IRIN Copenhagen | Monday
A DANISH company, the DLH Group, has decided to stop importing Liberian timber in reaction to a public call by three non-governmental organisations that it stop dealing with Liberian logging companies implicated in arms trafficking.
DLH imported logs from the Liberia-based Oriental Timber Company and Royal Timber Corporation into Europe. Greenpeace, Global Witness and Nepenthes called on it to stop doing so because a UN panel had found last year that the Liberian logging industry was helping arms trafficking. Logging companies have also been accused of stripping Liberia’s forests while providing few benefits to host communities.
DLH Group’s CEO, Jorgen Rasmussen, said on Tuesday that he would stop buying timber from Liberian companies until the United Nations or the European Union had certified that the situation had been normalised.
Some governments and NGOs had campaigned unsuccessfully this year for the inclusion of timber in sanctions the UN Security Council imposed on Liberia for allegedly trading weapons for diamonds with, and otherwise supporting, Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF). – IRIN
ZA*BUSINESS:
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