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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Liberian Timber Fuelling Regional War

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

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08/09/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Ecological plunder and a voracious timber industry, collapse of civil

authority and use of resource revenues to finance a state of

continual war and regional conflict largely define Liberia. Global

Witness calls for U.N. sanctions to be extended to timber as well as

diamonds, to cut the finance of warlords and reduce regional

conflicts. Failure to stop liquidation of the resource base will

significantly reduce future post-conflict development potential and

environmental sustainability. Holding onto as much of the resource

base as possible is critical for future rebuilding of both the

regional African economy and ecosystems.

g.b.

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Title: Liberian timber riches seen fuelling regional war

Source: Copyright 2001 Reuters

Date: August 9, 2001

Byline: Story by Silvia Aloisi

ABIDJAN - Revenues from Liberian timber are allowing President

Charles Taylor to fuel war in West Africa and are more important

than diamonds as a source of funds, an international campaigner said

this week.

Patrick Alley, director of the human rights and environmental group

Global Witness, called for U.N. sanctions to be extended to timber as

well as diamonds, which are already embargoed to cut support for

Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

"If timber is not included in the sanctions, then the problems with

Liberia and the region are going to continue," Alley told Reuters in

an interview.

"It is timber revenues that have enabled him to maintain his power

base and continue to fund the RUF. And the conflict on the Liberia-

Guinea border is also funded by

those revenues."

The United Nations imposed the diamond ban and extended an arms

embargo on Liberia earlier this year to cut off support for the RUF

in its decade-long civil war.

It also blamed Taylor for his part in spreading regional instability,

including to neighbouring Guinea. Taylor has in turn accused Guinea

and Britain of backing rebels who have been fighting to topple him

for the past year.

France and China, which are both permanent members of the U.N.

Security Council and also the main importers of Liberian wood,

opposed timber's inclusion in the sanctions, arguing there was not

enough evidence to link it to regional conflicts.

"We have specific examples of logging ships arriving in Liberia,

unloading arms and loading up with logs," said Alley, who plans a

full report in September.

He gave the recent example of a ship coming from Senegal that docked

in Liberia's southern Harper port on May 10. He said arms had been

loaded from the ship onto a military helicopter.

He was also investigating reports that a ship from China had brought

arms to Buchanan port in early July before loading logs.

Alley said timber companies regularly hired Sierra Leonean rebels,

former Liberian civil war fighters and members of Taylor's personal

and feared Anti-Terrorist Unit.

CONTROL OF NATURAL RESOURCES

The Strategic Commodities Act adopted by parliament last year

effectively gave the president control over key natural resources -

including gold, diamonds, iron ore and logs.

Alley estimated the value of Liberia's timber trade at $187 million a

year, based on market prices. He said the government had declared

timber revenues of just $6.6 million in 2000.

"We think that when you take out production costs, there is basically

$100 million a year on top of that which is unaccounted for," he

said.

"The logging industry clearly has to make a profit, but we think that

a major part of that money goes into funding regional conflicts - you

can buy a lot of guns with $100 million."

Citing government and international trade statistics, Alley said the

volume produced in 2000 was 934,000 cubic metres (33 million cubic

feet). However, according to the International Tropical Timber

Organisation (ITTO), Liberia produced only 495,000 cubic metres (17

million cubic feet).

The U.N. report, on the basis of which thesanctions were imposed on

Liberia, also named big players in the timber industry as being

linked to the arms trade.

Among them was Dutchman Gus Kouwenhoven of the giant Oriental Timber

Company, who is on the board of the Forestry Development Authority,

set up by the government to monitor the industry and headed by

Taylor's brother D. Robert Taylor.

In the long term, London-based Global Witness said indiscriminate

exploitation of Liberia's forests would cause huge economic and

environmental damage.

Alley said some logging companies themselves predict they will do

business in the country for only another five years.

"The rate of destruction of the forest is amazingly rapid," he said.

"If Liberia in the future regains a bit of stability, what could be a

valuable revenue generator would no longer exist, with dramatic

consequences."

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