Liberia:
New Forestry Law raises hopes and doubts
Similar to what has happened in several
Southern countries harassed by centuries of colonialism, the wealth
of Liberia has also been its curse. Tropical forests account for
47 per cent of Liberia’s land. Between 1989 and 2003, revenue
from forests was used to fund a brutal conflict fuelled by the
pillaging of forests. Timber was a key resource for Liberia's
armed factions. Wood flowed out; money and arms flowed in. So
many concessions had been corruptly awarded that they totalled
more than the land area of Liberia.
In July 2003, the UN Security Council
imposed sanctions on Liberian timber exports. The blocking of
timber exports brought an end to logging, and to former president
Charles Taylor, who fled the country and now awaits trial in The
Hague on war crimes charges. Guus van Kouwenhoven, a Dutch businessman
and member of Taylor's inner circle who ran the notoriously rapacious
Oriental Timber Company (OTC), is already in jail for breaking
the UN arms embargo.
Following those years of destructive
civil war, illegal lumber trafficking and massive fraud to fuel
conflict, Liberia passed a forestry law on October 9, 2006, in
line with new policies drawn up with the United Nations. The new
legislation will allow implementation of Liberia’s first-ever
forestry policy, which FAO helped develop with numerous international
partners (the United States, the European Union, the World Bank,
IUCN, and Conservation NGOs including Conservation International,
Flora and Fauna International, a number of Liberian NGOs and industry)
through the Liberia Forest Initiative.
According to Silas Siakor, the 2006
Goldman Environmental Prize Winner for Africa, the new law, which
has led to the lifting of UN sanctions, is promising –if it can
be enforced.
The law sets aside 30 percent of the
forests as reserves, and guarantees that local communities will
have to approve all timber concessions and will receive 30 percent
of the revenues. But there's a smart twist -- those revenues will
come from property taxes, not extraction fees, so the incentive
is for the local communities to make sure there is no overlogging
to ensure that the land isn't devalued and that the payments continue
indefinitely -- a model considerably better than how the U.S.
treats its own national forests!
There will be also forests available
for commercial concessions. The law stipulates that people with
a history of involvement in war, corruption and malpractice are
barred from that option. However, many of the businessmen who
gleefully raped Liberia's forests in return for favours are still
there, looking after their other interests and keeping an eye
on logging opportunities.
And not only nationals. At an International
Tropical Forest Investment Forum held in Cancun, Mexico, on April
26, 2006, US Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary For Environment
Daniel A Reifsnyder, enthusiastically announced: “We are putting
our support and action behind Liberia”. He remarked that “This
Forest Investment Conference will focus on many aspects of attracting
investment to the natural tropical forest.” There is the trade
interest behind glamorous sentences like “progressive forest management”
and “conservation policies aimed at truly making the utilization
of forest resources more sustainable”. The US officer said that
“investors can both earn a profit and maintain forest resources
for future generations.” Is there any example of the Big capital
doing that, please?
Article based on information from:
“Liberia enacts new forest policy with UN help to ensure benefits
for all”, UN News Service,
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20146&Cr=liberia&Cr1=;
New dawn for Liberia's 'blood forests', Richard Black, Environment
correspondent, BBC News, e-mail: Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/6035617.stm; “Issues
and Opportunities for Investment in Natural Tropical Forests”,
Daniel A Reifsnyder, Remarks to International Tropical Forest
Investment Forum, Mexico, April 26, 2006,
http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/rm/2006/65800.htm
