Addressing the risks of a weak legal framework governing forest conversion in Liberia

The document identifies six key risks in Liberia's forest conversion laws, including land use conflicts and community dispossession, and suggests reforms such as passing the Land Rights Bill and implementing multi-stakeholder land use planning.

• Liberia experiences an annual loss of 30,000 hectares (0.7%) of its forest, with large-scale conversion driven by agricultural concessions (palm oil and rubber) and mining (iron ore and gold).
• The absence of a national land use plan increases the risk of conflicting land uses, leading to overlapping concessions where different resources are granted on the same piece of land, including protected forests and community lands.
• Customary land tenure is not recognised in statutory law, which leaves communities vulnerable to dispossession during the concession process and prevents forest activities from supporting local livelihoods.
• Inconsistencies between sectoral laws create risks of unmanaged deforestation; for example, mining and agriculture laws do not restrict land access, while forestry laws provide robust protections for certain areas.
• There is legal ambiguity regarding whether community use rights and the requirement for free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) apply to forest conversion or are limited to commercial logging.
• The process for clearing trees for conversion is unclear and lacks the comprehensive requirements found in timber harvesting permits, risking harmful practices like burning and the potential for 'timber laundering' into commercial markets.
• To reduce primary forest loss, the document suggests prohibiting conversion in 'Closed Dense Forest' (2.4 million ha) and 'Open Dense Forest' (1.02 million ha), restricting conversion to 'Agriculture Degraded Forest' and 'Mixed Agriculture Forest'.

APA

ClientEarth (2016). Addressing the risks of a weak legal framework governing forest conversion in Liberia. https://www.clientearth.org/media/10wbgql0/addressing-the-risks-of-a-weak-legal-framework-governing-forest-conversion-in-liberia-ce-en-pdf.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Addressing the risks of a weak legal framework governing forest conversion in Liberia. 2016. https://www.clientearth.org/media/10wbgql0/addressing-the-risks-of-a-weak-legal-framework-governing-forest-conversion-in-liberia-ce-en-pdf.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Addressing the risks of a weak legal framework governing forest conversion in Liberia |date=November 2016 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/10wbgql0/addressing-the-risks-of-a-weak-legal-framework-governing-forest-conversion-in-liberia-ce-en-pdf.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2016addressing, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Addressing the risks of a weak legal framework governing forest conversion in Liberia}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/10wbgql0/addressing-the-risks-of-a-weak-legal-framework-governing-forest-conversion-in-liberia-ce-en-pdf.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }