Environment

Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director says any land cover that contains water and which includes lakes, streams and swamps is referred to as wetland.
Director Nyenka on August 31, 2009 in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer in Monrovia.
He said that wetland in any country is an asset that needs full protection by the national government and the citizens as well as support partners of the environment.
“Wetland in any part of the world,” Director Jerome G.N. Nyenka explained, “including Liberia is important for two main reasons.”
He elaborated that it serves as a pond to receive excess water during heavy downpour thereby avoiding flood, adding that it serves as nesting and breeding ground for creatures in the marine ecosystem.
“But when people release human feces, dump garbage, domestic and medical waste, waste oil, scrap materials, and the use of dynamite to fish, these constitute the major pollutants of wetlands,” the EPA Director emphasized.
“This situation has the potential to alter the balance of the marine ecosystem, destroy its biological potential and also cause flooding,” Director Nyenka pointed out.

The Convention on Biological Diversity provides that parties to the Convention design mechanisms for access and benefits-sharing, taking into consideration traditional knowledge as well as benefits accrued to holders of such knowledge.

In compliance with the Convention, Liberia has undertaken the task of reviewing its present legislative framework, guidelines and policies as they relate to access and benefits-sharing of biological and genetic resources.

A workshop to address these issues has just been held in Monrovia. It was also to held to review any and all policies relating to the use, promotion and utilization of traditional knowledge with particular reference to biological and genetic resources.

The workshop also took into consideration the 1976 Act creating the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the Act adopting the New National Forestry Law of 2000 and the 1988 Wildlife and National Part Act, the Environmental Protection Agency Act of 2003, the Environmental Protection and Management Law of 2003, the New Mining and Mineral Law of 2000, the Environmental Policy of Liberia in 2003, the Reform Forestry Law of 2006 and the Forestry Policy of Liberia in 2006.

Few people realize just how special Liberia is in terms of its natural forests and wildlife. With some 4.5 million hectares of tropical rainforest, Liberia is one of the last strongholds of a vast forest system that once covered most of West Africa – from Guinea to Cameroon. Furthermore, Liberia’s fauna and flora are exceptionally diverse, many species being unique to the country or to the region. Examples include the endangered pygmy hippo, the Zebra duiker and the Liberian mongoose.

The Firestone Plantations Company has admitted that it is polluting the Nipue Creek adjacent to the Plantation, having accepted the findings of the Inter-Agency Pollution Investigation Team, which established that the Nipue Creek “was indeed being polluted by the high level of orthorophate emanating from the discharge of Firestone’s waste water treatment facility.”