Timberrrrrrrrrr

Wood dealers at a market in Monrovia. Photo from The Vision.

Global Witness, Greenpeace, Forest Watch – Ghana, and other groups recently released a press release titled “Rush to log Liberia’s forests will jeopardize the reform process.” The release says that because legislation to ensure that communities benefit from the extraction of their natural resources is still being drafted, any logging permits should be temporary.

For me, this is the most surprising and interesting assertion that the groups make:

Significant weaknesses have been documented in the pre-qualification for those wishing to obtain logging permits, to which the Government of Liberia did not respond. And evidence suggests the system for debarring “those who have aided and abetted civil disturbances” is failing.

The release doesn’t identify who these individuals or companies are. This Analyst article identifies Maryland Wood Processing Industries, owned by a Lebanese man named Abbas Fawas, as one company that fueled the war through its timber operations, but does not make it clear if this is one of the companies that is currently trying to acquire timber permits.

A fantastic report on the pre-qualification process for timber permits by the Liberian NGO Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) identifies Texas International Group as one of the companies that lied about its previous involvement in Liberia during the war, but was somehow still pre-qualified. (Some quick Googling brings up nothing on Texas International Group. Is this a real company? Is it based in the US?) Here’s an excerpt from the report, but I recommend reading the whole thing–it’s only four pages:

The company claimed that it did not have logging experience contrary to the fact that it conducted logging operations in 2004 and 2005 and had a sawmill. The Texas International Group had its operations near Gondor Town, Laar Clan in Grand Cape Mount County. The company also conducted a mining operation in the area. This is a serious case of dishonesty and a clear demonstration of questionable character. Although this issue was brought to the attention of other members of the Panel there was a feeling that the panel did not have the authority to ‘investigate’.

One of the problems seems to be that all of the companies going though the pre-qualification process should legally be disbarred because they were all active during the war. This is the explanation the Forestry Development Authority offers for why some shady companies are getting cleared. SDI argues, and I agree, that it is too early to change the regulations as they are only now being tested. Who knows–maybe some Liberian man or woman will get inspired if they see that there is an opportunity to get timber permits that used to be monopolized by foreigners , and start up a timber company.

One other question: why are no Liberian environmental groups signatories to this press release?

Thanks to Carl for pointing out this Yahoo group called Nature_ Liberia – Natural Resource Issues in Liberia. Carl updates the group regularly with news article and commentary. This blog also provides information on natural resource issues in Liberia.

Finally, I know I have a bunch of Liberian and non-Liberian readers who follow natural resource issues much more closely than I do. So please feel free to correct me or offer other thoughts if I got anything wrong in this post.