LIBERIA

Liberia's rainforests were relatively unexploited compared to those of its neighbours prior to the civil wars which raged from 1989-1996 and 1999-2003. During the wars, conflict timber was a key source of revenue for the warring factions. Timber harvesting, plus the damage caused by military operations and wildlife poaching, caused severe damage to the forests.

Following the first war, a new government, which took power in 1989, made forestry a priority and introduced a 5-year tax holiday on the timber industry, whilst granting large concessions to logging companies. Timber revenue grew to 20% of GDP. This policy, combined with repopulation and reconstruction work, put great pressure on Liberia's forests and deforestation rates have increased by 17%. Only 4% of the remaining forest is primary forest.

The UN imposed sanctions on Liberia in 2003 after concluding that the proceeds from the timber industry were fuelling the conflict in Liberia and in neighbouring Sierra Leone. In 2005, FAO warned Liberia that its forests and other resources were at a high risk of facing depletion from illegal logging and land encroachment by gold miners.

The current president took office in January 2006 and instituted many reforms, including in the forestry sector. The UN lifted the sanctions in 2006, but recommended 10 mechanisms be put in place to avoid corruption and track timber revenues. A UN report in March 2008 concluded that these measures had indeed been enacted.

A small number of concessions have been awarded and logging is resuming. The Liberia Forest Initiative, a coalition of partners including the World Bank and USAID, has developed electronic systems to track logs to avoid illegal logging and loss of revenue. The international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is monitoring payments from private companies to the government. And a Community Rights Law has been adopted by the Senate, which, if approved by the president, would establish community ownership and rights over forests, including controlling commercial activities and the revenues from those activities. NGOs and local communities believe this will help tackle further the illegal operations and abuses carried out by some timber companies.

For information about the EU FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Liberia, see the Liberia VPA page.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
30/04/2013	Logging in the shadows: how vested interests abuse shadow permits to evade forest sector reforms Systematic abuse of small, poorly regulated logging permits in Africa by companies, forest officials ...	Global Witness
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19/12/2012	Special Independent Investigating Body Report on the Issuance of Private Use Permits (PUPS) In August 2012, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf established a Special Independent Investigating Body ...	Special Independent Investigating Body (SIIB), Liberia
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01/10/2012	Annual Report Card 2011 Making the Forest Sector Transparent is a four-year programme supporting civil society groups in forest-rich ...	Global Witness
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04/09/2012	Signing their Lives away: Liberia’s Private Use Permits and the Destruction of Community-Owned Rainforest Liberia is the most heavily forested country in West Africa and contains the last large areas of relatively ...	Global Witness, Save My Future Foundation & Sustainable Development Institute
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25/07/2011	Fairly Trading the World's Timber: Lessons on Global Forest Governance and Trade from Europe and Liberia Each year, 12 million hectares of timber are lost to logging, both legal and illegal. Reducing this rate ...	World Policy Institute / Demos (William Powers & Andrea Wong)
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27/01/2011	National Forest Programme (NFP) Facility Newsletter, January 2011 The NFP Facility, hosted by FAO, was created in 2002 to support countries to develop and implement their ...	National Forest Programme (NFP) Facility
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01/12/2010	Chainsaw Milling: Supplier to Local Markets Chainsaw milling, the on-site conversion of logs into lumber using chainsaws, is supplying a large proportion ...	ETFRN (European Tropical Forest Research Network)
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22/01/2010	An Assessment of Liberian Forest Area, Dynamics, FDA Concession Plans, and their Relevance to Revenue Projections This report provides an overview of the history of overestimation of extractable timber volumes and forest ...	RRI (Rights and Resources Initiative), (P Shearman)
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01/01/2010	Liberia - The Promise Betrayed This report reflects on the near collapse of the rule of law in the forestry sector in Liberia over the ...	Sustainable Development Institute
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02/10/2009	Brief on problems with Liberian Forest Management Contracts process On 23 September 2009, Liberian legislators ratified four forest management contracts (FMCs) each for ...	Global Witness
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15/07/2009	Background Investigations into Companies Bidding for Liberian Forest Management Contracts This memorandum sets out Global Witness' findings on the relationships between the following companies: - ...	Global Witness
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05/06/2009	Report of UN Panel of Experts on Liberia (June 2009) Report of Panel of Experts for period 20 January- 15 May 2009; includes section on forests and the timber ...	United Nations
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01/05/2009	Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities The goal of this report is to present and analyse the state of forest tenure in much of the world’s ...	Rights & Resources Initiative (RRI) & International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO)
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27/03/2009	Joint statement on a VPA on FLEGT between Liberia and the European Community Agreement between Liberia and the European Community to open negotiations on a voluntary partnership ...	Government of Liberia and European Community
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27/03/2009	Road map for the negotiation process between Liberia and the European Commission for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) The Roadmap envisions four formal negotiation sessions with technical video-conferences at appropriate ...	Government of Liberia (Forestry Development Authority)
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01/03/2009	The Hunter's Whistle: SDI Liberia Occasional Briefing Paper 06 In February 2009, the Liberian President presented three Forest Management Contracts (FMC), totaling ...	Sustainable Development Institute Liberia
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12/12/2008	Report of UN Panel of Experts on Liberia (December 2008) Report of Panel of Experts for period 14 July - 20 November 2008; includes section on forests and the ...	United Nations
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20/10/2008	Cross-border flows of timber and wood products in West Africa Recognizing that regional and cross-border timber trade may have important implications for the FLEGT ...	European Commission
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01/10/2008	Promoting China's Engagement in Africa: Chinese forest delegation study tour to West and Central Africa The overall intent of the 2008 study tour was to engage China, as a major consumer of African forest ...	IUCN
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31/07/2008	Reform in Jeopardy: reflections on the forest sector reform process in Liberia A briefing from the NGO Coalition for Liberia arguing that that the reform process in Liberia is failing ...	NGO Coalition for Liberia
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01/06/2008	Scoping Study: On the Benefits of Incorporating Forestry into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, with specific reference to Liberia Traditionally, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has focused on oil, gas and mining, ...	Natural Capital Advisors (Arthur G. Blundell)
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27/05/2008	Report of UN Panel of Experts on Liberia Includes progress report on implementation of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006. ...	United Nations
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01/02/2008	Forest Products Trade between China and Africa: An Analysis of Imports and Exports Recent media coverage of China's efforts to secure access to natural resources in Africa suggests ...	Forest Trends (Kerstin Canby, James Hewitt, Luke Bailey, Eugenia Katsigris, Sun Xiufang)
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01/01/2008	Investment in the Liberian Forest Sector: A roadmap to legal forest operations in Liberia Briefing document to explain why the reforms were necessary and how logging will be conducted under new ...	Forest Trends with the Forestry Development Authority of Liberia (John Woods, Arthur G Blundell, Robert Simpson)
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01/01/2008	Prospects for Community Forestry in Liberia: Implementing the National Forest Policy This paper seeks to map out a course for the development of community involvement in forest management ...	Overseas Development Institute, UK
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01/12/2007	So, who owns the forest? Sets out the confusions and conundrums of forest tenure in Liberia today and develops clear recommendations ...	Sustainable Development Institute/FERN
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07/09/2007	Taylor-made—The Pivotal Role of Liberia’s Forests and Flag of Convenience in Regional Conflict This report documents the increasingly important role played by the Liberian timber industry and shipping ...	Global Witness
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16/07/2007	Comments on the Liberian National Forest Management Strategy This presentation summarizes comments on the version 8 draft of the Liberia National Forest Management ...	Sustainable Development Institute Liberia
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01/02/2007	Concessions to poverty: The environmental, social and economic impacts of industrial logging concessions in Africa's rainforests This report addresses the issues surrounding the sustainability and the impacts of the industrial logging ...	Forests Monitor
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01/12/2006	Arborvitae Issue 32: The IUCN/WWF forest conservation newsletter The focus of this issue of arbor vitae is illegal logging and forest governance. It contains informative ...	IUCN and WWF
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01/06/2006	Helping Liberia Escape Conflict Timber: The Role of the International Community China & Europe In 2003, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the international trade of round logs ...	Forest Trends
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25/05/2006	Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005 Is forest management improving in the tropics? This report sets out to answer that question. It provides ...	ITTO
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01/07/2005	Danzer Group: Forest Fact File Danzer Group's response to allegations of corruption made by Greenpeace about Danzer Group activities ...	Danzer Group
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01/06/2005	Timber, Taylor, Soldier, Spy How Liberia's uncontrolled exploitation of timber and diamonds, Charles Taylor's manipulation ...	Global Witness
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01/03/2005	Letter on Liberia and the DRC: Global Witness to the UN Security Council Open Letter to the UN Security Council, regarding conflict resources and peacekeeping in Liberia and ...	Global Witness
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01/12/2004	Dangerous Liaisons The continued relationship between Liberia's natural resource industries, arms trafficking and regional ...	Global Witness
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01/11/2004	Greenpeace Forest Crime Reports: Africa Various Greenpeace reports published on forest crime between November 2004 and March 2000, with a particukar ...	Greenpeace
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14/09/2004	Resource Curse or Cure? Reforming Liberia's governance and logging industry A policy briefing submitted by Global Witness to the UN Security Council arguing the case for renewal ...	Global Witness
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01/05/2004	Global Witness Liberian Conflict Timber Reports 2001-2004 The first four reports from Global Witness on the Liberian timber industry and its effect on regional ...	Global Witness
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01/04/2004	Lessons Learnt on Sustainable Forest Management in Africa: Study on Forest Administration and Related Institutional Arrangements This study is a component of a wider initiative jointly undertaken by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture ...	Owino, Prof. F (Forest Resources International, Kenya) & Ndinga, Dr A (Dakar Fann, Senegal)
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01/01/2004	Conflict Timber: Dimensions of the Problem in Asia and Africa As a response to the growing recognition of the connection between forests, logging and conflict, this ...	ARD Inc. for USAID (Jamie Thomson and Ramzy Kanaan)
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01/04/2003	Liberian Timber Trade Fuels Regional Insecurity Unveils how Liberian logging is destroying forests and funding war. Two versions are available to download ...	Greenpeace
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17/11/2002	Role of the African Timber Trade in the Creation of Conflict and Poverty - A Call for Action This document considers the negative effects of the tropical timber trade in the DRC and Mano River Region ...	Greenpeace (Filip Verbelen)
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01/03/2002	Greenpeace Report: DLH: a partner in global forest crime Greenpeace looks at the legality of the activities of a number of timber companies supplying the Dutch ...	Greenpeace
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
30/04/2013	Africa’s logging permit crisis puts EU at risk of laundering illegal timber imports Systematic abuse of small, poorly regulated logging permits in Africa by companies, forest officials ...	Global Witness
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21/03/2013	EU efforts to keep out illegal timber must have real teeth A European Union law to outlaw illegal wood imports could have a big impact across the globe. ...	European Voice
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21/03/2013	Liberia: Forestry Development Authority Management Denies Illegal Timber Export Report The management of the Forestry Development Authority has denied report by some media outlets that illegal ...	AllAfrica
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07/03/2013	Encumbered Lumber : Europe Seeks Hard Line on Illegal Logging Until recently, European companies could import illegally felled lumber with no fear of prosecution. ...	Spiegel Online
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03/03/2013	Illegal logs from Liberia found in French port as sweeping criminal sanctions kick in across EU Illegal Liberian timber worth thousands of Euros was sitting in a French port less than 3 weeks before ...	Global Witness
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07/01/2013	Liberia: Ellen takes stand to protect forest - after FDA blunders President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has issued Executive Order No. 44, on Protecting Liberian Forests by ...	The Informer, Liberia (featured on allAfrica.com)
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21/12/2012	Liberia urged to clean on illegal timber shipments An official of Global Witness said it is important for the Liberian government to be sincere in demonstrating ...	Voice of America
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08/11/2012	Liberia likely to revise logging contracts over graft: president Brussels - Contracts to exploit Liberia's natural resources are likely to be revised or renegotiated ...	Chicago Tribune, US
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08/10/2012	Liberia: Farmers attribute climate change to govt concession policies Local farmers across the country are blaming government's policies that allocated large-scale industrial ...	The News, Liberia (posted on allAfrica.com)
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25/09/2012	Liberia: Notorious Malaysian company surfaces in Liberia A comprehensive investigation by this paper has unearthed that a notorious Malaysian logging company ...	The Inquirer, Liberia (posted on allAfrica.com)
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14/09/2012	Forestry: Contract abuses subject to investigation What Liberia lacks in modern infrastructure it makes up for in trees. No other country in west Africa ...	Financial Times, UK
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12/09/2012	How deforestation could further destabilize Liberia Adjoining Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, the Republic of Liberia flares-out into the mangrove-lined ...	PolicyMic
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04/09/2012	Illegal logging report gets Liberia's attention - forestry chief suspended Even before a report came out Tuesday alleging that illicit deals gave a quarter of all of Liberia to ...	NBC News
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10/08/2012	50 residents get GPS technology knowledge Fifty community dwellers, drawn from ten counties recently benefited from Global Positioning System (GPS) ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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05/04/2012	Sustainable forest management According to the Liberia Social Audit Report of 2011, more than 1,084,912 hectares of forestland have ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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07/03/2012	FDA, EU to develop framework for forest operation The Forestry Development Authority (FDA), European Union (EU) and other stakeholders are strategizing ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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05/10/2011	Liberia: Locals train to curb illegal logging The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) over the weekend launched a project to monitor illegal logging ...	allAfrica.com
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26/08/2011	Harvesting trees sustainably in Liberia Liberia, a country that for much of its recent history has been engaged in bloody wars, was once the ...	Time
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23/05/2011	By barcoding trees, Liberia looks to save its rainforests A decade after a brutal civil war, the West African nation of Liberia has partnered with the European ...	Yale Environment 360
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25/03/2011	Palm oil giants target Africa in 'land grab' following Indonesia deforestation ban Indonesia's move to bring in a two-year moratorium on new palm oil plantations to protect its remaining ...	The Ecologist, UK
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08/03/2011	Is palm oil a kernel of development for African countries like Liberia? ...	Guardian, UK
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09/02/2011	On Kouwenhoven, Global Witness welcomes Dutch court’s decision on new witnesses A Dutch appeal court decided this week to hear prosecution witnesses that were not permitted to be called ...	The Liberian Journal
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25/01/2011	Wolverhampton University staff tackle illegal logging ...	BBC News
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06/01/2011	Liberia needs to do more to cut resources that could fuel conflicts, UN panel warns Liberia, a country once torn asunder by civil war, has made some progress in seeking to cut off the illegal ...	UN News Centre
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14/10/2010	Liberia seeks trial of UK national over carbon deal Liberia is seeking to prosecute a British citizen for bribery in a proposed carbon deal that would have ...	Reuters, featured on Planet Ark
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19/08/2010	Saving forests with carrots as well as sticks - part 1 Forests cover about a third of Earth's land area and contain about 70% of the carbon found in living ...	The Huffington Post, US
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13/07/2010	Liberia urged to choose between logging and future climate revenue Desperate need for income makes pressure on timber resources hard to resist for rising population. ...	Guardian, UK
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06/06/2010	Liberia literally hopes to find money growing on trees Conserve the rainforests and we will pay you ... so goes the gist of an ambitious plan by the West to ...	Gulf Times, Qatar
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29/04/2010	Blood on our hands: Ireland's role in illegal logging Buying illicit timber funds violent regimes and causes global warming – and Ireland is the EU’s ...	Irish Times
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21/04/2010	Global Witness welcomes court decision to retry Guus Kouwenhoven on Liberian timber The Dutch Supreme Court has overturned a 2008 ruling by the Court of Appeal which cleared businessman ...	The Liberian Journal
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12/04/2010	Liberia to submit REDD readiness plans On Friday, April 3, 2010, several Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and donor partners including the ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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16/03/2010	Technology helps Liberia turn the page on 'blood timber' Monrovia - Liberia's rainforests, once ravaged for blood timber sold to fund one of Africa's ...	AFP
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25/01/2010	Copenhagen Accord could boost forest protection efforts, though details unclear London - Ensuring that forests and the carbon they store are protected, and that the people who live ...	Reuters AlertNet
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25/01/2010	Forestry sector needs transparency to reduce risks of REDD A new project aims to increase transparency in the forestry sector, an area long plagued by corruption ...	Mongabay.com
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11/01/2010	Liberia faces choice between deforestation and REDD If alternatives to deforestation like REDD do not arrive soon Liberia's remaining rainforest cover ...	The Ecologist
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15/12/2009	French logging company sued for role in Liberian civil war Nantes, France – At least three human rights organizations have lodged a legal complaint before ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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18/11/2009	NGOs file legal action over Liberian timber deal International timber company DLH accused of funding Liberian war. Activists launch legal complaint ...	OneWorld.net
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06/11/2009	GOL, EU to negotiate partnership agreement The Government of Liberia and the European Union are to negotiate for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement ...	The Inquirer Online, Liberia
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29/10/2009	Africa: African governments and outside powers must be accountable On the eve of the climate change summit in Copenhagen this December, momentum for action still falls ...	allAfrica.com
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01/10/2009	Global Witness urges Liberian President not to sign risky logging contracts The Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf should refuse to sign four 25-year forest management contracts ...	The Liberian Journal
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23/09/2009	Liberia's forests do not need to be chopped down - Open Letter to the Liberian Legislature The Liberian Legislature has this week been asked to ratify four forest management contracts (FMCs). ...	The Liberian Times
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28/08/2009	Liberia: Credibility of Liberia's forestry reform programme at point of collapse, warns Global Witness The credibility of Liberia’s forestry reform programme, one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken ...	allAfrica.com
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21/08/2009	Liberia: timber pirates in country? Many, who thought Charles Taylor's bush war to topple Samuel Doe's discredited government would ...	allAfrica.com
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15/08/2009	Mismanagement of Liberia's forests: a driver of deforestation We will look at the final report of Global Witness for the past month and see how FDA did her job with ...	Daily Observer, Liberia
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11/08/2009	Liberia: Global Witness restates warnings over logging of forests Campaign group Global Witness today restated its concerns that two firms linked to Malaysian timber giant ...	allAfrica.com
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11/08/2009	10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world Hopefully it comes as no great surprise to you that deforestation is a major problem in many areas of ...	Tree Hugger
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05/08/2009	Lift Africa's resource curse, says watchdog group During her trip to Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit a number of countries rich in ...	Voice of America
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04/08/2009	Logging curbs Deep in the worlds tropical rainforests, workers are hammering thousands of barcodes into hardwood trees ...	The Star, Malaysia
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22/07/2009	3 logging companies detest Global Witness' stance Three logging companies which were recently declared winners of the competitive logging process under ...	The Inquirer, Liberia
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16/07/2009	Liberia: Govt poised to hand forests to timber pirates Two firms linked to Malaysian timber giant Samling, a company notorious for destroying tropical forests ...	allAfrica.com
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10/07/2009	British company barcodes trees to protect forests London - Deep in the world's tropical rainforests, workers are hammering thousands of barcodes into ...	Reuters UK
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02/07/2009	REDD readiness plans for Panama, Guyana approved but rejected for Indonesia The World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has approved REDD readiness plans (R-Plans) ...	Mongabay.com
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14/05/2009	Liberia barcodes trees to log profits Liberia is having its lumber trees tagged electronically as the government rushes to restart an industry ...	BBC News
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20/04/2009	Liberia: Pit sawing illegal, but economical - FDA boss states Monrovia - The Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Mr. John Wood has lauded ...	allAfrica.com
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26/03/2009	Launch of Voluntary Partnership Agreement between Government of Liberia and EU Minister Chris Toe's opening statement at the launch of negotiations ...	Government of Liberia (Forestry Development Authority)
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24/03/2009	Liberia: "Blood Timber" for sale! - Stop the practice says Greenpeace Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her government should stop the flow of azobe timber from a country ...	Liberian Times (Liberia)
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30/09/2008	Bassa Citizens Support Community Rights Law Liberia - Citizens of Grand Bassa County, at a mass meeting on Friday, expressed support for the passage ...	The News Newspaper Online (Liberia)
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08/08/2008	Africa: New Technology to Sever Timbers Link to Conflict? New York, USA - While conflict diamonds or blood diamonds, as they are known, have gained attention the ...	IPS (Italy)
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04/08/2008	Liberia: Government Puts Forest Reforms in Jeopardy - Says NGO Coalition The Government of Liberia is threatening its own reform process and putting the rule of law in the forest ...	AllAfrica.com
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24/07/2008	14 countries win REDD funding to protect tropical forests Fourteen countries have been selected by the World Bank to receive funds for conserving their tropical ...	Mongabay.com
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18/06/2008	Fish and timber in West Africa need more sustainable EU policies say MEPs Fish and timber are natural resources often not managed in a sustainable way in West Africa due to inadequate ...	European Parliament (EU)
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17/06/2008	Liberia EITI Surges Ahead Liberia has been one of the most cursed of all resource-rich countries. Despite an abundance of iron ...	Extractive Industries Tranaparency Initiative (EITI)
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21/04/2008	Liberia: Logging industry ready to restart Monrovia, Liberia - With mechanisms now in place to resume logging operations and three companies awarded ...	IRINnews.org (USA)
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06/03/2008	Protected by bars Liberia - A groundbreaking computerised forest-protection system is up and running. If all goes according ...	Economist (UK)
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27/02/2008	Liberia: Commercial Logging Begins Next Month - FDA Boss Discloses Liberia - The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is expected to award six Timber Sale Contracts on ...	AllAfrica.com
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05/02/2008	SGS and Helveta announce agreements for a nationwide forest and timber chain-of-custody monitoring system in the Republic of Liberia Geneva, Switzerland - SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS) announced today the signature of ...	SGS/Helveta (Switzerland/UK)
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01/11/2007	Liberia: Swiss Firm Manages Chain-of-Custody in Forest With a chain-of-custody in managing Liberian forest, it is expected that "there would be no illegal ...	AllAfrica.com
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23/06/2007	UN to investigate Taylor's 'hidden wealth' The United Nations Security Council has agreed to set up a three-member panel of experts to probe into ...	afrol News (Norway)
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19/12/2006	Liberia: Doors Cautiously Open to Foreign Investment Despite the lack of even such basic infrastructure as an electrical grid or a functional transportation ...	Resource Investor (USA)
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18/12/2006	Liberia: FDA Lays Basis For Legal Logging Liberia's Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is preparing a new bidding process for logging concessions ...	AllAfrica.com
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15/12/2006	Liberia: Government lays foundation for legal logging Monrovia - Liberia's Forestry Development Authority is preparing a new bidding process for logging ...	Reuters (UK)
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12/10/2006	New dawn for Liberia's 'blood forests' "You've heard of blood diamonds? Well, some have called the forests of Liberia the 'blood ...	BBC (UK)
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02/10/2006	The scramble for Africa What is the future for resource-rich post-conflict African nations? ...	The Statesman (Ghana)
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20/09/2006	Liberia sees green in reform of 'blood timber' The UN may permanently lift trade sanctions on timber this week. ...	Christian Science Monitor (USA)
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07/09/2006	When You Have Been Bitten by a Snake... "Liberia does not have a long tradition of respect for human rights and civil society" is the ...	Huffington Post (USA)
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06/09/2006	Liberia: UNMIL, FDA Visit Logging Areas In line with Executive Order 1, issued on 2 February 2006 by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the Deputy ...	The Enquirer (Liberia)
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17/07/2006	Logging resumes in Liberia As former US president Bill Clinton arrives in Liberia to meet with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, ...	Mongabay.com (USA)
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27/06/2006	Liberia: FDA Halts Timber Exportation The Government of Liberia through the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which holds the mandate for ...	AllAfrica.com
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20/06/2006	U.N. council lifts ban on Liberian timber exports The U.N. Security Council voted on Tuesday to lift its embargo on Liberian timber exports which had been ...	Reuters (UK)
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14/06/2006	LIBERIA: Security Council draws back on arms embargo MONROVIA, Liberia - The UN Security Council has voted to let weapons flow legally into Liberia for the ...	Reuters (UK)
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13/06/2006	Liberia: UN Divided Over Sanctions Latest reports from the United Nations say there are divisions within the UN Security Council over the ...	AllAfrica.com
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11/06/2006	Arms dealer busts embargoes with impunity On Wednesday, a Dutch national court sentenced Guus Kouwenhoven, 64, to eight years in prison for breaking ...	Forbes (USA)
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07/06/2006	Greenpeace Welcomes Conviction of Notorious 'Conflict Timber' Trader: Kouwenhoven sentenced to 8 years in prison The Hague, Netherlands - Greenpeace today welcomed the conviction of the notorious Dutch timber baron ...	Common Dreams Newswire (USA)
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06/06/2006	U.S. Introducing Draft To Lift Arms Embargo on Liberia U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said June 6 he was introducing a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council ...	DefenseNews.com (USA)
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05/06/2006	Liberia: Global Witness On Liberia's Back The UK-based organization of international reaches, Global Witness (GW), has implored the UN Security ...	AllAfrica.com
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19/05/2006	Crimes against humanity: Anatomy of an arms dealer ...	The Independent (UK)
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05/05/2006	Liberating Liberia (Radio broadcast) When Silas Siakor became aware of the government corruption behind logging in his homeland, ...	Living on Earth (USA)
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03/05/2006	Global coalition forms to boost incomes, rights of forest-dwelling communities Conservationists on Thursday launched a global coalition aimed at halving the number of forest-dwelling ...	Associated Press Worldstream
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24/04/2006	Vietnam War veteran among Goldman Environmental Prize winners Three of the winners of the prestigious Goldman Prize fought to uncover illegal logging and its consequences: ...	WKYT (USA)
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24/04/2006	Silas Martyr Silas Siakor put his life on the line to save Liberia's forests. ...	Grist Magazine (USA)
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24/04/2006	Dutch trial seeks ex-Liberia head Lawyers for a Dutch timber trader accused of arms trafficking are calling for Liberia's former leader ...	BBC (UK)
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20/04/2006	Bush Administration Launches New Global Conservation Initiatives The following statement on the US President's initiative against illegal logging was issued by the ...	States News Service (USA)
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31/03/2006	LIBERIA: Before UN Sanctions Are Lifted, a Timber Industry Clean-Up MONROVIA - Liberia's newly-elected but cash-strapped government has begun to find ways that the ...	OneWorld.net (UK)
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23/02/2006	Forest Concession Awareness to be Launched Liberia - The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) is expected to convene a national public awareness ...	AllAfrica.com
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14/02/2006	Executive Order On Concession Liberia - President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has cancelled all illegal concessions and any such concessions ...	AllAfrica.com
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22/01/2006	Goodbye to West Africa's rainforests West Africa's once verdant and extensive rainforests are now a historical footnote. Gone to build ...	Mongabay.com
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21/12/2005	United Nations renews timber, diamond sanctions in Liberia UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council renewed diamond and timber sanctions on Liberia for another six ...	New Kerala.com (India)
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13/07/2005	A Timber Assoc. Excepts to U.S. Embassy's Decision The Liberia Timber Association (LTA) says its attention has been drawn to a United States Embassy's ...	AllAfrica.com
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15/06/2005	Timber, Taylor, Soldier, Spy: How Liberia's uncontrolled resource exploitation, Charles Taylor's manipulation and the re-recruitment of excombatants are threatening regional peace Global Witness Press Release: Recommendations to the UN Security Council, the UN Mission in Liberia, ...	ReliefNet
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21/03/2005	Dutch Arrest Suspected Arms Trader for War Crimes Committed in Liberia Prosecutors said Monday they have charged a Dutch man with war crimes for breaking the international ...	Agence France Presse
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28/01/2005	Greenpeace: Latest facts on the Swiss timber giant Danzer Group Zug, Switzerland - In June and November 2004, Greenpeace International released two reports on the activities ...	Greenpeace
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21/01/2005	The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has Closed Investigations Against the Danzer Group Baar, Switzerland - The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has Closed an investigation against Interholco ...	Danzer Group (Switzerland)
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08/12/2004	Liberia: UN Security Council threatens to amend sanctions on Liberian timber and diamonds A briefing document released today by Global Witness highlights the many links still remaining between ...	Global Witness (UK)
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11/04/2004	Liberia: Environmentalists report illegal logging Monrovia - A Liberian environmental group has reported illegal timber exports from in the rebel-controlled ...	IRIN Africa
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14/10/2003	Outgoing Liberian Government Passes Forest Protection Laws On October 11 outgoing Liberian President, Moses Blah, signed three laws aimed at protecting Liberia's ...	www.fauna-flora.org
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15/05/2003	Greenpeace uncovers contentious timber in French port Greenpeace activists uncovered approximately 8000 cubic metres of contentious timber from Liberia, Cameroon ...	Greenpeace
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06/05/2003	UN Security Council extends sanctions against Liberia to include ban on timber exports Citing Liberia's active support of rebel groups which are having a destabilizing effect on West ...
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
09/06/2008	Reinforcing Liberia's reforms	Arthur Blundell, Natural Capital Advisers, LLC
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09/06/2008	Chain of custody automation in the Liberian forest sector	Thomas Pichet, SGS & Martin de la Serna, Helveta Ltd
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09/06/2008	Forest sector reform at a crossroads: a civil society perspective on the Liberian forest sector reform process	Silas Siakor, Sustainable Development Institute Liberia
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01/11/2007	China-Africa Forest Product Trade: An overview	Forest Trends (Sun Xiufang)
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25/01/2007	Forests, conflict and the return of governance in Liberia	US Forest Service (Jerilyn Levi)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Tuesday 15th July 2008	FAO/ITTO Regional Workshop on Improving Forest Law Compliance and Governance in Tropical West Africa Over the past two years, FAO and ITTO have assisted countries in the Amazon region, Central Africa, Central ...
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Friday 22nd June 2007	Liberia - FLEGT and Certification Workshop Workshop on forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) ...
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Thursday 25th January 2007	Illegal Logging Update and Stakeholder Consultation Number 9 The ninth in a regular series of meetings coordinated by Chatham House and funded by DFID. The meeting ...
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Monday 6th December 2004	Commission For Africa ' Forest Programme Brainstorm A brainstorming session on illegal logging held in part to feed into the Commission for Africa Report, ...
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LINKS

TITLE	DESCRIPTION	REPORT
AfriTRON: African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network	The African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network (AfriTRON), is an international network of researchers engaged in on-the-ground long-term monitoring of tropical forests. The network pools expertise and data to help answer larger-scale and longer-term questions relating to the ecology and biogeochemistry of African tropical forests. In particular AfriTRON aims to address questions of contemporary importance such as the possible impacts of regional and global environmental changes on tropical forests, and the impacts of changes in the forests themselves on the regional and global environment. This is done through partnerships between scientists across the world, students and local villages who host our field-trips.	Broken link
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Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)	The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining. Liberia is the first country to include forestry within its EITI scope.	Broken link
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Liberia Forestry Initiative	LFI is a partnership of government, international and non-governmental organisations which aim to promote sustainable forest management in Liberia. The purpose of LFI is to promote and assist reforms in the Liberian forestry sector that will allow for transparent management of forest resources and to ensure that these resources are used for the benefit of the Liberian people.	Broken link
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SDI Liberia	The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI Liberia) is an NGO with a focus on natural resources management and governance issues and its works are primarily directed at transforming the decision-making processes relative to natural resources management and promotng equity in the sharing of benefits derived from resource exploitation.	Broken link
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