Industrial palm oil production is coming to Africa, its ancestral home. The world’s most productive oil seed has been a boon to Asian economies, but the looming arrival of large-scale plantations in Africa is raising fears that some of the same issues plaguing Malaysia, Indonesia, and other leading producers — deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, conflicts with local people, and poor working conditions — could befall one of the world’s most destitute regions.
Nearly two-thirds of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in the small but troubled nation of Liberia. That is a small miracle. A decade ago, Liberia’s forests were being stripped bare by warlords to fund a vicious 14-year civil war that left 150,000 dead. In 2003, the United Nations belatedly imposed an embargo on Liberian “logs of war.” Revenues crashed and, coincidentally or not, the war swiftly came to an end.
Liberia has signed a deal with the European Union promising to crack down on illegal logging on its territory, home to more than half of West Africa’s rainforests, a group linked to the accord said.
Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed similar deals last year ahead of an EU ban on imports of illegally harvested timber that takes effect in 2012.
The new deal tightened restrictions on logging, said the European Forest Institute, an EU-wide group that helps draft accords on illegal logging.
The European Union and the Government of Liberia, which presides over half of the remaining rainforest in West Africa, announced today a landmark agreement to ensure that all Liberian timber products exported from Liberia to the EU are derived from legal sources and that the resulting trade will benefit the Liberian people. EFIs EU FLEGT Facility provided technical support to the preparation, negotiation and implementation of FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Liberia.
You report that "a British company's proposal to rent out one-fifth of Liberia's forests for carbon offsetting could have bankrupted the impoverished west African state" (UK firm's carbon offset deal 'could have bankrupted Liberia', 24 July). While this was certainly accurate reporting, it also missed a vital point – that this marks a vital step forward for Liberia.
Trucks loaded with undressed timber are on the move again around Buchanan in Grand Bassa county, south-east Liberia.
The dust recalls the not-so-distant time when the timber trade was synonymous with war.
Liberia's rainforests are being primed as a lucrative and legal industry. Electronic tags allow consumers to trace the end-product right back to the stump. Photograph: Glenna Gordon/AFP/Getty Images
Very interested to see the news today that City of London police have “arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan to pay Liberian officials $2.5m (£1.7m) in connection with land concessions the company hoped would earn it more than $2bn”.
The Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) is mandated to protect the human health and well-being of the Liberian people and others living within the nation's jurisdiction.
After years of darkness as a failed state, Liberia is rebuilding its state institutions, determined to rejoin the international community. Unfortunately, no amount of reforming zeal of a single small country can overturn the threat of climate breakdown or rising tides.
