Liberia : Indicators

Forest Management Plans are not available on the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) website, and neither are they available to local communities. It not known if they exist. The forestry law requires that concession holders should not be issued a harvesting certificate until the holder has an approved forest management plan. Local communities affected by the planned forestry operations do not have access to management plans, including the Annual Operational Plan for a Forest Management Contract (FMC) and the Harvesting Plan for a Timber Sales Contract (TSC). Communities do not have information on periods, locations and volumes of the operations in the concession. In the case of a FMC, no management plan has been made available for civil society organisations and communities to scrutinise. Management plans constitute a key pre-felling requirement for an FMC before any timber is felled.

In a letter in August 2011 about the existence of Management Plans for Private Use Permits, FDA responded: “the preparation of a 5 year Management Plan technical document begins with the first Annual Operation of a concession. However, the Annual Operational Plan serves as baseline information for the preparation of the five year plan, which is a process and not an event”. Requests by affected communities for these documents have not been responded to.