The_Open_Door_deel1

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lands held under this Agreement" (34), viz., one million acres.
Timber production under the Tubman Administration
Among the numerous foreign companies which in the 1940's and
1950's were granted concessions by the Tubman Administration,
notably the agricultural ("rubber") and mining companies, some
were also granted timber rights. The rubber concessions had
exclusive timber exploitation rights in their concession areas
which in 1960/61 totalled about 3»5 million acres, or
approximately fifteen per cent of the country's territory. The
(gold , iron ore , or other) mining companies had timber rights
in their concession areas which, however, were not exclusive
rights. Whatever the nature of the timber exploitation rights
granted to these companies was, they precluded the granting of
exclusive timber rights to others in this area. With about 3»5
million acres allotted to the rubber concessions and some 5.5
million acres to the mining companies, in 1960/61 an area of
about 9 million acres, or about 38 per cent, was in this way
excluded from the granting of exclusive timber rights to logging
companies. In 1953 the Tubman Administration started to sign
timber concession agreements with foreign investors. Following
the Forest Conservation Act of that year a general concession
agreement granting i.a. timber exploitation rights was signed
with a Swiss investor (in September 1953)- Within seven years
five other timber concessions were granted, one of which was to
a Liberian-owned company. However, as of January 1, 1961 only
three of them were engaged in active logging operations (see
Table 19)• Excluded are here - as (in general) in the rest of
this chapter - the logging activities of the agricultural and
mining concessions discussed in the previous six Chapters.
Total investments of these logging companies as of August 1,
1961 were estimated at a little over | 1 million; their
production in the same year was estimated at some 5 million bd.
ft. (35).
Timber production probably did not commence until 19 57- International
Trading Trust's concession rights lapsed after the
company's failure to commence effective operations within a
limited and specified period after the signing of the agreement.
In June 1955 this period (of 18 months) had been extended by
another 12 months - in vain (36). Whereas the production of
timber increased continuously in the 1956/57 - 1960/61 period
(with a yearly average of 4»5 million bd. ft.), it stagnated in
the years 1961/62 through 1966/67 though the yearly average had
nearly quadrupled and amounted to 17.8 million bd. ft. (see
Table 20).
Logs and lumber production amounted to 18.3 million bd. ft. in
the Fiscal Year 1966/67. About 5-6 million bd. ft. (30.8 per
cent) were exported unprocessed: in round log form, and the
remaining 12.7 million bd. ft. (69-2 per cent) were locally
consumed, i.e. either sold as sawn lumber on the domestic market