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Activists urge Liberian president to reject Carbon Market Policy over community rights concerns – EnviroNews
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More than 25 Liberian civil society organisations have called on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to reject a proposed Carbon Market Policy, warning that the framework could undermine the rights of forest communities and allow carbon resources from community-managed forests to be commercialised without meaningful participation or consent.
The campaign, led by John Hayduska of Rainforest Rescue, argues that Liberia’s forest communities have played a central role in preserving some of West Africa’s last major rainforest strongholds, yet risk being marginalised under a carbon market system that could give greater powers to government, carbon developers and traders.
The groups contend that the proposed policy could enable carbon stored in Liberia’s forests to be sold while communities that have protected and depended on those forests for generations have limited influence over decisions concerning their lands and resources.
They have consequently urged President Boakai not to sign the draft policy, describing it as a framework with long-term implications for how Liberia’s forests, lands and carbon resources are controlled and monetised.
Communities at risk of being sidelined
According to the campaign statement, Liberia’s forest communities have maintained the country’s rainforest ecosystems for generations, providing habitat for wildlife, supporting livelihoods and exercising community stewardship recognised under Liberian law.
The campaign highlights that 70 per cent of Liberia’s forests are legally under community stewardship, arguing that any policy governing the commercialisation of forest carbon must therefore place communities at the centre of decision-making.
It warns that the proposed Carbon Market Policy could create new rights and opportunities for carbon developers and traders while weakening the position of the communities whose stewardship has helped keep the forests standing.
“The carbon market is evading the truth. It puts forest-dependent people at the margin and takes away their dignity,” said James Otto of Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), a Rainforest Rescue partner.
Otto called for greater transparency and genuine engagement with affected communities.
“The government needs to be honestly sincere, openly engage with forest communities and place community priorities at the top of the carbon policy development,” he said.
Concerns over consultation process
The organisations are particularly critical of the process through which the policy has been developed.
Environmental groups cited in the campaign say the policy process has been “significantly truncated,” particularly with regard to meaningful participation by forest communities and civil society organisations.
The NGO coalition has therefore urged the government to reconsider the policy before it is signed, arguing that the issue goes far beyond a routine administrative decision.
In a letter to President Boakai, the coalition reportedly described the proposed framework as “not a routine administrative instrument”, but one that could determine how Liberia’s forests, lands and carbon resources are controlled and monetised for years to come.
Carbon markets under scrutiny
At the heart of the campaign is a broader criticism of carbon credits and the role they play in international climate policy.
Rainforest Rescue and its allies argue that carbon credits can provide companies, particularly in the Global North, with a mechanism to claim climate action while continuing to emit greenhouse gases.
The campaign describes this as a “false solution” to the climate crisis, warning that carbon trading could allow polluters to purchase credits rather than make deeper reductions in their own emissions.
In Liberia, however, the campaign says the immediate concern extends beyond the climate debate to the rights and livelihoods of forest-dependent communities.
It warns that communities could be pushed aside as governments, project developers and carbon traders seek to capture economic benefits from the growing international market for forest-based carbon credits.
Western chimpanzees among conservation concerns
The campaign also links the debate to Liberia’s biodiversity.
Western chimpanzees, described in the statement as one of Liberia’s flagship species, depend heavily on the country’s rainforest habitats. The campaign argues that protecting these ecosystems requires the continued involvement of the communities that live in and depend on them.
Forest communities, it says, should not be treated simply as beneficiaries of conservation programmes but as rights holders and custodians whose knowledge and participation are essential to protecting Liberia’s remaining rainforests.
Call for a rights-based carbon policy
The coalition’s appeal to President Boakai comes amid growing international interest in Liberia’s forest carbon potential.
The organisations are not simply calling for an end to forest protection or climate finance; rather, their central demand is that any carbon framework should guarantee meaningful community participation, protect existing rights and ensure that communities have a decisive voice in determining what happens to their forests.
They argue that a carbon market policy that fails to secure those safeguards risks turning Liberia’s forests into commodities while undermining the people whose stewardship has helped conserve them.
The campaign is therefore urging President Boakai to halt the proposed policy and initiate a more open process involving forest communities, civil society, government institutions and other relevant stakeholders.
For the campaigners, the choice facing Liberia is not simply whether to participate in the global carbon market, but how that participation is structured, who controls the carbon resources and who ultimately benefits from them.
They insist that Liberia’s forest defenders must not become the losers in a market created in the name of climate action.
The groups are calling on supporters of Liberia’s environmental movement to urge President Boakai to reject the draft Carbon Market Policy and prioritise the rights, dignity and participation of forest communities in any future framework governing the country’s forest carbon resources.