Liberia

The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) established in 1976 as a state corporation is the national authority responsible for the sustainable management and conservation of Liberia’s forest resources, which includes management of the forest policy, the forest legislative framework and the enforcement of forest laws. This mandate was further strengthened through the National Resource Law of 1979. FDA governance relies on a Managing Director and a Board of Directors appointed by the Liberia’s President. Main FDA departments: Commercial, Community, Conservation, Legality Verification, and R&D Departments. Main FDA divisions: Administration & Finance, Law Enforcement, and Public Affairs Divisions. FDA units include the REDD+ implementing and Strategic Planning Units.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible to supervise, monitor and coordinate all activities that impact the environment (soils, water, biodiversity, land uses), also overseeing conservation areas, and coordinating e.g. wildlife issues, mainly through an Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). It has an MoU signed with the FDA (2007). 

Other ministries involved mostly include: Finance & Development Planning (MFDP) and its Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) that covers tax and Customs, Agriculture (MoA), Commerce and Industry (MoCI), Justice (MoJ), and Labour (MoL).

The framework for assessing legality of forestry operations, timber processing and trade in Liberia that has been retained as part of the VPA between Liberia and the EU.

The 2006 National Forestry Reform Law (NFRL 2006) is the current legal instrument that guides the management of forest resources in Liberia. It is based on the “3Cs” approach: Commercial, Community and Conservation forestry.

Other important laws and regulations include:

• FDA Ten Core Regulations 101-07 to 110-07 (2007);
• Guidelines for Forest Management Planning in Liberia’ (2009)
• Community Rights Law (CRL) (2009);
• LVD Manual of Procedures (2016);
• FDA Code of Forest Harvesting Practices (CFHP) (amended 2017)

Other regulations that are in the process of being developed or amended and approved (and finally added to the Legality matrix)  include:

• Third Party Access to Forest Resource License Areas;
• Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products;
• Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products;
• Import Logs, Timber and Timber Products;
• Transit Logs, Timber and Timber Products;
• Guidelines for Plantation Forests;
• Community Rights Regulations;
• Chainsaw Milling Regulation, and Charcoal Regulation;
• Regulations on Timber Processing, Penalties, EIA, Fiscal Policy and Bid Premium Payments, etc.

The NFRL 2006 provides for the issuance of five types of licenses by the FDA to carry out activities over forested land, as follows:

• Forest Management Contract (FMC): a license issued for forest exploitation over land areas between 50.000 and 400.000 ha that excludes private land, generally for a period of 25 years;
• Timber Sales Contract (TSC): license issued over a land area of not more than 5’000 ha that excludes private land, for a period of 3 years;
• Forest Use Permit (FUP): a license issued for small scale forest exploitation (and limited to local use), research, NTFP activities or other special uses on an area of less than 1’000 ha, and without a concession process for a value of less than 10,000 USD;
• Private Use Permit (PUP): a license that was issued to private land owners (individual, group, community) to extract wood to enter into contracts directly with logging companies. PUPs covered up to approximately 30% of Liberia’s forests between 2011 and 2012. Because of massive mismanagement of the PUPs, however, a moratorium was set out on the issuance of PUPs (01/2013) and all PUPs have now been cancelled.
• Community Forest Management Agreement (CFMA): license issued to communities for the purpose of community-based forest management over an area smaller than 50.000 ha, to enter into small-scale commercial contracts for harvesting timber and non-timber forest products. However, the Community Rights Law (CRL) allows for CFMAs to exceed 50.000 ha, in which case the contracting of a logging company must follow a public bidding process and must be signed by the President and ratified by the Parliament, as is the case for FMCs.

Contract holders need to comply with all major requirements under the Public Procurement and Concession Act (PPCA) in order to obtain the contract, including tax clearance, an annual business registration certificate, and a Prequalification certificate. The FMC also includes: socio-economic survey, forest inventory and environmental survey. FMCs and TSCs can be obtained via tender. The contract to use or harvest forest resources is then signed between the contract holder and the FDA. Public information on forest contracts can be found on LEITI’s website.

Pre-felling requirements listed by FDA for export permit include:

a) Boundary line demarcation

b) Social agreement

c) Environmental and social impact assessment

d) Performance bond

e) Strategic forest management plan (SFMP)

f) Five years forest management plan (5YFMP), which is the compartment plan

g) Annual operation plan (AOP)

h) Annual coupe demarcation

i) Tax clearance; and proof of payment of Area fee and Annual Administration Fee

The contract holder must uniquely number and record each tree on the Stock survey form (SSF) and Block map. These are verified by the Legality Verification Department (LVD) of the FDA and validated by SGS. Until October 2018 the LVD was operated and its capacity and CoC Information System (COCIS, known as LiberTrace) developed and eventually transferred by SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance SA); during an extension period, SGS Liberia will provide further capacity building and keep a monitoring and supervision role.

Contract holders are only allowed to fell trees when they are in the possession of a valid Annual Harvesting Certificate (AHC). This certificate can only be obtained after the contract holder has, among others, obtained an approved Annual Operation Plan (AOP), and, for FMCs, an approved Management Plan covering the area to be harvested, and a signed Social Agreement. The AOP shall specify the volume and species of the annual coupe, or the annual blocks of harvest in case of FMCs.

Taxes and fees include, where relevant and applicable:

• Auction Fee, Bid premium, Land Rental Bid Fee, Sawmill Permit Fees, Timber Export License Fees, Chainsaw Lumber Fees
• Area Fee, Chain of Custody Registration Fee, Annual Contract Administration Fee, Annual Coupe Inspection Fee, Barcode Issuance Fee, Block Inspection Fees, Stumpage Fee, Forest Product Fee
• Waybill Fees, Log Export Fees

Taxes and fees in the last two groups are invoiced by the LVD using LiberTrace. An export permit can only be issued when all taxes and fees relating to the forest products subject to the permit have been paid. The Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) issued by the Liberian Revenue Authority certifies that the timber operator has complied with all known tax requirements with the government (or has reached an agreement to defer/waive tax obligations). It is presented to qualify an operator for signing forest contracts, for the AHC, and for an Export permit.

Felling requirements listed by FDA for export permit include:

a) Tax clearance; barcode issuance fee, block inspection fee

b) Annual harvesting certificate

c) Barcode Issuance

d) Verification of SSF/TDF

Once the AHC has been issued, and the Annual Coupe validated by LVD/SGS, the contract holder is allocated barcoded log tags and is permitted to commence harvesting at the locations indicated on the Block map. The log tags are affixed to the butt end of the log and another to the stump. Details of the harvested tree are recorded on the felled Tree Data Form (TDF), and include species, dimensions and log ID. TDFs are completed prior to cutting into initial long "mother" logs. Once trees have been felled, labelled, measured and TDFs have been filled in at the stump, the operator can extract the long logs to the log landing. After cross cutting, each crosscut log receives a new ID tag, so that all logs are traceable back to the stump or location where the tree grew. The logs are recorded on a Log Data Form (LDF) a.k.a. Cross-cut Form. The logs are prepared for transport with the help of Waybills. Special felling and Special entry forms are used under particular circumstances. Data from all these forms submitted by the Operator is uploaded in Libertrace (if Inventory validated by LVD).

FMC and TSC holding companies sign social agreements (SAs) with affected communities within 3.0 km following advanced notice. An SA attested to by the FDA is a pre-felling requirement and a condition for an AHC and an Export permit. A SA includes: code of conduct for the parties; dispute resolution mechanism; financial benefits payable to the community through quarterly payments to an escrow account. As part of implementing these SAs, a National Benefit Sharing Trust mechanism has been established to oversee the disbursements (cubic meter fee) to forest-affected communities and community projects. Community Forest Management Agreements (CFMAs) allow communities to enter into contracts with logging companies for the purpose of community-based forest management. The new ‘Land Rights Act’ (09/2018) now recognizes customary land rights and includes important provisions on e.g. Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). A regulation on ‘Third Party Access to Forest Resource License Areas’ is currently under development.

It is generally recognized that the law reform and the EU-Liberia FLEGT VPA negotiation and implementation processes have been exemplary inclusive and participatory processes so far for the key stakeholder groups in Liberia.

The COC System (COCS) of the LVD (which includes COCIS management, CoC inspections and legality audits) is used to facilitate the verification of the three pillars for Export permit request approval: Traceability, Legality and Fiscality, throughout the supply chain. The verification system is described in the LVD Manual of Procedures (2016) that contains the Liberia COCS Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Post-felling requirements listed by FDA for export permit include:

a) Stump verification

b) LDF (Log Data Form)

c) Transportation and Waybill checks

d) EPR/LDF submission

e) Log yard verification

f) Shipment specification (SPEC)

g) Shipment verification

h) Certificate of origin

i) Verification of taxes/fees paid

Waybill booklets having a unique barcode for identification are issued to concession holders against a fee. For transport, a waybill form is completed, including barcode, species and dimensions, as well as official barcoded stickers and references to the bar-coded tag numbers of the wood products of the load. These waybills can be checked in the forest concessions while loading, at checkpoints during transportation and at the log yard while unloading, by FDA and the LVD. Relevant SOP: 14.

Facilities mechanically processing the wood (sawmills) need to be in the possession of an annual sawmill permit. The sawmill receiving the logs keeps records of all wood raw materials entering the site (Sawmill input form), as well as records of stock, processing and exit of processed products (Sawmill output form). Processed products are labelled with official barcoded PVC labels. The details of inputs and outputs of the processing facility are uploaded in the COCIS. Relevant SOP: 20.

The COCIS is also used for the recording of exports of logs, timber and other wood products. Exporters of these products shall be in the possession of an Annual export registration in the first place. Upon successful LDF verification through log inspection in the log yard and against TDF & SSF before exportation, the logs can be submitted for issuance of an Export Permit, accompanied by an Export shipment specification (SPEC) listing the products, and a Certificate of Origin to the Operator. Export permits (EPs) are issued to exports that comply with the official “Requirements for Export Permit under Current regime” listed by the FDA, representing a set of minimum requirements for “legal exports” from Liberia that needs to be compared to EUTR requirements and is an interim measure prior to full implementation of FLEGT Licenses. The actual Shipment verification is done through an inspection of the logs while loading onto the ship. Relevant SOPs: 22, 23, and 26. The operator must also have provided a Tax Clearance Certificate as proof of payment of export fees and other taxes.

A Certificate of origin (COO) is issued for certain export markets following the loading inspection, subject to receipt by LVD of the Bill of Lading (B/L) and a Short-shipped report. Relevant SOP: 25.