Liberia : Indicators

Regulations on public participation require consultation prior to contract allocation. The contracts that were issued in 2008/09 did not meet this requirement. Also companies that were awarded concessions in 2008/09 were meant to negotiate and sign social agreements with affected communities, but these agreements were hastily concluded and there have been sustained requests by Community Forest Development Committees (CFDCs) in 2010 and 2011 to renegotiate them.

The consultations carried out by the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) for the first round of concession allocations in 2008/2009 did not always follow the requirements provided in the forestry legal framework. Making the Forest Sector Transparent reported in 2010 that implementation was fraught with poor facilitation and documentation.

Section 5.2a (iii) of the National Forest Reform Law provides for specific regulations regarding pre-qualification of companies wishing to operate Private Use Permits (PUPs), in order that they be subject to a measure of transparent, consultative scrutiny that Timber Sales Contracts and Forest Management Contracts are as a result of being competitively tendered. However, the FDA has not yet recognised this important distinction, and has played down the need for developing specific prequalification procedures for PUPs. As a result, critical information regarding the size, location, ownership and legitimacy of PUPs remains opaque.