Nimba County – Residents of several towns in three districts in Nimba County are deeply divided over Blei Community Forest Reserved, 629 hectares of forest, set aside by locals, with assistance from NGO for conservation purposes. Association for Rural Development (ARD), with funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) helped local communities set-up Liberia’s first community forest reserved in 2010, two years after project was initiated. USAID, according to Saye Thompson, a local rights campaigner, provided both local and foreign training for some community members charged with the responsibility to man the forest. “USAID sponsored several workshops in several areas including bio monitoring, GPS training, forest guard training and forest monitoring in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon,” Thompson disclosed. Despite problems associated with the country’s first community forest, Clan Chief Zarbay is calling on other communities to employ similar model in setting a community forest.

Source: Front Page Africa March 10, 2017 03:53 UTC