An international report published by Global Forest Watch has once again hit the alarm bell over Liberia’s disappearing forests. The report says Liberia lost 160 kilo-hectares (kha) of natural forest, equivalent to 100 Mt of CO₂ emissions, just in 2024.
Liberia, once among West Africa’s most densely forested countries, is now experiencing accelerating and large-scale deforestation driven by a combination of agricultural expansion, logging, and illegal mining activities.
Recent monitoring data indicate that the country has lost millions of hectares of tree cover over the past two decades, with particularly sharp losses in recent years. In 2024 alone, forest loss reached levels described by observers as “colossal” in scale, with primary forests increasingly fragmented and converted to agricultural land or degraded through extractive activity.
While cocoa production has emerged as a major driver of deforestation, especially in border regions near Ivory Coast, logging operations and unregulated mining are also contributing significantly to forest degradation. Together, these pressures are pushing forest frontiers deeper into previously intact ecosystems.
Cocoa expansion and cross-border pressure
Investigations by environmental organizations and regional observers highlight cocoa cultivation as a rapidly expanding cause of forest clearance.
As soils in neighboring cocoa-producing regions become depleted, farmers and commercial actors are moving into Liberia’s forest zones to establish new plantations.
Large tracts of forest in border counties have reportedly been converted into cocoa farms, often through informal land acquisition and in violation of national forest protection laws. This expansion mirrors trends seen across the West African cocoa belt, where demand from global chocolate markets continues to incentivize land clearing.
Logging and illegal mining intensify degradation
Alongside agriculture, both legal and illegal logging operations continue to remove valuable timber species from Liberia’s forests. In many areas, logging roads open previously inaccessible forests, which are then rapidly converted to farmland or mining sites.
Illegal mining—particularly artisanal and small-scale gold extraction—has also expanded in forested regions. These operations frequently involve clearing forest cover, diverting waterways, and leaving behind degraded landscapes that are difficult to restore.
Environmental monitors warn that the combined effect of these activities is not only reducing forest area but also undermining forest quality, biodiversity, and carbon storage capacity.
Climate and environmental consequences
According to Global Forest Watch data cited in recent reporting, Liberia lost approximately 162,000 hectares of natural forest in 2024 alone. Over the longer term, the country has seen a steady decline in forest cover, with millions of hectares lost since the early 2000s.
This deforestation is contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, with recent estimates placing emissions from forest loss at around 100 million tons of CO₂ in a single year.
Primary forests—critical for biodiversity and climate regulation—are particularly affected, with long-term degradation reducing the resilience of Liberia’s ecosystems.
Calls for stronger international action
Environmental groups are increasingly calling for stronger enforcement of forest protection laws within Liberia, alongside tighter regulation of global commodity supply chains linked to deforestation.
The European Union’s deforestation regulation, designed to restrict imports linked to forest loss, has been highlighted as a potentially significant tool.
However, delays in implementation have raised concerns among campaigners, who warn that continued postponement could allow further irreversible forest loss.
As global demand for cocoa, timber, and minerals continues, experts caution that without coordinated international and domestic intervention, Liberia’s remaining forests may face continued rapid decline.
What remains of Liberia’s once vast tropical forests is under growing pressure from multiple fronts. Cocoa expansion, logging operations, and illegal mining are converging to drive deforestation at scale, with environmentalists warning that the current trajectory could lead to severe ecological and climatic consequences for the region and beyond.
