International Consultant Capital, which holds 266,910 hectares across Grand Gedeh, River Cess and Nimba and is the largest forestry concession in Liberia. Colombo acquired two community forestry contracts with Marblee & Karblee, and Gbarsaw & Dorbor in Grand Bassa and River Cess, but failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaigners said loggers were exploiting rural communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy understanding is that some of these companies are taking advantage of the limited capacity of community members who are awarding these concessions to them,\u201d said Andrew Zelemen, a campaigner for Euro Logging-affected and other communities, in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomething is wrong somewhere\u2026, and these companies need to tell us what they are doing with the Liberian people\u2019s forests,\u201d added Zelemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akkari said he was unaware of the failure of individuals who run large concessions and community forests. Yet, he did not doubt handling the second-largest concession and Seekon Pellokon at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Liberian Hardwood] can affirmatively state that it has the capacity to operate such forest area(s),\u201d Akkari said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn any case, however, the FDA does not give its [approval] to any arrangement unless it is satisfied that the prospective operator has the capacity\u2026,\u201d he added, though the evidence disproves this claim. The FDA has awarded several individuals multiple contracts, including four to a Singaporean family<\/a>, after they failed their previous contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That aside, a review<\/a> of the forestry sector last year found that it was unclear whether Euro Logging\u2019s US$250,000 performance bond was sufficient. However, the review identified it as the company with, perhaps, the fewest issues in forestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, Akkari is disqualified from engaging in logging activities in Liberia, according to the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications<\/a>. The regulation bars individuals who were involved in the logging industry before January 2006. They can only participate unless they confess their wartime wrongdoings to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and repay embezzled or unpaid funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no record that Akkari, who ran the Akkari Timber Inc<\/a>. during the Second Liberian Civil War<\/a> (1999-2003), whose contract was cancelled for noncompliance, met those requirements. He did not respond to queries regarding his wartime activities and Euro Logging\u2019s capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Additional reporting from Oniel Philips from the Temple of Justice in Monrovia]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists (CoFEJ) production.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top: The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority, Rudolph Merab. The DayLight\/Harry Browne By Varney Kamara and Esau Farr SEEKON-PELLOKON \u2013 The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Rudolph Merab, is allegedly pushing a community forest to sign a logging contract with a dormant company owned by his friend. 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