Liberia: A Proposal From Liberian Civil Society to Reform the Forest sector

SOURCE: W R M B U L L E T I N 82
May 2004 - English edition
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy

Liberia: A Proposal From Liberian Civil Society to Reform the Forest
Sector

Since 1990, logging companies, rebel groups, criminal networks, various
interim governments and the regime of former president Charles Taylor have
colluded to plunder Liberia's natural resources. During this period the
timber sector witnessed a plethora of illegal activities and practices.
Logging companies operated in rebel held territories without any form of
regulation from the Forestry Development Authority; none of the revenue
generated during this period benefited the Liberian people. Following the
election of former President Charles Taylor, he began rewarding former
allies, financiers and associates with logging concessions without going
through the due process as established by Liberian laws. It has been
established that most of the logging companies that operated during this
period did not have their concession agreements ratified by the Liberian
legislature. Additionally, various United Nations Panels of Experts
established that revenue from the sector was being used to provide
military support for armed groups within and outside of Liberia and other
illegitimate purposes to the exclusion of the vast majority of Liberians.

In 2003 the United Nations imposed sanctions on the importation of
Liberian timber for various reasons including the use of timber revenue to
provide military support for armed groups within and outside of Liberia,
thus destabilizing the country and extending the armed conflict to
neighboring countries of the West African sub-region; the lack of an audit
regime to curb the high incidence of extra-budgetary expenditures,
political corruption and diversion of sector revenues towards illegitimate
purposes by the Taylor Government, and the lack of good governance,
transparency, and the acceptance of the rule of law in the sector. The
timber ban came into effect on July 7, 2003.

The United Nations Security Council, however, in November 2003 mandated
the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) to reform the
timber industry before sanctions are lifted.

To facilitate civil society participation and contribution to the process,
the Sustainable Development Institute, under the auspices of the Non
Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Coalition for Liberia, on April 8, 2004
organized a civil society planning workshop aimed at developing a civil
society proposal, detailing key issues that the reform process must
address and develop recommendations as to how the identified issues could
be addressed.

The proposal was drafted at the civil society planning workshop organized
under the theme "Increasing Transparency and Promoting Public
Participation to Enhance Forest Law Enforcement and Governance". The draft
was published for two consecutive days in one of Liberia's leading dailies
inviting public comments and input. Following a review of comments and
suggestions, the proposal was finalized by the civil society Forest Sector
Reform Working Group on April 21, 2004.

The proposal, which highlights the issues of transparency and
accountability, public participation and equity in the sharing of risks
and benefits from the sector stressed that increasing transparency and
accountability, promoting public participation and equity in the sharing
of risks and benefits should form the basis of all actions to address the
problems of the forestry sector.

The problems identified by participants as affecting forest law
enforcement and governance in Liberia included the lack of transparency
and accountability, limited public access to information about the chain
of operation of concessionaires and the overall management of the sector
by the Liberian Forestry Development Authority (FDA). Participants at the
civil society planning workshop lamented the centralization of forest
management structures to the exclusion of civil society especially forest
dependent communities, which has led to inadequate public participation in
decision making about and management of forest resources. They said this
has been ensured by the lack of provisions within the FDA regulations or
the standard concession agreements to provide for independent monitoring
of the chain of operation of the forestry sector by Liberian civil
society, especially local non-governmental organizations and forest
dependent communities in order to support national forest law enforcement
and governance efforts.

Political interference and conflict of interests, lack of capacity or
inadequate capacity within the FDA and civil society for forest law
enforcement and governance were also identified as key problems facing the
sector. Looking back, participants deplored the granting of logging
concessions and other forest exploitation rights to companies and
individuals during the conflict period, which gave rise to uncontrolled
and illegal logging and the militarization of the timber sector from 1990
to the present.

To address these situations the proposal called on the National
Transitional Government of Liberia to adopt the recommendations as
measurable objectives for the reform process and take immediate steps to
implement them. The recommendations included immediately auditing the
sector and putting into place mechanisms to prevent the diversion of
sector revenue towards illegal ends and amending the existing concession
agreement to provide for independent monitoring of forestry and logging
operations, especially by local NGOs and forest dwellers, in order to
support and enhance national forest law enforcement and governance
efforts, granting the public access to information relating to the entire
chain of operations of the timber industry, and making available all
concession agreements, including maps and management plans, annual coupe,
etc. within the public domain. The civil society proposal also called for
incorporating new provisions in the concession agreement that would
require logging companies to publicly declare all monies paid to the
government including taxes, fees or fines. This provision would also
require concessionaires to make information about their production,
processing, export, etc. directly available to the public. This would help
to reduce the high level of corruption in the sector.

Excerpted and adapted from: "Increasing Transparency and Promoting Public
Participation To Enhance Forest Law Enforcement and Governance", developed
at the Civil Society Planning Workshop and Finalized by the Forest Sector
Reform Working Group, sent by Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, Director,
Sustainable Development Institute, e-mail: [email protected]
(alternative email: [email protected])