Saving Liberia's Forests

The Monrovia Declaration clearly defines and promotes community forestry to ensure at last the sustainable use of Liberia’s forests

Liberia’s forests are undergoing major management reform and revitalization after years of mismanagement and civil war. For much of Liberia’s history, its natural resources have benefited only a few people. And, although most rural inhabitants have used the country’s 4 million hectares of forest, they did not formally own the forestland they used and so subjected forests to unsustainable practices such as slash and burn agriculture. Overexploitation of wildlife for bush meat has also threatened the biologically rich forests of West Africa.

A major plank in the strategy to develop the productive and sustainable exploitation of healthy forests is the development of community forestry. Proposed about 2 years ago as the new component of forest policy to complement commercial and conservation forestry, community forestry remained ambiguously defined and poorly understood.

Researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) recently concluded a yearlong study to clarify the potential of community forestry to support sustainable rural development in Liberia.

“Since early 2005, we have been looking at a slice of the Liberian landscape to understand how people were using forests,” explains Ravi Prabhu, principal scientist at CIFOR.

The researchers found that community forestry has great potential for rural economic development. However, the rights of communities regarding their forests must be clearly spelled out and protected, and communities need to embrace their responsibilities. “By and large, people do not have title to land, as it has been held by the state,” says Dr. Prabhu. ICRAF has long realized the importance of land tenure on forest management in other locations such as Indonesia.

The research findings were presented at an international workshop held on 12-15 December 2005 in Liberia that aimed to develop a common vision of community forestry for the West African country. The workshop brought together a widely diverse group of participants, who adopted the Monrovia Declaration. The declaration committed all stakeholders, including the government, communities, nongovernmental organizations and international donors, to promoting the development of community forestry to establish just and sustainable land and resource use in Liberia.

The Liberia initiative is part of a joint ICRAF-CIFOR biodiversity platform. The Liberia research was funded by the US Agency for International Development through the World Bank. For more information, contact m.bakarr@cgiar.org.