There’s a paradox in Ghana. A hundred thousand chainsaw operators scattered across the country provide 72% of the lumber on the domestic market. They support livelihoods of about 650,000 people and inject much-needed cash into local economies. But every one of these chainsaw loggers is breaking the law.
A partnership between the EU and Liberia tackles illegal logging by improving forest governance. Rivercess, the eighth largest county in Liberia, is a paradox. The area is rich with forests, fish, gold and promise, but its people are still desperately poor. Local resident Matthew T. Walley is President of the National Union of Community Forest Development Committees. He understands better than most how the forests that cover nearly half of Liberia have brought suffering, not wealth, to the people who live in them.
European Forest Institute