The Environmental Eyes Consultancy and Advocacy Firm Inc. (EECAF) has strongly recommended a diplomatic engagement with the European Union Parliament as it relates to the termination of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT) signed between Liberia and the EU in 2011.
“We call on His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and the Government of Liberia to act immediately. Liberia must dispatch a high-level delegation to Brussels to re-engage the EU, negotiate a way forward, and prevent termination of this landmark agreement,” the group said.
According to the release, the group noted that at a time when Liberia is grappling with massive illegal logging and accelerating forest degradation, abandoning the VPA is the wrong move. The agreement is our best defense. Its termination will trigger four damaging consequences including green light for illegal logging and forest destruction.
The VPA created Liberia’s Legality Assurance System (LAS), chain-of-custody controls, and the Joint Implementation Committee that forces FDA, EPA, and customs to verify timber. Without the VPA, illegal loggers will expand operations with no EU-backed accountability. In addition, Forest degradation will worsen, watersheds will be destroyed, and biodiversity will be lost.
The group also expressed concern about the collapse of revenue for Liberia and forest counties, noting that the EU is Liberia’s primary timber market and as such the termination removes FLEGT license credibility.
It added that EU buyers will abandon Liberian timber for Ghana, Congo, or Gabon. That means there will be lost export earnings, job losses in sawmills, and collapsed payments to the National Benefit Sharing Trust Board that funds development in forest counties.
On international reputational damage, the environmental group added that a terminated VPA tells the world Liberia cannot guarantee legal, deforestation-free timber. “That stigma will spread to rubber, cocoa, and mining exports just as the EU Deforestation Regulation takes effect. Moreover, Investors will flee, and only illegal operators will remain.”
On the silencing of forest communities and civil society, the group noted that the VPA legally mandates the participation of communities and CSOs in forest governance and monitoring. Termination removes that platform when forest people need it most to resist illegal logging and defend land rights. It noted that EECAF’s advocacy on environmental safeguards in forestry depends on that space.
EECAF therefore demands and recommends that President Boakai personally lead an urgent diplomatic engagement with the EU to reverse the termination decision and secure Liberia’s transition into the EU’s proposed “Forest Partnership” on terms that protect community rights and strengthen environmental safeguards. Immediate government action: That budgetary reallocation be made in FY2026 to fix inter-ministerial coordination and fully fund the LAS, as recommended by the 12th Liberia-EU Joint Implementation Committee held in November 2024.
The group further recommends that a full inclusion of CSOs and forest communities in all negotiations, with expanded monitoring of illegal logging and forest degradation impacts. In conclusion, the group noted that Liberia’s forests are our national heritage and climate shield. We cannot afford to lose the VPA while illegal logging rages. The Government must choose diplomacy and reform over surrender.
