MONROVIA-Oct 25-The Management of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Monday denied the media report.
It denied issuing any illegal Timber Export permit.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the FDA Management said at no time they issued an illegal Timber Export permit, describing the media reports by The Daylight as an attempt to blackmail the FDA and by extension Liberia so that the forestry sector of the country can appear negative in the eyes of the public.
In the statement, FDA Management indicated that the media failed to provide factual information. Not only that but also, The Daylight has continued to paint a ghostly picture of the FDA for the past six months through malicious and fallacious publication with the intent to blackmail.
The statement added that the story was bent on doing all in its calculated ploy to denigrate the forestry sector.
The statement noted that the Daylight editors and their style of publications run counterproductive to the norms of journalism.
Additionally, the FDA Management described the Daylight publication as paid journalism or paid agents employed by their detractors to paint them ugly in the eyes of the public.
Moreover, the statement highlighted that Daylight recently published that the EJ&J Logging Company shipped three million united states dollars’ worth of logs secretly out of the country; a story which the FDA debunked by providing data and other pieces of evidence.
The amplification of the story was channeled through several newspapers, emphasizing that the publisher lacks an understanding of the nature and scope of forest management, particularly the difference between plantation operations, natural forest management, and the associated permitting mechanisms.
The FDA further indicated that the plantation Timber Harvesting is the publication that referenced Tectona grandis wood commonly referred to as teak, which according to the FDA, is an exotic hardwood species not indigenous to Liberia.
It said that Teak was introduced into Liberia as part of Liberia’s Plantation forestry programs before the civil war.
The Statement indicated that several developments and plantations across Liberia were heavily destroyed due to several factors relating to land claims.
Sch included, agriculture, stressing that the impacts of these activities are visible in several counties including Bomi and Nimba where there were substantial private and communal claims on plantation land among others.
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