The European Union's head of delegation to Liberia has warned that the country's credibility as a cocoa exporter could be undermined if production continues to be linked to deforestation, citing growing concerns over Burkinabè migrants felling trees for farmland in southeastern Liberia.
Ambassador Nona Deprez, speaking at a press briefing in Monrovia alongside EU Special Representative for the Sahel João Gomes Cravinho, said the EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, will require that commodities like cocoa, palm oil, and rubber entering European markets be proven free from recent deforestation.
"This is about making sure that what European consumers buy in Europe does not contribute to deforestation elsewhere," Deprez said. "We have decided that in Europe we don't want to deforest. We are going to plant three billion trees together. But we also don't want to import deforestation from elsewhere."
Liberia's Export Reputation on the Line
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Though Liberia's cocoa and rubber output is small compared to West African giants Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, Deprez said the new EU rules will subject Liberia to scrutiny. "Liberia is in the standard category," she explained. "There will be standard controls, but these controls will depend also, of course, on the credibility of Liberia as an exporter."
She cautioned that reports of illegal tree-felling tied to recent migration could tarnish that reputation. "Having Burkinabè in the country and deforesting in order to plant cocoa, or having a lot of illegal logging, is detrimental to the reputation of Liberia as an exporter in those products," she said.
Burkinabè Migration and Land Pressure
Liberian security officials have reported a steady influx of Burkinabè nationals, many fleeing terrorism and climate-driven hardship at home. Cravinho, the EU's Sahel envoy, said most are farmers searching for land, not militants. But the risk, he warned, is that "land disputes ... are the most important trigger of violence in Liberia."
Deprez linked this to trade risks. "Many of these Burkinabè don't come in on their own," she said. "They are sometimes called in by landowners to help to deforest or to help to cultivate. And this is something we have to watch very carefully, because it undermines Liberia's position in the cocoa and rubber value chains."
Lessons from Côte d'Ivoire
Deprez pointed to Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa crisis as a cautionary tale. "It is absolutely possible to produce cocoa and to cultivate cocoa without deforesting," she said. "In fact, it is much more sustainable if you produce cocoa under a forest coverage. You can see it in Côte d'Ivoire now because their cocoa production is decreasing because of climate change--because of too much sun."
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Liberia, she argued, should learn from its neighbor's mistakes. "We think it is also in the interest of Liberia and the people of Liberia to avoid going down the same path," she said.
Enforcement and Opportunity
Deprez said the EU is already working with Liberian authorities, forest conservation groups, and lawmakers in the southeast to prepare for the regulation. "We've had workshops to explain what the deforestation-free products regulation is about," she said. "This concerns products like palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and beef. We just want to make sure that these products have not been produced by deforestation in recent years."
Implementation, she insisted, is feasible. "This is about geolocalization," she explained. "It's about being able to prove that this was already cultivated land so many years ago and it continues to be cultivated, then fine, we will continue to import."
The challenge, she said, lies with smallholders. "The big rubber companies are equipped," she noted. "But they buy from smallholders, and those smallholders also need to be equipped to prove that their production has not contributed to deforestation."
A Test for Liberia's Global Standing
She framed the deforestation-free rules as both a compliance challenge and an opportunity for Liberia to enhance its export credibility. "European consumers want to show that we don't want to deforest elsewhere," she said. "So for Liberia, getting this right is not just about environmental protection, it is also about market access."
