Study Area and Research Population

After gathering some information from the KIs and the FDA about affected forest communities in Sinoe, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh counties and the road conditions to travel there, the researcher dropped Sinoe and River Gee from his travel list. Roads leading to these counties were almost completely damaged due to the rainy season; therefore, it was riskier and costly for the researcher to reach participants living in those two counties, except Grand Gedeh. Grand Gedeh was, therefore, chosen because of these conditions, but most importantly, because of its geographical proximity to Sinoe and River Gee counties and is a center of the forest regions in Southeastern Liberia. Since it is evident that forest communities in this region share similar problems, Grand Gedeh County was a perfect location for this research. The county was also chosen due to its geographical location in the region. In other words, it is located in the heart of affected forest communities in Southeast Liberia. Besides, it had a better road condition than Sinoe and River Gee counties.

Grand Gedeh is one of the largest counties in Liberia. The interviews took place in four towns and/or villages. These four towns and/or villages were within the Konobo and Tchien districts. Towns and/or villages were selected based on their proximity to River Gee and Sinoe counties, the presence of logging operations, and their classification as affected forest

communities. Ten participants were interviewed from the first village, ten in the second, seven from the third, and seven from the last. In recognition of traditional authorities, the Town Chief of each town or village was interviewed first, followed by their respective local leaders and the rest

of the community members. This rule, recommended by all participants as the locals refused to be interviewed first before the Town Chief, was common in all of the towns/villages.

The county shares borders with the Republic of Ivory Coast and has some remote villages and towns due to its distance from the capital city of Liberia. Traveling between Monrovia and the county requires a 4WD-built vehicle and could take up to a day or two, based on the road conditions and the time of the year. It sometimes takes longer than a day or two when traveling with commercial vehicles. Another difficulty was riding on muddy and wet roads with a

motorcycle with two other people to get to the villages. Anything could happen. In fact, we had a minor accident. The motorcycle slipped as we were going down a slippery and red muddy hill. The researcher was able to jump off the motorcycle before it fell to the ground because he was seated at the back. No one got hurt. The bike rider picked it up as if nothing had happened and we all got back on it and continued our journey.

Other sites in the county require additional travel on foot, or by motorcycle. The climate in the research area is wet and tropical. The main ethnic group residing in the area is Krahn5. The absence of written materials about their history and culture means that a researcher must rely heavily on oral accounts or traditions, which could vary, based on both localities and the researcher’s ability to elicit stories. This remoteness, in effect, tells how much the area is

neglected. The level of education in the communities is low. This is perhaps due to lack of facilities and the government’s agenda on education. This low level of education plays a role in the communities’ high dependence on forests and other natural resources. Generally, people make

a daily living by farming and selling bush meat in the nearby cities. These communities have no law enforcement structures, but rely heavily on traditional authorities as their chain of command. This kind of authority is often effective in many rural communities in Liberia.

5 _{Krahn is one of the major ethnic groups in southeast Liberia that played a major role in the fourteen-year civil} war. It is the Ethnic group of the late Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, former leader of the People’s Redemption Council and President of Liberia (B. John, Personal Communication, June, 2016).

There are possible advantages of using this county as a true representation of the research sample. The first is that intermarriages are common in Southeastern Liberia and Grand Gedeh being the center is a home to many inhabitants from Sinoe, River Gee, and Maryland counties. Secondly, Grand Gedeh is part of the Greebo-Krahn forest. Finally, it has forests that are presently exploited by foreign companies, based on concession agreements. The populations of this research were dominantly rural people from Grand Gedeh and some of their elected

government officials in Monrovia. Many, if not, all of the rural participants were farmers, natives of the county, or a mixture of men, women, traditional authorities, and youth. The majority of the rural people were people who had not seen the capital of Liberia, but were well abreast of how to manage forest resources, based on traditional knowledge. Throughout this research, participants’ direct locations, names, villages, and towns are withheld in order to maintain the researcher’s confidentiality promise.

3.2 Figure 1.1: Map of Study Area

Map by FDA’s GIS Department