UN Envoy Says UNMIL Isn’t Leaving Liberia Just Yet

UN Envoy Says UNMIL Isn't Leaving Liberia Just Yet

The Special Representative of the Secretary General and Coordinator of UN Operations in Liberia, Karin Landgren has once again lauded the country’s progress towards sustainable peace, observing that the UNMIL could now focus on a gradual handover of security responsibilities to the host Government.

However, “this does not mean that UNMIL is leaving tomorrow,” the SRSG stressed at a medal parade held on 10 October 2012 in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County for the 558-strong Chinese Contingent.   “Liberia’s security and stability remains our top priority. The Mission is working closely with the Liberian National Police, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, and other security agencies to ensure that they have sufficient capacity to assume full responsibility for Liberia’s security.

On the occasion, SRSG Landgren praised the Chinese Engineer Company in Zwedru for helping with the development and maintenance of road infrastructure in southeastern Liberia. “This has demonstrated your dedication and commitment to tackle seemingly impossible tasks. The roads and bridges that you have repaired, have facilitated the travel of children to schools, the movement of goods by traders to markets, and provided access to services such as health centers ,police stations and court houses  - all of which help in moving Liberia forward in its development.”

She also acknowledged efforts by the Chinese Transport Company that ferries vital supplies to UNMIL components in the furthest reaches of the Mission.

These commendations were further extended to the Level II Hospital in Zwedru for providing medical services to ensure the health and welfare of peacekeepers and for reaching out to the local community with medical assistance.

The UN Envoy was accompanied by UNMIL Force Commander Major General Mohammed Khalid, UNMIL Force Chief of Staff, Brig. Gen. Hugh Van Roosen, and other senior UNMIL military and civilian personnel. The medal parade was also attended among others, by the Chief of Staff of AFL, Maj. Gen. Suraj Alao Abdurrahman, China’s Ambassador to Liberia, Mr. Zhao Jianhua , and the Defense Attaché at the Chinese Embassy, Sr. Col. Zhao Xizhang.

African Timber Exporting Countries Failing to Meet Access to Information Commitments

African Timber Exporting Countries Failing to Meet Access to Information Commitments

Lack of transparency threatens groundbreaking trade agreements with EU

Governments of African timber exporters are not providing crucial public access to information about how their forests are managed, according to a Global Witness study published today. The study, released at a conference held at the European Parliament analyses the transparency commitments in agreements between Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia and European countries put in place to ensure the timber trade is legal. Too often, it finds people are kept in the dark about what is happening to their forests, a violation of the terms of these groundbreaking agreements.

David Young, a forest campaigner at Global Witness said, “Forests are different from other resources because people live in them and are completely reliant on them. But at present these people can’t see what deals are being done and who benefits. This is a big problem in an industry with a long history of corruption and human rights abuses. The EU needs to work with Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia to make sure the information is available, otherwise people will have no way of knowing how the timber was obtained and whether this was done legally.”

The agreements – known as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) – between timber-exporting countries and the European Union include new, binding requirements for government authorities to publish key information on deals and decisions about forests. The first step of sharing information is a necessary precursor to more fundamental reforms to ensure only legal timber reaches the European market.

Global Witness has worked with anti-corruption forest watchdog groups in Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia to assess compliance with their respective VPAs. Although the context and the status of VPA implementation differs in each country, none of these countries are currently fully meeting their commitments to public information and transparency.

Mathew Walley, who is representing forest communities from Liberia at the conference, has seen at first hand the effects of access to information being denied: “People feel cheated. We see log trucks leaving their forests, but despite our requests, no one tells us how much and what species, so how can we know we are being paid the correct amount for the timber?”

Samuel Mawutor of Ghana’s Forest Watch coalition said, “Too often, information is requested from the Forestry Commission, but whether officials make it available depends on who is requesting the information and why. If there was more information we could all work together in stopping illegalities in the sector.”

The report found that local communities are often unable to access key data and documents, or authorities are reluctant to provide timely information. In some areas, for example, officials have delayed providing details while continuing to allocate permits that risk undermining compliance with the European agreements.

Major reforms in information management and dissemination are needed if implementation of the VPAs is going to lead the way to overcoming endemic illegal logging. Many documents and data could be published immediately, without waiting for VPA implementation.

David Young concluded, “These agreements with the EU could be a game changer in terms of including the people that live in forests in decisions about what happens to them. But it’ll only work if the governments in question play by the rules, and this study shows that’s not happening at present. We’d love to be proved wrong – if any government authority, in Europe or timber exporting countries, can point us to publicly accessible sources of this information, we’d be happy to announce this.”