By B. Garmondyu Zogar, Contributing Writer
Monrovia, Liberia
MONROVIA – Ahead of the planned September 2026 launch of what appears to be a massive investment, I write first to commend the Liberia National Tourism Authority (LNTA), its Director General, and the Government of Liberia for the vision announced for Providence Island. For generations, the ground where our Republic’s story began has stood in quiet neglect, visited by school children and pilgrims but starved of investment. The decision to change that, and to position the island within the ARREST Agenda’s tourism and heritage pillar, is the right instinct, welcomed without reservation. What follows, however, is not opposition to this project but the contribution of a professional who wants it to succeed so completely that it becomes the reference point for heritage development in West Africa.
The September Timeline, and a Reasonable Assumption
The LNTA, through its Director General, Madam Princess Evra Cooper, has announced that “the construction of the Providence Island starts in September 2026”. In professional practice, a project of this scale does not responsibly reach ground-breaking without a completed chain of preparatory work: feasibility studies, an approved master plan, an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and EPA permit, a Heritage Impact Assessment, archaeological investigation, geotechnical and hydrological studies, Ministry of Public Works permits, and a concluded, compliant procurement process.
I therefore proceed on the good-faith assumption that these studies and approvals exist and are complete. If that is the case, the single most valuable step the LNTA can now take is to publish them or present them to the relevant industry stakeholders. This disclosure, two months before ground-breaking, costs nothing, answers every question being asked in public, and converts scepticism into national buy-in.
If, however, any of these instruments are not yet in place, then the September date should be treated as a target for recalibration rather than a deadline to defend. Two months is enough time to launch a project but not enough to compress the studies, approvals, and consultations that the law requires and the site deserves. Adjusting a start date is a routine act of good project governance. Excavating an irreplaceable archaeological site without completed studies is not reversible at any date.
Why This Island Is Different
Providence Island, known to the Dey and Bassa peoples as Dozoa Island long before 1822, is not an ordinary development site. It is the meeting point of Indigenous Liberian civilization and the returning settlers of African descent whose arrival gave birth to our nation, Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic. Its surviving fabric, including the old landing dock, the ancient well, original foundations, and the historic cotton tree, constitutes an archaeological archive that exists nowhere else on earth. Whatever we build there, we build on top of evidence of our history. That single fact should discipline every design decision.
What Can We Learn from Others Who Have Done This Right?
Liberia is not the first nation to stand at this crossroads, and the record across Africa is instructive. The Goree Island in Senegal, an 18-hectare island opposite Dakar and once the largest slave-trading center on the African coast, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1978 and is today a global pilgrimage site for the African diaspora. Senegal’s formula was restraint. The island’s original scale and fabric were preserved under a formal management plan, and no new structure competes with the memory. The history itself is the product.
Cape Coast and Elmina Castles in Ghana, inscribed in 1979 and managed by the statutory Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, were carefully restored between 1992 and 1997 with UNDP and USAID support before mass tourism arrived. The payoff came with the 2019 Year of Return, when tourism’s contribution to Ghana’s GDP reached about US$3.7 billion, with tens of thousands of additional international visitors. The hotels and conference centers serving them sit in the surrounding towns, not on the castle grounds. Yet even Ghana stumbled: a 2019 parking expansion at Elmina damaged centuries-old flooring because construction moved ahead of archaeology. Process lapses cost heritage, even in the best systems.
Robben Island in South Africa, inscribed in 1999, is run by a dedicated public entity established in 1997, with a governing Council, an Integrated Conservation Management Plan, and annual performance plans tabled before Parliament, managing conservation, visitor numbers, ferries, and local employment as one accountable system. That is what institutional seriousness looks like.
Finally, the Kunta Kinteh Island in The Gambia, inscribed in 2003 with the related sites of Juffureh and Albreda and made famous by Alex Haley’s Roots, carries the warning Liberia must not ignore. The river erosion has reduced it to a fraction of its original size, and its fort survives only in ruins. On a river island like the Mesurado, connecting to the sea in our case, shoreline engineering and hydrology are not paperwork. They are survival.
“The lesson here is unambiguous. The sites that win put conservation, statutory management, and completed studies first, and place commercial development in service of the heritage rather than on top of it. Our site, Providence Island, situated in the Mesurado River, faces both futures. The choice is made now, in the process, not later, in the marketing”
The Legal Framework That Must Be Satisfied Before Ground-breaking
Liberia already possesses the legal architecture to do this properly. These are binding obligations, not recommendations.
The Constitution of Liberia (1986). Article 5(b) commands the Republic to preserve, protect, and promote positive Liberian culture, a duty binding on every agency of government, with Providence Island at the center of what that Article exists to protect. Article 7 requires management of the national economy and natural resources to ensure the maximum feasible participation of Liberian citizens; redeveloping the nation’s foremost heritage site without structured public participation is difficult to reconcile with that command. Article 15 guarantees the right to knowledge and information, and the Freedom of Information Act (2010) converts it into an enforceable right to the project’s documents. The public does not need permission to see them. The law already grants it.
The Environment Protection and Management Law (2003). Section 6(1) requires an EIA license before the commencement of any project on the Annex I mandatory list, which expressly includes the Building and Civil Engineering Industries: hotels, marinas, and waterfront works of this class. Section 8 requires a Project Brief and screening by the EPA; Section 11 requires public scoping consultations with affected stakeholders before the impact study is even prepared; and Sections 14(3), 17, and 33 declare the resulting Environmental Impact Statement a public document, open to inspection and public comment. This mean that if there’s no EPA No license, no lawful ground-breaking can happen. Invoking the EPML, the Ramsar Convention, and Executive Order 143 on the protection of beachfronts, waterways, and wetlands; the Government cannot bulldoze private encroachers on one bank of the Mesurado while exempting its own project within the same protected system. The law does not carry two standards.
The Liberia National Tourism Act (2025). The LNTA’s own enabling statute, amending Title 30 of the Public Authorities Law, establishes the Authority to promote and to regulate tourism and expressly mandates it to preserve Liberia’s cultural heritage, with citizens’ participation, community empowerment, and ecological and economic sustainability among its governing principles. An Authority that breaks ground without meaningful consultation, disclosed environmental compliance, or a design that keeps the heritage it is mandated to preserve at the center would be acting against the very Act that gives it life. The first regulator of this project is the LNTA itself.
The project must equally satisfy the Public Procurement and Concessions Act (2010) on transparent award, the Ministry of Public Works zoning and permit regime, and the care owed to a site on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List since 2017, obligations noted here in passing but no less binding for it.
The Technical Evidence That Should Already Exist
If ground-breaking is truly only two months away, the project should already be supported by comprehensive technical evidence. This includes a detailed geotechnical investigation confirming the site’s soil bearing capacity, settlement characteristics, and the structural implications of major loads, swimming pools, and deep foundations on potentially saturated ground. A hydrology and climate resilience assessment should also be complete, addressing tidal regimes, flood risks, erosion, scour, stormwater management, and projected sea-level rise throughout the asset’s design life. In addition, an archaeological assessment should have systematically investigated the site, mapped any heritage resources, established a formal chance-find procedure within the construction contract, and identified measures for preserving significant cultural remains where necessary.
Complementary studies should likewise already be in place, including assessments of the site’s carrying capacity, life-safety requirements, utility infrastructure, and long-term operational sustainability. These should demonstrate how the development will reliably obtain power, water, sewage treatment, and solid waste management on a small island, while accounting for the lifetime maintenance costs of resort-grade facilities in a humid, saline coastal environment. Equally important is a clear national design narrative. A landmark development on this site should be able to explain its own identity, its symbolism, materials, and spatial organization should be rooted in Liberian history, culture, and aspirations, ensuring that it reflects an authentic national character rather than appearing as an imported architectural statement.
A Constructive Path Forward in the Next Sixty Days
Providence Island deserves development, but it also deserves discipline. The measure of this project will not be how quickly construction begins, but whether it is delivered in full compliance with the law, supported by sound technical evidence, and respectful of Liberia’s cultural and historical heritage.
The path forward is clear. Before ground-breaking, the LNTA should publish the project’s technical and statutory approvals, demonstrate compliance with all legal requirements, protect the island’s archaeological and environmental assets, and ensure the design reflects Liberia’s identity and strengthens its UNESCO World Heritage aspirations. If these fundamentals are in place, the project will earn public confidence and stand as a model for heritage development in Africa. If they are not, the responsible course is to complete them before construction begins. We have only one Providence Island. Let us develop it with the care, professionalism, and foresight that its history demands.
About the Author
- Garmondyu Zogar is an Architect, and Infrastructure Systems Consultant with almost two decades of experience in infrastructure planning, environmental and social safeguards, and the delivery of major donor-funded development projects. He has served in senior technical roles on programs supported by the United Nations, the European Union, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the World Bank. A Chevening Scholar, he holds two Master’s degrees in Architecture and Urban Design; and in Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Management. He is currently a Legal Scholar at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, where his interest focuses on infrastructure governance, environmental law, public policy, and sustainable development. He can be reached at GarmondyuZ19@outlook.com.
About The Author
