In Bong County in central two neighboring towns, Gbongea and Gbonota are entangled in a long standing land dispute that is threatening to erupt in violence.The dispute pits traditional land title practices used across the country against modern efforts to reform Liberia’s land ownership laws. The 2018 Land Rights Act was supposed to give communities…
Featured Stories
Land Title Authorities Overwhelmed By Disputes following Land Rights Act
GBONYEA, Bong County – Emmanuel Tokpah always wanted a home of his own. The 27-year-old bike rider had saved enough money to begin construction on a house in this village. But his dreams were shattered in July 2016 when a group of men from neighboring Gbonata came and ordered him to stop work. By Mae Azango [email protected]…
Overwhelmed Doctors at StarBase Treatment Unit Plead with People to Believe the Covid-19 is Real
BUSHROD ISLAND – Liberians are facing the latest and most dangerous wave since the Covid-19 pandemic started 15 months ago. This latest wave, caused by the highly infectious Delta variant which entered the country a month ago, has taken dozens of lives including journalists and high-profile personalities. By Mae Azango with New Narratives [email protected] As of July…
Hundreds of Sacked GVL Employees Still Waiting for Jobs; Company Blames the Pandemic
BUTAW, Sinoe County – Timothy Browne bought into the promises made by Singapore-owned palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) when they came to this rural area of Sinoe County with offers of jobs and development for the people here in exchange for 2,600 hectares of land. Browne even hosted one of the major meetings that…
National Rivercess Community Claims Port Authority Manager Has Illegally Farmed Customary Land
Some Citizens of Gbarsaw Clan in Central River Cess District are raising concerns about the clearing of more than 600 acres of land that they say is the community’s customary land. The person responsible for the clearing has been a mystery until now. And because none of the required community consultations have happened anger is…
Looming Community Land Dispute In Rivercess Involving NPA Boss Bill Tweahway
(Last Updated On: November 7, 2021) PHOTO: Samuel Vonweah, Gbarsaw CLDMC Chairman (right) By William Selmah, [email protected] RIVERCESS, Liberia–A dispute is brewing here in the Gbarsaw Clan in this southeast county over a large portion of land being cultivated by the Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), Bill Tweahway. Mr. Tweahway, who also hails…
Farmers Demand ‘Balance’ Payment In Land Deal with Equatorial Palm Oil in Grand Bassa County
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Climate Change and Land Rights Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the American Jewish World Service…
Farmers Demand ‘Balance’ Payment In Land Deal with Equatorial Palm Oil in Grand Bassa County
Editor’s Note: This story is the first of a two-part series on growing tension between Equatorial Palm Oil and villagers in Grand Bassa County over land rights. JOGBAHN CLAN, Grand Bassa – October 6, 2016 was a happy day for Morris Beah and other townspeople of Gmenee, Wesseh Village, Paye Town, Morb Town and Kampala, which…
Drowning in Plastic Pollution
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Climate Change and Land Rights Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the American Jewish World Service….
Urgency in Liberia’s West Point As Sea Swallows Homes
For more than a decade coastal erosion has devastated the lives of people in Liberia’s nine coastal counties. 10,000 people have had to move. Livelihoods of those who depend on the sea have been upended.The government, along with the United Nations Development Program, has been building a series of coastal defences – to hold back…
Can the Coastal Defense Project Save West Point?
“The sea was coming closer but we were thinking that it was not serious. But in less than two to three months the sea wiped away the entire house,” he recalled on a recent visit to the site with reporters. “Other houses that were in front of us – we had about 200 to 300…
Grand Bassa Community Forest That Chose Conservation Battles Hardship
BARCONNIE AND HARMONVILLE COMMUNITY FOREST, Grand Bassa County – Powerful forces push the people of the 21 towns that make up this community forest area to abandon their efforts at conservation every day. Big money offered by foreign and local business people, amidst hardship, tempts them from their path. But the people say one thing is keeping them…
Monrovia and Paynesville are Drowning in Plastic; One Company Tries to Help
MONROVIA – Waste plastic is becoming a scourge around the world but it is especially true here in Liberia’s capital city and its satellite sister, Paynesville. Discarded plastic is choking waterways, blocking drains, killing fish, and leaching harmful chemicals into the water and soil. With poor or limited waste management systems, many communities in Monrovia and…
As Climate Change Hits, Farmers Find Success in Lowland Farming
Few rural farmers will have borne more hardship than Augustine Moore. Beginning in the 1980s, he moved from Lofa to Bong counties and eventually here to Margibi to escape the war and consistent poor harvests. Finally he gave up. “My labor was going in vain. The farm’s yields were very low and could not sustain…
Farmers Say Food Crisis is Looming from Climate Change
The impacts of climate change are no longer possible to ignore. Wildfires in California and Australia; devastating flooding in Asia, make headlines every day. Rich countries battle over plans to solve it.Meanwhile poor countries like Liberia are on the frontlines, facing rise sea levels, higher temperatures, more extreme weather that are threatening people’s health and…
Is Climate Change the Biggest Crisis Facing Liberia?
The changing climate is grabbing headlines across the globe. Bushfires in California and Australia, floods in Asia, heatwaves in Europe.The same forces are ravaging Africa – including Liberia – threatening food security and collapse of our agriculture industry and the displacement of millions of people as sea levels rise. After the global COP 26 Climate…
Poor enforcement of Forestry Laws Paralyzes Forestry Industry
Across Liberia forestry operations are at a standstill as logging companies and small scale loggers square off over their right to operate. At the heart of the problem is poor implementation of regulations governing the industry. The logging companies are licensed by the national authorities, but local authorities are issuing permits to small scale loggers….
Women Farmers Hardest Hit by COVID-19
Coronavirus infections may have slowed but the economic fallout of the pandemic is still hurting millions of Liberians. Liberia’s economy has been shrinking since 2017. This was supposed to be the year the economy rebounded as gold and iron ore prices have risen. But for many, travel restrictions imposed to fight Covid-19 have devastated them….
Forestry Industry Paralysed by Poor Regulation
NEEZWEIN, River Cess — A power struggle is playing out here deep in the forest and the stakes for the local people are high. Logging companies with concession agreements that include thousands of dollars of benefits for local communities say their work is being hamstrung by informal loggers who disrupt their operations. Informal loggers say they…
Barconnie and Harmonville Community Forest Struggles with Conservation
When the Forest Reform law was passed in 2006, Liberia’s 51 community forests were offered a chance to conserve or commercialize their forests in logging and other deals with companies.44 chose the money. But conservation groups persuaded seven to pursue conservation – protecting their forest resources and promoting biodiversity.It’s not been an easy road. Varney…
Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh visits accused “war criminal” Alieu Kosiah’s Liberia stronghold – Part 2
As Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah faces a war crimes trial in Switzerland, Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh visits his civil war stronghold of Foya. She speaks to survivors about the extent of Kosiah’s alleged looting and love of money, that got him the war name “Physical Cash.”…