Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war
How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa.
Witness History · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa. In the late 1990s, timber companies worked closely with Liberia's warlord-turned-president, Charles Taylor. In return for money and support for his militias, the regime allocated huge swathes of the country's valuable rainforest to timber companies for logging. A group of young Liberians started to document what was happening. Alex Last has been speaking to the award winning activist, Silas Siakor, whose work led to a UN ban on Liberian timber exports.
(Photo: Timber near Buchanan in LIberia in 2010. Credit: Getty Images)