Environmental issues in Liberia include deforestation of tropical rainforests, hunting of endangered species for wildlife meat, river pollution and coastal waters from industrial streams and raw sewage, as well as burning and disposal of household waste..
Video Environmental issues in Liberia
Environmental issues
Piracy of endangered species for consumption as wild animals
Endangered species hunted for human consumption as wild meat in Liberia. Species hunted for food in Liberia include elephants, dwarf hippos, chimpanzees, leopards, duikers, and other monkeys. Forest police in Liberia say that wildlife hunters will kill the forest animals they encounter.
The bush meat is eaten in Liberia, and is considered a delicacy. The 2004 public opinion survey found that bush meat was ranked second behind fish among the inhabitants of the capital city of Monrovia as the source of the preferred protein. Of the households where game meat is served, 80% of the population says they cook it "occasionally", while 13% cook it once a week and 7% of animal meat is cooked daily. Surveys were conducted during the last civil war, and meat consumption of game animals is now believed to be much higher.
Hunters hunt for protected species inside Liberia's national park, including Sapo and Gola rain forest parks. Most hunters hunt using traps and wire traps. The head of conservation at the Liberian Government's Forest Development Authority said when interviewed that a single hunter might arrange between 200 and 300 traps and not return to them for two to three weeks - leaving the animals caught into prolonged deaths. The bush meat is often exported to neighboring Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, despite the ban on cross-border animal sales.
It is illegal to kill protected species like chimpanzees and elephants in Liberia. However, the forest police are not allowed to carry weapons, and are understaffed. Prosecutions of hunters are also hampered by weak anti-poaching legislation.
Deforestation
Liberia is a hotspot of global biodiversity - a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under human threat. Liberia hosts several remaining species populations, including western chimpanzees, forest elephants, and leopards. Liberia contains an important part of the remaining West African rainforests, with about 43% of the Upper Guinean forest - an important forest that spans several West African countries.
Slash-burning farming is one of the human activities that erode the natural forests of Liberia. The 2004 UN report estimated that between 1990 and 2004, forest cover in Liberia had fallen by about seven per cent to just over 31 per cent of Liberia's total territory.
Illegal logging has been increasing in Liberia since the end of the Second Civil War in 2003. In 2012 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf licensed the company to reduce 58% of all remaining primary rainforests in Liberia. After the international protests, many of the logging licenses were canceled.
Liberia and Norway reached an agreement in September 2014 in which Liberia halted all logging in exchange for $ 150 million in development aid. Liberia agrees to put 30% or more of its forests under protected area status by 2020. Liberia will also conduct direct payments trials to communities to protect forests. Norway will seek independent verification that trees remain standing before payment is made.
In 2004, the United Nations Environment Program report estimated that 99 percent of Liberians burn charcoal and firewood for cooking and heating, resulting in deforestation. The report found that Liberia began exporting charcoal in the region. Coastal mangrove swamps are also burned for fuel, removing nursery land for fish and mangrove roles as natural flood defenses.
Pollution in Monrovia
Pollution is a significant problem in the Liberian capital - Monrovia. The piles of household and industrial waste in Monrovia are piled up and not always collected by sanitation companies paid by the World Bank to collect this waste. In 2009, the World Bank stated that the goal is to increase the collection and disposal of 45 per cent of daily waste generated by Monrovia in December 2013, up 15 per cent from 2009.
In 2013, unused garbage problems became acute in Paynesville area of ​​Monrovia so traders and residents burned "massive garbage piles visible on the cutting edge of the main road" from Monrovia to Kakata.
During Liberia's civil war, Monrovia went without an official waste collection service for 17 years. Residents burned, buried or disposed of their household waste. The marshes near the city are filled with rubbish, and the trash is used to extend the riverside. The Fiamah neighborhood in central Monrovia is an uncontrolled dump for the whole city.
Garbage clogs sewers and sewers, causing floods and puddles where mosquitoes can breed. Estimates are just the clearest pile of rubbish around the city totaling over 70,000 tons of junk on the streets. Since 2006, the international community has paid for all waste collection and disposal in Monrovia through the World Bank.
Floods often bring environmental problems to the inhabitants of Monrovia, as flood waters mix and carry garbage found in swamps that often reside on the outskirts of the settlements.
Sanitation
In 2008, one of the 25 Liberians had access to toilets, with mostly using bush or nearby beaches.
In 2009, a third of the 1.5 million people in Monrovia had access to clean toilets. Those who do not have their own toilet defecate in a narrow alley between their homes, on the beach, or into a plastic bag, which they throw into a nearby pile of garbage or to the sea.
Dense housing, there is no requirement that the landlords provide working toilets, and virtually no urban planning "has been combined to create a lethal sanitary condition in the capital". Poor infrastructure "means toilet users may have to use up to four gallons of water each time they water", according to a civil servant interviewed by IRIN News in 2008. At US $ 25 cents per gallon, some of it is a choice between flushing and feeding to buy food at the end of the day ".
Most Liberians are forced to buy all their water from street vendors at inflated prices. "When some of my neighbors defecate they can not get enough water to flush their toilets, so they occasionally throw dirt around the place, so we are all exposed to health hazards," Monrovia store keeper Samuel Tweh told IRIN. Without water flowing regularly, the waste that flows into the system often reserves, causing dirt out of the gutter into the streets.
In slums such as West Point, 70,000 residents have access to four public toilets. In 2009, a visit to the toilet at West Point cost 2.5 cents US. The youth who run the toilet says there are about 500 users a day. Facility "can smell 50 meters, with the floor of each dirty cube 15cm deep inside the dirty newspaper used by residents to wipe their posteriors.The staff use hand gloved to scoop the used paper into a wheelbarrow, which they throw in the nearest river or beach".
Mine
In the UN's 2004 environmental report, it is estimated that there are about 5,000 unlicensed licensed mining operations and 1,000 in Liberia. The report says mines cause damage through excavation of forests and riverbeds. The report notes that pollutants such as cyanide are used in the mining process, with cyanide entering the river. The mercury used in the extraction of gold from the ore is also the mentioned contaminant.
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The 2004 UN report also said there was an urgent need to rescue damaged and submerged ships at major ports and coastal sites around Liberia for both environmental and safety reasons.
Maps Environmental issues in Liberia
See also
- Liberian wildlife
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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