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GAYE TOWN, Grand Gedeh \u2013 The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) \u00a0recently announced a resurvey of the Grand Gedeh portion of the Proposed Kwa Protected Area<\/a> within 90 days. The FDA ordered farmers to halt further degradation of the park, warning of punitive actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will cut the boundaries and ensure that the government collects what belongs to it, and then the community will get its benefit,\u201d Merab said in a meeting with community representatives in Gaye Town, which borders the park. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see anybody planting cocoa or doing farming business in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Merab left out important information about the FDA’s plan after the resurvey. A document The DayLight obtained shows that the FDA targets a potential auction of the area where cocoa has been planted. The document was written on October 10, about a month before the Gaye Town meeting. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The document also shows that an unnamed FDA manager dissented from the regulator\u2019s plan to seize and auction. The manager wrote that the \u201cbad precedent\u201d would undermine conservation efforts, fuel violence, and be legally misplaced. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy technical advice is straight implementation of the law \u2013 establish boundaries at the jointly agreed areas and make the presence of the forest rangers,\u201d wrote the unnamed manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A DayLight review of multiple laws and regulations confirms the manager\u2019s dissent. While the FDA can punish encroachers, it cannot auction farmland in a proposed protected area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the anonymous manager, the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF)<\/a>, an NGO helping to establish Kwa, opposes the seizure and auctioning plan. Clement Tweh, WCF\u2019s Program Manager, said there was no need to seize and auction the property. He urges the FDA to remove encroachers from Kwa and identify and support livelihood programs for communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tweh also disagrees with the FDA over the resurvey idea, warning the exercise would cause more harm than good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis will lead to more problems because lines were drawn during previous surveys. Potential conflict spots were duly identified and demarcated. I don\u2019t see the need for another one,\u201d Tweh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll the FDA needs to do is to remove the park\u2019s illegal occupants, and identify and support alternative livelihood activities for communities.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The FDA insists on the resurvey. Asked whether the FDA would replicate this action in other proposed and protected areas since encroachment was commonplace, Merab nodded, depending on a \u201cpositive\u201d outcome of Kwa\u2019s resurvey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are here because our people keep complaining about encroachment and conflict all around here. Our action is intended to resolve all these issues,\u201d Merab told The DayLight on the margins of the Gaye Town meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kwa crosscuts River Cess, Sinoe, and Grand Gedeh Counties. It protects Liberia\u2019s vital biodiversity within the Upper Guinean forests, West Africa\u2019s largest remaining rainforests. With 90 percent of its primary forest intact, Kwa hosts vulnerable wildlife species such as the Western chimpanzee, pigmy hippopotamus, and slender-snouted crocodile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protecting Kwa is vital for Liberia\u2019s commitment to conserve 30 percent of its rainforests, conservationists say. It contributes to the country\u2019s climate commitment to cut deforestation and forest-related emissions by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be the third time that Kwa has been surveyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kwa, formerly known as the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Forest, was first surveyed between 1950 and 1952 as part of a general survey of the Kwa National Forests, a fulfillment of the Act for the Conservation of Forests<\/a>, which established legal frameworks for National Parks and protected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, a survey found that Kwa measured 236,246 hectares<\/a> after feasibility studies and community consultation in 2016. However, it lost some 64,358 hectares to roads, encroachment, and mining, and now measures 171,888 hectares. These activities have led to habitat loss and the destruction of the ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conservation versus mining<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The disagreements over the FDA\u2019s resurvey come amidst miners’ interest in parts of Kwa. \u00a0In July and August, Grand Gedeh Superintendent Alex Grant met representatives of GLM Inc., an affiliate of Bea Mountain Mining Corporation, Liberia\u2019s largest gold producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pictures The DayLight obtained show Grant, Timothy Amos, a GLM official, and another man in a group picture with Grant in his Zwedru office. They disclosed plans to extend their operations to Boe Geewon, Grand Gedeh\u2019s portion of Kwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI remember some members of a Bea Mountain <\/a>affiliate met me in my home office and said they wanted to do prospecting in parts of River Cess and Grand Gedeh,\u201d said Grant, who has been under fire for an illegal cocoa farm deal<\/a> covering 500 acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI told them to go and bring their authorization from the Ministry of Mines and Energy. I did not authorize anyone to go mine in those places.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merab said he was unaware of miners\u2019 interest in Kwa, and that nothing had been decided when the survey ended. \u201cWe will come back and sit down with our people to decide what to do when it is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n GLM did not respond to queries from The DayLight. Amos had promised to return the question on Wednesday, but had not by Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, communities in River Cess withdrew their support for the establishment of Kwa through a petition to lawmakers, leading to the extraction of a portion of Kwa. Locals would later sign an MoU with GLM Inc., a subsidiary of Bea Mountain, which is now exploring for gold in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, a US-based NGO, Forest Trends<\/a>, published a mining report that found several licenses overlap with Kwa and other protected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FDA-4-1024x540.jpg\")
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