The Tarsue Authorized Community Forest in Sinoe County wants a contract with a new logging company.
Tarsue signed an agreement with the West Africa Forest Development Incorporated (WAFDI) in 2019. Locals leased the forest to the Chinese-owned company in exchange for roads, bridges, a school and a clinic. That was in addition to annual land rental and harvesting fees.
However, the WAFDI abandoned the agreement at the onset, with the community embroiled in an internal wrangle until the agreement expired earlier this year.
“We made several efforts for the company to come to find a way forward but nothing was achieved…,” Tarsue said in an April letter to the Forestry Development Authority, seen by The DayLight.
“Now that the period for the contract has ended, we are calling on the FDA to kindly support us in this situation…,” the community added.
In a reply to Tarsue’s letter, the FDA’s Managing Director Rudolph Merab said the agency would address Tarsue’s in-house dispute before settling the WAFDI issue. Like the WAFDI agreement, all tenures of the members of the leadership of Tarsue have elapsed.
“This communication is timely and corresponds with [management’s] plan… to send a team to conduct [an] election and to address the expired tenure situation…,” Merab’s letter, seen by DayLight, read.