When Town — Liberia's effort to protect one of its last major ecological areas gained new momentum Thursday with the official launch of the €9 million Wonegizi-Wologizi Initiative for Sustainable Ecosystems (WISE). Supported by France through the French Development Agency (AFD), the five-year program aims to transform the forested region of northern Lofa County into a model of protected-area management, community empowerment, and sustainable development.
The event at the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) headquarters brought together top government officials, the French ambassador, development partners, conservation experts, and community representatives. Together, they celebrated the start of a project that combines biodiversity conservation with land rights, livelihoods, and climate finance--an approach many speakers described as vital for securing the future of Liberia's forests.
France's Ambassador to Liberia, Jrabelle Le Guellec, issued the morning's strongest call to action, emphasizing the importance of Liberia's remaining primary forests for global climate goals. She started by acknowledging the communities of Wonegizi and Wologizi for their "longstanding care and protection of the forests," describing them as the landscape's first guardians.
"France places biodiversity at the center of its international environmental policy, recognizing that climate ambition and nature protection are twin imperatives," she said.
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She noted that Liberia's leadership at COP30 reinforced the need to keep primary forests at the heart of global climate strategies and reminded attendees that France helped champion the global "30 by 30" goal to protect 30 percent of the world's land and seas by 2030.
Le Guellec emphasized the ecological and human significance of the Wonegizi-Wologizi complex, describing it as "vital for biodiversity, for climate regulation, for water resources, and for the well-being of thousands of families."
She added that development and conservation "are not opposing forces" but mutually reinforcing priorities, and she welcomed the project as an important step toward Liberia's commitments to cut deforestation in half and expand protected areas to 1.5 million hectares by 2030.
The WISE landscape spans approximately 130,000 acres within the Upper Guinean Forest, home to threatened species such as the pygmy hippopotamus, critically endangered western chimpanzee, and African forest elephant. It also supports nearly 34,000 residents across 42 communities, many of whom rely directly on the forest for their livelihoods.
The landscape's proposed protected areas--Wonegizi and Wologizi--have waited years for official designation. Meanwhile, pressures from shifting agriculture, artisanal mining, hunting, and illegal logging continue to increase. Project documents warn that without solid governance systems and community-led protection measures, the forest's ecological health could decline rapidly.
Scaling up decades of conservation work, Fauna & Flora Country Director Mary Molokwu-Odozi described the WISE launch as a key moment for Liberia to strengthen and expand efforts started years ago. "These areas host some of the rarest and globally threatened species," she said.
"WISE provides a beacon of hope for communities, for biodiversity, and for the Wonegizi-Wologizi landscape."
She highlighted significant progress already made: the construction of an FDA field office; support from the European Union, GEF, and Rainforest Trust; and community land documentation efforts that have led to the issuance of eight land title deeds across more than 20 communities. These efforts, she noted, lay the groundwork for the full protection of the 28,000-hectare Wonegizi Proposed Protected Area.
Molokwu-Odozi said WISE will build on this progress by strengthening protected-area creation, restoring forest corridors, enhancing agricultural productivity, and diversifying household incomes.
She emphasized that long-term conservation funding would come from a REDD+ pilot project designed to generate results-based payments for forest protection. REDD+, she explained, "offers results-based payments and attracts climate finance, incentivising local communities to protect the forest in the long-term."
For her part, FDA Deputy Managing Director for Conservation, Community & Carbon, Nora Garmai Bowier, stressed that no single agency can manage Wonegizi-Wologizi alone. "Sustainable landscape management cannot be achieved by any single institution acting alone," she said. "It requires coordinated planning, shared technical standards, transparent roles and responsibilities, and mutual accountability."
Bowier described the initiative as aligned with the FDA's mandate to conserve ecosystems, support community participation, and advance Liberia's climate and biodiversity commitments. She urged partners to see the signing not as a mere formality, but as "a statement of shared purpose" and a commitment to uphold community rights and technical accuracy.
Also speaking, AFD Country Director Clémentine Dardy clearly expressed the donor's philosophy, emphasizing that the landscape belongs to Liberia. "I want to start by recognizing something essential: this is a Liberian project," she said.
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"AFD... is here to accompany, support, and strengthen the national vision."
Dardy emphasized that communities are at the heart of the initiative and are not passive recipients. She stated that more than 1,500 farmers will be supported, and over 34,000 residents will benefit directly from improvements in agriculture, livelihoods, and land documentation. She also highlighted WISE's role in helping Liberia establish its first high-integrity carbon-credit system through REDD+, noting that well-managed carbon finance can generate long-term resources for conservation and community development.
Representing the Ministry of Finance, Amadu V. S. Kpahn pledged strong government support. "The Minister of Finance is actively seeking opportunities that could help advance the economy," he said. He assured partners that the ministry would carefully review every part of the project's documentation and emphasized that communities in Lofa would see tangible benefits. "We can assure you that the people of Lofa... will share equally in the benefits," he said, adding, "We are here to work."
