Africa-Press – Liberia. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has inducted 15 volunteers to manage the Leh Go Green Project. The volunteers will work as project associates to support sustainable livelihoods and forest conservation in Liberia.
The three-year initiative aims at tackling deforestation in Lofa, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Gedeh, Gbarpolu, and River Gee Counties.
The “LEH GO GREEN” project is a community-based program that provides incentives to forest community dwellers who depend on the forest for survival to empower themselves by finding alternatives.
The volunteers will also support the project monitoring for the Community Conservation Agreements and help to build the foundation at the community level for sustaining all the project interventions.
The partners include the EU as a donor and its implementing partners, such as UNDP, the FDA, the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), BRAC, Nimba Ventures, the Forestry Training Institute, Green Gold, and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation.
“This project is essential for preserving the ecological integrity of Liberia’s forests,” according to a talking point email from UNDP.
The project seeks to address livelihood and climate change mitigation barriers by enhancing forest restoration in degraded areas, promoting diversified livelihoods that can respond to environmental shocks and stresses, and increasing economic engagement and opportunities for underserved populations.
It will also address sustainable utilization of forest resources to achieve economic and conservation outcomes; promote incentive-based and collaborative conservation agreements and reduced-impact commercial logging to enhance community stewardship and benefits from sustainable forest management, and build local capacity to engage in carbon market dialogues.
The objectives of this project are to improve natural resources governance and create a conducive business environment for sustainable forest-based activities, enhance forest restoration in degraded areas while promoting economic opportunities for underserved populations, particularly women and youth, and facilitate the sustainable utilization of forest resources.
A key component of this intervention involves the integration of fifteen community volunteers who will play a pivotal role in supporting livelihood ventures, project monitoring, and fostering community stewardship.
E. Abraham Tumbey, head of UNDP’s Green and Inclusive Growth, admitted that many of the projects implemented to address forest maintenance lack a sustainability plan.
“Over the years, we have done a lot of interventions but don’t live beyond the project timeline,” he said, which is why the Leh Go Green project is empowering community dwellers by providing incentives.
Tumbey added that the project is also providing employment for the volunteers, noting that the induction is a milestone. “Liberia intervention to work in the communities. A lot of people who graduate from high school don’t have a job, but this is providing a job for themselves.”
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