An impasse in Glahn Town, Nimba County which prevented a local logging company from carrying out its operations since 2019 by the residents of the town has resolved.
The matter reached a logical conclusion following the intervention of the Liberia Timber Association (LibTA), the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and other stakeholders in the forestry sector.
The mediation team which was led by the LibTA and included the FDA among others on March 5, 2022 went to Glahn Town, Nimba County to settle the long running impasse between the two parties.
However, following the lengthy dialogue, the company’s representative said he takes cognizant notice of the residents’ position but intoned that the final decision on their demands will be made within two weeks by his boss as he is only a messenger.
At the close of the meeting which was conducted using the Grievance and Dispute Resolution Mechanism produced in January 2021 by LibTA and partners, both parties agreed to have a follow up meeting within two weeks in Monrovia to finally settle all financial and personal agreements.
The confusion which was brought to the attention of the FDA and subsequently communicated to other stakeholders including LibTA by the residents began since October 12, 2021.
The feud started when some residents accused the International Consultant Capital (ICC) of reneging on its Corporate Social Responsibility by failing to construct roads, schools, bridges, providing yearly funding of US$6,500 for human resource development and failing to hold quarterly and yearly meetings in its concession, as well as the abandonment of 5,000 harvested logs since 2019.
On the other hand, the ICC accused the residents of preventing its trucks from using bridges to convey logs, allowing people to do pit sawing and agriculture activities in its concession, and that they made unreasonable demand such as mandating the company to construct a road from Tapita to Glahn Town, an arrangement that was not within the agreement.
The company further accused the communities in its concession area of tampering with it forest materials including harvested logs thereby blaming all losses sustained by the company on the willful actions of the residents and promising that such losses will be calculated and deducted from any arrears the ICC owed the Glahn Town residents.
But in sharp reaction, a spokesperson of the residents, Jerry K. Gbaye, said the communities within the ICC concession areas have been protecting the forest by arresting people engaged in pit sawing and caught others who were intruding in the forest the forest unlawfully.
A representative of the Company, Chris Bailey, disclosed that from 2017 to 2018, his entity has complied with all agreements including the payment of cubit meter fees, the construction of hand pumps and schools and the payment of scholarship fees but noted that the outbreak of COVIC-19 and the instruction by national government for all logging companies to temporarily stop work rendered the ICC handicapped to meet its obligations to the citizens.
The Head of Secretariat of LibTA, Ekema A. Witherspoon, thanked all parties for their cooperation and lauded the conflicting parties for choosing dialogue as an alternative for conflict resolution over other means.
