Logging Sector

4 September 2012 Last updated at 00:59 ET

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Liberia rainforest: '60% handed to logging companies'

Up to 60% of Liberia's rainforests are thought to have

been granted to logging companies

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Today in Liberia: The project

Uncontrolled logging is posing a risk to Liberia's virgin rainforests and depriving people of economic benefits, campaign group Global Witness warns.

Its report says that logging companies have been granted more than 60% of the country's rainforests in the six years since Nobel Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became president.

It found that use of private contracts which bypass regulations are common.

President Sirleaf has already ordered a investigation into the issue.

She had been praised for revoking corrupt and badly managed logging companies when she took office in 2006, after timber was used to finance arms sales during Liberia's long and bloody civil war.

The West African nation still has some of the largest areas of rainforest in the region, but the Global Witness report alleges that nearly a quarter of Liberia's landmass has been signed to logging companies using secret and often illegal permits.

'Massive deforestation'

It says that some logging companies are signing Private Use Permits (PUPs), which were designed to allow private land owners to cut trees on their property, in order to get round legislation.

"It seems to be logging companies in Liberia acting with a number of mid-level Liberian government officials in one way or another and in some cases through fraudulent documentation to gain as much forest as possible, and cynically do it in the name of people who live in the forests," said Jonathan Gant, policy advisor at Global Witness.

Local activists first raised concerns in June 2011, and the Liberian government put a moratorium on PUPs in February - although it does not appear to have fully stopped the practice.

President Sirleaf ordered a full-scale investigation last week and suspended a government official.

Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC: "We don't want to even imagine that government officials and authorities assigned specific duties would undertake to do something else. It is frankly mindboggling."

He said that PUPs had been designed for non-commercial purposes, such as farmers with small areas of land - not major international logging firms.

"What we're finding out sadly is that the community is not benefiting, the government is not getting the taxes it requires. But more than that the guys are spreading out into the countryside and engage in massive deforestation and this was never the intention."

Silas Siakor of the Sustainable Development Institute commented: "If Liberia's forests and the people who depend upon them are not to be swallowed whole by Private Use Permits then the

suspension of logging operations must stand this time and a comprehensive independent investigation must be undertaken."

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19469571

Acts of Betrayal? Liberia Losing Millions, Given Away To Foreign Corporations

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WRITTEN BY NYEMAH D. BROWNE (JHR INTERN) – NYEMAHDBROWNE@GMAIL.COM, 0886812007

TUESDAY, 04 SEPTEMBER 2012 00:00

“Secretive and most-often illegal logging permits” called private user permits have given 40 percent of Liberia’s forests to logging companies. Meanwhile, the head of the Forestry Development Authority has been suspended, and a Presidential Investigation is underway.

Tawalata Town, Bopolu District - A report published today by a group of NGOs in Liberia reveals that a quarter (25 percent) of the entire country has been granted to logging companies in just two years, following “an explosion in the use of secretive and most often illegal logging permits.”

The document cautions that unless this crisis is tackled immediately, Liberia’s forests could suffer widespread

devastation, leaving the people who depend on them stranded, and possibly leading to conflict in the country.

Questions Dog FDA

According to the NGO’s report, drafted by Global Witness, Save My Future Foundation, and Sustainable Development Institute, these troubling new logging contracts – termed “private use permits” (PUPs) – now cover 40 percent of the country’s forests and almost half of Liberia’s highest-quality forests.

The report calls attention to the questionable manner in which the government’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has carried out these land deals, and includes allegations of fraud and other forms of misconduct.

It further states that the abuse of PUPs is having a significant negative impact on community land rights and the environment while generating very little income and undermining corporate investment and relations with donors. The report details that the government has been aware of the considerable problems associated with PUPs since February 2012, but has struggled to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

PUPs were designed by the government to allow private land owners to cut trees on their properties, but they are now being used by companies and even large multinational corporations to avoid the country’s carefully-crafted forest laws and regulations.

PUPs are unlike other logging agreements such as forest management contract (FMCs) and timber sales contracts (TSC), which carry more stringent regulations and require an intake of revenue by the government.

The Global Witness report details that companies holding PUPs are not required to log sustainably. Furthermore, PUPs only require companies to pay little in the way of compensation to both the government and the people who own the forest.

According to the Global Witness report, Liberia is the most-heavily forested country in West Africa and it contains the last large areas of relatively-intact rainforest in the region, and that most rural communities depends on the forest for food, energy, and other basic needs.

Management betrays town

A Forestry worker keeps tab of logs Tawalata Town, Bopolu District - A report published today by a group of NGOs in Liberia reveals that a quarter (25 percent) of the entire country has been granted to logging companies in just two years.

One of the larger PUPs in the country is in Korninga Chiefdom, Gbarpolu County. FrontPageAfrica travelled there to investigate the situation on the ground.

In the forest is Tawalata Town, the headquarters of Korninga chiefdom in Bopolu District.

There, inside a small makeshift shop made of mud bricks where they sell food items and other provisions, paramount chief Kiafa Manjo and other members of the community complained about the company operating under the PUP license in their area.

They argued that company management is doing nothing to live up to the social agreement signed with Korninga citizens, and instead is only exporting timber in complete disrespect to well-being.

Oldman Manjo claimed that the company has been transporting logs from Gimba Forest to the city and in doing so, has spoiled the roads with its heavy machinery.

As a result, the roads have become mostly impassable for the citizens and commercial drivers, hence making transportation prices very high, and therefore commodity prices difficult for people to meet.

Not going by agreement

“This particular company, we do not want it here at all,” Manjo said. “All what we put in that agreement, they are not doing it.”

According to Manjo, the community signed the lease agreement with Bopolu Development Corporation (BODECO), which then subcontracted the task of logging to Liberian Hardwood company. Manjo revealed that the company since started operations in January 2012 and over a period of one year, has only left the roads in the area badly damaged.

“It has destroyed our roads,” he added. “It has destroyed our land.”

Asked about why he signed control of the Korninga people’s land over to a private company, Manjo claimed that he does not even know what a PUP is. He further argued that his name was placed on the PUP document unknowingly to him. On the PUP is a printed name reading “Kaifa Manjo.” But on the paramount chief’s ID card is a thumb print, suggesting that the man is illiterate.

“They have stolen my name and that is forgery,” Manjo maintained. “It makes me feel bad.”

‘FDA Pressured us’

The report calls attention to the questionable manner in which the government’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has carried out these land deals, and includes allegations of fraud and other forms of misconduct.

Manjo told FPA that during negotiations with the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and the company, members of the community requested a copy the social agreements so that they could carefully review the documents before signing.

But the FDA and BODECO management refused to give community representatives the required time to properly read the agreement.

Furthermore, Manjo, said that the company up to now has not fully employed anybody and those who worked for the company are still owed pay for months passed.

Also speaking at the meeting with community leaders was George Sumo, youth coordinator for Korninga Chiefdom. He also said that the people were pressured by the FDA to hastily sign the documents.

“FDA pressured us,” he emphasized. “When we had a meeting in Henry Town, we suggested that the document must stay with us for a certain time to understand it well before signing. But the FDA said that they do not have the time to come back another time to sign the document. They told us we must sit there that same day to sign the document and that the document must be signed on that day.”

In the midst of allegations from citizens of Korninga Chiefdom, Isaac Manneh, managing director of BODECO, refuted the community’s claims. According to Manneh, everything regarding the company’s operations has been done under the due process of the law.

Sitting in his office on Carey street, he said that his company has agreed to pay Korninga residents for logs exported, and that it will also meet the obligations of social agreements, including building schools, clinics, and other social services. But his company only just started operations in April to June, and that more time is needed.

Paramount Chief Disputed

Manneh disputed paramount chief Manjo’s claims that he was not present when PUP document were signed, and

argued that Manjo was present because his company facilitated the paramount chief’s transportation to the signing ceremony.

Manneh also denied claims that Manjo’s signature was forged, and did produce another document matching the same printed signature as the one beside Manjo’s name on the Korninga PUP.

According to Manneh, he is a native of Gparpolu County, and would therefore do nothing to negatively affect his kinsmen, but would rather do everything humanly possible to help bring development to the people of Korninga chiefdom and the county as a whole.

At his office in Duarzon Town, Silas Siakor, executive director of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), expressed major concerns for the manner in which the FDA has handle PUPs. He said that with PUPs, there are no regulations or any kind of additional guidance in terms of the Forestry Reform Law.

“It is not just about sheer quantity of land that is now under PUPs neither,” Siakor continued. “It is entirely about the fact that communities are being robbed of their resources….It is the agency [the FDA] responsible for governing and regulating activities in the forestry sector failing, very badly, to live up to those obligations.”

Siakor said he thinks that the logging companies and the FDA both share a lot of responsibility from a social justice point of view, because they appear to be in collusion, misleading communities into signing off their resources without proper advice.

‘Communities have been lied to’

“The government has a responsibility and an obligation to provide the communities with the technical support on how to negotiate fair deals with these companies,” he continued. “The situation is that communities have been lied to. They have been coerced into these agreements.”

According to him, most of the communities that SDI has spoken with said that they would like to talk to the companies that want to do logging in their areas directly. He said many of the agreements between company and communities are done through middlemen, which imposes an embarrassment on community dwellers in terms of advocating for their just benefits from those who actually do the logging.

Speaking on behalf of the FDA before he was suspended from his position as managing director on August 31, Moses Wogbeh denied community claims saying that the people were under duress to sign documents. He maintained that every single document was dealt with according to the wishes and approval of the citizens of Korninga Chiefdom. Wogbeh refuted SDI accusation that there was a breakdown in the rule of law in the FDA.

‘No Breakdown of law’

“There is no breakdown of the law,” he emphasized. “Everything that has been done is in keeping with the law and we have supporting documents to verify the facts.”

Authorized to speak on behalf of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Information Minister Lewis Brown said that the government recognized the fact that contractual agreements must be respected. But it is also the responsibility of government to know whether these agreements were enter into legally in the first place. He said that if they were not done in keeping with the law, then there is s serious issue which the government won’t take lightly.

“Anyone who is culpable will be made to answer,” Brown added. “The idea is to get us to the bottom of this and let us hold those who are responsible, responsible.”

He noted that the President has herself appointed an independent panel to investigate how PUPs have been dealt with by the FDA, and that until that investigation is concluded, a moratorium on PUPs will remain in place.

Asked about the scale of the problem – where PUPs have come to cover 25 percent of the entire country, Brown described the situation as “mindboggling.”

“Frankly, the President’s office was shocked,” he continued. “The President has asked that the process be accelerated so that we can deal with this matter decisively. Once that report is out, we will take the kinds of steps that will be necessary to ensure that this is never done.”

Brown vowed that all options are on the table. Criminal investigations could follow, and PUPs found to be awarded illegally will be cancelled.

Sources : http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4079:acts-of-betrayal-liberia-losing-millions-given-away-to-foreign-corporations&catid=42:politics&Itemid=109