National Wildlife Law of 2012.

This Act consisting of 12 Chapters is the framework legislation for the maintenance, protection, and preservation of wildlife as a national heritage, and to address the central issues concerning wildlife and wildlife habitats namely: (i) management and protection of wild animals through the use of the appropriate and internationally accepted best practice, including planning, licensing, and pricing systems, hunting rules and regulations, game ranching and breeding control; (ii) the ownership of wildlife which is vested in the State and related user rights shall be granted to the citizenry under this Law; (iii) protection of neighboring areas and the relationship between wildlife protection and other forms of land use; and (iv) regulation of the institutions concerning participation in wildlife-related decision-making and economic benefits, including agreements between individuals or communities and public institutions and devolution of authority. The main objectives of the Law are to (i) provide for the establishment of conservation and wildlife management areas; (ii) provide for the protection of wildlife and wildlife management; (iii) provide for cooperative governance in the establishment of conservation areas and management of wildlife; (iv) effect a national system of conservation areas as part of a strategy to manage and conserve its biological diversity; (v) provide for a representative network of conservation areas on state land, private land, and community lands; (vi) promote sustainable utilization of conservation areas for the benefit of people, in a manner that would preserve the ecological character of such areas; (vii) promote the participation of local communities in the management of conservation areas and wildlife; (viii) facilitate integrated management of conservation and wildlife.
The implementing agency for the purposes of this Act is the Forestry Development Authority. Established by Act in 1976 Act with the mandate to manage Liberia's forest estate, the Authority now takes on new functions related to protected areas and wildlife management and its function are subject to the supervision of the Board of Directors of the Authority and the Forest Management Advisory Committee. It is also designated as the Management Authority for the implementation of CITES (in this regard, Chapter 8 is entirely dedicated to the trade in wild animals, protected animals, and wildlife products). The Authority assumes the following specific objectives in establishing a national protected areas network (i) ensure that a network of sites representative of territorial and marine natural ecosystems are dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources; (ii) ensure that viable populations of all indigenous wild species, including migratory species, are adequately conserved and that rare, endangered, and endemic species are specially protected; (iii) protect and maintain ecological and life-sustaining processes such as water catchments protection, soil conservation, genetic diversity, and natural forest; (iv) provide opportunities for research, education, recreation, and tourism; (v) generate economic activity in and around protected areas and promote the sustainable use of wildlife; (vi) enhance rural development by integrating protected area management into local economies; (vii) protect and maintain cultural and archaeological resources. The Law provides in Chapter V in detail the procedures to establish the different kinds of protected areas in the country. In any case, the general requirement for Protected Area management plans are as follows (i) it is mandatory that they are prepared by the Authority in collaboration with affected communities; (ii) shall have the status of regulations issued under this Act; (iii) the Authority will manage the Protected Area in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and no activities may be undertaken, allowed, authorized or condoned in that Protected Area if they are not in compliance with that plan. Protected Area establishment and proposed development, commercial activities and management plans are subject to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirements.
Chapter 6 deals with wildlife conservation as a national heritage and, on this topic, the Authority may by regulation (i) control the use of wildlife; (ii) establish a regime for nationally and internationally recognized protected species; (iii) control hunting to achieve sustainable harvest; (iv) control trade in wildlife; (v) establish requirements for the issuance of hunting and wildlife trading certificates and licenses; (vi) establish a permitting regime to define and implement Wildlife Use Rights application procedures (including criteria for eligible applicants) and prohibitions; (vii) establish procedures and standards for the issuance of Wild Animal possession permits; (viii) quarantine, humanely destroy, or deliver to the appropriate governmental agency for investigation any diseased live wild animal seized or confiscated. The private sector participation in wildlife management is encouraged (Chapter 7) and the Authority shall (i) develop a policy for private and community-based management, joint forest management of Protected Areas, conservation areas, and wildlife management areas; (ii) promulgate regulations to implement the policy established in collaboration with the stakeholders.
Measures for the promotion of wildlife activities are the subject of Chapter 9, dealing in particular with (i) scientific research and education related to wildlife conservation and traditional knowledge concerning forest conservation and wildlife management; (ii) scientific data and reports from the research. A Conservation and Wildlife Fund for the administration of protected areas, wildlife conservation, and management activities is established per Chapter 10.