On the 8th of July in Monrovia, the Dutch Economic Mission to Liberia led by Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Ploumen, alongside IDH, co-organized a round table on green economic growth and private sector development.
The program is part of a larger program of Norway to support forest protection in Liberia. Main target groups are smallholder farmers and their surrounding communities. The farmers will be supported to organize cooperatives and to grow sustainable palm oil. The program is organized in close cooperation with international palm oil companies.
‘Community Conservation Agreements’
This agricultural development program is part of the ‘Community Conservation Agreements’ of Liberia in which villages and communities sign agreements with the Liberian government to safeguard their surrounding forests.
Over 30% of Liberian people live in forests
Liberia is home to 43 percent of the remaining Upper Guinean forest, which also covers parts of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. It is estimated that one third of Liberia’s 4.3 million people live in the country’s forests, with many more reliant on them.
Public private cooperation
With a GPD of just over 700 dollar Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world. The Liberian sustainable landscape program brings together companies, NGO’s, governments, donors, development banks and farmers to improve the livelihoods of small scale farmers while protecting the natural forests of Liberia.