Bernard’s Farm – Liberia’s forestry authority has destroyed over 1,000 pieces of bushmeat it confiscated from marketers and hunters.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah /0777039231 [email protected])
The meat was confiscated at Owensgrove in Grand Basa County, Gola National Park in Gbarpolu County and Yarpah Town in Rivercess County.
Speaking Wednesday, April 24, 2019, when the pile of meat was set ablaze at the main offices of the Forestry Development Authority in Bernard Farm, the agency’s manager for its commercial department Jerry Yormah said the action is intended to deter the “wanton and illegal” hunting and killing of protected animals set aside by laws governing the forest.
“FDA remains firm in confiscating and burning of bushmeat as a way of sending a clear caveat to all those who are in the constant habit of destroying the generation of protected animals for their own selfish economic gains,” Yormah said.
He reiterated calls on all illegal hunters and poachers to desist from depleting the generation of protected animals, terming it as counterproductive to the principle of conservation of nature and the CITE convention.
CITE is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention, which is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals to which Liberia is a signatory.
Mr. Yormah disclosed that Liberia has been complained by CITE; therefore, FDA will continue to exert all measures to protect and conserve the country’s biodiversity.
“We must obey the dictates of the law which forbids the massive destruction of protected species. Our action should not be seen as hampering people’s economic venture; rather it should be seen, as obeying the law that mandates us to protect those animals set aside to be protected at all times,” Yormah emphasized.
He further described conservation practices as fundamentally important to the implementation of the commercial, conservation and community methods (3cs) of the sector.
This method was approved by the government on September 16, 2006, a remains the cradle upon which FDA basically operates.
Meanwhile, Yormah says Liberia cannot afford to lose track of the importance and relevance of the conservation of the forests including the protected animals, stressing that actions will be taken to protect the wildlife.
