Payments from Liberia’s Industrial Forestry Sector to the National Benefits Sharing Trust
By Arthur Blundell View PublicationLiberia’s legal framework requires that the communities most affected by industrial logging should also share in the benefits. Accordingly, the Government of Liberia (GoL) collects land-rental fees from industrial logging operations with the intent to redistribute some to these communities. This report finds that the GoL owes nearly US$25 million to communities impacted by industrial logging, including $9 million that the GoL already collected years ago but has not yet disbursed. A failure to share land rental payments risks undermining not just the forestry sector and rule of law in Liberia, but the development of communities across the country.