Resource information
Liberia had an estimated 4.3 million
hectares of forests in 2011, comprising approximately 50
percent of Liberia’s landmass. These forests support very
high levels of biodiversity, provide a wide range of
ecosystem services (for example, bush meat, medicines,
construction materials, and charcoal), and generate
employment and revenue from commercial and chainsaw logging.
Encouraging inward investment while striking a sound balance
between different interests, respecting the legal and
customary rights of local people, and conserving
biodiversity represents a major challenge. This project
focuses on the mining sector, which has the potential to
become a significant engine for growth and broader-based
development. It explores the feasibility of implementing a
national biodiversity offset scheme in Liberia to help
minimize adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem
services resulting from mining. A Liberian national offset
scheme will entail the application of a common methodology
to ensure that conservation benefits are at least equivalent
to biodiversity losses due to mining investments. The report
is presented in seven chapters. Chapter one gives
introduction. Chapter two discusses the conservation
imperatives for Liberia and conveys a sense of the quality
and extent of biodiversity within Liberia. Chapter three
describes the challenge of securing conservation outcomes in
Liberia as well as the prevalence of threats to
biodiversity. Chapter four discusses the potential for
biodiversity offsets to help secure conservation outcomes.
Chapter five covers the legal, policy, and institutional
framework in support of biodiversity offsets. Chapter six
discusses the methodological aspects of implementing a
national biodiversity offset scheme, together with the
challenges of securing and effectively managing sources of
funding. Chapter seven summarizes the report’s suggested
next steps to implement a road map for biodiversity offsets
in Liberia.
