New Liberia forest boss plans to increase exports, denies working with war criminal Charles Taylor
Time:2024-05-19 18:13:59 Source:worldViews(143)
Liberia, West Africa’s most forested country, has a long history of illegal logging, which the country’s regulator, the Forestry Development Authority, has repeatedly struggled to confront.
So it raised eyebrows when Rudolph Merab, whose companies were twice found to have engaged in illegal logging, was recently appointed to lead the FDA. One of Merab’s companies was also mentioned in the trial of Charles Taylor, a former Liberia president who was convicted of war crimes during the civil war in neighboring country Sierra Leone.
In an interview with The Associated Press, for the first time Merab answered questions about his past and detailed his plans for managing Liberia’s forests, promising to increase timber exports and cut regulations.
“Commercial logging has always helped the country,” said Merab, interviewed by phone in late April, adding that more sawmills were needed so freshly cut trees could be processed within Liberia before being exported.
You may also like
- Most water is now safe to drink after parasite outbreak near Devon, England
- Seabed mining critics furious after company pulls out of hearings
- Airplane passenger sparks furious debate about PETS flying in
- Michigan approves 'extremely toxic' copper mine just 100ft from Lake Superior
- Ukraine introduces nationwide power supply restrictions
- Revealed: The countries with the highest levels of cybercrime in the world
- Could you get your best ever career advice from a ROBOT? The pros and cons of using AI on the job
- Lazy or genius? It's the gadget that's becoming a must
- The stuff that Coppola’s dreams are made of: The director on building ‘Megalopolis’