Africa-Press – Liberia. Summary
World leaders launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility at COP30, announcing more than $US5.5 billion in finance for countries that maintain or expand forest cover, including Liberia.
Liberia faces mounting local pressures, including growing charcoal production, failed donor programs, hunting, and cross-border encroachment — factors that experts say could threaten its forests and climate commitments.
Experts warn Liberia could miss out on the new funds unless it improves forest governance and demonstrates verifiable reductions in forest loss.
World leaders at the 30th Conference of the Parties, the annual meeting of countries coordinating to halt climate change, formally launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a new global fund with US$5.5 billion in initial support, designed to reward countries that keep their forests standing. With one of the world’s largest tracts of remaining forest, Liberia could be at the forefront of such funding.
Unlike traditional aid, the Facility is designed to give funds only on proven results. For countries that can meet the requirements it offers predictable, long-term funding rather than funding with time limits.
The fund “offers hope that our commitment to conservation will be met with predictable financial support,” paving the way for investments in green jobs, community development, and climate resilience, said Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, executive director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, addressing a high-level event at COP30, held in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belem, in a video.
“Our forests are not merely national treasures; they are global lungs. Protecting them is a global imperative. This fund provides a framework to show that development and nature can advance hand in hand.”
Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, executive director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, speaks during a COP30 high-level event in a video released by the EPA. (Screenshot/EPA)
Liberia, home to more than 40 percent of West Africa’s remaining forests, is among 53 countries endorsing the facility, including 19 potential investor nations. Eligible nations must demonstrate that forest cover is maintained or annual deforestation remains low – generally consistent with widely used low-deforestation benchmarks of around 0.5 percent per year — supported by credible monitoring systems and transparent benefit-sharing frameworks.
But experts say that given Liberia’s poor track record in meeting donor requirements and protecting forests, accessing those funds will require a major overhaul in government response. Under the Weah administration a project totalling $US10 million in approved funding from the Green Climate Fund, another global fund designed to assist vulnerable countries to adapt, was stalled because of “inflated” salary requests and the appointment of politically connected and unqualified people to leadership positions.
Projects that would have built a sea wall to protect people in West Point from sea erosion and another that would have provided an early weather hazard warning system, were delayed leaving hundreds of thousands of people to become victims of flooding and failed crops.
Forest near Bopolu, Liberia, part of the 40% of West Africa’s remaining forests. (Photo: John Wessels)
Under Yarkwapolo, who was appointed in early 2024, the Boakai administration has scrambled to meet donor requirements and get those projects back on track. But meeting the requirements to protect Liberia’s forests may be a bigger challenge for the Boakai administration.
Successive governments have presided over extensive corruption in the forestry industry that has seen rampant illegal logging and mismanagement. Former administrators of the Forestry Development Agency, government officials, and legislators have repeatedly been accused of corruption. Across the country forestry communities have signed agreements with companies to log their forests only to see those agreements violated and forests stripped. Experts are warning biodiversity loss risks many forests tipping into a cycle that will turn the forests into grasslands.
Liberia’s forests face mounting pressures on other fronts. A FrontPage Africa/New Narratives investigation found that in Nimba County, nearly two decades of forest protection are at risk as former eco-guards return to hunting and slash-and-burn farming after donor-funded programs Another investigation found that in Bomi County and rural Montserrado, erratic rainfall and collapsing harvests caused by the rising impacts of climate change are driving farming families into charcoal production — now one of the country’s leading sources of deforestation.
“If they really want us to stop burning coal, they have to give us another way to live,” said Charles McGill, 89, a farmer in Bomi County. “Until then, we’ll keep going into the forest. We have no choice.”
A cleared field in Bomi County, where trees were cut for charcoal production. At left, a producer packs bags of charcoal for transport. Photograph by Aria Deemie/New Narratives
While the Boakai administration’s efforts have been lauded by experts as a big improvement they warn that there remain significant gaps. The government’s Nationally Determined Contribution 3, or NDC, the national climate commitment unveiled with much fanfare at COP30, commits to reducing the national deforestation rate by 10 percent and establishing at least 200,000 hectares of new protected areas. But it does not explicitly mention how it plans to reduce charcoal production a major driver of tree cutting.
“Even in the energy component of the NDC, they don’t consider charcoal,” said Wynston Benda-Henries, executive director of the Liberian conservation group Save My Future Foundation. “They just say ‘forest degradation’ as a whole body…The FDA says charcoal isn’t causing enough emissions to be a concern — but how do they know when they don’t collect field data? You can’t sit at checkpoints and say you have forest data. You must go to the field.”
He also warned that Liberia’s “priority forests” – areas containing the highest biodiversity and carbon stocks – are increasingly vulnerable. “Even if I’m producing the charcoal from a priority forest, how will you be able to know?” he asked. “You don’t know from the bag.”
Earlier this month Augustine Konneh, senior presidential advisor, speaking on behalf of Liberian President Joseph Boakai called for stronger governance, instructing the Forestry Development Authority to clarify forest data after reported coverage jumped from 4.3 million to 6.6 million hectares, an inconsistency that could undermine policy planning.
EPA Director Yarkpawolo did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline but at COP30, he stressed the importance of accountability. “We stand ready to demonstrate that protecting nature and pursuing development can advance hand in hand when the right financial framework exists.”
Tropical forest nations across the world face a similar tension: conserving carbon-rich forests for the global climate while meeting the immediate survival needs of local communities. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports shows that weak governance and conflict have hindered forest-finance programs. While Gabon, the first African nation to receive results-based payments for forest protection — is still evaluating the impact of its latest revenue-sharing schemes, earlier conservation programs tied to financial incentives have shown measurable gains. In Cameroon, by contrast, illegal logging continues despite decades of forest laws.
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