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    May 08, 2012

Poaching in Liberia's Forests Threatens Rare Animals

   Anne Look | Dakar
   Poachers sell bushmeat at markets like this one in Gabon (December 2007
   file photo.)
   Photo: Reuters
   Poachers sell bushmeat at markets like this one in Gabon, where the
   trader is displaying bush pigs, duikers, and monkeys for sale (December
   2007 file photo.)

   Liberia's forestry authority said poachers have overrun the country's
   national parks and are killing elephants, chimpanzees and other
   protected species for sale on the bushmeat market.

   Liberia's Gola forest preserve is part of a vast rainforest that once
   stretched across this part of West Africa but now covers just patches
   of Liberia and neighboring countries.

   The head of conservation at the government Forest Development Authority
   (FDA), Theo Freeman, said poachers are now threatening the existence of
   several rare animal species living in the Gola and Sarpo national
   parks. "There are people who have decided to just get in the forest and
   hunt everything they come across," he said.

   "The hunting also goes on for those species that are fully protected
   like the leopards, the pygmy hippopotamus, the elephant, the crocodile,
   jentik duikers, and what have you," Freeman said. "We had about seven
   species of monkey. They are killing everything."

   Freeman said hunters sell the animals as bushmeat, which is often
   exported to neighboring Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, despite a ban on
   the cross-border sale of wild animals. "Where we are now is highly
   commercial. You see truckloads of dried meat, bushmeat endangered or
   not endangered, coming from rural areas to town," he added.

   Freeman said snaring and wire traps are the methods of choice. He said
   gunfire draws too much attention.

   "A single man in a village who have about 200 or 300 [traps], he sets
   these things and he won't have a chance to visit the traps throughout
   the day, or sometimes two or three weeks," Freeman said. "We go on the
   back roads and we see these things and the animals are dead. You see
   the bones. Some are getting rotten. It is a very cruel way to hunt."

   Rural communities have traditionally hunted and eaten wild animals.
   However conservationists have long condemned the commercial bushmeat
   trade as one of the primary threats to African wildlife. Still, the
   trade continues to thrive in West and Central Africa, in part due to
   poverty.

   Liberian hunter Ben Varney said he cannot find any other way to support
   his five children. "No job in the country. I need to kill these animals
   to feed my family," he said.

   "If the government provides job, we will leave the forest. But for now,
   this is the only place we depend on to supply our needs," Varney added.
   "I kill the animals, sell them, to send my children to school and feed
   my family."

   In Liberia, it is illegal to kill protected species like chimpanzees
   and elephants. However, current laws are weak and vague, making
   prosecution difficult. Forest rangers are not allowed to carry guns and
   it is difficult for them to patrol such large expanses of territory.

   Freeman said the FDA drafted a revised law that would strengthen
   punishments for illegal hunting. However the legislation continues to
   languish in the president's office.

   Meanwhile, he said the hunting continues to push endangered species
   closer to extinction.