Forests have played a central role in Liberia’s recent history. In the late 1980s, Liberia dissolved into a civil war. While the exploitation of forest resources was not the explicit cause of civil war, it helped prolong it by financing participants in the conflict. As the war proceeded, accountability in the timber industry deteriorated. Records—including for financial transactions between the government and timber contractors—were no longer kept. Forest access roads were built and trees harvested without regard to ecological consequences.