{"id":23998,"date":"2022-09-30T15:42:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger"},"modified":"2022-09-30T16:00:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T16:00:29","slug":"regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Regular Caller\u2019 Turns Illegal Logger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>A man who calls on nearly all talk shows in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, is involved in an illegal logging business with at least one villager and the proprietor of the port city\u2019s most famous woodshops, an investigation by The DayLight has found.<\/p>\n

Othello Teah, the regular caller, produces timber, commonly called \u201ckpokolo,\u201d a form of illegal logging that is ravaging Liberia\u2019s forests and undermining authorities\u2019 quest to increase logging revenues.<\/p>\n

By James Harding Giahyue, with The DayLight<\/b><\/p>\n

This reporter saw 25 pieces of thick, square woods by the roadside in Boyeah\u2019s Town in Compound Number Two ripped by Teah. Joe Jarvis Boyeah, a villager who he hired, told The DayLight the deal was between Teah and an unnamed farmer.<\/p>\n

That information was corroborated by other townspeople we interviewed, including Joshua Gbar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town doesn\u2019t have a share in it,\u201d Gbar said, adding that was the first of such operation in that area.<\/p>\n

Teah admitted he runs the operation without a permit and first conducted it in 2019. However, he argued that he did not need FDA\u2019s approval to produce the timber, which he wrongly considered planks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny log that is placed in a dimension is pit-sawing. Two by two is a dimension. Two by five is a dimension. I know,\u201d Teah, revered for his strong stance on issues in Grand Bassa\u2019s radioland, said.<\/p>\n

Chanda Cole, Teah\u2019s partner who is the proprietor of the Cole Joe Wood Work Shop in Buchanan\u2014one of the oldest in the city\u2014backs him. He said the timber was dahoma wood, a durable hardwood used in construction and boatbuilding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do permits from the government to buy and sell wood. We get a thing called business registration from [the Ministry] of Commerce,\u201d Cole wrongly claimed. The ministry does not issue business certificates, the Liberia Business Registry does.<\/p>\n

But apart from that, the operation of Teach and Cole violates forestry laws and regulations in several ways.<\/p>\n

First, there is a difference between timber, which the pair is producing, and planks, which they falsely claim to be making, according to the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System. It sets the standard for sourcing, transporting, and exporting wood. It defines \u201ctimber is a sawn wood or log,\u201d while planks or lumbers are the \u201cproducts\u201d of pit-sawn or chain-sawn woods.<\/p>\n

Second, chainsaw millers are only permitted to produce planks, which are way lighter and smaller than the timber Teah had produced in Boyeah Town.<\/p>\n

Third, chain-sawn woods can only be sourced from a concession area, authorized private forestland, and an approved community forest, not from an ordinary farmer.<\/p>\n

And, in fact, chainsaw milling is illegal, as there is no current regulation for it after a previous one was dropped years back. It is being permitted to support construction works in Liberia since logging companies do not supply the local market. A regulation for the subsector has been drafted and is being reviewed by the Board of Directors of the FDA.<\/p>\n

Inconsistency<\/b><\/p>\n

Both Teah and Cole contradicted themselves on why they are harvesting the timber in Boyeah Town.<\/p>\n

When we initially phoned Teah, he claimed that the woods were meant for the construction of a bridge in Compound Number Three. That was exactly what Joe Jarvis Boyeah told us. Later in an interview, Teah flipped that he was supplying a company. But when quizzed further, he said he was actually supplying Cole\u2019s woodshop. That was the first time in days of discussions that he mentioned he had a business partner other than the farmer and Boyeah.<\/p>\n

Cole continued Teah\u2019s inconsistency. Teah had called him to convince this reporter that their business was not illegal. He, too, first claimed that the woods were meant for a company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use it on the bridge, we use it on the machine to balance on it to work,\u201d Cole said in an interview at his workshop. But he somersaulted as the interview progressed, claiming they were meant for his shop. One of the practices in chainsaw milling is that the wood must be sawn into planks in the forest, not elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t change anything here, it\u2019s pit-sawing,\u201d Cole said. \u201cAnything from two-inch up is timber.\u201d This investigation comes less than two weeks after The DayLight exposed a similar illegal operation in the Compound Number One area, conducted by a woman named Binta Bility. That report came after leaked videos and pictures of Varney Marshall, an FDA ranger showed he ran well-organized kpokolo operations, believed to be in Gbarpolu County.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. A man who calls on nearly all talk shows in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, is involved in an illegal logging business with at least one villager and the proprietor of the port city\u2019s most famous woodshops, an investigation by The DayLight has found. Othello Teah, the regular caller, produces timber, commonly called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-23998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Regular Caller\u2019 Turns Illegal Logger - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A man who calls on nearly all talk shows in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, is involved in an illegal logging business wit ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Regular Caller\u2019 Turns Illegal Logger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A man who calls on nearly all talk shows in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, is involved in an illegal logging business wit ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-30T15:42:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-30T16:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_13-6337127611f90.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"953\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Regular Caller\u2019 Turns Illegal Logger\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-30T15:42:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-30T16:00:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\"},\"wordCount\":776,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_13-6337127611f90.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/regular-caller-turns-illegal-logger\",\"name\":\"\u2018Regular Caller\u2019 Turns Illegal Logger - 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