Biomass producer Buchanan Renewables (BR) has been sold to an investor group, after a project to recycle old rubber trees and rejuvenate Liberia’s once world-leading rubber industry proved more challenging than expected.  A report published in March by...the Dutch Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (Somo), Green Advocates and Swedwatch found that Liberian farmers had suffered since the...departure [of Swedfund and Vattenfall]...

It claimed that Vattenfall and Swedfund had not taken into account the potential consequences of their withdrawal...  

“...farmers indicated that their lives are currently more difficult than before the arrival of BR, when they were harvesting latex from the old trees that BR has removed, and they indicate that they are not able to take care of their farms,” the report said. At the same time, the company’s removal of old rubber trees was making life difficult for the area’s charcoal producers...