By Paul M. Kanneh
MONROVIA – Rural communities in Liberia where large-scale logging concession operations are taking place, are reportedly gearing up for a mass protest against the Government of Liberia (GoL) over what community members claim to be unpaid fees as rental for their farmlands.
Rural Reporters News Network (RRNN) has reliably gathered that the planned protest is in reaction to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) failure to disburse moneys meant for land rental allegedly owed these communities.
A week-long sit-in action at the Ministry of Finance, in demand of some US$746,292 reportedly allocated in the 2024 National Budget for affected communities, is part of the planners’ strategies for the looming protestation, RRNN has been reliably informed.
The National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees (NUCFDC) has called for urgent action, emphasizing that these communities deserve their fair share of the benefits derived from logging operations.
“We are urging the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to ensure that communities impacted by logging receive their rightful benefits, particularly the 30 percent share of land rental fees paid by logging companies to the Government,” the Head of Secretariat of the union, Andrew Y.Y. Zelemen told RRNN over the weekend.
The union is demanding that by the end of October this year, the full payment of the amount of money community members claim is appropriated in the 2024 Budget, be paid.
The NUCFDC is also agitating for the allocation of additional US$5 million in the 2025 National Budget to address what they termed outstanding arrears concessionaires are obligated to paying the affected communities.
The failure of the GoL to pay these fees is a violation of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006, which mandates that 30 percent of land rental fees from logging companies be transferred to communities for development purposes, a source well versed in land rights matters told RRNN.
Since logging activities commenced in Liberia in 2009, communities have reportedly faced significant financial shortfalls, with arrears accumulating to over US$10 million. Of this amount, only US$4 million has been settled, leaving a balance of a whooping US$6 million as of 2024, RRNN has reliably gathered.
Community dwellers are said to be increasingly frustrated, as it is now ten months into the 2024 fiscal year, with a single payment yet to be made to these communities.
In spite of a request from for payment since July 2024, by the GoL’s agency responsible for such matter, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), only US$300,000 of the allocated amount has been approved, and while a check was printed in August, it is yet to reach the communities through the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board, an impeccable source told RRNN.
Meanwhile, the NUCFDC has expressed disappointment in the GoL, for what the union calls government’s continued inaction, with the group recalling previous protest actions, which the NUCFDC defended as being necessary to have secured payments for communities’ farmland rental.
In 2015, similar protestations were staged, pressurizing the administration headed by former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to disburse US$1 million to the communities. The disbursement of such amount to the communities was reportedly mediated and facilitated by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, then serving as Vice president to Madam Johnson-Sirleaf.
“This government promised not to engage in ‘business as usual,’ yet we find ourselves in the same predicament as under past regimes,” Zelemen said.
The NUCFDC Head of Secretariat continued: “As affected communities, we will respond with our own ‘business as usual’ — a mass citizen’s peaceful sit-in protest targeting four key locations; the Executive Mansion, the Capitol Building, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, and the Ministerial Complex.”
As tension brews and the communities prepare to react, the outcome of their planned protest could have significant implications for rural development and governance in the country, a political pundit with vast insight in operations regarding concessionaires, communities, and government transactions, Susan Dembster, told RRNN when she was asked to weigh in on the matter currently obtaining between the GoL and rural community dwellers.
Edited by Olando Testimony Zeongar.
