Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was much hailed when she took over as president of Liberia in place of the deeply corrupt warmonger Charles Taylor.
Tayler went on to trial before a special UN court, which convicted him of war crimes. Sirleaf won the Nobel Prize for her work on women’s rights. But some things never change. A new environmental report says more than 60% of Liberia’s virgin rainforest has been granted to logging companies since Sirleaf came to power in 2006, mostly in unregulated private contracts.The agreements cover more than a quarter of Liberia’s land mass and mean much of the country could be stripped bare by loggers.
Sirleaf introduced stricter logging regulations when she became president, but a loophole has allowed private operators to buy up huge swaths of the country. Sirleaf says she has suspended the head of the Forestry Development Authority, Moses Wogbeh, and “commissioned an independent body to conduct a comprehensive review of the policies and procedures.”
The Guardian reports:
Johnson Sirleaf – a former World Bank economist and Nobel prize laureate – has faced mounting allegations of corruption among senior officials in recent months. Last month, she suspended her son Charles Sirleaf from his position as deputy central bank governor after he failed to declare his assets to the country’s anti-corruption commission. Two of Johnson Sirleaf’s other sons continue to hold positions in government.
The UN banned logging in Liberia until 2006, but lifted the ban after Sirleaf became president.