While communities don’t get the funds they are owed, Liberian Legislators were recently gifted over US$3 million for legislative support projects. However, the government, as per the 2022 budget expenditure report, is claiming full payment of the US$2.7 million owed to the forest community. The government in that year allocated US$746,292 and US$2,000,000 respectively as payment for community forest sharing and forestry arrears. In most cases, protests have to be staged before these communities get paid and this year was no different. “Unfortunately, the draft 2023 budget does not have any amount appropriated for communities against the amount the government owes to communities in land rental fees,” the union said.
