When the Forest Reform law was passed in 2006, Liberia’s 51 community forests were offered a chance to conserve or commercialize their forests in logging and other deals with companies.
44 chose the money. But conservation groups persuaded seven to pursue conservation – protecting their forest resources and promoting biodiversity.
It’s not been an easy road. Varney Dukuly visited the Grand Bassa forest of Barconnie and Harmonville for Okay FM and found a community struggling to make ends meet.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of its Environment Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the American Jewish World Service. The funders had no say in the story’s content.