The_Open_Door_deel1

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The Government Forest Reserves to be created were to be permanent
forest estates, owned and administered by the Government. If
necessary, private ownership would be ex-propriated for this
purpose. This applied also to the envisaged National Parks which
would be constituted of any areas of which it was thought wise
and in the national interest to retain insofar as practicable in
their existing situation. The proposed Native Authority Forest
Reserves would embrace forests lying in one or more tribal
chiefdoms and would constitute potential Government Forest
Reserves. The Communal Forests were to be limited to small forest
areas immediately adjacent to one or more tribal villages and
were to be administered by the local - tribal - authorities.
The forest products of these communal forests were to be
exclusively for the private use of the local inhabitants; any
commercial use would be prohibited (18).
In the same year, on December 22, the National Legislature
approved a Nine-Year Program for the Economic Development of the
Republic of Liberia which also paid attention to the development
of the country's forest resources. The Development Plan
recommended implementation of some measures which aimed at
facilitating the exploitation of the forest potential while
safeguarding the national interests by taking measures which
would result in the establishment of a permanent forest reserve
in the country. Undoubtedly the outcome of Mayer's
investigation will greatly have influenced the Government's
policy in this respect. It was realized in the Plan that the
main reason why the country's forest potential had not been
utilised so far was the lack of roads and other facilities (e.g.
well equipped ports) for the transportation of the forest products.
It optimistically concluded that when highways and roads
would have made many forested areas of the country accessible,
direct income to the Government from the forestry sector could
amount to $ 4-5 million annually (assuming a stumpage value of
$ 3 per thousand board feet). (19)
The 1953 Forestry Conservation Act was amended in 1957 with a
Supplementary Act for the Conservation of the Forests of the
Republic of Liberia. This Supplementary Act regulated the
issuing of permits for the utilization of the country's forest
resources notably in Public Forest Reserves and National
Parks; the obligations of the holders of these permits; the
placing of property marks on trees (stumps, logs); the receipt
of revenues and, more precisely, the distribution of revenues
between tribal and central government authorities in the case
of Native Authority Forest Reserves; general regulations
governing the cutting of trees; general obligations of
concessionaires having received timber exploitation rights;
rules regulating the utilization and protection of the
country's wildlife resources; and the duties and
responsibilities of Forest Officers (20).
Worth mentioning here is the fact that certain forestry officers