Liberias skovlov tillader individer at fælde skov til eget forbrug, men disse tilladelser udnyttes i høj grad af skrupelløse virksomheder, og man frygter, at mange aktive fra borgerkrigen er vendt tilbage for at udnytte den ringe forvaltning af loven, skriver Global Witness fredag.
LONDON, June 7, 2013: The Liberian government’s failure to enforce its forest laws is encouraging logging companies to find new ways to bypass rules to gain access to the country’s rainforests and exploit local communities, according to a new report from Global Witness.
Those involved include loggers who reportedly worked with the Oriental Timber Company, which trafficked arms, committed human rights abuses and felled large swathes of forest during Liberia’s brutal civil war. Individuals are supposed to be barred from the timber sector under Liberian law if they aided or abetted conflict.
In December 2012, a government investigation reported that a quarter of Liberia and 40 percent of its forests were covered by illegal logging licenses called Private Use Permits (PUP). Intended for use by individual landowners, PUPs had been targeted by industrial logging companies to get round social and environmental safeguards, with fraud and exploitation of forest communities widespread.
In response to the findings, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf swiftly halted operations by PUP companies and committed to sanction those responsible. The government says that it is working to fulfill the President’s commitments, but six months later no PUPs have been cancelled and no criminal charges have been filed.
“The government’s own investigation has shown that Liberia’s forests are in crisis – the use of illegal permits and exploitation of communities by logging companies is rife,” said Jonathan Gant, a Policy Advisor with Global Witness.
“But government response has been weak and the problem is getting worse, not better. The government must punish those responsible for abusing the permit system, otherwise predatory logging companies will feel emboldened to find new ways to get round the laws and into the forests.”
Meanwhile, Global Witness has received reports which if true would suggest that Liberia is not enforcing laws barring loggers who operated during Liberia’s natural resource-fuelled civil war. Two current logging companies that hold PUPs and other logging licenses have senior staffers with the same names as people who worked for the Oriental Timber Company while the company was trafficking arms during the war. When asked to comment, one of these companies adamantly denied wartime involvement of the staff in question.
Læs mere her: http://www.globalwitness.org/liberiaCFMA
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