Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
Monrovia – The international watchdog Global Witness (GW) has alarmed over what it calls international logging companies’ exploitation of community forestry in Liberia, with authorities of the George Weah led government being complicit in a scheme that resembles the scandal that surrounded Private Use Permits (PUP), under the regime of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Under Sirleaf, In 2011-12, 63 illegal PUPs covering 2.5 million hectares or 23 percent of Liberia’s entire landmass were issued.
These permits dodged the taxes and public competitive bidding process of other types of permit, according to GW that further states that the PUPs also contained no sustainability requirements, essentially giving companies a free pass to clear 40 percent of Liberia’s forests, including almost half of the country’s primary intact forests.
During the Sirleaf administration PUPs were based on underlying land deeds that were of either suspicious provenance or had been forged – above all, despite being on community land, typically these deals were done behind the backs of ordinary community members, according to GW.
Although in January of 2013, former president Sirleaf issued an Executive Order to cancel all PUPs, but companies such as Atlantic, Forest Venture, Nature Orient Timber Corporation and Southeast Resources as associated companies, all of which had committed “illegal actions”, have all so far escaped the punishments recommended by an official report into the Private Use Permits scandal.
Global Witness has shown how these companies are all linked to the Malaysian logging giant Samling Global, indicating that through its web of subsidiaries, Samling was the mastermind behind the Private Use Permits scandal, obtaining 36 of the 63 illegal logging permits issued, covering 17.5 percent of Liberia’s land mass.
Howbeit, under the Weah’s administration GW says logging companies are enlisting local elites and coercing communities into signing secret agreements that grant them logging rights, in return for them financing the process communities are required to follow in order to obtain Authorised Forest Community status.
Global Witness, which is of the belief that Liberia is seeing in a new age of progressive, community forestry that – if done right – has the potential to be an exemplary model for others to follow, in a new report released Wednesday, revealed that the picture uncovered by the GW in its “report looks very much like a re-run of the scandal that surrounded Private Use Permits.”
The GW maintains that under the Weah regime, a system of forestry licences designed for small operators is being hijacked by international logging firms that the Global Witness refers to as “large rapacious logging companies”.
The international watchdog organization accuses the Weah administration of being an accomplice to the dubious logging activities of the firms it calls large rapacious logging companies, insisting that the community forestry permitting system is being hijacked by these companies while under Wea’s watch, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is guilty of complicity into such dubious transactions.
According to Global Witness, its research also points to companies affiliated to the notorious Malaysian company, Samling Global, playing a leading role in pricing control over Liberia’s rich and diverse forest ecosystems, away from communities, and for themselves.
“It is perhaps no surprise that Samling-linked companies, which came in for some of the most severe criticism in the official investigation into Private Use Permits yet were never sanctioned, are coming back with a vengeance,” GW said in the summary of its report titled ‘Power to the People’, released today.
However, Global Witness has call the Government of Liberia, in collaboration with its donors to act speedily, aimed at remedying the situation.
“It is imperative that the Liberian government and its international donors, notably Norway, now act to ensure large-scale loggers are not getting their hands on community forests for short-term profits,” GW said.
