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\u201cHow do you go to arrest somebody who has arms in a jungle terrain of this nature, but you, who are the law enforcer, don\u2019t have arms?\u201d Smith asked rhetorically. \u00a0Smith added that it was impractical for unarmed rangers to protect the park against its illegal occupants, armed with single-barrelled guns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Security actors have been critical of arming rangers for the two decades that followed since Liberia\u2019s civil wars ended in 2003<\/a>. Critics fear<\/a> arming forest rangers could lead to abuse of power, violence, and undermine reform efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith disagrees. He believes sufficient law enforcement rangers must be trained, armed, and deployed not to shoot people but perform their tasks in line with the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a sustainable approach that speaks to the longstanding difficulties we face over the years. We need the manpower, training, and logistics to support our security plans and operations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top: A Sapo National Park signboard in Cherue Town, Sinoe County. The DayLight\/Carlucci Cooper By Varney Kamara JAYLAY TWON, Sinoe County \u2013 The government should arm 250 rangers to protect the Sapo National Park from illegal occupants, John Smith, the reserve\u2019s Chief Warden, has said. Spanning over 180,000 hectares across Grand Gedeh, River Gee, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":6492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[123,107,3077,118],"class_list":["post-6489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-conservation","category-rainforest","tag-forestry-development-authority","tag-liberia","tag-sapo-national-park","tag-sinoe-county"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Park Warden Wants 250 Armed Rangers to Protect Sapo Park","description":"The government should arm 250 rangers to protect the Sapo National Park from illegal occupants, John Smith, the reserve\u2019s Chief Warden, has said.","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2025\/09\/22\/park-warden-wants-250-armed-rangers-to-protect-sapo-park\/","robots":"noindex, nofollow, max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"msvalidate.01":"CA6BD2F84653EA44942A55ABC0B35372","miscellaneous":""},"schema":null,"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"The DayLight - The DayLight is a nonprofit, environmental news website. 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