In Summary:
- A video documentary prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claim that Liberia is home to half of the remaining rainforest in Africa
- The video documentary was released in support of Liberia’s bid for the non-permanent member seat of the UN Security Council
- We have fact-checked this claim by consulting multiple sources
- We found that the claim is incorrect.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently released a documentary video explaining the history and impact of Liberia in international diplomacy. The video claimed that Liberia is home to half of the remaining rainforest in Africa.
The documentary is promoting the country’s bid for a non-permanent member seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Claim
An extract from the video reads: “Situated on the west coast of Africa, Liberia is home to half of the remaining rainforest on the continent”.
Rating Justification
To fact-check this claim, we reviewed many reports and articles on Liberia’s rainforest.
In 2023 the Government of Liberia with funding from the Government of Norway and the World Bank organized a high-level forest and climate resilience forum in Monrovia. The document from the forum states that Liberia forest constitutes 43% of the remaining upper Guinea rainforest.
According to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – a fund established in 2000 to empower civil society organizations in developing countries and transitional economies to protect the world’s biodiversity hotspot, the upper Guinea forest extends across Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.
This means Liberia is home to about 43% of the remaining rainforest in the upper Guinea region which cuts across six countries.
Also, Rainforest Trust in this article on its website states that “while the upper Guinea forest extends across six countries, almost half is found in Liberia
Where is Africa’s Largest Rainforest?
Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative on its partner countries states that the Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest in the World after the Amazon rainforest in South America.
The Congo Basin cut across six Central African countries namely Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Congo.
The European Forest Institute EU REED Facility project which helps countries improve forest governance to slow, halt, and reverse deforestation states in an article that the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world’s largest rainforest nations with some 152 million hectares of forest.
Interfaith Rainforest Initiative an international multi-faith alliance working to end deforestation states in this article that about 60% of the Congo Basin Forest lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making the country the second largest forested country in the world.
Also, in this BBC article, it is stated that the Democratic Republic of Congo is home to the majority of the Congo Basin, the second-largest rainforest in the world.
Conclusion
Based on our research, we conclude that the claim in the video documentary released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Liberia is home to half of the remaining rainforest in Africa is incorrect.
Documents from the Government of Liberia and development partners show that Liberia is home to about 43% of the remaining rainforest in the upper Guinea region which extends across six countries in West Africa. However, the largest rainforest in Africa is the Congo Basin of which the Democratic Republic of Congo hosts the majority.
