Liberia seeks legitimacy for timber in EU market

(DAKAR) - Liberia is working hard to ensure its timber is viewed as legal by the European Union, which on Wednesday announced a ban on illegally harvested timber in its markets, an environmental official said.

Johansen Voker of the government's Environmental Protection Agency said Liberia was working with the European Union to develop a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on requirements for legitimacy of exported timber.

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to outlaw illegal timber or products made from such wood. The new law would come into effect in two years.

Speaking to AFP in Dakar via telephone, Voker said that in the eyes of Liberian law, no illegal timber was being exported and the discussions with the EU would clarify what exactly constitutes legality.

"I am not sure what we regard as legal is sufficient to meet the legal definition of the VPA," he said, adding this was "an opportunity to clean the image of Liberia."

He said timber exports earned the country some 8-10 million dollars annually in taxes in a country with an annual budget of only 350 million dollars.

He estimated illegal logging was worth between three and five million dollars annually.

After a 14-year civil war in which former president and warlord Charles Taylor sold off "blood timber" to prop up armed factions, the United Nations imposed a ban on all timber exports from the country in 2003.

This was lifted in 2006 after the enactment of a new forestry law and government only started re-issuing licenses in 2009.

The country is also setting up an elaborate chain of custody process with projects such as the electronic tagging of trees in the forests that will allow the end consumer to track their wood to where it once stood.

Voker described illegal logging as "a very tricky situation" as pit-sawers were supplying the local market, helping villages and towns destroyed during the war to rebuild.

"As far as the EU is concerned these illegal loggers will have no place in the market. It is hoped that we can go through the necessary procedure to ... legalise their activity."