MONROVIA-The Forestry Development Authority-FDA, is not leaving any stone unturned with its quest to protect the forest and all other parts associated with it. For this reason, it graduated 15 Rangers in the maritime system.
The Rangers who were trained in Robert Sports on Lake Piso, the largest lake in Liberia, led to swift movement on sea to arrest any intruders who will affect the mangos and other protected forest in the area.
Robert Sport is a tourist attraction center in Liberia and hosts most of the mangos and other forests. The need to train the Rangers became more important after conducting survey; it realized that many people were cutting the trees down as well as carrying out illegal marine activities in areas, thus posing threat the survivability of the species.
This prompted the FDA through the REDD + to carry out the training of special Rangers in the marine sector.
At a colorful ceremony over the last week in Robert Sports, the National REDD + Coordinator, Forestry Development Authority-Mr. Saah A. David, Jr said, the exercise was aimed at protecting the area.
He said, support was made possible by the Norwegian government through the World Bank. He also added that they received support from the Liberian government through the National Coast Guard to train the Rangers. He expressed his gratitude to the both governments for such support.
Currently, there are two boats which will be used to carry on patrols.
“We are doing it to protect the remaining forest here, to help protect the ecotourism.” According to him, Robert Sport was selected due to a study carried out by the entity which showed that the species were under serious threats.
“We did a study at the FDA and we realized that Cape Mount, in terms of ecotourism, was at the top of the list in the country. It is easily assessable and tourists coming from Sierra Leone and Monrovia . If you look at the river and the sea, you also see the mountain there. Those are the good sizes. Giving the proximity to Monrovia, Cape Mount is best suited for it,” he said.
He continued: they have to move fast because the area was under threat. “They are under threat, that is why cape mount is a multiple use reserved. But all of our protected areas are under threat. We have recruited people from the community to serve as Eco guards. The Liberia Forest sector project is Funded by the government of Norway through the World Bank.”
According to him, the project is to build the capacities of six different government entities; FDA leads in the process, Liberia Institute for Statistic Geo information Services, Liberia Land Authority Agriculture, Mines and Environmental Protection Agency.
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