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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/liberia/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Liberia environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/liberia/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Why are forests vanishing in southeastern Liberia?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/07/why-are-forests-vanishing-in-southeastern-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/07/why-are-forests-vanishing-in-southeastern-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2026 08:34:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka MukpoJuan Maza]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/18082807/Mongabay_Thumbnail_Chasing_Featured-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=videos&#038;p=323941</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Supply Chain, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GRAND GEDEH, Liberia – In the past century, most of West Africa’s Upper Guinean rainforest has been lost to commercial agriculture, infrastructure development and logging. More than half of what’s left is in Liberia, and the remaining rainforest now faces a threat that’s already driven much of the region’s deforestation: cacao production. In the past [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GRAND GEDEH, Liberia – In the past century, most of West Africa’s Upper Guinean rainforest has been lost to commercial agriculture, infrastructure development and logging. More than half of what’s left is in Liberia, and the remaining rainforest now faces a threat that’s already driven much of the region’s deforestation: cacao production. In the past few years, the rush to plant cacao has been on in southeastern Liberia, destroying vast tracts of forest. After reviewing satellite data that shows massive forest loss, Mongabay visited the region to investigate what’s driving the industry’s rapid expansion and who is profiting from it. In this episode of Chasing Deforestation, we travel deep into Liberia&#8217;s rainforests to speak with migrant cocoa workers, forest rangers and community landowners. Join us in our journey from a protected chimpanzee habitat to the European Parliament, as we examine whether these forests will survive the world’s appetite for chocolate. Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any inspiring people, urgent issues, or local stories that you’d like us to cover? We want to hear from you. Be a part of our reporting process—get in touch with us here! Banner image: A collage featuring Ashoka Mukpo, a Mongabay reporter, and a cocoa bean. Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Is it working?This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/07/why-are-forests-vanishing-in-southeastern-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323941</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Chasing Deforestation’ in Liberia: Behind the scenes with Mongabay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 21:46:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15103439/Cocoa-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323482</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Mongabay investigation, Natural Resources, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s investigation into deforestation in Liberia started with a tip from a source last year. “There’s deforestation, and a migrant rights issue,” they said. Areas along the border with Côte d&#8217;Ivoire were losing vast swaths of rainforest to cacao farming. It was the beginning of a months-long journey that led us from the Liberian jungle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s investigation into deforestation in Liberia started with a tip from a source last year. “There’s deforestation, and a migrant rights issue,” they said. Areas along the border with Côte d&#8217;Ivoire were losing vast swaths of rainforest to cacao farming. It was the beginning of a months-long journey that led us from the Liberian jungle to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and through the history of West African labor migration. &nbsp; As a features writer for Mongabay’s Africa bureau, my work has brought me across the world. I’ve covered conservation conflicts, climate change, and the legacy of commodity extraction. These stories are always a window into the interconnected forces of modern life: economic inequalities, history, ecological change, geopolitics, and so on. I often joke that environmental reporters are really on every beat at once. Our societies were built on the exploitation of nature, and control over resources is one of the most fundamental expressions of power. Scratch the surface of an environmental story, and you’ll find one about how decisions are made, who gets to sit at the table, and what really matters to them. But few stories I’ve covered in my career pulled as many threads together as this one did. Mongabay Features Writer Ashoka Mukpo interviewing FDA rangers in Grand Gedeh, Liberia. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. The tip wasn’t the first I’d heard of land deals for cocoa production in southeastern Liberia, an area where I’ve worked and reported in the past. Since 2024, civil society&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The vanishing forests on Liberia’s cocoa frontier</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 21:38:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15124037/Banner-image-Cocoa-28-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323492</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Business, Cacao, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Mongabay investigation, Natural Resources, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[(GRAND GEDEH, Liberia) – Off in the woods beyond the ekki trees, a sharp crack cuts through the buzzing of insects. “It’s a tree falling,” says George Bowey, a baby-faced community eco-guard who works here in the proposed Kwa National Park, a thick tropical rainforest in southeastern Liberia. There are different ways to grow cacao. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[(GRAND GEDEH, Liberia) – Off in the woods beyond the ekki trees, a sharp crack cuts through the buzzing of insects. “It’s a tree falling,” says George Bowey, a baby-faced community eco-guard who works here in the proposed Kwa National Park, a thick tropical rainforest in southeastern Liberia. There are different ways to grow cacao. In one method, saplings are intercropped with other tree species so they form a diverse ecosystem. Or there’s another method, where plantation land is cleared by pouring gasoline on the base of native trees and setting their roots on fire so they wither and die. This is the method that migrant cacao workers from nearby Côte d’Ivoire have brought into Kwa. &nbsp; The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation&#8217;s George Bowey walks past a burned tree in the proposed Kwa National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. The sound of more trees falling echoes in the distance as Bowey picks his way through the bush. The other eco-guards and forest rangers here at Kwa call him “Gentle George.” With his upbeat personality, it’s not hard to see why. He bounds up a damp hillside, listing off some of the species found inside Kwa. “We got western chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos, giant pangolins, white- and black-belly pangolins, we got a lot of animals in here, like leopards, golden cats, we got Diana monkeys, western black and white colobus, we got three types of crocodiles,” he says. Eventually he reaches his destination. The cool overgrowth suddenly gives way&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323492</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU votes to end illegal logging agreement with Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 19:47:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22194538/8430918514_7f6286b70b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321608</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Liberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the agreement. The EU’s “Voluntary Partnership Agreement” (VPA) with Liberia was part of its signature effort to tackle illegal logging and deforestation in timber-exporting countries. It was designed to help overhaul Liberia’s logging industry, long associated with corruption and environmental mismanagement, and facilitate legal trade with the EU. Under the terms of the agreement, the EU provided funding for Liberia to set up tracking and transparency systems for timber shipments. Liberia committed to verifying that all logs shipped out of its ports were felled legally and to carve out space for local environmental groups to monitor its compliance with the agreement. Similar agreements were signed with eight other countries, including four in Africa. But more than a decade after the December 2013 agreement was implemented many of the EU’s expectations were unmet, including the development of a licensing system for Liberian logs to access EU markets, a centerpiece of the agreement.  After repeatedly missing deadlines, the licensing system was never implemented. Last year, the EU Commission recommended the VPA be canceled. Environmental groups opposed the commission’s recommendation, saying that despite the agreement’s weaknesses it had been invaluable in promoting local oversight of the notoriously opaque timber&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321608</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Liberia’s carbon market policy nears completion amid pushback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/liberias-carbon-market-policy-nears-completion-amid-pushback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/liberias-carbon-market-policy-nears-completion-amid-pushback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 20:53:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13204446/liberia-rainforest-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=319380</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Liberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, and Governance]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Liberian policymakers have almost completed a framework for selling carbon credits to international buyers. But local environmental groups say they’re being shut out of a fast-tracked final review of the policy. According to Jeanine Cooper, chief executive officer of Liberia’s Carbon Market Authority, the “penultimate” draft of the policy was nearing completion last week. In [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Liberian policymakers have almost completed a framework for selling carbon credits to international buyers. But local environmental groups say they’re being shut out of a fast-tracked final review of the policy. According to Jeanine Cooper, chief executive officer of Liberia’s Carbon Market Authority, the “penultimate” draft of the policy was nearing completion last week. In a phone interview with Mongabay, she said she expected a final version to be ready for President Joseph Boakai to sign soon. “We do need to move on with different policies and regulations, so it behooves us to get it done as quickly as possible,” she said. A prior draft of the policy, dated April 2026 and reviewed by Mongabay, details how Liberia will set up a registry for approved carbon projects and how revenue will be allocated from them. The draft establishes that the Carbon Market Authority, which was set up through an executive order by Boakai late last year, would be in charge of selling Liberian carbon credits. Communities who own the forests and land tied to those credits would receive at most 50% of the revenue. That’s rankled some civil society groups in the country. “If I own something, I own it 100%,” said Dayugar Johnson of the NGO Coalition, a group of Liberian community rights and environmental advocates. “So why should 50% come to me?” Cooper told Mongabay that Liberia’s carbon markets will respect community resource ownership, and that civil society groups have had ample opportunities to comment on it. “A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/liberias-carbon-market-policy-nears-completion-amid-pushback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319380</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Second progress report shows little action on World Bank redress plan at Liberian plantation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 10:07:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/04104621/woman-sex-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317077</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a second report on progress with the action plan. “IFC will continue to engage with key stakeholders over the coming months to explore the feasibility of MAP implementation.” But Windor Smith, from the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy, which works with affected communities around the Salala plantation, told Mongabay she does not know which stakeholders the IFC is engaging with. “The situation is still the same. There is no engagement, no consultation with the communities and supporting organizations.” Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin took over the rubber plantation in 2007 and received an IFC loan of $10 million to rehabilitate and expand it. Community members started voicing grievances soon thereafter. Dissatisfied with the company’s response, they filed a complaint with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, IFC’s independent watchdog, in 2019, alleging sexual harassment, inadequate compensation for their rubber trees and food crops lost and a flawed land acquisition process. Read more about Socfin&#8217;s plantations in Africa. Four years later, the CAO completed its investigation, concluding that many of the complaints were valid. The IFC developed an action plan, which it committed to implementing along with Socfin. In contrast to what followed many previous CAO investigations, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317077</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community complaints in limbo as Socfin cuts ties with Earthworm Foundation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 10:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka MukpoVictoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16124503/Salala4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313982</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When agribusiness giant Socfin found itself embroiled in allegations of human rights and environmental violations at its plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia in 2017, it called on the Switzerland-based sustainability consultant Earthworm Foundation for help. Earthworm’s investigations eventually substantiated many of the grievances filed by communities across Socfin’s operations, notably including complaints of sexual [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When agribusiness giant Socfin found itself embroiled in allegations of human rights and environmental violations at its plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia in 2017, it called on the Switzerland-based sustainability consultant Earthworm Foundation for help. Earthworm’s investigations eventually substantiated many of the grievances filed by communities across Socfin’s operations, notably including complaints of sexual harassment and pollution of water sources raised at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation. Earthworm’s findings largely mirrored those of a four-year investigation into Socfin’s practices in Liberia by the International Finance Corporation’s independent watchdog in 2023, which Socfin had rejected. Late in 2025, Socfin and Earthworm discreetly announced that they had cut ties. In a November press release posted to its website, the Earthworm Foundation called the decision “mutual.” “We did see Socfin genuinely engaging with and implementing the recommendations,” Jotica Sehgal, a spokesperson for Earthworm, said via email. “They made a strong commitment by allowing the investigation to proceed and by agreeing to have the results shared publicly.” The Earthworm Foundation counts global agriculture commodity giants like Nestlé and Pepsi as members. These companies pay an annual fee, and Earthworm offers support in addressing their supply chain practices. Responding to Mongabay by email in January, Socfin spokesperson Ludovic Saint-Pol said, “Both organisations recognise that the collaboration has reached its natural conclusion, with the main objectives initially defined having been largely achieved.” According to Earthworm&#8217;s website, the relationship with Socfin was intended to help the company develop and implement its Responsible Management Policy, set up grievance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A &#8216;new baseline&#8217;: Study captures accelerating sea-level rise in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 20:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30190306/5-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313548</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Central Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, data, El Nino, Environment, Erosion, Flooding, Freshwater, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &#38; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, on average, than they had in the 1990s. The primary reason was additional water mass from polar melt, rather than other phenomena that can cause sea-level rise, the authors found. “When you have ice-free summer [at high latitudes], it means that the water went somewhere,” Franck Ghomsi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in Canada and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “The glacier moved from ice to water, and it [water] started migrating. And it is the tropics [that] are now … getting this outflow of water.” The impacts include flooding, erosion of coastal land, displacement of coastal communities and intrusion of salty seawater into freshwater drinking sources. People in Africa are responsible for only a tiny proportion of human-caused global warming and yet face severe effects from the resulting sea-level rise, said Ghomsi, who is from Cameroon, calling this a “climate injustice.” He said that emissions from countries in the Global North are having a “huge impact” on countries in the Global South, including in Africa. Monthly sea level for Africa from 1993-2023. Annual means are shown in red. Sea-level rise accelerated over the 31-year period, with the rate during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Artisanal fishers in Liberia question benefits of new tracking devices from government</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artisanal-fishers-in-liberia-question-benefits-of-new-tracking-devices-from-government/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artisanal-fishers-in-liberia-question-benefits-of-new-tracking-devices-from-government/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 14:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Blamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15135310/3435026583_4c184bf61d_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311370</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, GPS, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Technology, and Tracking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MONROVIA — In Liberia, a country where small-scale fishers number in the tens of thousands, fishers go missing at sea every year. Some, like a crew of four rescued 54 nautical miles (100 kilometers) off the coast in 2020, are fortunate. The Liberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA), an advocacy group, has, over the years, petitioned [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONROVIA — In Liberia, a country where small-scale fishers number in the tens of thousands, fishers go missing at sea every year. Some, like a crew of four rescued 54 nautical miles (100 kilometers) off the coast in 2020, are fortunate. The Liberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA), an advocacy group, has, over the years, petitioned the government to improve the safety of these fishers, most of whom use traditional dugout canoes. Some of the boats have outboard motors. But until recently, almost none had a way to broadcast their location. Earlier this year, the campaign received a boost when the Liberian government procured 400 automatic identification system (AIS) transponders from South Africa. The solar-powered devices were distributed to artisanal fishermen in the counties of Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Margibi and Montserrado. AIS devices transmit a vessel’s position and its speed via radio signals. These can be picked up by other vessels and also by receivers located on land. The system was developed to aid navigation at sea. But in recent years, AIS has also been used to map fishing effort and activity. It’s deployed mostly by larger vessels (longer than 24 meters, or 79 feet), and less so by smaller boats used by artisanal fishers. While officials and some fishermen consider the initiative in Liberia a step in the right direction, many of the fishers whom Mongabay spoke to in Grand Cape Mount and Margibi said they’re hesitant to install the devices. Their primary complaint is that the AIS&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artisanal-fishers-in-liberia-question-benefits-of-new-tracking-devices-from-government/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artisanal-fishers-in-liberia-question-benefits-of-new-tracking-devices-from-government/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311370</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cacao rush fuels conflict and deforestation in southeastern Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 23:56:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09071637/18-an-illegal-cocoa-crop-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=309554</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Liberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cacao, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Environment, Farming, International Trade, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has spiked dramatically since the beginning of 2025. The price of cacao rose from $2.30 per kilogram ($1.04 per pound) in 2022 to $7 ($3.18 per pound) in October 2025. That’s a drop in price from the early 2025 peak price of $10.73 per kilo ($4.88 per pound). The dramatic spike in value has fueled a migration of cacao workers from Côte d’Ivoire into Liberia. Nearly 50,000 rural workers have moved to Grand Gedeh, many with experience in the cacao industry. These migrants now make up more than 20% of the county’s population, which was around 217,000 in 2022. “Some of our friends who came to Liberia earlier called us and we saw messages on our phones,” one migrant worker from Cote d’Ivoire told Mukpo. “They told us that the forest is open in Grand Gedeh, so that’s how we started coming to Liberia.” Community leaders and local elites are reportedly offering these migrant workers 20-300 hectares (50-740 acres) of land to set up cacao plantations. Landowners keep 60% of the proceeds from cacao, while the workers take 40%. “The situation is alarming. They are really destroying the forest on a massive scale,” Yei Neagor, an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309554</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil must halt Liberian palm oil company’s abuses (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-must-halt-liberian-palm-oil-companys-abuses-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-must-halt-liberian-palm-oil-companys-abuses-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2025 13:33:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gaurav Madan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/12005717/aceh_0825-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307689</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Commodity Roundtables, Corporate Social Responsibility, Governance, Human Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Palm Oil]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of southeastern Liberia, fear is resounding over what the future may hold. For more than a decade, communities in Sinoe county have struggled against palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), which has razed more than 1,000 hectares (almost 2,500 acres) of rainforest, destroyed sacred sites, and violated local land rights. GVL’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of southeastern Liberia, fear is resounding over what the future may hold. For more than a decade, communities in Sinoe county have struggled against palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), which has razed more than 1,000 hectares (almost 2,500 acres) of rainforest, destroyed sacred sites, and violated local land rights. GVL’s abuses were affirmed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the industry certification body, and by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), a multistakeholder initiative aimed at protecting forests. Following years of community resistance and a formal complaint, the RSPO issued a stop-work order for GVL to halt plantation expansion. But this past June, the RSPO announced it was lifting the moratorium, raising concerns over the fate of globally significant forests and the communities that live there. Today, Liberian civil society and international allies are urgently demanding that the RSPO reverse its decision and maintain its stop-work order on GVL’s expansion to prevent further deforestation, protect communities’ rights, and ensure accountability for the company’s environmental and human rights violations. Notably, GVL is controlled by Indonesian palm oil giant Golden Agri Resources (GAR), a member of the RSPO, with its own history of alleged illegal forest clearance, corruption and human rights abuses. A Golden Veroleum Liberia oil plantation abuts a forested buffer. Image by Jonathan H. Timperley. For years, the RSPO has faced criticism for providing cover to member companies engaged in abuse. By reversing its decision on GVL — despite research showing the company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-must-halt-liberian-palm-oil-companys-abuses-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-must-halt-liberian-palm-oil-companys-abuses-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307689</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Let’s understand the value of the forest’ says Liberia’s Silas Siakor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2025 11:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/01093841/edb884ea-00f1-4a96-b10e-b1e414790373-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Foreign Aid, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Timber Laws, timber trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rainforests have long played a central role in Liberia. Home to hundreds of thousands of people, they’re a source of sustenance, a site for cultural practice and habitat for forest elephants, western chimpanzees, and pygmy hippos. Massive rubber plantations carved out of them dominated the country’s economy for decades, and during the country’s civil war [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rainforests have long played a central role in Liberia. Home to hundreds of thousands of people, they’re a source of sustenance, a site for cultural practice and habitat for forest elephants, western chimpanzees, and pygmy hippos. Massive rubber plantations carved out of them dominated the country’s economy for decades, and during the country’s civil war they provided timber that funded rebel groups. After the guns fell silent, Liberia overhauled its forestry laws to give communities a bigger role, with foreign donors pledging vast sums to support the reforms. Today, some of those donors are pulling back on their commitments, and new threats to Liberia’s forests are emerging. Nobody knows the importance of Liberia’s forests — or the challenges of protecting them — better than Silas Siakor. A prominent voice pushing for community rights in forest management, he was instrumental in designing the postwar legal reforms as well as the exposure of logging corruption scandals. In 2006, Siakor was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work investigating illegal logging under former President Charles Taylor. With the prize money, he set up an environmental watchdog group, the Sustainable Development Institute. Now, he’s helping to run an innovative pilot project in Liberia’s southeast Sinoe county, where 28 communities are set to begin receiving direct “area-based payments” from the Irish government in exchange for conserving their forests. “Two things came to mind when I first started to think about this approach,” he told Mongabay. “How do we incentivize forest owners to keep their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/liberia-has-a-new-plan-to-protect-its-rainforests-can-it-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/liberia-has-a-new-plan-to-protect-its-rainforests-can-it-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2025 11:20:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/05104807/woman-in-a-liberian-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305241</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Foreign Aid, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Timber Laws, timber trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Around half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in the small coastal nation of Liberia. They’re home to species like western chimpanzees and pygmy hippos, valuable stands of hardwood — and hundreds of thousands of people. Despite years of logging reforms backed by foreign aid, Liberia lost more than 38,000 hectares (94,000 acres) of humid [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Around half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in the small coastal nation of Liberia. They’re home to species like western chimpanzees and pygmy hippos, valuable stands of hardwood — and hundreds of thousands of people. Despite years of logging reforms backed by foreign aid, Liberia lost more than 38,000 hectares (94,000 acres) of humid primary forest in 2024 , driven by factors including agriculture, unsustainable logging and mining. A group of 28 communities in Liberia may have a solution, and it’s an elegantly straightforward one: Pay them to keep the forest standing. Under a new pilot project in southeastern Sinoe county, the government of Ireland is set to pay those communities $1.50 per hectare (2.5 acres) of forest they protect annually for the next two years. Fifty thousand hectares (124,000 acres) in two community-controlled rainforests are included in the pilot, with residents hoping to collectively receive $75,000 each year — about twice what a logging company would have paid them in land rental fees. Liberia’s Sapo National Park. Image by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay. The money will be spent on development projects chosen and funded by the communities themselves, with some oversight by the Liberian organization managing the pilot. That organization, Integrated Development and Learning, hopes it can find enough funding to scale up the pilot to a total of 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of rainforest. “It’s taking some responsibility and saying these communities are doing something for all of us, for the planet and environment, and therefore&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/liberia-has-a-new-plan-to-protect-its-rainforests-can-it-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/liberia-has-a-new-plan-to-protect-its-rainforests-can-it-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305241</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Liberian communities await justice at Salala rubber plantation after World Bank complaint</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/liberian-communities-await-justice-at-salala-rubber-plantation-after-world-bank-complaint/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/liberian-communities-await-justice-at-salala-rubber-plantation-after-world-bank-complaint/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 10:15:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29100926/Jorkporlorsue-town-surrounded-by-rubber-trees-owned-by-Salala-Rubber-Corporation.-Image-by-Ashoka-MukpoMongabay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=305136</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rubber, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Five months after the World Bank’s private investment arm submitted its action plan to address community grievances against a rubber plantation it funds in Liberia, affected residents are still waiting for its implementation. The case goes back to a 2019 complaint filed by four Liberian NGOs with the internal watchdog of the International Finance Corporation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Five months after the World Bank’s private investment arm submitted its action plan to address community grievances against a rubber plantation it funds in Liberia, affected residents are still waiting for its implementation. The case goes back to a 2019 complaint filed by four Liberian NGOs with the internal watchdog of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO). The complaint was filed on behalf of 22 communities in Margibi and Bong counties who live around a Salala Rubber Corporation plantation, alleging sexual harassment of workers, inadequate compensation for crops, pollution of groundwater sources, desecration of sacred sites, and land grabbing. The CAO validated these allegations in its investigation report in December 2023. It took the IFC until March 2025 to issue a management action plan (MAP). Since then, community representatives told Mongabay, no progress has been made toward addressing the violations. &#8220;We are concerned about how the implementation of the MAP is going,&#8221; said Windor Smith from the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), one of the NGOs representing the communities. &#8220;Until now we have not seen any tangible differences in the communities, at all.&#8221; Smith added the IFC hasn’t communicated with them since March. At the time of the complaint in 2019, Salala was owned by Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin, but it sold the plantation to India’s Jeety Rubber just after the CAO investigation concluded in 2024. It’s unclear whether and how Socfin, or Jeety, will engage in the remedial action. The MAP includes commitments to implement community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/liberian-communities-await-justice-at-salala-rubber-plantation-after-world-bank-complaint/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/liberian-communities-await-justice-at-salala-rubber-plantation-after-world-bank-complaint/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Liberia to start industrial shrimp fishing, worrying artisanal fishers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/liberia-to-start-industrial-shrimp-fishing-worrying-artisanal-fishers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/liberia-to-start-industrial-shrimp-fishing-worrying-artisanal-fishers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2025 21:40:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Blamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/05135417/Fishermen-in-Marshall-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food Industry, food security, Illegal Fishing, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Natural Resources, Oceans, Overfishing, Resource Conflict, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — The sun was scorching hot in the town of Robertsport as James Dayougar shook debris from his nets, which he’d just returned from fishing with moments earlier. His eyes looked bloated, the nets disheveled. With just a few fish in his canoe, James’s day at sea had been a rough one. He [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — The sun was scorching hot in the town of Robertsport as James Dayougar shook debris from his nets, which he’d just returned from fishing with moments earlier. His eyes looked bloated, the nets disheveled. With just a few fish in his canoe, James’s day at sea had been a rough one. He sat down by his canoe and folded his arms to speak with Mongabay. “Whenever they pass … it is difficult to get fish from that entire area,” he said, referring to the industrial trawlers that regularly intrude on fishing grounds within 6 nautical miles (11 kilometers) of shore that are supposed to be reserved for artisanal fishers like himself. Now the government of Liberia plans to expand industrial bottom trawling in the country, authorizing a new fishery for high-value shrimp worth $80 per kilogram ($36 per pound). Dayougar’s statement expresses an age-old scuffle between artisanal fishers and industrial trawlers in these waters, one that many fishers here fear is about to get worse. Bottom trawling is a widespread fishing technique in which vessels drag weighted nets and rigid gear along the seabed, scooping up everything in their path. Conservationists say this causes long-term damage to seabed habitats and ecosystem functions, and catches sea life indiscriminately. The Liberian government’s decision to open a shrimp trawl fishery was informed by data collected during experimental shrimp fishing in 2021 and 2022 that culminated in the development of a draft shrimp fisheries management plan. According to the National Fisheries&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/liberia-to-start-industrial-shrimp-fishing-worrying-artisanal-fishers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/liberia-to-start-industrial-shrimp-fishing-worrying-artisanal-fishers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How ‘country palm’ could help pave the way toward a sustainable palm oil future in Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/how-country-palm-could-help-pave-the-way-toward-a-sustainable-palm-oil-future-in-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/how-country-palm-could-help-pave-the-way-toward-a-sustainable-palm-oil-future-in-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2025 23:49:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Louise Hunt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/18231144/Tree_pangolin_Phataginus_tricuspis_Nyamebe_Bepo_4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294649</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Birds, Commodity agriculture, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Industrial Agriculture, Palm Oil, Pangolins, Parrots, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across southeastern Liberia, oil palms grow wild in the forest. Known as “country palm,” the Elaeis guineensis tree is native to West Africa and treasured by local communities. “In the rural areas where there are palms in the wild, if you want to farm in those areas people will say to you, ‘Do not cut [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across southeastern Liberia, oil palms grow wild in the forest. Known as “country palm,” the Elaeis guineensis tree is native to West Africa and treasured by local communities. “In the rural areas where there are palms in the wild, if you want to farm in those areas people will say to you, ‘Do not cut down the palm trees!’” says James Otto, program coordinator at the Sustainable Development Institute, an environmental and community rights NGO based in Liberia. “The palm is usable by everybody, it’s not one person to a palm tree.” Harvesting the fruit is traditionally a communal effort, and it’s manually processed into cooking oil and butter that’s then used in almost every dish, along with multiple other household and medicinal purposes. Selling products made from country palm at the local market has long been a source of income for subsistence farmers. “I remember my grandfather doing that,” Otto says. “But it is not only for livelihood purposes, it has a serious tie with our culture, with our way of life.” A woman with country palm fruit that she has harvested. Image by Michael Pashkevich. He cites the example of traditional leaders visiting from other parts of Liberia where there was no wild palm to obtain and bring back seeds, “so they would germinate in their own land areas, so it’s a key tradition for the people of Liberia.” Wild oil palm is not only beneficial for communities, but for birds and mammals too; it’s native to one&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/how-country-palm-could-help-pave-the-way-toward-a-sustainable-palm-oil-future-in-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/how-country-palm-could-help-pave-the-way-toward-a-sustainable-palm-oil-future-in-liberia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294649</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Has the Moo Deng craze helped wild pygmy hippos at all? (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 15:40:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/03064352/moo-deng-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293764</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Hippos, Mammals, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a chaotic year. The year was, once again, the warmest on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with multiple climate disasters around the globe. The year was also the third since Russia had invaded Ukraine, it saw 12 months of bombing in Gaza by Israel and 10 million were displaced in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a chaotic year. The year was, once again, the warmest on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with multiple climate disasters around the globe. The year was also the third since Russia had invaded Ukraine, it saw 12 months of bombing in Gaza by Israel and 10 million were displaced in Sudan due to war. The year also saw hugely important elections in many nations, including Indonesia, France, India, the U.K. and the U.S. Is it any wonder that millions of people turned to a pugnacious baby pygmy hippo for a little relief? Moo Deng was born July 10, 2024, at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Bang Phra, Thailand. In September, the baby went viral, becoming famous for her playful, no-holds-barred attitude. She appears to enjoy mouthing the boots of her keeper, chasing water from a hose and, of course, like all babies, sleeping. And, yes, she’s even cute when she does that. Moo Deng became such a phenomenon that zoo attendance doubled and the Khao Kheow Open Zoo has said they plan to copyright her cute image. The phenomenon was international: She even appeared in a Saturday Night Live skit in the U.S. and got her own theme song in Thai. The Moo Deng story hasn’t been without some controversy, but in a chaotic year it was largely a wholesome treat for world-weary viewers. But there is another side to this story. After all, Moo Deng is a pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis), an endangered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293764</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No justice in sight for World Bank project-affected communities in Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 12:30:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/03105221/Salala6-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than a year late, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has finally submitted its response to an investigation that found evidence of grave human rights violations at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) that it helps fund in Liberia. The IFC, established to fund private sector development in poor countries, loaned $10 million to SRC [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than a year late, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has finally submitted its response to an investigation that found evidence of grave human rights violations at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) that it helps fund in Liberia. The IFC, established to fund private sector development in poor countries, loaned $10 million to SRC to rehabilitate and expand its plantations in 2007. Affected communities filed a complaint  with the finance institution’s independent grievance body, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, alleging failure to prevent abuses by SRC. Communities living in and around the Salala rubber plantation accuse SRC, owned and operated by transnational plantation operator Socfin from 2007 until 2024, of land grabbing, sexual harassment of workers, pollution of water bodies, and the destruction of sacred sites and graves. Years of complaints raised directly with SRC’s management, local and national governments in Liberia, and the parent company, listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, failed to win redress, forcing the communities to take their grievances to the CAO. Since the CAO investigation was completed in December 2023, the IFC has asked for multiple deadline extensions to submit a required management report and action plan (MAP) outlining the measures it will take together with SRC to address the ombudsman’s findings. “We are hoping that the action points of the MAP will be carried out so that community tension can ease,” said Windor Smith, a member of the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), which works on land and customary rights&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>African nations commit to electricity for 300 million people by 2030</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 09:30:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30092722/39A1286-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=293628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Chad, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Banking, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Finance, Geothermal Energy, Governance, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was launched in April 2024 by the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners. Vincent Nmehielle, secretary-general of the AfDB, told the summit that the declaration outlines commitments to reform the energy sector through practical actions like expanding power infrastructure, incorporating more renewable energy, and incentivizing private sector participation. The electrification boost is also expected to create new jobs. The declaration will be submitted for formal adoption at the African Union Summit in February, the World Bank said in a statement. Twelve countries — Chad, Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia — also presented their country-specific “national energy compacts,” expected to be in place by the end of 2025. These compacts include specific goals and timelines to expand electricity access, address utility efficiency, increase renewable energy generation, attract private investment, and provide clean cooking solutions. Tanzania’s compact, for example, aims to provide electricity to an additional 8.3 million households by 2030, focusing on rural and underserved areas. It also aims to expand the share of renewables in its energy mix from the current 61.8% to 75% by 2030. This will be driven&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/plan-for-close-season-rings-alarm-bells-for-liberias-artisanal-fishers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/plan-for-close-season-rings-alarm-bells-for-liberias-artisanal-fishers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2024 14:16:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Blamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/25092701/liberia-fishers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287821</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — “We depend only on the sea for our survival. How will we manage when the sea is closed?” Mamie Freeman was seated atop a beached canoe in Robertsport, a bustling fishing community in western Liberia. She glanced occasionally at her fellow fishmongers, who were busy packing up the fish they’d just purchased. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — “We depend only on the sea for our survival. How will we manage when the sea is closed?” Mamie Freeman was seated atop a beached canoe in Robertsport, a bustling fishing community in western Liberia. She glanced occasionally at her fellow fishmongers, who were busy packing up the fish they’d just purchased. She was worried about a government plan to implement a close season for fishing. No fishing for a portion of the year would mean no catch, no fish for her to sell, and no way to support her family. Mamie, whose fiancé is a fisher, had relocated to Robertsport due to low catch in the capital, Monrovia, where she used to live. She said she uses the proceeds from selling fish to provide for her eight children, including their medical, school, shelter and other needs. Any suspension of income, however temporary, could be devastating for the family’s thin finances. Close (or closed) seasons legally prohibit fishing activities during specific times of the year, either for particular species or gear types, or across the board. They’re a standard fisheries management tool to reduce the effect of overfishing and allow fish stocks to replenish. But the news of plans to implement the measure in Liberia, which the government revealed in May, has caused consternation within the country’s small-scale fishing sector. Since then, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Liberia’s fisheries regulator, has released no further details about the rollout of the plan, leaving the public with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/plan-for-close-season-rings-alarm-bells-for-liberias-artisanal-fishers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/plan-for-close-season-rings-alarm-bells-for-liberias-artisanal-fishers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287821</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Troubled rubber plantation in Liberia shuts down after labor unrest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2024 11:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16131022/Salala3-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285041</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Plantations, and Rubber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two prominent union leaders remain in prison a month after the headquarters of the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia was set on fire by aggrieved rubber tappers. The pair are among 60 workers who were named in an indictment seen by Mongabay. Along with another union official, they stand charged with conspiracy to commit a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two prominent union leaders remain in prison a month after the headquarters of the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia was set on fire by aggrieved rubber tappers. The pair are among 60 workers who were named in an indictment seen by Mongabay. Along with another union official, they stand charged with conspiracy to commit a series of crimes, including arson. The three have been jailed for more than three weeks along with six other workers from the plantation. Salala is the Liberian subsidiary of the Belgian-French agricultural conglomerate Socfin, which operates rubber and oil palm plantations across West and Central Africa. The incident occurred on June 27 amid a campaign by the workers’ union to obtain a collective bargaining agreement that would guarantee better housing conditions, medical care for work-related injuries, a reduction in harvesting quotas, and other improvements. In mid-June, workers staged a five-day strike action in which they refused to work on the plantation. Salala’s management agreed to address some of the union’s demands, but said they would not pay the workers for the days they spent on strike. The refusal spurred some rubber tappers to ransack Salala’s headquarters, which were set on fire along with the private residence of the plantation’s manager, who was briefly detained by workers before being freed by company security. According to the Liberian government, more than $275,000 of company property was destroyed in the incident. A photo of the house of Salala Rubber Corporation&#8217;s manager after it was burned on June 27,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285041</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Setback for Guinea mine that threatens World Heritage chimp reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/setback-for-guinea-mine-that-threatens-world-heritage-chimp-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/setback-for-guinea-mine-that-threatens-world-heritage-chimp-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2024 10:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/03154944/Schimpasen2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guinea, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Forest Destruction, Forests, Infrastructure, Mining, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A major iron mining project in eastern Guinea may be at risk as its owner, the U.S. firm HPX, is reportedly running into trouble with its plans to ship ore through neighboring Liberia. HPX’s mining concession in Guinea has raised alarm among environmentalists, who say that if it reaches the production stage, its close proximity [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A major iron mining project in eastern Guinea may be at risk as its owner, the U.S. firm HPX, is reportedly running into trouble with its plans to ship ore through neighboring Liberia. HPX’s mining concession in Guinea has raised alarm among environmentalists, who say that if it reaches the production stage, its close proximity to Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve would endanger the resident chimpanzees. HPX’s mining concession is located near Liberia’s border with Guinea. The shortest route for shipping ore extracted from it would be via a railway rehabilitated by the U.K.-Indian steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal as part of the 25-year agreement it signed with the Liberian government in 2005. Since 2011, ArcelorMittal has been the line’s primary user, shipping around 5 million metric tons of ore per year from its own iron mine in northern Liberia to the port city of Buchanan. HPX and its founder, Canadian billionaire Robert Friedland, have been reportedly lobbying to block an amended contract that ArcelorMittal is fighting to push through Liberia’s legislature, which would tighten the firm&#8217;s grip on the railway. Under the revised agreement, ArcelorMittal would control day-to-day operations on the line and have the right to prevent other companies from interfering with its shipment schedule. Fearing that ArcelorMittal could disrupt its own plans, Friedland and HPX have been engaged in a multiyear campaign to convince the Liberian government to allow it to have unfettered access to the railway. A train carrying iron ore from Yekepa to the port of Buchanan in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/setback-for-guinea-mine-that-threatens-world-heritage-chimp-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/setback-for-guinea-mine-that-threatens-world-heritage-chimp-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New illegal logging threatens Liberia’s forests amid vague ban</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-illegal-logging-threatens-liberias-forests-amid-vague-ban/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-illegal-logging-threatens-liberias-forests-amid-vague-ban/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2024 08:21:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Giahyue]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/01190308/SeizedKpokoloKlayCheckpoint_BomiLiberia_JamesGiahyueTheDaylight-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281630</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Community Forests, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Law Enforcement, Logging, Politics, Rainforests, Timber Laws, timber trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MONROVIA — Chainsaw-milled timber is emerging as a damaging new form of illegal logging in Liberia. Chainsaw milling is legally permitted only for small-scale production of boards for the country’s domestic market, but larger operators may be using it as a means to evade regulations governing the sourcing and tracing of wood, and to avoid [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONROVIA — Chainsaw-milled timber is emerging as a damaging new form of illegal logging in Liberia. Chainsaw milling is legally permitted only for small-scale production of boards for the country’s domestic market, but larger operators may be using it as a means to evade regulations governing the sourcing and tracing of wood, and to avoid paying royalties to communities. Liberia has the largest intact forests in West Africa, a reservoir for biodiversity and a vital resource for the people who live in them. During the long civil war that began in the 1990s, armed factions indiscriminately felled large areas for valuable timber to pay their fighters and enrich their leaders. Establishing effective regulation of the timber industry was an important part of the peace process negotiated in the mid-2000s. In the postwar period, Liberia set up a system meant to ensure that wood is sustainably harvested only from licensed concessions, and volumes of timber are properly accounted for to ensure the state and local communities get their share of the taxes and royalties. The time, place, and date of every tree harvested commercially is meant be recorded in the LiberTrace tracking system. Raw, round logs are exported to foreign markets, mainly to European Union countries, China and Vietnam. Chainsaw milling is an exception. Currently, small-scale operators are allowed to reach informal agreements with local communities to fell trees and cut them into boards. The timber they produce is solely for sale in Liberia’s domestic markets and meant to be no&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-illegal-logging-threatens-liberias-forests-amid-vague-ban/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-illegal-logging-threatens-liberias-forests-amid-vague-ban/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281630</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Liberia puts a wartime logger in charge of its forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/liberia-puts-a-wartime-logger-in-charge-of-its-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/liberia-puts-a-wartime-logger-in-charge-of-its-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2024 09:15:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/24213015/Logs_RivercessCountyLiberia2013_FloreDePreneufPROFORFlickrBYNC2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281358</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Foreign Aid, Forests, and Governance]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The appointment of a logging executive with ties to former president and war criminal Charles Taylor has drawn fierce criticism by local environmental groups.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Liberia’s new president, Joseph Boakai, has appointed a timber trader linked to illegal logging to head the agency responsible for the country’s forests. Rudolph Merab, a longtime ally of Boakai’s, was tapped to lead the Forestry Development Authority in February, prompting alarm from environmental advocates in Liberia, who say Merab lacks the required qualifications for the job and is likely to prioritize timber extraction over conservation or community forestry. “He has been very critical of community participation in forest management,” said Jonathan Yiah, forest governance expert at Liberia’s Sustainable Development Institute. “More generally, he’s against the idea that communities should participate or give out concessions to logging companies, or even to manage forests.” Merab replaces former FDA boss Mike Doryen, whose tenure was marred by allegations of corruption and lawbreaking. Appointed by soccer star-turned-president George Weah, who was defeated by Boakai last October, Doryen ran the forestry agency from 2018-2023. In a leaked 2022 memo, the U.K. Foreign Office said that post-war regulations meant to protect Liberia’s rainforests and combat illegal logging virtually collapsed under Doryen. The memo described a “parallel system” for timber exports that bypassed legality checks and included the use of off-the-books accounts. In one widely publicized case, the FDA issued an export permit for millions of dollars’ worth of illegal logs, overriding the recommendations of a report from the country’s Department of Justice that accused Doryen and his staff of “serious breaches of Liberian law.” “Generally speaking, the Weah period is seen by almost everybody as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/liberia-puts-a-wartime-logger-in-charge-of-its-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/liberia-puts-a-wartime-logger-in-charge-of-its-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281358</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Bank’s IFC under fire over alleged abuses at Liberian plantation it funded</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2024 22:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16131419/Salala9-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280629</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The World Bank’s independent watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), has finalized its investigation into a complaint filed five years ago, alleging grave human rights violations by communities living near the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia. The communities accuse the plantation, owned by Belgian multinational Socfin, of land grabbing and forced evictions, pollution of water [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The World Bank’s independent watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), has finalized its investigation into a complaint filed five years ago, alleging grave human rights violations by communities living near the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia. The communities accuse the plantation, owned by Belgian multinational Socfin, of land grabbing and forced evictions, pollution of water sources, sexual abuse, and the destruction of ancestral graves and sacred sites. Publication of the CAO’s findings is being delayed by the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank body whose 2008 loan supported expansion of the plantation, which missed a February deadline to respond to the investigation and put forward an action plan to directly address the communities’ grievances. The Salala plantation was originally established in 1959. Members of 22 communities within the concession’s 4,577 hectares (11,310 acres) in Bong and Margibi counties say they were evicted without their consent and have suffered severe disruption to their livelihoods and cultural and religious practices in the decades that followed. Socfin acquired the plantation in 2007 as Liberia emerged from two decades of civil war. A $10 million loan from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation a year later enabled the company to expand its concession. The financial institution’s loan disclosure included bold ambitions for the plantation’s role: “IFC’s support will encourage Salala to become a local industry leader with regard to environmental, safety, and social standards.” Instead, the IFC’s own reports show Socfin was in violation of the institution’s social and environmental requirements from the outset.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Liberia, a former mining activist gets the bully pulpit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-liberia-a-former-mining-activist-gets-the-bully-pulpit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-liberia-a-former-mining-activist-gets-the-bully-pulpit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2024 13:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28125501/Bong_Mine_Truck-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280396</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Policy, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mining, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been about a decade since Foday Fahnbulleh was arrested. Along with other students and workers from his home in Bong Mines about an hour’s drive north of Monrovia, he’d been staging protests at the gates of a Chinese mining company. China Union, they said, wasn’t living up to the promises it had made in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been about a decade since Foday Fahnbulleh was arrested. Along with other students and workers from his home in Bong Mines about an hour’s drive north of Monrovia, he’d been staging protests at the gates of a Chinese mining company. China Union, they said, wasn’t living up to the promises it had made in its contract with the Liberian state. The campaign was making headlines in Liberia, and it had angered politicians from Fahnbulleh’s district. One called him and his co-organizers “thugs” and urged the police to detain them. Now, they’ll have to call him by a new title: “Honorable Representative.” In October, Liberia held national elections that resulted in a peaceful transfer of power from former footballer-turned-president George Weah to his opponent, Joseph Boakai. In Bong County’s District #7, the 39-year-old Fahnbulleh ran as an independent promising to hold that same mining company, China Union, to the infrastructure and social service clauses in the 25-year concession agreement it signed in 2009. His election is raising hopes in Bong Mines that the district might finally see the roads, schools, and employment promised in that contract. And for China Union, the headaches are already arriving. “The community wanted someone who has passion for corporate accountability,” he told Mongabay in a phone interview. “Because in our country, corporations are not living up to the terms of their agreements.” [Note – the author of this article wrote a report on China Union’s operations for a Liberian civil society group in 2014, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-liberia-a-former-mining-activist-gets-the-bully-pulpit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-liberia-a-former-mining-activist-gets-the-bully-pulpit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280396</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Control of Africa&#8217;s forests must not be sold to carbon offset companies (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/control-of-africas-forests-must-not-be-sold-to-carbon-offset-companies-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/control-of-africas-forests-must-not-be-sold-to-carbon-offset-companies-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2023 21:50:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandra Benjamin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/04131325/forest-liberia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275577</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Liberia, Southern Africa, Tanzania, West Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Community Development, Community Forests, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Land Rights, Politics, Social Justice, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been called a “new scramble for Africa”: a modern incarnation of European powers’ 19th century imperial seizure of vast swathes of Africa. Under the guise of fighting the climate emergency, a private Emirati company is set to take control of huge tracts of sub-Saharan Africa, enabling it to sell carbon credits to major polluters [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been called a “new scramble for Africa”: a modern incarnation of European powers’ 19th century imperial seizure of vast swathes of Africa. Under the guise of fighting the climate emergency, a private Emirati company is set to take control of huge tracts of sub-Saharan Africa, enabling it to sell carbon credits to major polluters in exchange for managing forests on that land. In July, a contract was leaked detailing an agreement between the Liberian government and Blue Carbon LLC, a United Arab Emirates-based (UAE) company chaired by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family. The UAE is a fossil fuel state, and plans to vastly expand its oil and gas production. George Weah, President of Liberia, with Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, in the UAE where the Liberian government and Blue Carbon &#8220;signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of carbon offset projects in the forest sector.&#8221; Image from Blue Carbon&#8217;s Instagram page. The deal, which is yet to be signed, gives Blue Carbon exclusive rights to control a staggering one-tenth of Liberia’s land mass for 30 years. In return, the UAE and other governments will be able to offset their carbon emissions by buying credits linked to the carbon supposedly locked into the one million hectares of Liberian rainforest, which Blue Carbon is committed to preserve. Criticism from both inside and outside Liberia swiftly followed. But since then, the enormous scale of Blue Carbon’s ambitions has become even clearer as news emerged that the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/control-of-africas-forests-must-not-be-sold-to-carbon-offset-companies-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/control-of-africas-forests-must-not-be-sold-to-carbon-offset-companies-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275577</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolloré blacklisted over alleged rights violations on plantations in Africa and Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2023 19:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/09184645/SynaparcamMembers_Cameroon_ThierryDidierKuicheu-768x480.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273752</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crime, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protests, Rubber, Social Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds have placed French logistics giant Bolloré SE on a blacklist. The Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR) decided its members should no longer invest in Bolloré after it failed to act to resolve accusations of land-grabbing, environmental damage and complicity in human rights violations on oil palm and rubber [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds have placed French logistics giant Bolloré SE on a blacklist. The Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR) decided its members should no longer invest in Bolloré after it failed to act to resolve accusations of land-grabbing, environmental damage and complicity in human rights violations on oil palm and rubber plantations operated by Socfin, in which it holds a 39% stake. &#8220;Bolloré SE’s subsidiary has been repeatedly accused of violating the rights of local populations in countries such as Cambodia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon,&#8221; wrote Christina Meier, an associate at SVVK-ASIR, in an emailed response to Mongabay. &#8220;Bolloré SE shares responsibility for ensuring that human rights are observed and protected by the subsidiary due to its considerable influence.” SVVK-ASIR is a group founded by some of Switzerland&#8217;s most powerful pension and social security funds, which together manage $329 billion in assets. The association regularly assesses the ethical conduct of companies its members have invested in with reference to standards set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the U.N. There are currently 30 corporations on the association’s exclusion list Bolloré is the first French company to be placed on this list, which is part of a voluntary guideline to ethical investment to which SVVK-ASIR’s members agree. SVVK-ASIR blacklists companies only after an extended process. When a company is found to be involved in demonstrable, severe and systematic violations, the association initiates a dialogue to give the accused company an opportunity to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investigation confirms most allegations against plantation operator Socfin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2023 20:46:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/11150605/oil-palm-harvest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protests, Rainforests, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[International environmental consultancy the Earthworm Foundation has released findings from field investigations it conducted in April and May this year into grievances against two plantations owned by Belgian multinational the Socfin Group. EF investigators visited the plantations run by Socfin’s subsidiaries, one in Liberia and the other in Cameroon, where communities and local and international [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[International environmental consultancy the Earthworm Foundation has released findings from field investigations it conducted in April and May this year into grievances against two plantations owned by Belgian multinational the Socfin Group. EF investigators visited the plantations run by Socfin’s subsidiaries, one in Liberia and the other in Cameroon, where communities and local and international organizations had raised serious allegations of sexual harassment, land grabs, pollution and unfair labor practices. EF plans further visits to other plantations, but in two reports covering the first phase, the investigators confirmed the majority of the allegations that were subject to the investigation. At Liberia’s Salala Rubber Plantation (SRC), one of two Socfin owns in the West African country, EF’s team found that allegations of sexual harassment were credible. They found that women at SRC were fired or denied work for refusing to engage in sexual acts. A ”Gender Committee” that the company set up in 2017 failed to pick up any of numerous cases of sexual harassment, including complaints by women about being touched inappropriately without their consent. The EF team also found that work at the plantation is generally contracted and of a short-term nature, and several affected communities had been left out of recruitment processes. In Cameroon, the investigators visited the Dibombari oil palm plantation, one of six run by Socfin’s Cameroon subsidiary, Socapalm. They confirmed reports of rape and sexual harassment of women by employees on the plantation, including one case confirmed by a local doctor. Socapalm&#8217;s investigation of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Massive carbon offset deal with Dubai-based firm draws fire in Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/massive-carbon-offset-deal-with-dubai-based-firm-draws-fire-in-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/massive-carbon-offset-deal-with-dubai-based-firm-draws-fire-in-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2023 14:32:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/04131325/forest-liberia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271826</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Liberia and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Politics, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Liberia is set to hand over control of nearly 10% of its total land mass to a United Arab Emirates-based firm in a massive million-hectare carbon credit deal that’s drawing fire from local and international environmental groups. According to a leaked draft of the contract, the deal could override the customary land rights of communities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Liberia is set to hand over control of nearly 10% of its total land mass to a United Arab Emirates-based firm in a massive million-hectare carbon credit deal that’s drawing fire from local and international environmental groups. According to a leaked draft of the contract, the deal could override the customary land rights of communities living in vast swaths of the country’s forests, potentially violating a number of Liberian laws. If signed, the deal would create protected forests for the purpose of generating carbon credits, which could then either be sold on voluntary markets or traded bilaterally between Liberia and other governments looking to meet their emissions targets. Development and marketing of those credits would be carried out by Blue Carbon, a firm headquartered in Dubai and launched last October by Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the youngest member of Dubai’s royal family. Blue Carbon is part of Ahmed’s “private office,” which, along with his Ameri Group conglomerate is a major investor in energy projects across Africa and the Middle East, including oil and gas. On its website, Blue Carbon says it was “formed to create environmental assets, nature-based solutions, and register carbon removal projects using modern methodologies.” In less than a year, the firm has also inked high-profile MOUs with Tanzania and Zambia to develop carbon credit-generating conservation projects. The deal with the Liberian government would give it near-total control of the country’s remaining intact rainforests for the next 30 years. Samuel Tweah, Liberia&#8217;s Minister of Finance, with Ahmed Dalmook&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/massive-carbon-offset-deal-with-dubai-based-firm-draws-fire-in-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/massive-carbon-offset-deal-with-dubai-based-firm-draws-fire-in-liberia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can an app help Liberian artisanal fishers fight illegal fishing?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-an-app-help-liberian-artisanal-fishers-fight-illegal-fishing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-an-app-help-liberian-artisanal-fishers-fight-illegal-fishing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jun 2023 16:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Blamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/12121627/Fisherman-in-Marshall-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269655</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation Technology, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Law, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Resource Conflict, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT and MARSHALL, Liberia — On a mild Friday afternoon, Emmanuel Appleton beamed with smiles as he defied the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and landed his canoe on the beach in Robertsport, a fishing town about 90 kilometers (56 miles) northwest of Monrovia. Although Emmanuel’s day at sea wasn’t so good due to low [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ROBERTSPORT and MARSHALL, Liberia — On a mild Friday afternoon, Emmanuel Appleton beamed with smiles as he defied the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and landed his canoe on the beach in Robertsport, a fishing town about 90 kilometers (56 miles) northwest of Monrovia. Although Emmanuel’s day at sea wasn’t so good due to low catch, he seemed satisfied. In his left hand was a smartphone wrapped in a plastic case to protect it from water. “I have been a fisherman here in Robertsport since the early ‘90s and we always had problems of big vessels destroying our nets by dredging it along with theirs,” he said. Appleton was referring to trawlers, many of them foreign, that drag their nets along the bottom while fishing, churning up the seabed habitat and anything else in in their path. He said he had taken a geotagged photograph of a trawler he’d spotted fishing within the inshore exclusion zone (IEZ) reserved for artisanal fishers, and uploaded it to a data-collection platform where fishers can document and report cases of illegal activities at sea. “I had the phone close to my chest so no one suspects me and to get a shot of the vessel identification number,” Appleton said. Liberia’s IEZ extends 6 nautical miles from shore, except for shrimpers, which can fish beyond 4 nautical miles from shore. But it turned out the trawler Appleton spotted was operating in a legal area, according to Cephas Asare, West Africa regional manager with the Environmental&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-an-app-help-liberian-artisanal-fishers-fight-illegal-fishing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269655</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists decry palm oil giants’ exit from HCSA forest protection group</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/conservationists-decry-palm-oil-giants-exit-from-hcsa-forest-protection-group/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/conservationists-decry-palm-oil-giants-exit-from-hcsa-forest-protection-group/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2023 15:27:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/09234259/jambi_220676-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266210</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forests, FPIC, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Transparency, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two major palm oil companies recently exited a committee that helps identify forest areas for protection, bringing the total number of firms quitting the framework since 2000 to four. The committee, called the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), is a widely supported mechanism to distinguish forest areas that should be protected from degraded [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two major palm oil companies recently exited a committee that helps identify forest areas for protection, bringing the total number of firms quitting the framework since 2000 to four. The committee, called the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), is a widely supported mechanism to distinguish forest areas that should be protected from degraded areas that can be developed. This, environmentalists say, points to a startling industry trend in which industry giants are shirking responsibility for their harmful business practices. The two companies that recently withdrew from HCSA are Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the main palm oil arm of the vast Sinar Mas conglomerate, which is owned by the billionaire Widjaja family; and IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI), one of Malaysia’s biggest conglomerates. GAR played a major role in developing the HCSA No Deforestation methodology and was a founding HSCA member. GAR chief sustainability and communications officer Anita Neville said that being a member of the HCSA is no longer necessary for the company. This is because the HCSA toolkit has been embedded into industry standards including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification, which is the world’s largest association for ethical palm oil production, she said. The HCSA toolkit is a guidebook that provides standardized, scientifically robust and cost-effective methods for distinguishing and protecting viable forest areas. “The decision not to renew our membership was not taken lightly,” Neville told Mongabay. “However, as the HCSA evolved beyond creation and rollout of its toolkit, we saw increasing overlap with other industry bodies including&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/conservationists-decry-palm-oil-giants-exit-from-hcsa-forest-protection-group/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/conservationists-decry-palm-oil-giants-exit-from-hcsa-forest-protection-group/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266210</doi>				</item>
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