- Residents of Garwin Community Forest in River Cess say logging companies have failed to deliver promised benefits and abandoned more than 1,000 logs. Leaving workers unpaid and commitments unfulfilled.
- The community is demanding compensation and the return of their forest, as experts condemn weak oversight and conflicts of interest allow logging companies to neglect obligations, leaving rural communities powerless.
- Three forces are impacting the forestry sector: major government reform, climate change and a cut back in international donor support for conservation efforts.
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives
KANGBO TOWN, River Cess— On a hot morning in this forest-fringed village of Gborgar Town deep in south-central Liberia, Marthaline Gbar sits hunched outside her zinc-roofed home, stirring a pot of simmering cassava leaves. The pot, barely half full, was meant to stretch across four children aged 5 to 15.
Her job at the local logging company, once a source of steady income, dried up months ago. Her children have since dropped out of school.
“At least when I could be working, my child supposed to be in school,” Gbar says. “But now no work. I can send the child to school, but certain time will reach [there will be] no money for them to end the school year.”
Gbar is among dozens of residents in the Garwin Authorized Community Forest who say they’ve been left impoverished by broken promises from Tetra Logging, a Liberian organization and its Israeli partner, Horizon.
In Kangbo Town, a few kilometers away from Gborgar Town, Aaron Garvlen, a former Tetra/Horizon worker, says he’s also owed seven months’ pay. To keep at least some of his children in school, he made an impossible choice.
“My son was attending in [Grand] Bassa, and the others were in Monrovia going to school,” says Garvlen. “But all of a sudden, when you go, no money. So, for him, I decided and said, those that [are] in the 12th grade and those that just entered the university, at least let me cater to them.” His youngest son is now out of school.
Aaron Garvlen, a former worker of Tetra/Horizon accompanied NN/FPA reporter on logs field; Photo by Eric Opa Doue
Their stories echo across Garwin—a once-hopeful community now grappling with what many describe as betrayal.
As Climate Change Impacts Escalate, Reform at the Top, Frustration at the Bottom
Garwin’s complaint comes with three new forces in the sector. The escalating impacts of climate change are causing farms to fail pushing more farmers into the forests to clear new farmland and to cut down trees for charcoal. At the same time support for conservation efforts by international donors is drying up. Finally, the new administration of President Joseph Boakai has embarked on an ambitious overhaul of Liberia’s forest governance system.
Since taking office in early 2024, Boakai has revived the EU-Liberia Voluntary Partnership Agreement, (VPA) a legally binding trade agreement between the EU and Liberia. In this agreement, the partner country agrees to export only legally harvested timber to the EU, and in return, the EU grants free access to its market for that timber. The VPA requires Liberia to establish a system for verifying timber legality and issuing special licenses.
A report in July 2024 recommended a temporary halt on new forestry and carbon-related licenses due to concerns about illegal activities and poor management by the government’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA). A moratorium was not put in place, but rather a suggestion for a suspension until improved compliance and management of the forestry sector are demonstrated.
The Boakai administration has also deeded nearly one million acres of land to local communities and begun a review of the 2006 Forestry Policy to reflect modern realities, including climate resilience and community land rights.
Yet experts say progress has been uneven—and, in places like Garwin, virtually invisible.
Experts have also questioned Boakai’s appointment of Rudolph Merab as FDA Managing Director. A longtime timber industry figure, Merab’s ties to private companies have sparked concern about impartiality.
“Rudolph Merab is named as one of the notorious foresters in our country,” says Otto. “To put him at the FDA was a sad mistake. We raised that, but the Boakai administration has not taken steps.”
“We Want Our Forest Back” – Garwin Community Has Had Enough
After surviving the upheavals of the civil war and Ebola, in 2017, the over 20,000 people of the 18 towns and villages that make up the Garwin chiefdom here in Doedain District of River Cess county, thought their fortunes were turning around. This area is characterized by its remote location and rich forest resources, making it a significant site for community forestry initiatives. They signed a 15-year Community Forest Management Agreement with the Forestry Development Authority giving the government agency responsibility to manage and commercially utilize approximately nearly 38,000 hectares of forest.
Area view of Garvin Community Forest: Photo by Eric Opa Doue.
When the Authority brought a deal with Tetra Logging Company to them to harvest timber from the forest the agreement, seen by this reporter, promised land rental fees, scholarships funds, schools, health support among the benefits.
But by the end of the agreement’s first five year review the community claimed they were shortchanged.
The communities made numerous complaints to the Authority under Weah administration managing director Mike Doryen. The community also complained to the Monweh Magisterial Court. In 2023 The Daylight found the agency and local administration had repeatedly failed to act.
Other unfulfilled obligations included two schools that should have been constructed in Sayeyon and Suakon Naway Towns along with eight wells and hand pumps and eight pit latrines.
More than two years later, after a change of government and no action on the commitments, the community is demanding that the companies be removed.
In March, the community filed a formal complaint with the forestry authority alleging Tetra and Horizon have delayed contract renegotiations for more than two years. It also said they had felled more than 1,000 logs that have been abandoned – a breach of the Forestry Law. Experts say abandoned woods pose severe threats to the ecosystem and numerous endangered species by attracting pests and diseases.
The community says it has had enough. They want the forest returned to local control.
In a letter sent to Managing Director, Merab., they said while Tetra did provide some scholarship funds and partial rental payments the company owed $US100,00 in land rental fees, $US22,500 in scholarship funds, and $US9000 in health support.
“Our people trusted the government to protect our interest, but that trust has been broken,” says Elder Arthur Gborgar. “We cannot continue to see our resources being damaged and we who are taking care of it remain poor.”
Abandoned logs in Garwin Community Forest: Photo by Eric Opa Doue
The Forestry Authority has yet to publicly respond to Garwin’s demands. In a Whatsapp message Gertrude W. Korvayan Nyaly, deputy managing director for Commercial and Technical Services said the law gives communities the right to end their agreements.
“Communities have the right to go to court and contest any nonperforming agreement,” said Nyaly. “In this specific case I have not seen the letter but if that is the same issue, then my answer applies.”
Nyaly said the agency has tried to sell the abandoned logs but has been unable to find buyers because the logs are ineligible to enter the legal timber tracing system.
Experts say this case echoes systemic flaws in Liberia’s forestry sector, where oversight remains weak, and communities often lack the power to enforce agreements.
“When that terms and conditions are not fulfilled, the Forestry Development Authority is not strong enough to hold the companies accountable to fulfill those agreements,” said James Otto, of the Sustainable Development Institute.
According to Otto, returning the forest will empower the community to manage it for their own benefit, including hunting, farming, gathering medicinal plants, and sourcing construction materials to support their livelihood and well-being.
Former workers of the companies are demanding compensation, saying they were employed in roles such as log finders, log markers, and chainsaw operators.
“When they started first the pay system was alright,” said Dyujay Gborgar another former worker. “But later, they started cutting our money. When you [were] making $US200, they cut $50. They say they send it to their overall bosses.”
Adding to concerns was the fact that Thelma Comfort Duncan Sawyer, a deputy minister in the Weah administration’s foreign ministry, was part owner of Tetra. Her role was confirmed by her lawyer to this journalist in an interview at his office in 2023.
Tetra denies the community’s allegations.
“Everybody got their pay,” said Zanto Dayougar, production manager.
One of the pit latrines constructed by Tetra/Horizon: Photo by Eric Opa Doue
A National Pattern, Not an Isolated Case
Despite a raft of reforms in the last decade including the Community Rights Law and the Liberia Land Rights Law that were supposed to give control of resources to local communities, they are still struggling to obtain the benefits.
Several cases have come to national headlines in recent years.
In 2024 New Narratives/Front Page Africa reported that EJ & J Logging company had failed to deliver 16 wells and hand pumps in affected communities and to protect water collection points in the area. They also failed to pay $US10,500 as scholarship funds for children in the affected communities after shipping logs worth 3m
In Lofa County, Bluyeama Community Forest, Lofa County Indo Africa Plantation Liberia Inc., formerly Sing Africa Plantation, signed a 15-year deal in 2016. After five years, it abandoned operations, leaving behind US$147,000 in arrears and uncollected logs, according to local community forest authorities.
Experts say these cases show the gap between national policy and local reality. Communities remain powerless, while companies operate with limited accountability.
“I will say this is very, very common in the forestry sector,” says Otto. “The companies have reneged to fulfill these obligations for various reasons. They make promises that are unrealist, they set timelines that they will not reach.”
A Nation at a Crossroads
Liberia has staked much of its economic and climate policy on responsible forest management. But as climate change is exacerbating the problem by driving former farmers into the forests and rural communities like Garwin push back against exploitation, experts say a critical question looms: Can the government turn sweeping policy promises into real protections on the ground?
For now, the villagers of Garwin say the answer is simple.
“We want our forest back,” said Gbar, her eyes fixed on the fire beneath her cooking pot. “We’ve waited long enough.”
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia which had no say in the story’s content.
