Why are forests in Liberia disappearing?

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with features writer Ashoka Mukpo, who traveled to southeastern Liberia to investigate what satellite images indicated was a spike in deforestation over a relatively concentrated period. Along with video production coordinator Juan Maza, Mukpo documented illegal cacao plantations in the rainforests in the county of Grand Gedeh. In this interview, he explains how and why these plantations are appearing now in Liberia.

"What we saw … probably the best metaphor for it is that there's a kind of gold rush happening in this part of Liberia, except it's not gold that people are after, it's cocoa," Mukpo says.

"And this makes sense, given the context that in the last few years there was a huge price spike for cocoa, and this had to do with a lot of factors, including climate change and a poor harvest in Côte d'Ivoire. And so that's pushing this huge number of migrant workers from Côte d'Ivoire into Grand Gedeh."

At the end of the year, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect. The EU legislation would ban the importation of certain commodities produced via deforestation, and one of those commodities is cocoa. And much of the cocoa being grown in Liberia right now would potentially fall under this ban, Mukpo says. Furthermore, setting up the tracking infrastructure to ensure commodities meet EUDR standards is expensive. While nations like Côte d'Ivoire have already invested in this, Liberia has not. That leaves a lot of farmers who are betting on this commodity vulnerable.

"A lot of farmers are gonna suffer just from lack of clarity. And I could see a scenario where suppliers choose to just not buy from Liberia because if there's no way for them to know where these beans are coming from, they could get in a lot of trouble if they do buy, and I think that's the real concern," Mukpo says.

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Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Cover image: A young cacao tree in Grand Gedeh, Liberia. Image by Ashoka Mukpo/Mongabay.

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Timecodes

(00:00) Why are forests disappearing in Liberia?

(10:56) Communities struggling to make a living

(21:18) Perspectives from conservationists

(25:38) The EUDR may impact these farms

(32:07) 'No clear villain'