BIG FANTI TOWN, Grand Bassa – Planks are scattered at numerous websites on a beachfront, a stone’s throw away from the Port of Buchanan, a fishing hub and a transit level for fishermen and fishmongers. Some are previous, others recent.
By Emmanuel Sherman, with The DayLight
The wooden are leftover of timber smuggling that entails fishermen. Fisherpersons, canoeists, villagers and businesspeople in Sinoe, Grand Bassa and River Cess confirmed that fishermen used canoes to smuggle timber predominantly to Ghana. Smugglers, aided by villagers and artisanal loggers, paid Fanti fishermen to move wooden, together with to different international locations, a DayLight investigation discovered.
“All of the canoes can carry the planks, they’ll carry them to Ghana,” stated John Kwakue, a Ghanaian fisherman who lives within the Buchanan fishing group of Fanti City.
“I noticed it for the primary time in 2014 and I did slightly bit earlier than however I’m doing one thing else now,” added Kwakue.
Kojo Ittah, one other Ghanaian fisherman and a 15-year Fanti City resident, stated he had witnessed the smuggling on a number of events. “Final yr, we went fishing, and I noticed the canoe carrying [the timber] to Ghana. They aren’t simply sticks. They’re the fats, quick planks, heavy and thick,” Ittah stated.
Ittah’s description matched banned timber blocks which can be vulnerable to smuggling. Nonetheless, till now, canoes had not been recognized for use in illicit timber trafficking—not less than not publicly.
Ittah’s story was corroborated by James Banney, a Ghanaian proprietor of a canoe known as Exodus; Reward Jlamontee, an ex-Fanti City chief; and Zebedee Bowin, a businessman in Buchanan.
Bonwin disclosed that “I used the boat one or two instances.” The DayLight has investigated Bonwin earlier than for trafficking chewing sticks to Ghana amid a Liberian moratorium.
Banney, with a Ghanaian accent like Ittah and Kwakue, revealed that the timber are taken to Takoradi, Ghana’s western area. An individual, who didn’t need to be named, spoke of ferrying wooden even to Mali, Guinea and The Gambia.
Timber smuggling is unhealthy information for Liberia, which lost 386,000 hectares of main forest. That’s a lower of 8.7 % of all of the nation’s humid main forest, in line with World Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation worldwide.
In 2023, the Related Press reported that 70 % of Liberia’s timber exports might have occurred exterior of the authorized channel, citing diplomatic sources. 5 years earlier, a report by the Switzerland-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime had listed Liberia as one of many principal West African international locations for illicit logging.
‘The Lord is my shepherd’
However the place in Liberia do the fishermen get the timber from? The DayLight discovered the reply in Sinoe, River Cess and Grand Bassa, which misplaced practically a mixed 500,000 hectares of tree cowl within the final 22 years, in line with World Forest Watch. Tree cowl loss measures the elimination of any woody vegetation not less than 5 meters tall.
Proof we gathered confirmed that smugglers transferred timber to Buchanan from Sinoe, River Cess and different locations in Bassa. As soon as on the seaside, they’re transferred to bigger, motorized canoes for not less than a six-hour voyage exterior Liberia.
In Sinoe, The DayLight interviewed Lama Jalloh, a Greenville resident and a Fulani canoeist, who spoke of a canoe with the service title “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Reporters caught up with the canoe on a Greenville seaside, the place native fishermen confirmed its suspected smuggling actions.
“Planks and timber are sawn and introduced from numerous components of Sinoe, and transported to Buchanan,” stated Jalloh.
A fisherman who reporters encountered on the Lord is my shepherd canoe stated he was not licensed to talk. Equally, efforts to interview truckers allegedly concerned in smuggling didn’t materialize as a result of service names are unofficial, making monitoring their homeowners troublesome. And reporters had been unable to get any license plate quantity.
‘King David’
Whereas Sinoe smugglers used ocean routes to switch timber, their River Cess counterparts make the most of the roads. Earlier in Buchanan, Banney talked about a spot known as Waterside in Cestos, River Cess’ capital. Now, reporters visited the seaside group and requested locals whether or not it was true.
“Sure, vehicles can go to the waterfront to take items and carry them,” stated Michael Juludoe, a Cestos gardener, echoing different residents’ feedback. “They pack [sand], sticks and planks.”
Gathering timber in River Cess is identical as in Grand Bassa. Locals and fishermen alike recognized a sure truck with the service title “King David” that hauled wooden periodically. Additionally talked about was one other truck with the service title “Nimba Peking,” reporters noticed in a Compound Quantity 4 city.
The DayLight tracked down the truck on the Massive Fanti City seaside and Compound Quantity 4, the place reporters videotaped villagers reducing timber.
Within the footage, two males justify coping with smugglers subsequent to tree stumps and timber on the grass-carpeted forest ground. One of many males will be heard saying, “We have now to outlive.”
This story was a Group of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) manufacturing. It first appeared in The DayLight and has been printed right here as a part of an editorial collaboration.
