Liberia Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

tropical rain forest deforestation; soil erosion; loss of biodiversity; hunting of endangered species for bushmeat; pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw sewage; pollution of rivers from industrial run-off; burning and dumping of household waste

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life Conservation

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 17.19 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 1.39 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 6.56 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

tropical; hot, humid; dry winters with hot days and cool to cold nights; wet, cloudy summers with frequent heavy showers

Land use

agricultural land: 28.1% (2018 est.)

arable land: 5.2% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 2.1% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 20.8% (2018 est.)

forest: 44.6% (2018 est.)

other: 27.3% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 53.6% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 3.41% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 13.27% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: very high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies

aerosolized dust or soil contact diseases: Lassa fever

note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Liberia is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity: due to high food prices and economic downturn - according to the latest analysis, about 940,000 people were estimated to be in “Crisis” and above between June and August 2021 due to high food inflation rates and the negative effects of the COVID‑19 pandemic on the economy; production of rice, a main food staple, was estimated at a below-average level in 2021, a factor that is expected to further aggravate food insecurity in 2022; prices of staple food have been on the rise in most domestic markets since early 2021; the main drivers of the food insecurity are the effects on crop production of floods and high infestations of pests, including Fall Armyworm in some localized areas (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 564,467 tons (2007 est.)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 80.2 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 53.4 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 12.3 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

232 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Liberia on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Liberia 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Liberia 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.