Gbarpolu and Montserrado Counties — "They stole my name." That is one of the few explanations Paramount Chief Kaifa Manjo can offer to the dozens of men who had crammed into the back of a shop in Tawalata Town looking for answers to a single question. Tawalata Town is located in Konniga Chiefdom, Bopulu District, Gbarpolu County.
How did 90,000 hectares of their community-owned forest get signed away to a logging company with nothing in return? "I don't know book," Chief Manjo says in his native Kpelle, meaning he can neither read nor write. A young man flips through a 13-page contract that shows the forests have been awarded to a Liberian company called Bopolu Development Corporation (BODECO) for the next 20 years. The chief's signature is on the contract but he claims it was not done with his hand.
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