Liberia's diamond & timber trade get reprive, UN ban off

15 Apr '06

3 min read

Liberia's lands, mines and energy minister Eugene Shannon told reporters last week that Liberia was working hard to comply with the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme – an international diamond tracking system. Signing up to the scheme is a condition to getting the diamond sanctions lifted.

The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberian timber in July 2003 describing the country's logging industry as a threat to regional peace and security as Taylor to fuel war at home used revenues and in Sierra Leone. International rights group Global Witness said logging companies used their ships to transport arms and other military hardware into Liberia and other countries in the region.

As part of its efforts to exercise full control over the timber sector, Liberia's first elected post-war government within weeks of taking office issued an executive order in early February canceling all forest concession agreements entered into with private companies by previous regimes.

According to John Woods, the new managing director of the government-owned Forestry Development Authority, the forestry sector could generate between US $15 million to $20 million a year and some 7,000 new jobs would be created in country where unemployment is estimated at over 80 percent. Prior to the imposition of sanctions, records from the FDA reckoned that the timber sector employed between 5,000 and 6,000 people.

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