Monrovia – The Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Liberia, Monie Captan, has attributed the massive depletion of the country’s forest to greed.
MCA Liberia is a legal, independent and autonomous agency of the Government of Liberia created by an Act of the Legislation, October 23, 2015. MCA Liberia administers the compact between the Liberian and United States, and supports the electricity and road sectors in Liberia.
Mr. Captan cautioned Liberians to hold fast to their ancestors’ love for the environment and its protection, as the country moves toward modernization and development.
“It is normally greed that causes us to go too far, cutting down even small trees, fishing and hunting endangered species, cultivating almost all of our arable land, refusing to replant, and disposing of pollutants into our soil and waters, ” he said.
Speaking at the 13th Convocation Commencement of the United Methodist University UMU on Tuesday at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium, Mr. Captan stressed the need for Liberia development policy to ‘tamper growth’ with environmental protection and sustainability.
“We must place limits on how much we extract lest we deplete, and we must place limits to how much we extract, lest we degrade. I don’t want to see the Gola Forest looking like Paynesville or Gardnersville in the future,” he said.
Mr. Captan, Liberia’s former Foreign Minister, noted that he wants his children and grandchildren to grow up and enjoy the country’s forests, see the animals, the indigenous pigmy hippopotamus, the big trees, the forest canopies, the butterflies, wild nuts and fruits, and the cool refreshing creeks with their glittering white sand.
He expressed fear that indigenous pigmy hippopotamus, the big trees, the forest canopies, the butterflies, wild nuts and fruits will all vanish, if Liberia fails to care for its environment.
Mr. Captan recollected: “I still remember growing up in Paynesville, and walking with my friends on Duport Road, where we picked cashew, mango, and guava, and played football on cow field and sometimes even went as far as the Du River. But today, Duport Road is a congestion of houses, shops, and markets, characterized by noise, pollution, and crime.”
Those days, he said will never come back, but noted that that Liberians can prevent this from happening in other parts of the country.
“The inclusion of the palm tree on our national seal was not a mistake; our forefathers recognized the value of the palm tree to our culture and wellbeing and thus placed it on one of our most important national symbols so that we can remember God’s gracious gifts of nature,” he added.
Liberia restarted logging of its tropical hardwood timber in 2011.
The United Nations placed an embargo on timber from Liberia in 2003 to stop former President Charles Taylor from generating money from the sale of the country’s timber to fund his war machinery.
There are reports that loggers were not giving back to communities where they are operating, resulting into series of agitation and demonstration in forest communities.