Liberia

The European Union and the Government of Liberia, which presides over half of the remaining rainforest in West Africa, announced today a landmark agreement to ensure that all Liberian timber products exported from Liberia to the EU are derived from legal sources and that the resulting trade will benefit the Liberian people. EFIs EU FLEGT Facility provided technical support to the preparation, negotiation and implementation of FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Liberia.

Trucks loaded with undressed timber are on the move again around Buchanan in Grand Bassa county, south-east Liberia.

The dust recalls the not-so-distant time when the timber trade was synonymous with war.

Liberia's rainforests are being primed as a lucrative and legal industry. Electronic tags allow consumers to trace the end-product right back to the stump. Photograph: Glenna Gordon/AFP/Getty Images

Very interested to see the news today that City of London police have “arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan to pay Liberian officials $2.5m (£1.7m) in connection

After years of darkness as a failed state, Liberia is rebuilding its state institutions, determined to rejoin the international community. Unfortunately, no amount of reforming zeal of a single small country can overturn the threat of climate breakdown or rising tides.