Publications

This report details how a quarter of Liberia’s total landmass was granted to logging companies in just two years, following an explosion in the use of often illegal logging permits. A new type of logging contracts, Private Use Permits, give companies unparalleled access to some of Liberia’s most pristine forests. The report uncovers how Private Use Permits are being used by companies to avoid Liberia’s carefully-crafted forest laws and regulations.

In Liberia there is an urgent need for strong legal protections for community lands and natural resources. This report details communities' experiences undertaking land documentation activities and the initial impacts of these efforts on conflict resolution and prevention, intra-community governance and conservation and sustainable natural resource management.

This is a summary of 'So Who Owns the Forest?' which explores issues of property rights and customary land tenure. This report advocates the urgent need for reform which recognises local people's collective entitlement over their customary lands. It offers practical solutions for dealing with land tenure issues for inclusion in national law.

Exploring issues of property rights and customary land tenure, this report advocates the urgent need for reform which recognises local people's collective entitlement over their customary lands. It reviews the treatment of customary land tenure over the century-long process of forming the modern Liberian State and offers practical solutions for dealing with land tenure issues for inclusion in national law.

This report is the first ever forest sector report card for Liberia as part of the Making the Forest Sector Transparent project. It assesses the transparency and accessibility of information in the forest sector with a particular focus on forest governance. It underlines the vital role FDA, civil society and the private sector play in ensuring increased transparency in the sector.

This report acts as an annual forest sector report card for Liberia which assesses the transparency of the sector as part of the Making the Forest Sector Transparent project. It recommends that the government fully implement transparency measures contained in various laws and develop action plans to make information accessible and transparent.

This report examines forest law enforcement and governance in post-conflict Liberia and catalogues major issues in the implementation of forest sector reform. It asserts that failure to fully implement reform may put the livelihoods of communities at risk and undermine the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy and any future Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU.

This report throws a spotlight on Liberia’s fledgling oil and gas sector. An oil find in Liberia, which is still recovering from two natural resource fuelled civil wars, could provide desperately needed revenues if the industry is sufficiently reformed. But this report highlights that Liberia is not currently ready for oil without a comprehensive reform of the country’s oil and gas industry.

This report catalogues the social and environmental impacts of ArcellorMittal's mining activities globally. It highlights the issues with the company's activities in Liberia such as the lack of transparency in the management of the operations, the displacement of communities, the failure to produce secure employment and the environmental impact on the East Nimba Nature Reserve.

This report is a follow up to 2009's ‘ArcelorMittal: Going nowhere slowly' and takes an in depth look at the company’s activities in Liberia in terms of their contribution to the country’s development and highlights the failing of the County Social Development Fund in addressing the needs of communities impacted by the operations of ArcelorMittal.