Natural Resource Management (NRM) Education and Advocacy

Despite being amongst one of the poorest countries in Africa, Liberia has vast amount of natural resource including diamond, timber, iron ore and gold. The country also exports rubber and other forest products; but the mining of these natural resources has no trickledown effect on community residents. Since the end of the Liberia civil conflict, the country has intensified the extraction of its minerals including timber, diamond, gold, and iron ore. According to the government of Liberia, significant amount of oil reserves was discovered in earlier July 2012 (LEITI). Oil blocks were awarded to oil companies for exploration but not much was heard about the processes including benefits to the country. After some years of exploration, the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) charged with them responsibility of managing the affairs of the oil exploration in Liberia collapsed. To understand how NOCAL was operating, RHRAP carried out 2 years accountability intervention and used its findings to produce its newsletter known as “

The Activists Newsletter

Under the current George Weah presidency, a new arrangement for the sales of oil blocks is ongoing but again, nothing is known to the public on the processes including ownership of oil exploration companies, compliance to laws and revenue payment, contract agreement, and corporate social benefits to communities which are serious issues to be considered by Civil Society Organizations intervention.