The primary objective of the just-ended forest conference hosted by the Liberian government might have been to reassess the government and the international community’s commitment to protect the country’s rainforest, but it also turned out to be an ideal venue for rural communities affected by large scale commercial logging activities to pour out their grievances.
For two days (Thursday and Friday) last week, protesters from affected communities overwhelmed outside the hall at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex, where the “Forest and Climate Resilience Forum” took place, as they protested against the government’s failure to pay benefits that are due them.
By law, 30 percent of land rental fees the government collects from logging companies belong to communities the concessionaires operated. The fee is calculated as the product of the total size of the concession, US$2.50 for large-scale forest management contracts, and US$1.25 for small timber sale contracts (TSCs).
The government over the years has collected about US$33 million. This puts communities’ 30% share at a little over US$10 million.
But for years, the Weah government and that of his predecessor — former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — failed to do so, violating the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006, which mandates it to transfer 30 percent of land rental fees, paid by logging companies, to communities for development purposes.
From 2009 up to 2017, the government paid around US$2.6 million and they still owed arrears but, since the Weah administration came to power, they have paid US$1.3 million and a balance of US$6 million is still owed.
“It was against this backdrop that we decided to stage this protest here,” the head of secretariat of the National Union for Community Forestry Development Committee (NUCFDC), Andrew Y. Y. Zelemen, told the Daily Observer in an interview. “The government owes communities millions and has been doing little or nothing to pay the communities who are the actual owners of the forest. He said the communities have been agitating for years but the government continues to renege on paying them.
Despite government’s expressed commitment to paying the money, communities became frustrated recently when the government failed live up to its commitment in the 2022 national budget, where US$2.7 million was allotted for communities but at the end of that fiscal year, the government only paid US$1.1 million with an outstanding of US$1.6 million. The government did not also make any commitment in the 2023 draft budget.
“These are the issues our protest was meant to shed light on,” Zelemen said. “It was meant to draw the attention of key government actors including President George Weah, who we expected to be here today, and the international partners.”
“The protest is staged here at the forum venue to highlight how communities are being treated on benefit sharing on forest resources,” he added. “We want to tell them that though the laws say communities should benefit from their forest resources, the government is not doing much to honor her commitment to ensure those communities’ benefits are given. This is unfair.”
And truly, the attention of President Weah was drawn to the protester. He sent an emissary to inquire why a protest was being staged and what it was about.
“So we spoke with the representative that the President sent to us. So with that he knows that there are still problems with communities’ benefits,” the chief scribe of the NUCFDC, which comprises 23 CFDC groups within 11 of the 15 counties, said. The protesters also spoke with some international partners.
While the rural communities’ residents were outside the conference hall, other stakeholders were also talking on their behalf in the hall.
“This money is not forthcoming, with at least over US$6 million still outstanding. The little money that has come through was [either] late or meddled in corruption,” the chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL), Loretta Pope-Kai, said.
“Our forest communities live on the forest for their cultural, social, economic, and all other needs. Forests are therefore key to all considerations of Liberia’s… future,” Pope-Kai added, receiving huge applause.
The head of the European Union (EU) Delegation, Laurent Delahousse, also highlighted a barrage of problems affecting the forestry sector, one of which he said is that communities are finding it difficult to get their benefit from the central government. He urged the government to settle its debts with communities affected by commercial logging.
The Deputy Minister for Budget and Development at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Tanneh Brunson, told the conference during one of the plenary Sessions that the government is still working on payment of US$1.6 million due communities from 2022 fiscal year.
“By law, we have 3 months after the fiscal year to still implement the budget,” she said.
She noted that the communities’ arrears was not captured in the 2023 budget because technicians did not provide the needed information at the time.
“The Ministry works in three departments, the economic policy department, which advises us on the revenue and expenditure lines that we should include in the draft budget, maybe there was no information on this, but we are working with the Legislators to make sure that something is placed in the final budget for the communities.”
Rural communities recently accused the government of neglect, saying their livelihood is being affected by the government’s failure to settle its debt obligation of US$1.5 million.
The amount is an outstanding balance of US$2.7 million” allocated in the 2022 budget as part-payment of an overall US$6.23 million debt owed by the government in land rental to communities affected by logging concessions.
However, the government, as per the 2022 budget expenditure report, is claiming full payment of the US$2.7 million owed to the forest community. The government in that year allocated US$746,292 and US$2,000,000 respectively as payment for community forest sharing and forestry arrears.
A report by the Volunteer Partnership Agreement (VPA) in 2021 disclosed that the government issued US$60.24 million invoiced to the seven logging companies, of which a total of US$33.8 million was paid by forestry concessions companies.
However, a remaining US$26.40 million remains unpaid.
Out of this amount collected by the Government of Liberia, the 30% share for communities amounted to US$10.15 million of which the government has paid just US$3.92 million through the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board as of October 2022; the government still is in arrear to communities a total amount of US$6.23 million.
Forestry is one of the biggest contributors to the Liberian budget, with the sector generating US$8,148,559 and US$4,023,280 of total revenue in the 2018/2019, 2020-2021 period, according to the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).
The outstanding amount also undermines Liberia’s commitment to the European Union, which calls for the fair sharing of timber resources. It also contravenes the community pillar of the country’s forestry reform, which ended decades in which rural areas did not benefit from forest resources and had no say in forest governance.
National Benefit Sharing Trust (NBST), a watchdog that oversees communities’ benefits, said the delayed payment made it difficult for the group to function. It is largely funded by payments communities get.
