People, Rules and Organizations Supporting the Protection of Ecosystem Resources (PROSPER) Program that provides implementation in several areas within Liberia

The USAID PROSPER activity represents an important element of USAID Mission strategy for sustainable natural resources management in Liberia. It continues the focus on community forest management initiated by USAID's Land Rights and Community Forestry Project (LRCFP) in 2007 and continued through the USFS Liberia Forestry Support Program (LFSP) in 2011. PROSPER also supports the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in its implementation of the forestry reform process initiated after the civil conflict. USAID's efforts in community forestry complement the initiatives of the other major donors including the European Union's focus on commercial forestry; the World Bank's focus on biodiversity conservation in protected areas; and the Government of Norway's World Bank-managed REDD+ investment program focused on sustainable landscapes to achieve net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Successful implementation of community forestry in Liberia will demonstrate the feasibility of decentralized management of Liberia's natural resources wealth for inclusive economic growth. It will also demonstrate adherence to the legal and regulatory framework underpinning the forestry sector reform process. Improved forestry governance in Liberia will not only help conserve Liberia's biodiversity, but it will also contribute to inclusive economic growth for rural Liberians. The amended activity will help mitigate the external factors that risk to undermine current USAID investments in PROSPER, including: the lack of awareness by rural, forest-dependent communities in Liberia of their rights under law to manage their own forests and benefit from their resources in the face of predatory logging companies and a complicit GOL; and the low human and institutional capacity within the FDA's Community Forestry Department to effectively implement the legal and regulatory framework necessary for sustainable community forest management in Liberia.