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SALAYEA, Lofa County \u2013 Last year, townsmen were stunned when they discovered a huge pile of planks and the sound of a chainsaw deep in the forest in Gorlu during a routine patrol. When local guardians investigated, they found that a man was making planks and burning charcoal in the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angered by Smith Sulonteh’s actions, the community forest sued them at the Salayea Magisterial Court. It would turn out to be the beginning of a legal battle that has pitted the family against the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are managing this forest for the future generation, so we cannot allow a family just to come and claim the forest themselves,\u201d said Yassah Mulbah, Salayea\u2019s chief officer, outside of the courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they had their deed, they should have made it available during the establishment of the forest. The establishment of the forest was all on the radio; everyone knew about it,\u201d added Mulbah. She was referring to a 30 or 90-day required period for a person with a private land claim to register their claim before a community forest is authorized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Mr. Sulonteh said they decided not to make any claims at the time, based on their lawyer\u2019s advice. He said their families purchased 2,244.27 acres or nearly 11 percent of the forest from chiefs and elders in 1967. He presented the families\u2019 deed to the court, case files show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese people are claiming our land because they have few local authorities of Gorlu who are supporting them,\u201d said Solunteh. If it is for this land business, they will kill me. I\u2019m ready to die fighting for my rights, but our side is the law and the law is for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawsuits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Salayea Community Forest was established in 2019, comprising six communities: \u00a0Salayea, Yarpuah, Telemu, Gorlu, Ganglota and Beyan\u2019s Town. It covers 8,270 hectares of rocky forestland in the Salayea, Lofa County, and is home to species, including monkeys, pangolins, and elephants. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its formation, Salayea has been involved conservation programs, including animal husbandry, village saving loan schemes, a mini-wood shop and Cocoa farming. It outlawed hunting, mining and other commercial activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following Salayea\u2019s lawsuit, the Salayea Magisterial Court imposed a stay order on Mr. Solunteh\u2019s plank and charcoal. The court would later fine him for violating that order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During courtroom proceedings, Mr. Solunteh presented a deed to the court to back his claim. The court handed the document to Salayea to verify at the Center for National Documents and Records Agency in Monrovia. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Solunteh disagreed with that judgment and filed a petition with the 10th<\/sup> Judicial Circuit Court in Voinjama to overturn the lower court\u2019s decision. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The circuit court sided with Mr. Solunteh, according to the case files. The higher court reprimanded the lower court for not verifying the families\u2019 deed itself, and for fining Mr. Sulonteh. The higher court then lifted the stay order on his activities in a March 18 verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three months later, Lofa County Attorney Cllr. Luther Sumo re-imposed the stay order following complaints from chiefs and elders of Gorlu. This term, Sumo sent in the police to enforce the stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have received several phone calls and complaints from the commissioner that the chiefs have threatened that if they cannot stop the pit-sawing and charcoal burning, they are going to protest and take unspecified actions, which we do not want,\u201d Sumo said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I sit here and allow things to go off hand, who will be blamed at the end of the day\u2026 and we do not want chaos in our communities in Lofa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Mr. Sumo\u2019s order, Mr. Sulonteh continued to operate, sticking with the circuit court\u2019s decision. Only the court could tell him to stop, not any individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His insistence fueled the townspeople\u2019s anger. In July, Gorlu townsmen stopped him from transporting planks from the area, seizing a truckload of wood that was headed to Monrovia because he was defying the County Attorney\u2019s stay mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Sulonteh sued the townsmen for alleged \u201cmenacing, theft of property and disorderly conduct.\u201d However, the Salayea Magisterial Court dismissed the case, citing a lack of evidence, court filings show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the September 11, Mr. Sulonteh halted his operations\u2014for the time being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPresently, we are not doing anything in the forest,\u201d he told The DayLight. \u201cWe are running after some documents for the same land in question to allow our lawyer to advise us on the next action to take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top: Smith Sulonteh is claiming a portion of the Salayea Community Forest, including where he makes charcoal and planks. The DayLight\/T. Prince Mulbah By Prince Mulbah SALAYEA, Lofa County \u2013 Last year, townsmen were stunned when they discovered a huge pile of planks and the sound of a chainsaw deep in the forest in Gorlu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6588,"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":[10,3],"tags":[107,1258,2867],"class_list":["post-6587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-conservation","category-rainforest","tag-liberia","tag-lofa-county","tag-salayea-community-forest"],"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":"Community, Family Fight over Forest in Lofa","description":"Last year, townsmen were stunned when they discovered a huge pile of planks and the sound of a chainsaw deep in the forest in Gorlu during a routine patrol.","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2025\/10\/20\/community-family-fight-over-forest\/","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. 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