Environmental issues in Liberia

Environmental issues in Liberia include the deforestation of tropical rainforest, the hunting of endangered species for bushmeat, the pollution of rivers and coastal waters from industrial run-off and raw sewage, and the burning and dumping of household waste.

[1] Species hunted for food in Liberia include elephants, pygmy hippopotamus, chimpanzees, leopards, duikers, and monkeys.

[3] A 2004 public opinion survey found that bushmeat ranked second behind fish amongst residents of the capital Monrovia as a preferred source of protein.

[1] The head of conservation at the Liberian government Forest Development Authority said when interviewed that a single hunter may set between 200 and 300 traps and not return to them for two to three weeks - leaving the caught animals to a prolonged death.

[1] Bushmeat is often exported to neighboring Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, despite a ban on the cross-border sale of wild animals.

[4] In 2012 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf granted licenses to companies to cut down 58% of all the primary rainforest left in Liberia.

[6] In 2004, a United Nations Environment Program report estimated that 99 per cent of Liberians burnt charcoal and fuel wood for cooking and heating, resulting in deforestation.

[8] The 2004 UN report also said that there was an urgent need to salvage damaged and sunken ships in major ports and coastal sites around Liberia for both environmental and safety reasons.

[11] Those without their own toilets defecate in the narrow alley-ways between their houses, on the beach, or into plastic bags, which they dump on nearby piles of rubbish or into the sea.

[11] Congested housing, no requirement that landlords provide working toilets, and virtually no urban planning "have combined to create lethal sanitation conditions in the capital".

[10] The poor infrastructure "means toilet-users may have to use up to four gallons of water each time they flush", according to a civil servant interviewed by IRIN News in 2008.

[10] “When some of my neighbours defecate they cannot get enough water to flush their toilets, so they sometimes throw the faeces around the place, exposing us all to health hazards,” Monrovia shopkeeper Samuel Tweh told IRIN.

[10] Without regular running water, waste flushed into the system often backs up, causing sewage to spill out of manholes into the streets.