“We are concerned about the granting of exclusive carbon rights to Blue Carbon, especially in the absence of adequate community participation in the negotiation,” the group said in a statement on July 17. The forestry law prohibits the government from including private land in forestry contracts and said forestry contract areas must not exceed 400,000 hectares. “Allocating 1 million hectares under a single contract and including communities Customary Land in the said contract would violate the forestry law,” Gongloe said in the statement on Tuesday. “Allocating communities’ Customary Land to Blue Carbon would violate their rights under these laws,” he said. In 2009 and 2010, the government of Liberia at the behest of the FDA entered into 4 Forest Management Contracts (FMCs), 5 Timber Sale Contracts, and 23 Private Use Permits covering.

Source: Daily Observer July 20, 2023 02:58 UTC