Community Forestry often means different things to different people: from allowing local communities to completely manage their forests, to giving locals only token access to the economic benefits derived from the forest. Ambiguity like this can be disastrous when trying to develop Community Forestry in a country still disarming civilians and nursing a fragile peace after 14 years of horrific civil war. Set this against a background of economic ruin, high illiteracy and a national life expectancy of just 40 years and you get an inkling of the challenges facing Liberia’s forestry sector.
CIFOR has made a significant contribution to helping Liberia address these challenges by co-hosting the First International Workshop on Community Forestry in Liberia in 2005. One hundred representatives of Liberian Forestry’s diverse stakeholders, from local communities to international aid organisations and NGOs, attended the workshop in Monrovia, the country’s capital. Their task was to find a way for Liberian community forestry to provide sustainable long-term development for impoverished rural Liberians.
Around 70% of Liberians live in rural areas and depend on forests for their livelihoods. They hunt for bush-meat, tap rubber, and collect wood for charcoal and firewood. Forests provide them with water and nutrient laden soil for agroforestry and rotational ‘swidden’ farming. The forests also play an important part in their children’s traditional cultural education. But forest rights are poorly defined and the majority of rural Liberians are excluded from the economic benefits of their forests’ rich natural resources.
Logging used to be one of Liberia’s most profitable industries but only ever benefited a few. Logging companies brought their own workers into operational areas instead of employing local communities, and profits usually bypassed locals completely. Many weapons used in Liberia’s long and bitter civil conflict were paid for with timber profits, resulting in UN sanctions on the export of timber from Liberia since 2003.
One of the conditions to be met before the UN will life these sanctions is complete reform of Liberia’s forestry sector. The Liberian Forest Initiative (LFI), a partnership of government, NGOs and international organisations, was created to assist in this task. The First International Workshop of Community Forestry in Liberia was convened under the LFI umbrella and, as Wilber Thomas from USAID said at the workshop, ‘We believe community forestry provides an entry point to address these fundamental inequities that exist in Liberian society.’
The participants agreed community development must be driven by community empowerment. In Liberia this means ensuring communities have greater access to local forests. But this access must be sustainable, as John T. Woods of LFI explained, ‘Uncontrolled and unmanaged access to Liberia’s forest resources in the long run will leave no forest resources to support lives in our communities.’
Key issues discussed at the workshop included reaching a clear definition of community forestry suitable for Liberia’s unique situation, considering local communities’ expectations, and detailing the best ways to enable community forestry to thrive. The Liberian forest stakeholders then formulated ‘The Monrovia Declaration’. The declaration sets out a framework for future action on community forestry based on a common understanding of Liberia’s context. It urges the Government of Liberia to address land tenure problems, create supportive systems and provide greater education and training for rural communities. It also reminds local communities of their responsibilities and suggests ways the international community and NGOs can support Liberian community forestry.
The way forward is far from simple, as community forestry requires commitment from many stakeholders. But according to Ravi Prabhu, who led the CIFOR and ICRAF team at the workshop, ‘the declaration was signed by a wide range of stakeholders and this shows a real commitment which is very encouraging.’ He believes the Monrovia Declaration is an important step in Liberia’s move toward a new free and democratic society and ‘it shows the way for positive development in all areas of Liberian society.’ AF
Read the ‘Monrovia Declaration’ at www.fao.org/forestry/site/29660/en. Proceedings of the workshop are atwww.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/Liberia_Proceedings.pdf Read more about this issue atwww.cgiar.org/news/june2006/story_15.html
This workshop was a result of CIFOR and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) researchers working under the umbrella of the LIF with funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the World Bank. Partners in Liberia included the Forestry Development Authority, Flora and Fauna International and Africare.