Illegal logging poses greater threat to liberia's forest

AllAfrica.com via Heritage (Monrovia): A fresh report released by the environmental watchdog Global Witness indicates that illegal logging in Liberia is posing greater threat to the country's forest.

The Global Witness' report, which states that illegal logging is robbing several people in Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, substantiates the group's earlier report stating that last year in Liberia, "private use permits" were issued on a massive scale, allowing logging companies to claim more than 40 percent of the country's forests during a two-year period.

However, Global Witness' team leader for forest sector transparency, David Young, says, although the proportional scale of the problem was biggest in Liberia, the permits also pose a grave threat to Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Said Young: "The area involved proportionately in Liberia is much greater than in the other countries, so it was a much greater threat to Liberia's forests. But the systemic nature of them in the other countries, if not controlled, could lead to similar destruction."

Howbeit, the Global Witness' team leader for forest sector transparency added: "The good news in Liberia is that the president issued an executive decree in early 2013 to completely close down the private use permits, and she has promised criminal investigations and prosecutions where necessary. But that was back in January. We're now in May and we haven't seen much progress in that investigation and those prosecutions."...

A logging road in Liberia, shot by John Atherton, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license