Africa-Press – Liberia. Residents of Kploh Chiefdom in River Cess County are yet to heal from a failed and disastrous logging contract which saw their hopes and aspirations for better and improved living conditions evaporate into thin air.
The community lacks safe drinking water, access to health and education facilities and other basic necessities. It remains one of the poorest and could be considered a poster boy for abject poverty.
Despite these nightmarish conditions, Kploh sits in the midst of an abundance of resources that could change its conditions in no time. But why are the people still poor?
In an effort to savage their dreadful living conditions, the communities of the Ziadue/Teekpeh Authorized Community Forest in Kploh Chiefdom in 2018 signed a five-year Social Agreement with EJ&J, a logging company. With this deal, they were hopeful that better days were ahead.
In the agreement EJ&J committed to constructing an elementary school, 16 hand pumps and to protecting all water collection points in the area. It also agreed to pay US$10,500 as scholarship funds annually for children in the affected communities.
But four years on, EJ&J has done none of what it promised, despite exporting valuable logs from the area. The people are devastated. Like the almost failed logging contract, citizens of Kploh Chiefdom, specifically Zialu Clan, are again being persuaded to go into a carbon credit deal they have less information about.
Curious residents from Zammie Town have alarmed over the proposed carbon deal, which they say is expected to be signed for the extraction of carbon from their forest. Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. is the company fronting for the 25 years carbon credit contract.
The residents told this reporter that negotiations are currently ongoing between Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. and the Community Land Development and Management Committee (CLDMC), led by its chairman Emmanuel Roberts.
Kploh Chiefdom is situated in the Northeastern part of River Cess County and has a common boundary with the Gbi-Doru Administrative District in Nimba County and Gbo in Grand Gedeh County. The Chiefdom is divided into two clans, Zialu and Teekpeh clans.
The locals in the area say Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. has held a series of meetings with them in an attempt to take over the forest. The first meeting was held in February of this year. The forest in which Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. wants to operate falls outside of the Zialu and Teekpeh Community Forest, over which EJ&J reportedly has legitimacy.
However, the locals say much is not being done to create awareness about the activities of the company — informing residents about the actual operations of the group.
Community members are complaining over the lack of education/knowledge about the carbon credit project and have since expressed doubt about the deal. They want civil society organizations, particularly the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), to guide them in the negotiation process with the Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc.
“When the people came, they said they wanted to sign agreement with us to take carbon from our forest but we said-we can’t just sign agreement that we don’t have idea on, so you people give us time so we can consult our partner, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) before getting back to you,” residents of the area told the Liberia Forest Media Watch.
Though community residents are resisting the proposed 25 years carbon credit project, they, however, seem to be open to a 15 years deal. “They wanted us to sign the contract for 25 years but we said 25 years was too plenty so we told them that we could only sign 15 years,” say community residents . Even though they prefer a 15 years carbon credit deal, they have not shied away from openly acknowledging their shortcomings on carbon credit projects.
Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. is proposing annual royalty fees of US$27,000 as community benefits when the deal is finalized, according to community members interviewed. In addition to the US$27,000 annual payment, Blue Earth Capital Carbon Inc. says it is also willing to pay an unannounced amount for carbon extracted per quantity.
The carbon credit deal comes barely 3 months after Blue Carbon, a UAE-based entity, and the Republic of Liberia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to implement carbon removal projects in the forest sector in Liberia.
Blue Carbon was established under the vision of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, a member of the Dubai Royal Family and Chairman of the company. The Dubai based company’s mandate is to create environmental assets, nature-based solutions and register carbon removal projects.
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