ZWEDRU, June 28 (LINA) – The people of Druwor and Bao towns in Konobo District in Grand Gedeh County have been resisting a demarcation by the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) which delimits a community forest area as part of the Grebo-Krahn National Park.
Now, the dialogue that ran from June 23-27 in those towns has laid the longstanding agitations to rest as a result of the intervention by Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and county government officials as well as the Traditional Council, security apparatus, youth and women leaders, and civil society actors.
FDA Deputy Director for Protected Areas, Jallah Johnson, told LINA that the concerned communities had earlier refused to allow for their youths to form part of the demarcation exercise, to the extent that they stopped the authorized survey team from working.
Jallah said major alternative livelihood activities from which communities around the park could benefit include training of citizens to engage in fish farming, distribution of a variety of cocoa seedlings, and employment of over thirty youths as park wardens.
He named other benefits for the communities as construction of structures for use by park workers, and additional identification of other livelihood activities in the area, among others.
“We don’t intend to take the forest by force,” said Jallah.
Meanwhile, Mutala Njayi of Germany’s International Development agency GIZ said his organization is supporting the FDA with financial assistance, logistics, and facilitation of community-based conferences around the conserved national parks.
GIZ is said to be currently intervening in over 56 communities in the two counties by providing livelihood activities and economic empowerment programs.
“Our presence here is to ensure the dialogue becomes a success,” said Njayi, who also indicated that GIZ’s works in rural areas have been challenged by bad roads, difficulties in making the communities to accept the idea of preservation of certain animal species, and forest conservation.
Moreover, the acting superintendent of Grand Gedeh, Paul Neeo, encouraged the peoples of Druwor and Bao towns to cooperate with FDA and its partners in the conservation works, “and not serve as obstacle to the government’s projects.”
In remarks at the end of the negotiations, the head of the traditional council in the Glio Chiefdom, John Kparlee, on behalf of his people, vowed to support to the government and partners in efforts to protect the Grebo-Krahn National Park.
The FDA consequently began identifying forest threshold on Tuesday following the two-day event.
The Grebo-Krahn National Park was established in 2017 by an Act of the Legislature.
