Liberia

A report by the non-governmental organization Global Witness says more than 60 percent of the West African nation's rainforests have been granted to logging companies in the past six years. The group has found evidence of fraud and misconduct within Liberia's logging sector.

A quarter of Liberia’s total landmass has been granted to logging companies in just two years, following an explosion in the use of secretive and often illegal logging permits,

Industrial palm oil production is coming to Africa, its ancestral home. The world’s most productive oil seed has been a boon to Asian economies, but the looming arrival of large-scale plantations in Africa is raising fears that some of the same issues plaguing Malaysia, Indonesia, and other leading producers — deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, conflicts with local people, and poor working conditions — could befall one of the world’s most destitute regions.

Liberia has signed a deal with the European Union promising to crack down on illegal logging on its territory, home to more than half of West Africa’s rainforests, a group linked to the accord said.