Geography and Environment of Northern Nimba County, Liberia/media/Files/A/...Over thousands of...

Geography and Environment of

Northern Nimba County, Liberia

VERSION DATE: 1 OCTOBER 2010

ArcelorMittal Liberia Limited. www.arcelormittal.com

Western Range DSO Iron Ore Project, Liberia Environmental and Social Studies, 2008-2010

Western Range DSO Iron Ore Project, Liberia

Environmental and Social Studies, 2008-2010 Geography and Environment of Northern Nimba

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Contents Introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 3

Location ................................................................................................................................................... 3

Landforms, terrain and soils .................................................................................................................... 4

The Nimba Range ............................................................................................................................... 4

Soils ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

Iron ore .................................................................................................................................................... 6

LAMCO and the history of iron ore mining in Nimba .............................................................................. 6

Climate and hydrology ............................................................................................................................ 8

Seasons and the ITCZ......................................................................................................................... 8

Rainfall ................................................................................................................................................. 8

Temperature ........................................................................................................................................ 9

Hydrology ............................................................................................................................................ 9

Biodiversity ............................................................................................................................................ 10

Recognition and protection ................................................................................................................ 11

Forest degradation: threats to biodiversity ............................................................................................ 12

‘Slash and burn’ as a threat ............................................................................................................... 12

Other threats ...................................................................................................................................... 13

History of migration and settlement in the area .................................................................................... 14

The indigenous peoples of Nimba ..................................................................................................... 14

Contact with Europe .......................................................................................................................... 14

The ‘Congoes’ ................................................................................................................................... 14

LAMCO and migration ....................................................................................................................... 15

Current ethnography and demography ................................................................................................. 16

Ethnography ...................................................................................................................................... 16

Culture ............................................................................................................................................... 16

Demography and disparity ................................................................................................................ 17

Development in Liberia and the effects of the Civil War ....................................................................... 18

The civil war ....................................................................................................................................... 18

The current situation .......................................................................................................................... 19

Political and administration system ....................................................................................................... 20

The history of the Constitution ........................................................................................................... 20

The current system ............................................................................................................................ 20

Agricultural systems .............................................................................................................................. 22

Transport and markets ...................................................................................................................... 23

Timeline of Liberian history, 1847-2009 ................................................................................................ 24

A chronology of key events ............................................................................................................... 24

Years of instability ............................................................................................................................. 24

Tentative ceasefire ............................................................................................................................ 25

Border fighting ................................................................................................................................... 25

Rebel offensives ................................................................................................................................ 25

Taylor in exile .................................................................................................................................... 26

Johnson-Sirleaf elected ..................................................................................................................... 26

Taylor on trial ..................................................................................................................................... 26

Timeline: ArcelorMittal in Liberia ........................................................................................................... 27

ArcelorMittal Liberia’s environmental and social studies ...................................................................... 28

Sources ................................................................................................................................................. 29

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 29



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Introduction This document is intended to give readers a clear explanation as to why the biophysical and socio-economic conditions of northern Nimba are what they are today. This is to help develop understanding as to what they entail and why they require special care and management. ‘Nimba’ refers to the geographical Nimba mountain area, as distinct from the political area of ‘Nimba County’. Northern Nimba County, the subject of this report, forms part of both Nimba County and the Nimba mountain area. The Nimba mountains extend across the national borders into Guinea and Ivory Coast, but this document is concerned only with the Liberian section.

Location Liberia is a small country on the Gulf of Guinea of the West African coast, and shares borders with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. Nimba County is one of its largest counties. Northern Nimba County, the area with which this document is concerned, is situated close to the intersection of the Liberian, Guinean and Ivorian borders. The name Nimba derives from Mount Nimba, the highest of the mountain range, which is thought to come from the Mano for ‘mountain on which sisters slip’ – possibly a reference to its steepness.

NorthernNimba



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Landforms, terrain and soils

The Nimba Range The most distinctive landforms of northern Nimba County are the Nimba Range of mountains. These are dominated by a ridge which runs 40km in a north-east to south-west direction along the Guinean-Ivorian border, across the Guinean-Liberia border and on for the remaining half of its length. The mountains’ highest point is 1752m above sea level, on the Guinean section of the main Nimba ridge, and is known as Mount Richard-Molard; in Liberia, the highest point is 1300m on the same ridge, and referred to in this document as ‘Mount Nimba’. In northern Nimba County the significant but isolated peaks of Tokadeh, Beeton and the twin peaks of Gangra and Yuelliton lie to the west of the main Nimba ridge.

The main Nimba ridge from Mount Tokadeh, looking north-eastwards into Guinea

The rock from which these mountains developed was formed over 500 million years ago, when silt and iron-rich mud were deposited at the bottom of a pre-Cambrian sea, gradually compressing and hardening to form a sedimentary rock. Tectonic movement led to this rock being lifted and folded into a mountain chain, the pressure involved transforming the sand- and silt-based rock into quartzites, and the iron-laden mud into itabirite. Over thousands of years, the tropical climate of the region, as well as the action of the St John and Cestos Rivers and their tributaries, has deeply weathered this rock, carving the mountains into steep-sided ridges (some with slopes of 70˚) rising above wide plateaux, themselves about 450m above sea level. The Nimba itabirite has weathered to leave the high concentrations of iron ore found in these mountains.

The faint silhouettes of Mounts Beeton, Gangra and Yuelliton from the old Nimba mine



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Soils These processes have also led to the formation of heavily weathered soils, which vary depending on location, but are generally infertile due to their low organic content. Lush vegetation is enabled in forested areas by the development of topsoils mainly consisting of decaying organic matter, known as humus. In open areas, however, minerals are leached from the soil by the high rainfall. In northern Nimba County, the upland soils have a high iron content, which oxidises to give them their rich red colour. By contrast, the soils in the valley bottoms are predominantly clayey gleysols, giving the waterlogged conditions suitable for swamp rice cultivation.

Iron-rich soil (ferralsol) on Mount Tokadeh Shallow soil over iron ore on Mount Gangra

The majority of the terrain in the area is forested or cultivated, with the notable exception of sites formerly mined by LAMCO, where there is very little vegetation.

Mount Yuelliton from an exploration access track on Mount Gangra



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Iron ore The weathering of the Nimba Itabirite has caused large deposits of iron ore to form in the mountains of the Nimba Range, including (in Liberia) Mounts Nimba, Tokadeh, Gangra and Yuelliton; there are also ore formations in the Guinea and Ivory Coast sections of the Nimba ridge. In these deposits, most ore is present as Haematite (Fe2O3), with some Magnetite (Fe3O4). In some places the ore consists of around 60% Fe (iron), which is about as pure as haematitic ore can be with the effects of oxidisation. This is known as Direct Shipping Ore because it contains such a small proportion of impurities and requires little processing (pure magnetitic ore can be up to about 68% Fe).

The Nimba pit in May 1989, almost at its end... ... and the pit as it is today

LAMCO and the history of iron ore mining in Nimba In 1953 the Liberian government gave permission for a group of foreign geologists to begin exploring northern Nimba County in search of iron ore reserves. In 1955 a Scottish geologist, Sandy Clarke, found what he described as ‘a world of iron ore’ on Mount Nimba, and the Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO) was formed by a group of US and Swedish investors in order to exploit this ore body. A 273km railway was rapidly built between 1960 and early 1963 connecting northern Nimba County to the coast at Buchanan – a remarkable feat of engineering, considering the terrain and the very limited infrastructure in Liberia at the time. Production began in 1963, and in its first ten years LAMCO excavated 84 million tons of iron ore from the Nimba mine. Tokadeh was mined from 1972, but closed in 1982 due to a depressed world iron ore market.

LAMCO mine terraces visible on the main Nimba ridge

As the project grew, the residential area was moved from Grassfield to Yekepa, which became a thriving town, with a population of over 20,000 by the late 1970s. To encourage their (mainly Swedish) workers to stay on the project, LAMCO installed a number of leisure facilities, including a swimming pool, golf course, cinema, air strip and library. The company also funded a hospital and a number of schools. As the resources at the Nimba mine started to be depleted, plans were made to exploit iron ore reserves discovered on Mounts Gangra and Yuelliton, and to connect the railway to a



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new project in Guinean Nimba. A new company, the Nimba International Mining Company (NIMCO) was to be formed in order to do this.

The Yekepa swimming pool in LAMCO days... ... and as it is today, after 20 years of neglect

However, the political situation in Liberia was deteriorating, and in 1989 mining was stopped. Soon afterwards the Liberian government terminated its contract with LAMCO and the company’s expatriate employees were forced to leave. LAMCO’s assets were given over to the Liberian Mining Company (LIMINCO), but in early 1990 insurrectionist forces came over the border from Ivory Coast to Nimba County, Yekepa was captured and all mining activities stopped. Much of the mining equipment and LAMCO infrastructure was looted and damaged during the civil war, as a series of war lords invaded the town.

Left: Per Arne Lindqvist, Chief of Production at Tokadeh in 1973, the year LAMCO started mining there. Centre: A LAMCO locomotive renamed for LIMINCO. Right: the first ore train, in 1963.

Peace was eventually restored, and in 2005 the steel giant ArcelorMittal was given a concession to restore the LAMCO-era mining infrastructure, including the port and railway, in order to mine on Mounts Tokadeh, Gangra and Yuelliton.

Abandoned machinery at Nimba mine The LAMCO rail workshop at Yekepa



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Climate and hydrology The climate of Liberia and of northern Nimba County is tropical, with fairly consistently high rainfall and temperatures, although there are distinct wet and dry seasons, driven by the movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone – distinct enough that the Monrovia Brewery receives a significant increase in demand for large Club beers during the dry season. Northern Nimba County’s location at 8˚North means that the midday sun is never much lower than 60˚ above the horizon, passing directly overhead twice a year; day length is consequently similar throughout the year. This proximity to the equator also means that Liberia does not experience tropical cyclones.

Seasons and the ITCZ Climate in West Africa is driven by the energy of the sun and the path of its latitude through the year, and the annual cycles of humidity and differences in temperature that these create between the Sahara desert and the Gulf of Guinea. In general terms, these factors generate a zone of warmer, lighter and therefore rising air, known as the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which moves north of the equator during the northern hemisphere summer, and south during the northern hemisphere winter. Winds on the earth’s surface converge to the ITCZ, hence its name. In July, it is around 10˚ north of Liberia, causing winds to prevail from the south-west; in January, the ITCZ is positioned over the Liberian coastline, drawing winds from the north-east. These differences drive seasonal change.

Rainfall In Liberia, rainfall varies greatly with distance from the sea. Coastal areas such as Buchanan can receive more than 4,000mm of rainfall a year, while Yekepa is estimated to have an average annual rainfall of 1,800mm. Altitude is also a factor: it is estimated that the mountain tops of northern Nimba County receive almost double the rainfall of the surrounding plains.

During the wet season, moist winds from the south-west prevail, and the warm temperatures and high rainfall combine to produce very high humidity levels. Observations have also been made of violent rainstorms known as squall lines, which are thought to be most frequent in June and July, although the wettest month of the year is September. The dry season lasts from around November until April, with March usually the driest month. During this season, hotter, drier conditions are brought from the Sahel by prevailing winds, known as the Harmattan, from the north-east. Throughout the year, rain tends to fall in brief, heavy showers.



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Temperature Temperature also varies through the year. In the wet season, the temperatures tend to be more consistent, with around 4˚C variation between day and night temperature, compared to 8˚C during the dry season, when reduced cloud cover results in hotter days and cooler nights. The average temperature at Yekepa is 27.5˚C in February, but drops as low as 23˚C in June. Northern Nimba County’s altitude gives it generally cooler temperatures than the lowlands, and the mountain tops tend to be several degrees cooler than the valleys between them.

A mountain stream on Tokadeh The Dayea River upstream from Yekepa

Hydrology There are a number of water courses, including the Kahn and Dayea Rivers and many creeks, in northern Nimba County. Almost all of these drain into the St John River, which starts in Guinea and forms the western border between Guinea and the whole northern part of Nimba County. Most of the river catchments are in good ecological condition, with the exception of the water courses that drain the former mine workings on Mounts Tokadeh and Nimba, which have higher levels of sediment content and turbidity. All the water courses in the area have high iron concentrations due to the soils and geology already described. The hydrology is complex, with many of the creeks and rivers following a course that may cross the Guinean-Liberian border a number of times.

The Dayea River at Yekepa during the later dry season



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Biodiversity The biodiversity of the Nimba area is considered to be of global importance. This indicates that the area hosts a wide range and high numbers of species, and features high levels of endemism – that is, a number of species which have evolved in the area, and which therefore do not exist anywhere else on the planet.

This great biodiversity is thought to be partly the result of climate change over thousands of years, when hotter, drier periods in West Africa caused animals to migrate into the cooler, wetter mountains of Nimba. When the climate improved again, they did not always move back to the plains. In addition, the mountain ecosystem found in Nimba is remote from other similar environments, so that some of the species which evolved for its conditions are not found anywhere else. The area has also been relatively undisturbed, or at least was until LAMCO began operations. The proposed mine sites in northern Nimba County, despite not being as biodiverse as parts of the nearby East Nimba Nature Reserve, still boast at least 66 large mammal species, 242 species of bird, 33 fishes, 43 amphibians, 78 molluscs, 74 ants and termites, and 742 species of butterflies and moths. Endemic species in northern Nimba County include the viviparous Nimba toad, which gives birth to live young, and the rare Nimba otter shrew (which eats freshwater crabs and is neither an otter nor a shrew). Groups of chimpanzees are also known to range along the Nimba ridge and in the forests around the western mountains.



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Biodiversity is also an important part of the indigenous culture of northern Nimba County. It provides food, firewood and medicine, as well as the basis for unusual cultural practices. According to some Mano villagers these include people inhabiting the bodies of forest animals, and a rich heritage of folklore and fables, which often feature animals (particularly the leopard, spider and antelope) as their protagonists.

Recognition and protection Northern Nimba County forms part of the Guinean Forests of West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot, as identified by Conservation International. This indicates that as well as having great biodiversity, it is also considered to be an area where the biodiversity is under threat. It is recognised by many authorities on a global and regional scale, including the World Wildlife Fund, Birdlife International and Fauna and Flora International. On a national level, part of northern Nimba County is protected by the East Nimba Nature Reserve, where activities such as mining and logging are prohibited.

Centre: a rare Nimba otter shrew, found in a stream near Mount Tokadeh



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Forest degradation: threats to biodiversity Liberia forms part of the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, which stretches from Togo to Sierra Leone. However, only 10% of the original ecosystem still survives, with 40% of the remaining ecosystem thought to be in Liberia, particularly in Sapo National Park in southern Liberia and the Nimba Nature Reserve in northern Nimba County.

‘Slash and burn’ as a threat The traditional method of agriculture in northern Nimba County is that of shifting cultivation or ‘slash and burn’ agriculture. This technique has developed as a result of the thin topsoils, since the vegetation-soil nutrient exchanges are highly dynamic under natural forest and humid tropical climate. Any area that is cleared for cultivation quickly loses the nutrients in its soil because it is no longer part of the forest ecosystem, and instead is subject to increased oxidation and leaching. Consequently, the practice is to move on to another area of forest when the previous area becomes infertile. The term ‘slash and burn’ refers to the methods used to clear an area of forest.

Fallow land a few years after cultivation Firewood and other forest products



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Where populations are very limited, shifting cultivation is on a small enough scale in relation to the forest that its impact is minimal: there is enough land that each area can be left fallow for a long enough period for the forest and soil to be able to regenerate with time (perhaps 40 years). However, as populations rise, the impact of agriculture on the forest increases. The amount of pristine forest in the Nimba area has gradually been reduced to the point where the majority of vegetation is now secondary forest, and most of that has not fully recovered from the last cultivation cycle. A new concern is that the displacement of people by mining operations in northern Nimba County will cause even more pressure to be put on the remaining forest habitat.

A well spaced commercial rubber plantation A dense, poorly managed private rubber plantation

Other threats Some areas of forest will also be directly destroyed by the recommencement of mining. Other major threats to the quality of the forest include logging, whether this is large-scale commercial deforestation, the illegal carving of planks using chainsaws, known as pit-sawing, or the local collection of firewood. While there is currently no large-scale logging in northern Nimba County because the accessible forests have already been logged, pit sawing has seen a big increase since the war. Numerous sawyers are affecting large areas, and the process is highly inefficient because it can waste up to 70% of the available timber. Forest is also degraded by being replaced by large plantations of cash crops, such as rubber trees. Local bush meat hunting, which provides food and an extra source of income, is another threat to biodiversity. Although rodents form the majority of the bushmeat, primates are particularly threatened because their long reproductive cycles mean slower population increase – and because they fetch higher prices.

Illegal logging in the Nimba forests A giant rat or oppassum, popular legal bushmeat



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History of migration and settlement in the area

The indigenous peoples of Nimba It is not known exactly when people first came to the Nimba area, although the influences of the Mali and Songhai empires of the 14

th and 15

th centuries, as well as the spread of Islam, are thought to

have reached as far as the south of modern-day Guinea. Between the 16

th and 18

th centuries, the Mande peoples began to migrate south-westwards in waves

from what is now northern Ivory Coast. They were apparently driven out by migrating Kpele tribes, in turn forced out by Malinke people. The Mande groups – including Mano and Gio tribes – settled in the Nimba region, where they began to adopt intensive forest agriculture. In addition, Mande people are thought to have migrated south to Nimba around the start of the 20

th century, fleeing the French in

eastern Guinea. The Mano and Gio peoples remain the dominant ethnic groups in the area. In northern Nimba County, most of the village populations are over 80% Mano, with smaller percentages of Gio in a few villages, including Gbapa and Makinto.

Contact with Europe Little is known about Liberia before 1822, as indigenous writing was not developed until afterwards. However, European trade and exploration in West Africa reached the Grain Coast, as the area that is now Liberia and Sierra Leone is now known, and indigenous people – the coastal tribes, including Bassa – traded slaves, gold, ivory and pepper with Europeans from as early as the 15

th Century.

The ‘Congoes’ However, by the end of the 18

th Century the Atlantic slave trade was coming under increasing

criticism in the west, and as slaves began to be freed, thought turned to how to accommodate them. Resettlement in their ancestral home of West Africa began to seem an attractive option. In 1787, a group of American slaves was settled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, as a reward for fighting for the British in the American War of Independence. As the USA moved towards emancipation, a similar concept was formed, with the added intention of getting a US stronghold in Africa. The American Colonization Society was established in 1817, and negotiations with the British and local chiefs along the Grain Coast eventually led to the creation of a settlement in Cape Montserrado in 1822. The settlement was called Monrovia after the US President of the time, Monroe. The new colony was named Christopolis but this was soon changed to Liberia. A number of other colonies, including Maryland and Mississippi in Africa, were founded along the coast.



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The colonists – known as ‘Congoes’ – met with conflict with indigenous tribes from the outset, but the colony remained and expanded with more migrations from the USA. It merged with the other colonies to become the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1839, with Thomas Buchanan (after whom the port city is named) as its first Governor. Independence from the USA was granted in 1847, with Joseph Jenkins Roberts heading the first, all-Congo government. The term ‘Congo’ is thought to derive from a shipload of slaves from the Congo who were dumped in Monrovia when the slave trade was abolished by the British and a ship was caught mid-voyage, but this is uncertain. Expansion continued into the ‘hinterland’, the huge, virtually unexplored area beyond the colonised coastal counties, but the government remained almost exclusively Americo-Liberian, and contact with indigenous peoples was often violent or exploitative. The Fernando Po scandal of 1929 erupted when the government was found to have forcibly recruited indigenous Liberians to work, effectively as slaves, on the Spanish colony of Fernando Po (now part of Equatorial Guinea). Meanwhile the Liberian government was also undergoing pressure as Britain and France encroached on the country’s borders; at one time the Nimba Mountains were not dissected by the Guinean-Liberian-Ivorian border as they are now, the whole Nimba area being included in the territory claimed by Liberia. The Liberian hinterland, split into the Eastern, Central and Western Provinces, was governed by indirect rule: local chiefs retained positions of authority but were answerable to the Liberian government. Indigenous people were not granted the right to vote until 1951. Nimba County was created in 1964, having formerly been part of Central Province, and indirect rule was abolished. Educational programmes were launched as part of a governmental Unification and Integration policy, but tensions remained, eventually leading to Samuel K. Doe’s coup in 1980.

LAMCO and migration When LAMCO established its township in Yekepa, the population increased dramatically, including large numbers of expatriates from an estimated 25 different countries, especially Sweden, and drawing employees from across Liberia. During and after the war, squatters and internally displaced people (IDPs) often from the surrounding villages settled in much of the LAMCO housing in Yekepa; many of the local people who moved there kept their farms and are still active members of their former communities.



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Current ethnography and demography

Ethnography There are 17 major indigenous tribes in Liberia, most with their own language. Northern Nimba County’s population includes people from the majority of these tribes, as well as people of ‘Congo’ ethnicity. Yekepa and Camp 4 have particularly diverse populations. This is because LAMCO employed people from all the Liberian ethnic groups, and many of these employees remained in the area after LAMCO left. The internal displacement of people during the war has also been a factor. In rural areas, where mobility is more restricted, the Mano and Gio tribes, which are closely linked linguistically and ethnically, and are historically the two main tribes of Nimba County, still dominate the ethnography. In some particularly remote towns, the populations are entirely Mano, but in others there are small numbers of people of Grebo, Gbero, Mende, Loma, Bala and Kpelle ethnicity. In northern Nimba County, the majority of Mano people belong to the Yamein clan, and their dialect is sufficiently different from that of Manos from southern Nimba County that the two have difficulty understanding each other. Generally, and particularly in rural areas, people remain in the county in which they were born and marry within their tribe.

Culture Yekepa is a cultural melting pot, bringing together the indigenous cultures of the Mano and Gio, the Congo culture and the influences of LAMCO, missionaries and modern Western culture, whilst the rural villages are less culturally heterogeneous. However, they are not homogenous, and in many rural villages, traditional animists and polygamous families live side by side with churches with thriving congregations. Membership of the ancient Poro and Sande secret societies is almost universal, regardless of religion (although the Gio do not join). There is also a Muslim cultural element, sustained mainly by Mandingo and members of the Bangladeshi UNMIL battalion stationed at Yekepa. Differences show themselves around holidays: whilst Christmas and New Year are holidays throughout northern Nimba County, and a death in the quarter occasions a day off, the national holidays are not celebrated outside Yekepa as Flag Day and Independence Day hold little relevance for indigenous Liberians. What is universal is a love of football, the national sport, and practically every village has its football pitch.



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Demography and disparity The population of northern Nimba County is a young one, with around 45% of the population under the age of 15, and with a high birth rate; Liberia’s rural fertility rate is 6.2 children per woman. The area’s demography shows a significant disparity between the number of males and females. There are fewer females than males generally, and notably fewer women surviving into old age than men, due in part to high rates of maternal mortality, especially in rural areas. Similarly, statistics indicate more boys surviving infancy and childhood than girls. A survey of households in northern Nimba County found clearly distinguished roles for men and women in rural communities. Women are generally responsible for domestic activity, such as cooking, cleaning, childcare and the collection of firewood and water. They also tend to conduct business, such as peddling goods on roadsides. Jobs such as brushing, felling and fencing (i.e. the slashing and burning element of cultivation) are usually designated for men, while weeding, sowing and transportation is undertaken by men and women. The cleaning, storage and marketing of crops is almost exclusively done by women.

There are also significant differences in ways of life between the rural areas and the more ‘urban’ towns like Yekepa and Camp 4, which still benefit from LAMCO investment. In rural towns, livelihoods are generally based on agriculture: either subsistence or the cultivation of cash crops, or a combination of the two. A notable exception is the town of Gbapa where some livelihoods are derived from panning for alluvial gold and diamonds. Agricultural advice and inputs are only available in Saniquellie, which is particularly difficult to access for rural towns distant from roads. Because of their importance in first LAMCO’s and now ArcelorMittal’s operations, and proximity to facilities such as the hospital and schools, Yekepa and Camp 4 have a much greater proportion of people in formal employment, and a broader skills base, than elsewhere in northern Nimba County. Yekepa also has a significant service sector, in addition to two high schools and eight elementary schools (one of the former and two of the latter funded by ArcelorMittal) whereas the majority of rural towns have just one elementary school, often run by untrained volunteers, and where 42% of the population is functionally illiterate. There are also wide disparities in terms of sanitation and access to clean water sources between Yekepa and the other settlements of northern Nimba County.



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Development in Liberia and the effects of the Civil War From the beginning of the first Republic of Liberia, the intention was to exploit the country’s natural resources – hence the shovel and plough on the Great Seal – to develop the economy, but this did not begin for several decades. The Congo economy tended to be based around high status ‘professional’ work in the service sector, whilst indigenous Liberians worked in agriculture. In 1926 Firestone signed a 99-year lease for a million-acre rubber plantation (though it only planted 80,000 acres), and foreign interest in Liberia’s natural resources began to increase as Liberia adopted an ‘Open Door’ policy (1944) and the European powers began to lose their colonies (and thus easy access to their colonies’ natural resources). Mining companies including DELIMCO and LAMCO arrived in the 1950s and 60s. Robertsfield airport was built in 1942 and Monrovia Free Port in 1948, allowing foreign investment to begin in earnest. William Tubman, who was president from 1943 to 1971, transformed the national economy through his policies and brought about a great increase in development (his birthday is still a National Holiday). Liberia also became a hotspot for religious and especially Christian missions, which often provided infrastructure such as hospitals and schools; later, it also became a target for aid and NGO development projects. Whilst much of the infrastructure in northern Nimba County is part of the LAMCO legacy, some of its schools and churches were funded by NGOs and missions.

The civil war Development in Liberia was seriously set back by the civil war. Infrastructure, education, trade and communication networks were disrupted and often destroyed, including 70% of schools and training centres across Liberia. Many foreign investors and aid workers left the country – in northern Nimba County this included LAMCO – creating high unemployment and leaving many development projects unfinished. The population of Yekepa dropped from the 20,000 of its heyday to less than the 5,000 it is now. The political instability and lack of custom also led to a decline in local business. Disparities between rural and urban areas are thought to have been exacerbated as rural communities became more insular and isolated, whilst internal displacement meant that refugees frequently passed through Yekepa and Camp 4, contributing to their ethnic diversity. Women were further marginalised, in particular through acts of sexual assault. The violence and insecurity of these wars, which involved the use of child soldiers, contributed to a general climate of fear and mistrust. The exact impacts of the war on intertribal relationships remain unclear, although the old rifts between tribes, such as that between the Mano/Gio and the Mandingo and Krahn, which seem to have been renewed and exploited by Doe and Taylor, have probably not fully healed. A new complication is the neo-Congo factor: Liberians who fled during the war and have now returned, often better educated and more qualified, and sometimes with an accompanying belief that this education automatically entitles them to a strong voice in Liberian politics. This can create tension between those who left and those who stayed.



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Since the war, the UN and many NGOs, religious organisations and governmental overseas aid programmes such as USAID have returned to help rebuild the country. Foreign investment has also returned, including such companies as ArcelorMittal and Buchanan Renewables, which will help boost Liberia’s economy.

The current situation Liberia remains the fourth poorest country in the world, with an estimated 64% of its population living below the poverty line. Health care is a serious problem: the under-five mortality rate is 111 per thousand, and this is likely to be higher in the rural areas of northern Nimba County. Some 95% of health facilities are thought to have been partially or wholly destroyed during the war, while in 2008 there were only 51 trained Liberian doctors in the country – one per 70,000 people (although this does not take into account medics associated with NGOs and missions). This is in the context of a country where the tropical climate and large areas of swamp provide ideal breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes, whilst lack of access to clean drinking water and effective sanitation also contribute to a high prevalence of diseases such as typhoid.

Despite the return of foreign aid and investment, Liberia is in need of continued political stability and increasing self-sufficiency in order to develop properly.



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Political and administration system

The history of the Constitution The first Constitution of Liberia was drawn up in Monrovia in 1847, modelled on that of the USA, although operating as a unitary rather than a federal system. The government included an elected President, a Vice-President, a Senate and a House of Representatives; its electorate consisted of Congo men of property.

Signing of the Declaration of Independence, 1847 Liberia's first president, Joseph Jenkins Roberts

The Constitution was amended several times during the First Republic, for example to extend the vote to women (1948) and to indigenous Liberians (1951), often coming under considerable criticism. Liberia was listed in the 1982 Guinness World Book of Records for having had the most fraudulent election of all time, between Charles King and Thomas Faulkner in 1927. King allegedly won 235,000 votes to Faulkner’s 9,000 – from an electorate of 15,000. That said, Liberia was the first Republic in Africa, as well as the first African country to elect a woman President.

The current system The current Constitution was written in 1986 by Doe’s administration, and is now itself coming under considerable criticism. The set-up of government remains similar to that of the First Republic: the elected President appoints a Cabinet, who are confirmed by the Senate, which in turn forms the elected National Assembly along with the House of Representatives. The current President of Liberia is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who won the presidential elections of 2006 against star footballer (but political novice) George Weah. Johnson-Sirleaf also came second in the 1997 elections against Charles Taylor. The next elections are due to take place in 2011.



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President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf The Mansion House in Monrovia

The 64 seats of the House of Representatives are divided between Liberia’s counties according to the number of registered voters in each county. Nimba County currently has seven seats in the House. Administration operates from County level downwards. Nimba County is divided into 17 districts, each sub-divided into clans, which in turn cover several towns. Each level has its own administrator: Town Chief, Clan Chief, District Commissioner and County Superintendent. Yekepa is in the district of Sanniquellie-Mahn in Nimba County.

In addition, amongst the Mano and Gio communities, the Poro and Sande secret societies are highly organised and have a significant degree of influence; they also play an educational role in community life, instructing women in midwifery and housekeeping, and men in hunting and agriculture.



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Agricultural systems It is traditional for the people of northern Nimba County to farm within their own quarter land or gbing: an area of land assigned to a family. In some Mano villages, those descended from the first inhabitants of the community farm a particular quarter which has special status in the village. It is said that this special quarter is inhabited by the spiritual ‘owner of the land’. Land is not divided amongst siblings upon inheritance; it usually passes to the first son, who then has responsibility for caring for his brothers and sisters.

Banana trees on a mountain farm A charcoal burner preparing his stack for firing

What is cultivated depends on the type of land, and equally, the area of land chosen depends on what can be cultivated there. For example, waterlogged areas are used for swamp rice farms, although in northern Nimba County the majority of farmers grow rice in upland areas (i.e. aerobic rice, rather than the more normal anaerobic rice that requires paddies). Rice, as well as subsistence crops including cassava, sugar cane, peppers and leafy vegetables, are grown using the traditional ‘slash and burn’ agricultural model. In this model, land is brushed and cleared, and the cut vegetation left to dry before the area is burned. The burn contributes fertiliser in the form of nutrient-rich ash as well as clearing the land. The soil is then prepared and sown. The length of time for which the land is cultivated depends upon the crop and the soil. Upland rice farmers often crop rice for just one year before leaving the land fallow because of the soil’s infertility and the leaching effect of the high rainfall. Some farmers cultivate cash crops, often interplanted with subsistence crops. Because the majority of cash crops are also tree crops – rubber, cocoa, coffee, plantain, bananas, citrus, kola – they are therefore slower-growing and the slash and burn technique is less appropriate. Tree crops are often planted on the ready-cleared areas of land lying fallow after cultivation, and eventually thrive by sending roots into deeper soil horizons that are less affected by the depletion of nutrients in the slash and burn system. Charcoal production is also a source of income.

A slash-and-burn farm in northern Nimba, with the young crop starting to appear



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Most families also keep a small number of animals, including chickens, goats and pigs, partly to provide protein and partly to bring an income, for example through the sale of eggs. Dogs became popular semi-domesticated animals during the war, for security reasons, and many remain. Throughout northern Nimba County agriculture is low-technology, involving very little in the way of inputs, such as fertilisers; even animal manure is rarely used, despite the infertility of the soils. Use of machinery is also very limited, often because topsoils are too shallow to disturb deeply, for example by mechanised ploughing.

Charcoal stacked at the roadside for transport to a market

Transport and markets Once harvested, surplus or commercial crops are sold beside the road or taken to local markets or buying points, such as the Firestone rubber buying points. Transport is often in the form of taxis or trucks, although goods may have to be carried on foot from some of the most remote villages. During and after the civil war, following the abandonment of the Nimba mine project, the people living in villages adjacent to the railway developed ‘make-a-way’ trolleys in order to bypass the difficult roads. These trolleys are structures built from bamboo and old car wheel bearings that can carry as many as ten people at a time, reaching a running speed along the rails, which were used to transport people and goods. Although ArcelorMittal decommissioned the make-a-way trolleys and compensated the crews, it later gave some contracts to move rail ties along the line during rehabilitation. The railway was also used as a footpath and, in some cases where it bisected villages, a market place.

A Make-a-Way trolley in Bong County Cheap road transport between farm and market



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Timeline of Liberian history, 1847-2009

A chronology of key events

1847 - Constitution modelled on that of the US is drawn up.

1847 July - Liberia becomes independent.

1917 - Liberia declares war on Germany, giving the Allies a base in West Africa.

1926 - Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company opens rubber plantation on land granted by government. Rubber production becomes backbone of economy.

1936 - Forced-labour practices abolished.

1943 - William Tubman elected president.

1944 - Government declares war on the Axis powers.

1951 May - Women and indigenous property owners vote in the presidential election for the first time.

1958 - Racial discrimination outlawed.

1971 - Tubman dies and is succeeded by William Tolbert Jr.

1974 - Government accepts aid from the Soviet Union for the first time.

1978 - Liberia signs trade agreement with the European Economic Community.

1979 - More than 40 people are killed in riots following a proposed increase in the price of rice.

Years of instability

1980 - Master Sergeant Samuel Doe stages military coup. Tolbert and 13 of his aides are publicly executed. A People's Redemption Council headed by Doe suspends constitution and assumes full powers.

Samuel Doe: Leader of 1980 coup was killed in 1990

Taylor and his forces in 1990, during the rebellion against Doe

1984 - Doe's regime allows return of political parties following pressure from the United States and other creditors.

1985 - Doe wins presidential election.

1989 - National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor begins an uprising against the government.

1990 - Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) sends peacekeeping force. Doe is executed by a splinter group of the NPFL.

1991 - Ecowas and the NPFL agree to disarm and set up an Interim Government of National Unity.

1992 - The NPFL launches an all-out assault on West African peacekeepers in Monrovia, the latter respond by bombing NPFL positions outside the capital and pushing the NPFL back into the countryside.



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Tentative ceasefire

1993 - Warring factions devise a plan for a National Transitional Government and a ceasefire, but this fails to materialise and fighting resumes.

1994 - Warring factions agree a timetable for disarmament and the setting up of a joint Council of State.

1995 - Peace agreement signed.

1996 April - Factional fighting resumes and spreads to Monrovia.

1996 August - West African peacekeepers begin disarmament programme, clear land mines and reopen roads, allowing refugees to return.

1997 July - Presidential and legislative elections held. Charles Taylor wins a landslide and his National Patriotic Party wins a majority in the National Assembly. International observers declare the elections free and fair.

Border fighting

1999 January - Ghana and Nigeria accuse Liberia of supporting Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone. Britain and the US threaten to suspend aid to Liberia.

1999 April - Rebel forces thought to have come from Guinea attack town of Voinjama. Fighting displaces more than 25,000 people.

1999 September - Guinea accuses Liberian forces of entering its territory and attacking border villages.

2000 September - Liberian forces launch "massive offensive" against rebels in the north. Liberia accuses Guinean troops of shelling border villages.

2001 February - Liberian government says Sierra Leonean rebel leader Sam Bockarie, also known as Mosquito, has left the country.

2001 May - UN Security Council reimposes arms embargo to punish Taylor for trading weapons for diamonds from rebels in Sierra Leone.

2002 January - More than 50,000 Liberians and Sierra Leonean refugees flee fighting. In February Taylor declares a state of emergency.

Rebel offensives

2003 March - Rebels advance to within 10km of Monrovia.

2003 June - Talks in Ghana aimed at ending rebellion overshadowed by indictment accusing President Taylor of war crimes over his alleged backing of rebels in Sierra Leone.

2003 July - Fighting intensifies; rebels battle for control of Monrovia. Several hundred people are killed. West African regional group Ecowas agrees to provide peacekeepers.

2003: Citizens run for cover as rebels and government forces clash



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Taylor in exile

2003 August - Nigerian peacekeepers arrive. Charles Taylor leaves Liberia after handing power to his deputy Moses Blah. US troops arrive. Interim government and rebels sign peace accord in Ghana. Gyude Bryant chosen to head interim administration.

2003 September-October - US forces pull out. UN launches major peacekeeping mission, deploying thousands of troops.

2004 February - International donors pledge more than $500m in reconstruction aid.

2004 October - Riots in Monrovia leave 16 people dead; the UN says former combatants were behind the violence.

2005 September - Liberia agrees that the international community should supervise its finances in an effort to counter corruption.

Johnson-Sirleaf elected

2005 November - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes the first woman to be elected as an African head of state. She takes office the following January.

2006 February - Truth and Reconciliation Commission is set up to investigate human rights abuses between 1979 and 2003.

2006 April - Former president Charles Taylor appears before a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone on charges of crimes against humanity. In June the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court agrees to host his trial.

2006 June - UN Security Council eases a ban on weapons sales so Liberia can arm newly trained security forces. An embargo on Liberian timber exports is lifted shortly afterwards.

2006 July - President Johnson-Sirleaf switches on generator-powered street lights in the capital, which has been without electricity for 15 years.

2007 April - UN Security Council lifts its ban on Liberian diamond exports. The ban was imposed in 2001 to stem the flow of "blood diamonds", which helped to fund the civil war.

Taylor on trial

2007 June - Start of Charles Taylor's war crimes trial in The Hague, where he stands accused of instigating atrocities in Sierra Leone.

2007 December - UN Security Council extended arms and travel embargoes for another year in response to increased gun violence.

2008 January - Supreme Court rules that the president can appoint local mayors because the government cannot afford to hold municipal elections. Municipal elections have not been held since 1985 because of financial constraints and successive civil wars.

2008 February - US President George W Bush ends a five-country tour of Africa with a visit to Liberia, one of America's staunchest allies on the continent.

2008 March - Liberia conducts its first census since 1984.

2008 December - More than 100 inmates escape from Liberia's only maximum security prison in the capital, Monrovia.

2009 January - President Johnson-Sirleaf declares state of emergency in response to a plague of crop-destroying army worms affecting about 400,000 residents in 80 villages.

2009 February - President Johnson-Sirleaf admits to Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she mistakenly backed ex-President Charles Taylor when he launched the 14-year civil war in 1989.

2009 May - Jury acquits ex-President Gyude Bryant of embezzling about $1m while in office. The Hague war crimes tribunal rejects a request to acquit ex-president Taylor on charges of crimes against humanity.



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Timeline: ArcelorMittal in Liberia

2004 May – Mittal Steel appoints W.S. Atkins to investigate mining opportunities in Liberia.

2004 December - Government of Liberia issues request for proposals for Nimba iron ore tender.

2005 August - Mittal Steel enters into Mineral Development Agreement with Govt.

2005 October - Mittal Steel sets up permanent office and staff in Liberia.

2006 March - New Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Administration announces review of all agreements signed by previous administration. Mittal Steel chosen as first company for this review.

2006 June - Merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel to form ArcelorMittal.

2006 December - MDA review completed and Amendment signed.

Exploratory drilling of the ore bodies at Mount Tokadeh, 2008

2007 July - Rehabilitation of Buchanan and Yekepa housing, hospitals and schools commenced.

2007 November - Odebrecht contracted to rehabilitate railway

2007 December - Lakshmi Mittal visits Liberia and expresses confidence in country’s progress.

2008 - Construction activities in full swing.

Rehabilitation of the Buchanan-Yekepa railway in 2008-09

2009 April - Global economic crisis forces company to slow down project activities.

2010 January - Project restarted.

2011 July - First shipment of iron ore expected.



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ArcelorMittal Liberia’s environmental and social studies As part of the company’s commitment to high standards of corporate responsibility, ArcelorMittal Liberia has undertaken numerous studies of the environmental and social conditions around its project areas. The unique nature of the Nimba region has meant that the biological environment has always been a key focus. There was very little information on local biodiversity because of the years of civil war, so after initial reconnaissance studies in 2005 and 2007, the company commissioned large-scale ecological studies in both the wet and dry seasons. A large team of specialists was assembled from within Liberia and from many other countries, managed by the Ivory Coast-based conservation organisation Afrique Nature. Other studies focussed on the soils and hydrology as other important parts of the biophysical environment, and extensive surveys were also undertaken of the socio-economic situation and livelihoods systems of the local populations. Subsequent studies in 2010 have aimed to fill the gaps in the accumulating knowledge, particularly with respect to the botanical conditions in the forest, and the role of bushmeat hunting in both the ecology and economy of the area. Numerous scientists have been involved in these studies, brought together for the purpose by the companies W. S. Atkins and Scott Wilson, and also by Conservation International.

These investigations have produced some impressive results, and the various documents that the company has published testify to this. The studies have been in significant detail for some indicator species, and broad enough to give a good understanding of the overall ecology. They have demonstrated that the forests of northern Nimba County contain high levels of biodiversity, but they also reveal a picture of long-standing degradation. This special environment is under threat, and an exciting opportunity exists for the company to mitigate damage from mining by working with the local communities, the government and non-governmental agencies to start reversing that trend. Now that the environment and its interactions are understood, it is important to use that knowledge to the best possible advantage: as with so many parts of the world, we hold the fragile future of life in our hands.



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Sources ArcelorMittal. 2010. Nimba Western Area Iron Ore Deposits, Liberia: Environmental Baseline

Studies. February 2010. Environmental Protection Agency, Government of Liberia and ArcelorMittal Liberia Limited, Monrovia.

BBC News Internet Website. 2010. Timeline of Liberian history, 1847-2009. BBC, London. Berge, J.W., Johansson, K. and Jack, J. 1977. Geology and origin of the haematite ores of the

Nimba Range, Liberia. Economic Geology, July 1977 Buah, F.K. 1973. West Africa since A.D. 1000: Book One – The People. Macmillan. Bureau of Mines. 1989. Iron Ore Minerals Yearbook. Government of Liberia, Monrovia. Government of Liberia. 2008. Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy. Monrovia. Guannu, J. S. Undated. Liberian History up to 1847. European Commission. Guannu, J. S. Undated. A Short History of the First Liberian Republic. European Commission. LAMCO. The Ore and Technical Operations; LAMCO Railroad Stimulates Development; LAMCO

Harbour and its Uses; Tokadeh Mine in Operation (LAMCO News, Mar 1973); The Nimba Mine – a Decade of Progress (LAMCO News, Nov 1973); The Township of Yekepa.

Scott Wilson Limited. 2010. Western Range DSO Iron Ore Project: Environmental and Social Impact

Assessment. October 2010. ArcelorMittal Liberia Limited, Monrovia. Zetterström, K. 1976. The Yamein Mano of Northern Liberia. Occasional Paper VI, Uppsala

Institutionen fur Allman och Jamforande Etnografi vid Uppsala Universitet, Sweden.

Acknowledgements The text was compiled and written by Katharine Howell. The assistance of many people is gratefully acknowledged, in helping to piece together the complex history and environment of Liberia. Photographs were contributed by numerous people, including Thomas Johannesson, Ben Phalan, the W.S. Atkins environmental team, Afrique Nature, Ali Abi Haidar, John Howell, Alvin Poure, Forkpayea Gbelee and others. Some come from the Electrolux Company, where the LAMCO archives are now stored. Cover photograph and right: a Mano boy in a village in northern Nimba County, holding his pet West African dwarf crocodile.

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