POWER TO THE PEOPLE?

The report argues that Liberia's progressive community forestry model is being hijacked by logging companies and a complicit Forestry Development Authority (FDA). Companies are using secret agreements, financial coercion, and legal loopholes to secure logging rights before communities officially obtain Authorised Forest Community status. This process often involves co-opting local elites and misleading poor, forest-dependent communities, mirroring previous scandals involving Private Use Permits (PUPs). The report highlights the role of Samling Global-linked companies and warns that these practices risk triggering land disputes and deforestation, undermining Liberia's climate commitments to Norway.

• Logging companies are systematically bypassing the legal 'Nine Steps' process by entering into secret agreements with communities before they are granted Authorised Forest Community status, which is illegal under the Community Rights Law.
• Companies use financial assistance for the application process as a tool for coercion, tying communities into opaque contracts where costs may be deducted from future royalties, often leaving communities in debt.
• There is a strategic focus on 'medium-scale' community forests (5,001 to 49,999 hectares) because they fall into a regulatory loophole with the weakest oversight, allowing companies to maximize profit with fewer restrictions.
• The report identifies a pattern of 'elite capture,' where local government officials, including senators and superintendents, act as gatekeepers to sideline ordinary community members and facilitate company interests.
• Many current community forestry applications overlap with previously cancelled Private Use Permits (PUPs), suggesting that the same companies are using a different legal mechanism to regain access to the same forest areas.
• Companies linked to the Malaysian firm Samling Global are allegedly playing a leading role in this exploitation, with at least 16 community forests overlapping with previous Samling-linked PUPs.
• The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is accused of complicity, with evidence suggesting some officials assist logging companies in assessing timber or advising communities to partner with specific firms to expedite logging.
• Community Forest Management Plans (CFMPs), intended to ensure sustainability, are often rushed or drafted by companies in advance, leading to short-term liquidation of forests rather than sustainable management.

APA

Global Witness (2018). POWER TO THE PEOPLE? https://globalwitness.org/documents/176/GW2018_Liberia-PowerToThePeople.pdf

Chicago

Global Witness. POWER TO THE PEOPLE? 2018. https://globalwitness.org/documents/176/GW2018_Liberia-PowerToThePeople.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=POWER TO THE PEOPLE? |date=October 2018 |url=https://globalwitness.org/documents/176/GW2018_Liberia-PowerToThePeople.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitness2018power, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{POWER TO THE PEOPLE?}}, institution = {Global Witness}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://globalwitness.org/documents/176/GW2018_Liberia-PowerToThePeople.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }