PHOTO: birdlife.org
By Edwin M. Fayia, III,ayiaedwin@gmail.com
Over the years, the Liberian government, support partners and major stakeholders connected with the preservation and sustainable management of the Liberian forest and its biodiversity have described forest dwellers on the fringes as indeed the prime custodians of that vital sacred heritage of the country.
Ironically, pro-forest pressure groups and civil society advocates and human rights defenders continue to raise red flags on how forest dwellers are being treated by some major concession companies who continue to renege on their corporate social responsibilities as enshrined in concession agreements vis-à-vis some of the cardinal forest ingredients.
In spite of the extensive cries by the forest dwellers of the unabated complaints about those major players in the exploitation, government’s regulatory agencies has put stiff defences by the issuance of counter reactions to some of the many authentic claims by the forest dwellers.
On a very regrettable note, in the newly and officially established Gola National Park in Gbarpolu County, Western Liberia, foreign nationals from Mano River Union countries have illegally invaded the protected area and continue to extract gold and diamonds to the detriment of Liberians.
In several cautions directed at the current Liberian Government, those Liberians living on the fringes of the forest in many parts of the country have sounded unwavering sentiments that the precious resources in their sacred heritage should benefit them through the construction of schools, clinic and sustainable farm to market roads.
Unfortunately, the current CDC led administration’s regulatory ministries and agencies is yet to demonstrate any practical steps intended to get the illicit and illegal miners out of the vital Gola National Park in Gbarpolu County; a situation that has been described by a prominent forest advocacy groups as worrisome and grave.
Besides, another hotspot of illicit, notorious and illegal mining is in the South-eastern region of Liberia: Grand Gedeh, Maryland, River Gee and River Cess counties.
Very reliable reports corroborated by forest advocacy groups and civil society organizations continue to point to extensive manipulations and alleged financial inducements of top past and present government officials by some of the forest concession companies.
Henceforth, with climate change now in full swing globally and Liberia being no exception to the global menace, the depletion and degradation of the remaining rainforest cannot be over emphasized.
Now is the time and not later for the current Liberian Government led by the global football legend now president of Liberia to initiate proactive policies and regulations that protect the Liberian forest from the menace of extinction at the hands of logging concession companies.
On top of the list of the clarion calls by forest advocates of Liberia are international conservation groups such as Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International as well as bilateral and multilateral institutions primarily connected with the overall preservation of the Liberian forest and its biodiversity.
Principally, several of these sentiments from human rights defenders, forest advocates and environmentalists are becoming vocal day in day out like the famous South African Vuvuzela trumpet that sounded in 2010 during the FIFA World Cup – the world’s greatest soccer fiesta.
Several forest advocacy groups in the country continue to cry out citing that there are too many threats to the forest and its biodiversity to the extent that most of the endangered species are steadily becoming extinct at the detriment of ecosystem and the greater Liberian population at large.
Key among the visible threats against Liberian forest biodiversity documented by local and international organizations are illegal hunting of all categories of endangered species for commercial purposes and illicit gold and diamond mining in most parts of the country.
Interestingly, the legal regulatory body, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has on many occasions arrested, confiscated and burned hundreds of bush meat intended for the markets and consumed widely across the country.
Regrettably, during former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s tenure just few years ago, FDA unarmed rangers in Sinoe County, consequently exposing them to attacks by poachers, a situation that resulted to some of the rangers being killed in unwavering attempts to stop illegal commercial hunters from entering the Sapo National Park.
In a swift reaction, some the forest concession companies categorically rejected the claims by civil society, human rights groups and forest dwellers on the fringes of their sacred heritage.