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Liberia: Global Witness Warns Over Rush To Log Forest
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The Analyst (Monrovia)
ANALYSIS
2 April 2008
Posted to the web 2 April 2008
Proceeds from Liberia's timber industry reportedly helped to fuel the Charles Taylor bush war that decimated the country and sent thousands to their unwanted graves.
That necessitated a United Nations embargo unless reforms in keeping with international standards were put into place so that ordinary Liberians can benefit.
That reform process then got underway during the transitional period. Upon taking office in 2006, the present administration began from where its predecessor stopped, ratified and passed into law new forestry law.
There are reports that several logging companies want to do business and that Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is contemplating granting the permits. But Global Witness, a renowned international advocacy institution, is thinking otherwise, alarming that a rush to log the nation's forest could jeopardize the reform process.
The Analyst looks at the statement from GW.
Global Witness says that under intense pressure from the timber industry, including many familiar faces from the past, the Forest Development Authority (FDA) has started issuing timber contracts while key legislation on community rights to ensure an equitable balance between community, conservation and commercial forestry is still in draft.
Referring to the pressure as rush, the group says it allow a timber trade with a poor track record of corruption and trampling on community rights raises the specter of Liberia's forests once again undermining stability in this fragile country.
Many companies that operated before and during the conflict were accused of engaging into acts inimical to the interest of the country and its citizens, especially areas where they operated before the UN imposed embargo.
One of the companies is the Maryland Wood Processing Industries owned and operated by Abbas Fawas, a Lebanese national. He was said to have unbridled link with former President Charles Taylor.
Global Witness recalled that in the past Liberia's timber, industry has fuelled conflict, widespread human rights abuses and destabilization in West Africa, saying, "It is critical that those linked to the conflict are not able to operate in the forestry sector again."
The present Sirleaf administration and the management of FDA, since taking office, have been making strides to correct the wrong of the past.
International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have commended the Liberian government and the FDA for their efforts to bring good governance and transparency to the forest sector, but now according to Global Witness: "it is time to take stock, learn from the mistakes and treat these as a proving ground to demonstrate Liberia can make a clean break with the past."
Apparently, against this backdrop, the international alert organization warns, "It is imperative the rule of law is followed, and seen to be followed."
Recalling that the process to date has had its difficulties, it also noted that significant weaknesses have been documented in the prequalification for those wishing to obtain logging permits, to which the government of Liberia did not respond. And evidence suggests the system for debarring "those who have aided and abetted civil disturbances" is failing.
Above all, Global Witness in a statement issued late last month on the forest reform program says, "a proper implementation of the Community Rights Law is critically important".
"It is too early to allocate either concessions or conservation areas before having clarified and codified who owns the forest."
According to them, the resumption of large-scale logging before this law is implemented will undermine the efforts of rural communities to develop and prosper, as they once again become dependent on the whim, and unequal negotiating power, of the timber industry.
"Liberia is well placed to learn from the experience of other countries in the region: in Ghana and Cameroon, for example, the longstanding failure to develop and implement an effective community role in the management of forest resources has exacerbated rural poverty, and at times led to conflict.
The group quoted the Government of Liberia and FDA's repeated stressing of their "absolute commitment not to return to the old way of doing business".
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We therefore call on the FDA to remain committed to treating the six initial contracts currently being awarded as a pilot, and withhold any further steps to allocate concessions until the Community Rights Law is properly implemented and issues raised by Liberian civil society in the prequalification process are fully addressed.
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