As seen on the Daily Observer
Written by Patrick C.M. Kollie –from Southeastern Liberia
Friday” 10 August 2012 16:27
Participants collecting data with the GPS equipment
Fifty community dwellers” drawn from ten counties recently benefited from Global Positioning System (GPS) technology workshop” organized by the Green Advocates International” (GAI) an environmental group.
This particular GPS technology” Green Advocates International” (GAI) said” will help detect illegal logging activities and will also help to determine the width” length and height or diameter of a log.
The exercise is intended to empower local community based law enforcement monitors monitor illegal logging activities in logging communities” Green Advocates International” (GAI) said.
The participants were taught how to use the GPS technology and how to operate digital cameras to help document statistics from the field.
Beneficiaries came from Rivercess” Grand Cape Mount” Margibi” Grand Bassa” Grand Gedeh” River Gee” Grand Kru” and Montserrado Counties.
Speaking at the training” the lead campaigner of Green Advocates International” Cllr. Alfred Brownell said in the last five years Green Advocates has worked with local communities in River Cess County and the communities have been strongly engaged in the monitoring process of illegal logging and reporting on forest activities in the county.
Cllr. Brownell explained that between 2005 and 2007″ under a project” “Fighting Forest Corruption in Liberia”” funded by the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF)” Green Advocates researched and designed a Forest Corruption Tool kit” and Training Manual.
He pointed out that during 2007 and 2010″ his organization received support from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) to pilot Participatory Community Mapping working with local forest communities with low literacy levels to gather and record GPS referenced information.
The Green Advocate lead campaigner believes” designing a GIS /GPS Database using Participatory Community Mapping is cost effective” sustainable and cheaper than using traditional techniques for forest monitoring which are very expensive and time-consuming.
He said Green Advocates International intends using a combination of GIS/GPS technology with the appropriate excel spreadsheet and field notes as well as Participatory Community Mapping to produce a local community based law enforcement model that would be user-friendly with semi and non-literate local communities.
Cllr. Brownell said with the current training and equipment made available” “ I strongly believe that it is very significant to your work as local community based enforcement monitors and it will also enable you to actively record data relating to illegal logging and other illegal activities in the forest sector with minimum supervision from urban elites and highly paid consultants.”
According to Cllr. Brownell” the Global Positioning System and digital cameras will be used by members of the six communities that Green Advocates is partnering with in Rivercess County and urged the recipients to wisely use the equipment for the intended purpose.
During the training” participants learned about recording and documenting illegal loggings” mining” the usage of cameras as well as recording GPS referenced information using ‘touch-screen’(Hand Held Computers) relating to illegal logging activities and how to use the GPS reference data to produce map of illegal logging activities.
At the end of the training section” participants thanked Green Advocates International for empowering them with skills that enable they to be in the position to monitor and document issues relating to their natural wealth in the country. They assured the usage and maintenance of the equipment.
It can be recalled that there were serious issues relating to forest law enforcement and governance in Liberia and the Government of Liberia made effort to address them.
On December 8″ 2006″ the Government of Liberia through the Forestry Development Authority (FDA)” formally informed a European Commission’s delegation in Monrovia that Liberia is actively considering a FLEGT/ Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the European Commission.
Later on March 26- 27″ 2009″ the Government of Liberia (GoL) and the European Union (EU) formally launched negotiations for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) and finally on 9th May 2011″ Liberia signed agreement with the European Union on 27 July 2011.
Liberia is the fifth African country to sign such an agreement with Europe” following Ghana” Cameroon” the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
Original source