essay on illegal mining in ghana

Ghana’s illegal mining continues because the rules and reality are disconnected

Researcher, Queen's University, Ontario

Disclosure statement

Richard Kwaku Kumah received funding from International Development Research Centre under the Doctoral Research Awards for this research

Queen's University, Ontario provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

Queen's University, Ontario provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

View all partners

Artisanal and small-scale mining – a low-tech, indigenous mining subsector – is taking on increasing economic importance in many developing countries. Over 150 million people worldwide are estimated to derive their livelihoods from this activity indirectly. In Ghana, it supports millions and contributes up to 43% of the nation’s total gold production.

The sector employs over 1 million rural Ghanaians directly, while the upstream and downstream industries employ 4.5 million people, accounting for 60% of the country’s mining workforce . But artisanal and small-scale mining is also responsible for complex environmental challenges: destruction of land and vegetation and chemical contamination of water.

Ghana is one of the first countries in Africa to promulgate a small-scale mining law . Ghanaian mining codes not only recognise artisanal and small-scale mining as a legitimate livelihood source but also establish a framework aimed at formalising it.

So far, though, the regulation of artisanal and small scale mining in Ghana has been mostly unsuccessful. More than 85% of small-scale mining operations still occur in the informal and illegal sector of the economy and remain largely unregulated.

As part of my PhD research I explored the reasons for this persistent illegality , from the point of view of licensed and illegal miners. The study identified two key related factors that drive illegal mining in Ghana. First, the mines are transient but getting a mining licence is time-consuming. Second, the regulatory framework doesn’t take into account the diverse reality of operations. It is difficult for people to comply with rules that do not adapt to their conditions: they will seem irrelevant to them.

To effectively manage and control the activities of artisanal and small-scale mining, these factors must be considered.

Disconnect between rules and reality

I carried out fieldwork between December 2020 and May 2021 in three mining communities in Ghana: Wassa Akropong, Bogoso and Gbane. I conducted interviews with illegal miners and gold dealers, licensed miners, local land owners, government officials, NGOs and others.

The first finding was that informal local mines were transient and often operated on a subsistence basis. The miners lacked adequate capital and geo-prospecting knowledge.

According to local informants, the productive lifespan of most of these kinds of mines was 6 to 18 months. But the formal procedure to get a small-scale mining licence in Ghana can take up to three years. According to the Minerals Commission, this process should normally take three to four months. A major reason why many locals don’t apply for a licence is this disconnect. As one illegal miner puts it:

to me, it doesn’t make sense to wait for three years for a licence to undertake a six-month project. I will rather hide and do my galamsey (illegal mining).

The second problem is another kind of disconnect. The miners in this research were of diverse kinds but the rules are supposed to apply to all equally. The operators ranged from alluvial miners removing stream bed deposits to those mining hard rock for gold near the surface. They used a wide range of techniques, practices and forms of knowledge to extract and process minerals. Different miners therefore had different perceptions about the formal licensing requirements. For example, some did not think they required a licence to operate because their activities caused no destruction to water bodies.

Ghana’s key legal and regulatory instruments for small scale mining show that the sector is poorly defined and classified. Poor rural people panning for shallow alluvial gold with rudimentary tools are subject to the same permit procedures as operators with more sophisticated tools.

This generic regulatory framework fails to link the diverse types of the sector’s operations to appropriate levels and forms of control. Some of the sector’s most vulnerable operators can’t comply.

Reforming Ghana’s mining regulations

It is important to create a regulatory framework that makes all miners accountable and also enables them to formalise their operations.

The burdensome, costly and overly time-consuming licensing process needs reform.

This could mean devolving more small-scale mining decisions to local governmental agencies and different local stakeholders. Kenya has recently set an example : counties and municipal authorities are empowered to issue mining licences through consultation with different local interest groups.

The reason local miners move their operations frequently lies in poverty and lack of education. So the regulatory frameworks should set up support for miners, including education and training, technical and financial support. This would enable miners to make investments to prolong the economic lifespan of local mines.

Policy reforms also need to reclassify Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale mining sector. This would result in more effective control and accountability measures. “Small-scale” and “artisanal” mining aren’t necessarily the same thing, so they may require different rules. In the DRC, for instance, artisanal mining is seen as an indigenous livelihood source where operators only require “exploitation cards.” Cameroon also distinguishes between “small mines” based on proven ore deposits and “artisanal mines” worked with specified levels of technology.

Ghana’s framework should consider these differences if the fight against illegal mining is to be successful.

• Agriculture
• Peacebuilding
• Illegal Mining
• Artisanal mining
• small scale mining

Editorial Internship

Research Fellow in Dark Matter Particle Phenomenology

Integrated Management of Invasive Pampas Grass for Enhanced Land Rehabilitation

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)

Illegal Gold Mining Boom Threatens Cocoa Farmers (And Your Chocolate)

Ghana, one of the world's biggest producers of cocoa beans, is facing a crisis around dangerous and dirty galamsey, or informal, mining—which experts warn could derail its agriculture sector.

Obuasi, Ghana — Kwaku Asare grabbed his machete and trekked through the bush to his cocoa farm—through winding pathways and hills, past ominous pits of muddy water, and underneath the low-hanging canopy of dried cocoa leaves. But the trees were bare. A few rotting cocoa pods littered the ground, while other stunted pods refused to ripen on the branches.

“When the Chinese came, they told me that my plants were not yielding anymore because there was so much gold under the soil,” Asare said. After a few years of low production, he sold his 14 acres to a group of small-scale gold miners, also called galamsey miners, with a Chinese sponsor. The money is gone now and Asare’s land is poisoned.

Kwaku Asare of Denkyira Asikuma, Ghana, visits the former cocoa farm he sold to galamsey gold miners. He's among the growing number of cocoa farmers seeing their production replaced with mining, which is often only temporary but leaves permanent scars.

Kwaku Asare’s story is not uncommon in Denkyira Asikuma, a small farming village nestled amongst cocoa plantations outside of Dunkwa in Ghana’s Central region. At least 30 cocoa farmers in the village have sold their land to miners who quickly excavated, pumped in water and chemicals, and abandoned their pits when the work was done or when soldiers chased them away.

Gold mining has always been a part of Ghana, from the ornate jewelry of the Ashanti kings to British colonization. In the last several years, however, largely unregulated galamsey mining has ramped up—due in part to Chinese investors who bring sophisticated equipment and a lagging economy that makes the prospect of striking gold too sweet to pass. These often illegal operations can result in contaminated water, deforestation , and a rise in violent crime. ( Learn more about the real price of gold .)

Illegal gold mining in Ghana further exacerbates a volatile cocoa market. In 2014, experts predicted a global cocoa shortage by 2020. However, cocoa production statistics have been unpredictable since then, according to the most recent data from the 2015-16 growing season. That year, there was a cocoa surplus , attributed to a prolonged rainy season. Recently, the price of the bean has plummeted to historic lows on global commodity exchanges— negatively impacting the profits of West African cocoa farmers.

In 2011, Ghana produced a record-setting amount of cocoa, weighing in at over one million tonnes . Since then, as illegal mining steadily ramped up, cocoa production has trended downwards, with a drop to 740,000 tonnes in 2015.

YEAR-LONG ADVENTURE for every explorer on your list

“Galamsey is the biggest threat to cocoa production,” Pomasi Ismael, the chairman of a cocoa buyers collective, told local media recently.

Several other factors have been blamed for the volatile nature of the cocoa market, most notably climate change , which can usher in an extremely dry season one year and excessive rain the next. Deforestation from illegal gold mining may speed up such effects.

Working in galamsey gold mining pits—like this one in Diewuosu, Ghana—can be dangerous. Erosion and runoff of toxic material can poison surrounding areas.

Gold and cocoa are both integral parts of Ghana’s economy and national identity, yet the two resources’ coexistence has contradictions. Cocoa was first planted in Ghana in the 1870s, and the former Gold Coast colony became the largest exporter of the chocolate-making beans for the next century, until neighboring Ivory Coast surpassed them. Two decades after the arrival of cocoa, the legal Obuasi gold mine was founded. Closely regulated, the big industrial operation transformed a small Ashanti village into a cosmopolitan city with tennis courts and golf clubs. For decades, miners toiled underground in the sprawling complex. Today, the mine is no longer producing gold and galamsey miners have quickly filled the void, wiping away cocoa farms in their path.

Ghana’s government has struggled to balance the economic boon of small-scale mining with environmental and safety protections. The Small-Scale Gold Mining Act of 1989 implemented a system for obtaining small-scale mining licenses. These initial galamsey workers were groups of nine or less artisanal miners working by hand to dig, pan, and wash gold. In 2006, an updated law stipulated that only Ghanaian citizens could receive mining licenses and required permits from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency and Forestry Commission. Although some small-scale mining operations therefore do have legal permits, many of them don’t, and many partake in illegal activities such as employing foreigners or crews of hundreds, using mercury, or using heavy machinery. To many in the country, the term galamsey has thus now become synonymous with criminality.

The Conflict’s Ground Zero

The single-lane highway from Obuasi to Dunkwa is lined on both sides with a string of excavating machines and gold-washing outposts. Immediately after passing the town’s tollbooth, signs advertising gold dealers and mining equipment—in both English and Chinese—crowd the streets, vastly outnumbering the fading billboards for cocoa fertilizer.

Dunkwa sits on the Offin River, a tributary of the Pra River, which is one of the largest river systems in Ghana. In the last few years, these water bodies have turned an alarming yellow color, due to chemical wastewater from illegal gold mining, unrecognizable from their former resilient blue.

The area covered by the Pra River Basin—including parts of Ghana’s Central, Western, and Ashanti regions—is the country’s cocoa heartland. It also holds the highest concentration of gold deposits. Ghana is the world’s second largest cocoa exporter, contributing 20 percent of the world’s supply. More than 70 percent of cocoa beans come from West Africa.

It’s unlikely that Kwaku Asare’s cocoa farm was spoiled due to the gold underneath its soil, as the miners claimed. It’s much more likely that his cocoa crops were negatively affected by the increase of galamsey activities in the area, which can poison waterways with heavy metals and chemicals like lead, mercury, and cyanide, as well as unpredictable rainy and dry seasons attributed to climate change.

The Mercury Connection

Over 5,000 people work at the Adumanu galamsey site, most of them without legal permits, according to Joseph Owusu Sekyere, who owns several pits. Just a few miles outside of Obuasi, the yellow holes filled with brackish water are ubiquitous.

Massive amounts of stones are crushed into sand and washed at these sites, which take water from nearby river systems and deposit wastewater back into them.

“We use mercury to get the gold,” Sekyere said. “I’ve heard of people using cyanide and other chemicals to process stones, too.”

In 2014, Ghana was one of 18 countries to sign the Minamata Convention on Mercury at the UN General Assembly, with the intention of minimizing mercury exposure to the population. However, mercury use in galamsey mining continues. The Minerals Commission of Ghana focuses on maintaining the environmental standards of larger companies, while small-scale operations often fall through the cracks. Last year, the government declared a “war on galamsey”—arresting a few miners and making showy displays of destroying some equipment—but many operations continue.

Mercury exposure is especially harmful to children and teenagers, who often work at galamsey sites and handle the liquid metal with their bare hands. Mercury poisoning also affects people who live near galamsey sites through drinking water and fish consumption. Neurological disorders are associated with mercury poisoning, and it is particularly harmful to pregnant women. Additionally, it can wipe out entire plant populations and stunt crop growth, including cocoa.

Years ago, urban residents traveled to the villages surrounding Obuasi and Dunkwa for fresh fish and bountiful produce. Nowadays, people in Obuasi say many villagers are forced to come to town to buy food because they can’t sustain their farms.

Deadly Work

Further into the galamsey site at Adumanu, past a makeshift market and through a forest, the landscape is pockmarked with holes. They are less than three feet wide but stretch up to 2,000 feet into the belly of the Earth. The dangers of mercury poisoning are often not the most immediate concerns here.

“The first day I went underground I thought that I wouldn’t come out again. I cried the whole time,” said Boakye Andrews, a galamsey miner. “Look at it this way: 10 or 15 MTN poles [cellphone towers] stuck on top of each other. That’s how deep we go.”

A professional miner drives past a statue dedicted to his trade in Obuasi. A massive, historic mine passes under the whole town and has long been the basis for its economy. The legal mine has struggled in recent years but plans to expand operations again soon.

Five hundred or more workers descend into the Adumanu pits daily. They chisel stones and bring up heavy sacks through an assembly line. Some workers stay underground for a few days, others for over a month, bringing along water, rice, and cooking oil. Frequently, galamsey workers die underground due to flooding or unsafe use of dynamite.

“Anytime somebody dies [underground], the person will blast into pieces,” Andrews said. “If you are about 20 and five die on the spot, you still keep on working because the gold has to come up to the surface. So you ignore the accident and keep working. He’s dead. You can’t do anything about it.”

Although news reports of galamsey accidents, often with fatalities in the teens, were frequent throughout last year, the true death toll remains unknown. In 2010, one mining accident near Dunkwa killed an estimated 150 miners. Most deaths are not officially recorded because family members are ashamed or worried about prosecution.

Kofi Baffour Domfeh is one of many workers in the massive, and legal, Obusai mine.

Andrews started working in galamsey when he was 19, almost a decade ago, but was raised with mining long before that. His father worked at the big Obuasi mine, then called AngloGold Ashanti, in its heyday. He passed away when Andrews was eight years old.

You May Also Like

Dragonflies can reveal mercury contamination. Here's how.

A huge volcano near Naples has been convulsing. What does it mean?

The lost continent of Zealandia has been mapped for the first time

“I grew up in Obuasi,” he said. “When I was young, every time I saw them doing this galamsey work I said ah...what’s wrong with them? When it came to my turn, I realized that it wasn’t their fault, because they were not getting help from anywhere.”

Violent Occupation

The Obuasi mine, which has changed ownership several times since its founding in 1897, has always been the lifeblood of the city. Until the late 2000s, Obuasi was one of the most affluent towns in Ghana, boasting a sports club with swimming pool, tennis courts, and cricket pitch, as well as a first-class hospital and school—all funded privately by the mine. The town was cosmopolitan and diverse. The children of European mine workers attended the same schools as Ghanaians.

Boakye Andrews, a former galamsey gold miner, spoke about his experiences spending weeks underground in a dark hole and witnessing countless friends die in dangerous blasts.

Young people like Andrews had always assumed they would work for the company in some capacity, just as their parents did. However, in 2014, AngloGold Ashanti suspended gold production in Obuasi due to financial constraints, laying off more than 90 percent of its workforce and spending $210 million on severance packages. The entire economy of the city fell into decline. Signaling a possible upturn, this winter, AngloGold Ashanti announced that they would resume gold production at the Obuasi mine in 2019. But there is a steep climb to rebuild Obuasi's former economic glory.

In the time since the mine's decline, some former miners turned their skills to galamsey work, even if they couldn’t secure legal permits. One example is Owusu Sekyere, the pit owner at Adumanu, who had worked for AngloGold for over 20 years.

In January 2016, illegal miners stormed the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi mine, capturing control of the intricate tunnel network that snakes under the city, a mile below the surface. On the second day of the incursion, an AngloGold senior manager was killed. The Army was eventually called in, which clashed with the miners for weeks. By the end of the occupation, at least 175 galamsey miners had died.

“It’s common knowledge in the country… we all know that the illegal mining activity has been on the increase,” said Eric Asubonteng, the managing director of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi mine.

A man melts raw gold stones into a metallic form in Obuassi, which is a hub for metal-related businesses.

While AngloGold Ashanti’s mining activities were under strict regulations from Ghana’s EPA and Minerals Commission, illegal miners often go unregulated, he said.

“Our impact on the environment is not something we should be putting in the same box or bracket as the illegal miners,” Asubonteng said. He added that even water discharged from the underground mine has to get treated. “But we don’t have any way or any approach to regulate the illegal miners. Then all our efforts come to nil.”

In the course of their occupation, illegal miners damaged water treatment and electrical infrastructure in AngloGold’s Obuasi mine, setting them back at least a year in feasibility studies and much further in terms of investor confidence, according to Asubonteng. This was critical at a time when the mine was looking for new investors to resume full operations—which could help revive the economy in Obuasi.

A month after the invasion, AngloGold Ashanti surrendered 60 percent of its land concession to the government of Ghana. Some of that land, already identified to be rich in gold, was officially leased to galamsey miners in an effort to regulate their operations. It remains unclear how environmental regulations are being followed on these newly legal sites, although anecdotal evidence suggests bribes may be favored over inspections.

A galamsey miner checks a water pump in a river. The industry has been blamed for releasing toxic materials like mercury and cyanide into streams.

Looking Ahead

Meanwhile, members of COCOBOD, Ghana’s government-owned singular cocoa exporter, and cocoa farmer unions have publicly criticized galamsey as the single biggest threat to cocoa farming in the country. They point out that cocoa exports have long been closely tied to the country’s economic status, so much so that cocoa beans are emblazoned on its currency.

“What’s happening in terms of illegal mining in Ghana—let’s think beyond Obuasi—is something that if we are not careful will get to a point that we will lose it totally,” Asubonteng said. “The damage caused by illegal miners in terms of environment, in terms of child labor, in terms of the impact on health of communities, the impact of law and order is significant.

“It has already impacted us, it’s not something we’ll have to wait till ten years before we see the impact.”

Ghana’s galamsey crisis has yet to affect global chocolate prices in a noticeable way, but the future implications may be seen in the current reality of Kwaku Asare’s cocoa farm. His 14 acres of once-vibrant cocoa trees, and that of at least 30 farmers in his village and exponentially more farmers in the region, have been replaced with scars on the Earth.

Related Topics

• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
• ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• WATER POLLUTION
• PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

‘Forever chemicals’ are hiding in your kitchen. Here’s where—and what you can do

Meet the mom who took on toxic waste—and won

In a first, microplastic particles have been linked to heart disease

There's mercury in the Amazon. This scientist is tracking it down.

The world's plastic pollution crisis, explained

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

Advertisement

Is illegal mining socio-politically entrenched? An opinion piece of the interaction between formal politics and chief dominance in mineral governance, and its influence on fighting Galamsey in Ghana

• Published: 08 August 2022
• Volume 88 , pages 1953–1963, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Moses Asori 1 ,
• Robert Kwame Jumah Mpobi 1 ,
• Anthony Kwame Morgan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7904-9955 1 , 2 ,
• Truus Abuosi Apoanaba 2 ,
• Daniel Katey 1 ,
• Solomon Twum Ampofo 1 ,
• Odei Julius 1 &
• Divine Odame Appiah 1  

4721 Accesses

6 Citations

1 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Gold mining has been the backbone of Ghana's development since pre-colonial times. It has been essential in revenue mobilisation and the provision of employment to many people. However, in recent times the sector has received severe public backlash due to its inability to effect appropriate socioeconomic change; and the consequential destruction to forests, croplands and water bodies that has accompanied the livelihood activity. While the need to curb this menace has been hyper-crucial in recent times, these attempts have failed cyclically. This paper argues that the deep-seated linkages between different power actors such as politicians and chiefs/kings are the driving forces thwarting the fight against the menace. Recently, constructive criticisms from the public have rejuvenated the fight against galamsey, however, the modalities of the fight and socio-political power relations have jointly militated against the effectiveness of the fight. It is particularly argued that policymakers should rather take advantage of the evolved nature of the political landscape of Ghana, where politicians sometimes negotiate with chiefs/kings for political expediency during elections. This can be achieved by motivating chiefs/king’s to become principal “galamsey-fighters”. In the meantime, the authors also suggest that the confiscated excavators from the mining sites which are usually burnt should be stopped and rather sold to generate capital for reclaiming the lands.

Similar content being viewed by others

What is behind the search for social acceptability of mining projects? Political economy and legal perspectives on Canadian mineral extraction

Ghana: Controversy, Corruption and Chinese Miners

Democratic Republic of Congo

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Gold mining follows two divisional lines in Ghana; the large-scale multi-national and the small-scale mining sectors (Wireko-Gyebi et al., 2020 ). Typically, the small scale mining aspect of gold extraction can be further divided into two classes (legal and illegal) depending on its legal approval and operational protocols (Boateng et al., 2014 ). However, the major concern has over the years been on the illegal small-scale mining (popularly known as galamsey ), since its operations lead to significant environmental degradation. Their activities have caused an unbearable and unacceptable level of environmental damage and associated social impacts such as child labour, teenage pregnancy, and school dropouts (Boadi et al., 2016 ; Duncan, 2020 ; Fold et al., 2018 ; Owusu & Dwomoh, 2012 ). Illegal small-scale mining has therefore been targeted as a major driving force of socio-environmental destruction and natural resources depletion as illustrated in Fig.  1 .

Illustration of how galamsey has damaged the water bodies, forests and soils in Ghana

Political debates have erupted over how to address issues that the mining sector faces in Ghana (Teschner, 2012 ; Ntewusu, 2018 ). The patterns of power relations among diverse stakeholders, as well as their engagement in small-scale gold mining and land management, have been a source of significant debate in not only Ghana but several sub-Saharan African countries. We contribute to the ongoing discourse by examining a prospective linkage between political settlement and chief dominance and proffer some recommendations needed for the " galamsey ” fight in these critical moments. According to Amoako et al. (2021), small-scale mining in Ghana is dominated in many respects by corrupt institutional individuals. The mining industry in Ghana, in particular, faces difficulties in translating governance processes and procedures from paper to successful practice. The small-scale mining legislation of 1989, which was later changed under the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act (Act 703), aimed to regulate small-scale mining operations in Ghana. However, despite several institutional and regulatory reforms enacted since 1989, the mining industry continues to be plagued by allegations of corruption and shady activities (Crawford & Botchwey, 2016 , 2017 ). As charges were substantiated by numerous Chinese respondents with first-hand experience as foreign miners, Crawford & Botchwey ( 2017 ) accused state officials, chiefs, and other members of customary institutions of accepting bribes from Chinese miners.

Illegal and ambiguous concession regimes constitute another set of issues for Ghana's artisanal and small-scale gold mining industry (Amoako et al., 2021; Andrews, 2016). Small-scale gold mining entities are frequently accused of making illegal payments to customary leaders who are caretakers of mineral-rich lands in many cases, ignoring existing structures and regulatory processes (Amoako et al., 2021). Smallholder farmers who cultivate these lands are frequently evicted without adequate compensation, leaving them landless and impoverished due to the greed of some  traditional authorities (who are trustess of communal resources, including lands) (Amoako et al., 2021). Though the government of Ghana has attempted to eradicate the phenomenon through the implementation of strategies like the inter-ministerial task force and the banning of all artisanal small-scale mining activities, these have been short-lived due to the influence of power relations in the mining sector (Amoako et al., 2021; Crawford & Botchwey, 2016 , 2017 ).

Considering the devastative impact galamsey presents to both humans, vegetations and animals, it is unstartling how social media users, various pressure groups, non-governmental organisational bodies and researchers in Ghana are relentlessly campaigning against its persistent flourishing (Amoah-Frimpong, 2013 ; Jorgen Stangeland Bach, 2014 ; Quansah et al., 2016 ; Adu-Baffour et al., 2021 ; Hilson & Maconachie, 2020 ). However, successfully ending illegal mining has been difficult. It is the biggest enigma for decades in Ghana, as its survival rests on the shoulders of the complex interplay of political, social and cultural forces and complicated power relations (Arhin, 1978 ; Aryee, 2001 ). The state's inability to confront illegal small-scale mining reveals power relations that shield the true perpetrators (CCrawford & Botchwey, 2016 ). There are propositions and accusations that the mining industry has complicated socio-political dynamics that conflate its operations with illegal small-scale mining (Amoako et al., 2021). Whether politics and electioneering dynamics or chiefs’ dominance in land tenure systems are the main driving factors in sustaining galamsey is a matter of a debate, as their relations are integrally complex. Here we apply the environmental governance and political settlement philosophical lenses to examine how the two flanks; politics and "chief's dominance", work individually or jointly in sustaining illegal mining in Ghana, and how to counter its perpetuation, especially in an era where galamsey activities are having the greatest burden on our lands, water, air and the health of the people.

Two flanks; politics and chief dominance, where is the nexus?

Considering that Ghana is a model of best practice in terms of natural resource governance in Africa, as it was ranked 15 th out of 58 mining countries globally and best in Africa for transparency and accountability in natural resource governance (Standing, 2014 ), her mineral resource governance in terms of monitoring, accountability and distribution of mining related royalties remains a significant puzzle in practice (Bebbington, 2015 ; Bebbington et al., 2018 ; Ntewusu, 2018 ). Startlingly, the situation on paper has not reflected what is happening in reality, consequently requiring more probing through a socio-political lens, in what Abdulai ( 2017 ) describes as political settlement. In this opinion piece, an attempt is made to argue, from a political settlement perspective, why and how illegal mining is still in its full force alongside recommendations, to counter the problem.

What is political settlement?

When considering resource management in Africa, the analysis invariably focuses on political and traditional elites. Elite-based political coalitions are central to the political economy of natural resources and development, wherein the nature of a ruling coalition at the moment when resources are discovered has important implications on how and whose interests those resources are governed. In analysing the role of elites in the political economy of resources, there is a crucial need to understand the political settlement of the country in question. The political settlement involves how the balance of power among social groups shapes the type of social institution that emerges and its overall implication on the society itself. At the heart of this philosophy is that "societal institutions exist in an association of co-constitution with power relations in the society" (Bebbington, 2015 : 88). This theory was expanded by an academic, Mushtaq Khan (Khan, 2010 ). For Khan, a political settlement emerges when the distribution of benefits supported by its institution is consistent with the distribution of power in society, and these institutions are sustainable over time (Di John & Putzel, 2009 ; Khan, 2010 ). The political settlement theory is an important mechanism that brings clarity and understanding to the resource curse of most African and developing countries.

An important contribution of this concept is the primacy it accords to the informal institutions for understanding governance and development outcomes in developing countries, where the clientelistic nature of politics is widely acknowledged. Khan regards clientelism as the most pervasive form of politics because the formal economy is not developed enough to allow the allocation of resources through more formal mechanisms (Behuria et al., 2017 ). Thus, Khan argues that in Africa and other developing countries, there is the predominance of informal politics; politics that is not enacted through formal structures as pertains to the western world. Hence, to understand the dynamics of resource allocation and management in developing countries, the power of political elites and how they operate in terms of the factions and the coalitions they create must be assessed (Behuria et al., 2017 ). These factors shape the activities and actions of elites in Africa. For example, in Ghana, two big political parties (the National Democratic Congress [NDC] and the New Patriotic Party [NPP]) have, traditionally over the past 20 years – if not longer, vied for the political power and legitimacy to govern. Interestingly, political power and the legitimacy to govern (which is conferred through elections) has alternated on three occassions (2001, 2009 and 2017) between these parties at an eight year periodic interval. This phenomenon has created a fluid political environment and so what you see in terms of how that governs natural resources is that the party in power often make short term decisions because they are eager to secure enough resources to run for the next election. Even though in expectation, formal political structures are key to ensuring natural resources are well governed (management, protection, and distribution of benefits), well the reality in Ghana seems almost different. We principally argue that uncovering and deciphering the complex channels under which these formal political structures operate are crucial to establishing effective accountability. For example, some politicians usually make “shady” deals with foreign miners such as the Chinese, which give them [politicians] the advantage to claim the gold proceeds, and to channel these proceeds into their coffers even if it is illegitimate. How this happens with chieftaincy dominance is still a matter of debate.

Ghana is a prime example of a country with a "resource curse". The distribution of resource earnings (proceeds), as well as their poor translation into poverty reduction, social welfare, and socio-economic development, has long been questioned. The enclaved character of commercial mining; its lack of benefits to local people, and poor mitigation and compensation of its negative impacts have all had adverse socio-economic impacts on the people and environmental sustainability (Akabzaa, 2009 ; Akabzaa & Darimani, 2001 ; Ayee et al., 2011 ; Essah & Andrews, 2016 ). Notwithstanding, research on resource management and mining in Ghana has largely focused on macro-economic aspects, national institutions and policies. Sub-national institutions and structures such as chieftaincy have been largely neglected (Lawer et al., 2017 ). Traditional institutions are largely involved in natural resource management in most developing countries. As expected, the involvement of informal politics through chieftaincy authority and its interaction with formal politics is to yield positive mineral governance outcomes where the benefits are felt both nationally and locally. But what we are observing today in Ghana is not entirely the situation. The import [we are obtaining] from the ongoing galamsey situation is that, whether chiefs become instrumental in effective resource governance in their localities or not will partly depend on the intention and motivation behind their regular engagement with the politicians. Chieftaincy authority, chieftaincy conflicts, rulers' self-interest, and unaccountable local institutions suffocate people's livelihoods, limit their access to mining income, and obstruct poverty reduction and socio-economic growth. The case demonstrates how important local institutions may be in alleviating the resource curse.

Chieftaincy is one of the oldest and most respected local governance institutions in Ghana (Lawer et al., 2017 ). Despite several institutional modifications over the years, it remains a very important institution influencing the lives of most Ghanaians daily. The government also accords the chieftaincy institution a relevant role in natural resource management. For example, Ghana's mineral and mining act grants chiefs and other traditional rulers the power to manage the benefits of mining to local communities. This constellation is practically linked to the chief’s control over both public and private lands as they are allowed to control and manage lands in Ghana in trust for the subjects of the stool – “the people”. However, according to Lawer et al. ( 2017 ), the acknowledgement of chiefs as custodians has empowered them to keep the charge of all mining activities on their land. Recent research has revealed that chiefs have abused this power by managing mining activities with reference to the benefits it brings to them at the expense of the community (Lawer et al., 2017 ; Valsecchi, 2007 ), even though some chiefs have been instrumental in fighting illegal mining in their communities. Since socio-political institutions are the result of elites' bargains, their role in shaping and manipulating developmental results and how they influence the formal political landscape can be best deciphered within the context of embedded power relations (herein theorised based on political settlement). This analytical framework helps us to examine how the state is connected to the society and what lies behind the formal representation of politics in a state (Abdulai, 2017 ). To illustrate this clearly, we periodise the situation.

Periodising the manifestation of political settlement in mineral governance in Ghana: implication on galamsey fight

Before colonialism in Ghana, mineral mining was purely in the hands of chiefs and kings who served as trustees of the lands that were owned by the people. During these times people were at liberty to mine everywhere as far as it was within the enclosure of their stool lands (Dumett, 1999 ). Chiefs especially used traditional means of exacting gold surplus and benefits from miners, such as the abuse system; where miners retained a third of the gold and returned a third to the local chief and the other third to the paramount chief or king (Dumett, 1998:16). Through this system, kingdoms situated on mineral-rich lands became prosperous and powerful (such as the Asante Kingdom). However, the gold proceeds did not have a significant impact on the overall well-being of the people, as it was used mainly for maintaining and extending state power (Arhin, 1978 ). Historically, proceeds from gold mining have been used for the refinement of the king's regalia and expanding palaces rather than improving the conditions of people. This observation has followed us even to the present where most chiefs are only interested in using royalties from mining to enrich themselves and expand palaces (Abdulai, 2017 ). However, we should acknowledge that there are exceptions to this claim, as some chiefs have been crucial in the socio-economic development of their communities through the proceeds from minerals with some chiefs’ being eager to fight galamsey given the necessary support. For example, in an interview with Nana Boakye II, Benkumhene of Twifo Traditional Council he stated,

“Give us documents and legal backings to exercise our mandate to drive out illegal miners from our lands” (Ghana Business News [GBN], 2021 ),

Following the advent of colonialism and expatriate capitalism, the relationship between political settlement and gold governance has deepened; but simultaneously affected the informal politicisation of mineralised lands, as chiefly dominance began to decline. According to Abdulai ( 2017 ) and Ofosu-Mensah ( 2016 ), the commercialisation of mineral lands was responsible for the latent attenuation of chiefly dominance. Gradually, most mining transactions and governance issues came under the control of the white rulers (even though some traditional rulers continued to enjoy traditional political power) (Dumett, 1999 ; Ofosu-Mensah, 2016 ). Nevertheless, after colonial rule, the government of Ghana pursued the process of broad sovereignty over natural resources such as gold and other minerals. During the period between 1957 and 1986 for example, there was active state involvement in mining activities. Specifically, following a series of legislative processes during the 1960s, all mining companies had been nationalised and brought under the full control of the government at the time. Particularly, State Gold Mining Corporation (SGMC) was established in 1961 to take over existing mines. Many of the post-colonial coalitions defended this notion of mineral nationalisation based on generating mass employment and enhancing the generation and management of foreign exchange (Tsikata, 1997 ). But as to whether this “nationalistic” claim was genuinely based on the national developmental agenda, is a matter of deep-seated debate. It is worth noting however that, although the legislative provision weakened chiefly dominance over mineralised lands, it did not fully take away the land ownership power of chiefs, especially in rural communities.

According to literature, one significant problem they [the politicians] faced, which has historically and contemporary complicated the management of illegal mining activities, is chiefs’ involvement in leasing out mineral lands (van Donge, 2015 ). Nevertheless, we are of the view that their [chiefs] involvement is/was not necessarily the problem, but the intentionality and motivation behind their involvement (resource negotiation between formal and informal political forces). By intentionality, we attempt to conceptualise the central “resolve” of the chiefs/kings during their negotiation with formal political actors. The motivation of such resolution may take on various forms–which may either be developmental or otherwise. Even though the informal politicisation eroded during the colonial times, chiefs within the rural areas and kings still retained and enjoyed some minimum degree of power at the end of the colonial rule. But for effective resource governance, all mining related activities were under the trust of the central government as provided by the constitution. Following the first mineral Act (Act 126), mineral ownership was vested in the president, who was to oversee its effective management and distribution of its benefits to the general citizenry in the form of developmental projects. This constitutional provision has even manifested in later versions of the mining Acts since 1969 (such as the Minerals and Mining Law of 1986) and subsequent revisions in 1993 and 2006 (Abdulai, 2017 ). These provisions reserved for the president the powers to decide upon how lands were to be managed, including those owned by the communities as presided over by kings and chiefs of these communities (stool lands).

However, after Dr Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, chiefs' control over lands became eminent again. One substantial theory that explains why chiefs gained almost full dominance over lands (including mineralised lands) was that the post-Nkrumah era saw a new dawn in the political landscape where the electioneering process took a new form and direction. This made political parties somewhat vulnerable to chiefs, as they needed their full support to win elections (Whitfield et al., 2015 ). For this, political parties had to strike a new deal with the chiefs in the form of a power bargain; where the chiefs' dominance of lands was respected and reinforced in exchange for their support to win the election. Two instances were that of I.K Kutu Acheampong in 1972 and J.J Rawlings in 1992 (Chazan, 1982 ; Whitfield et al., 2015 ). This resulted in parallel land management and ownership systems [stool lands and state lands] which persist even today. Currently, about 80% of lands in Ghana are stool lands whereas about 20% is for the state; compulsorily acquired by the government (Abdulai & Ndekugri, 2007 ). This deepened the relationship between chiefs and politicians and therefore created stronger power relations within the landscape of resource governance, further worsened by power coalition vulnerability (Khan, 2010 ). Some scholars (Amanor, 2008 , 2009 ) also argued that the political involvement of traditional rulers (chiefs) was a result of the initial failed attempt by the British colonialists to control lands, [including mineralised lands] through their indirect rule system.

Following the historical political and cultural power relations that characterised the governance of natural resources, it is unsurprising why banning or regulating artisanal small-scale mining (ASMs) has become very difficult, given that not the majority of these chiefs are effectively contributing to ending this menace. Most scholars believe that the political setting of the country such as electioneering machinery has become a bottleneck to fighting galamsey (Aidoo, 2016 ). Ntewusu ( 2018 ) argued that the inability to stop galamsey is because of political leniency and management corruption which has characterised the political system in Ghana. As reported by Abdulai ( 2017 ), most chiefs and politicians; including ministers of state, Members of Parliament (MPs), Assembly members (AMs) and other elite parties in mining communities behave like “one” as they are unresponsive to the illegal mining complaints because they all benefit from such activities. It is embarrassing how illegal mining is still in good fate, simply because its outcome benefits a wide range of power actors spanning the political pool to the traditional leaders (Aidoo, 2016 ; Dumett, 1999 ). For example, chiefs receive royalties in exchange for lands whereas government representatives support chiefs to win political favour from them. Sometimes some politicians openly engage in the act [ galamsey ] without facing the law due to corruption (Teschner, 2012 ). Evidence even exists that politicians and chiefs receive bribes from foreign miners especially the Chinese to fund political campaigns during elections (using the 2012 election as a case study) (Abdulai, 2017 ; Crawford & Botchwey, 2017 )).

It is particularly sad to realise that due to the vulnerable nature of the ruling class (political parties) to the chiefs and voters, resulting from competitive clientelism, the nation is currently suffering from weak implementation and law enforcement inefficiencies (Khan, 2010 ). Considering a nation where over one million people (including some chiefs) earn their livelihood from small scale mining (Afriyie & Abass, 2020 ), and in which a political party can sometimes win an election with just a 50,000 votes margin, it is apparent how relevant the illegal miners and the chiefs are in determining election outcomes and in shaping the political settlement and mining governance in general. Regarding the disproportionately large number of youths in illegal mining due to pervasive poverty and unemployment (Baah-Boateng, 2013 ), in addition to the "swift economic dividend or rent" it provides, it is particularly suicidal for any political party which is interested in winning an election to prevent them (the youths) from mining as that party does so at its peril. The percentage of unemployment in the total labour force increased from 5.13% in 2009 to 6.81% in 2015. While there was a dip in 2019, we have observed a rise from 2020 (Fig.  2 ) (certainly due to the COVID-19) which might explain why the issue of galamsey activities became very intense during 2019/2020 which led to large-scale water and vegetation destruction.

Percentage of unemployment of the total labour force in Ghana

Considering the relatively high unemployment rate; and on grounds that illegal mining support over 1 million people, supporting illegal mining is an optimal way the politician can show sympathy to the unemployed, the chiefs and all dependents of illegal mining to gain their vote and support during elections (Ntewusu, 2018 ). The political play between the NDC, NPP and the Traditional Leaders [TL] recently has made the fight against galamsey even more socio-politically sensitive. It is not startling why a few months after general elections, widespread demonstrations about galamsey continuation always abound in the country. For illustration, the attempt to ban galamsey at Obuasi in 2016 led to a violent demonstration with the hashtag (no galamsey , no vote) which resulted in the vandalisation of political offices, even though chiefs were silent about the issue (see Daily Graphic, 2016 ; Silver News Online, 2016 ). We however argue that while the electioneering machinery and the power relation between the chiefs, the ordinary citizenry and the politicians have realistically posed a challenge, it still depends on what "we" do with such an electioneering landscape. For example, if the direction of power bargain between these power actors typically takes a wrong direction (where the outcome of such power negotiation was/is not people and environmentally centred), inversing the direction and intentionality of such bargains may be crucial. We acknowledge how difficult this reversal could be, but we believe extensive public conscientization as well as identifying and getting insights from chiefs who are already making positive strides may be a good start. It may also be crucial to grant some legal backing to chiefs to help in the fight against galamsey . Even with that, we still experience fierce inter-political party friction and power struggle which are also posing a significant challenge to the fight against illegal mining.

Therefore, any attempt to fight galamsey should also be based on (1) developing frameworks that insulate the ruling party against grassroots pressures (particularly from galamseyers ) while independently monitoring the activities of such party and (2) fostering the nature of inter-political party negotiation about a common goal. It appears that the fight against galamsey by a ruling party becomes an automatic voting point to the opposition party. For instance, like the NDC in 2008, the NPPs campaign message in 2016 was rooted in the deep support of galamsey to win an election (Starr FM News, 2021 ). In 2012 also, the fight against the galamsey was hampered on the basis that the task force targeted only members belonging to the opposition party (NPP) whereas members of the ruling party (NDC) continued to mine (Daily Guide, 2013 ). The foul interplay between NDC and NPP has sometimes been aggravated by the involvement of traditional leaders such as the chiefs and other traditional leaders. It seems that, since most chiefs benefit from the royalties they take from illegal miners through leasing of mineralised lands, they render their support to any government that promises to perpetuate the activity (Abdulai, 2017 ; Quansah et al., 2016 ). Since traditional leaders also play a significant role in influencing community members to vote for a particular party through their political endorsement, the nature of political settlement and power relations have interactively acted to dim the prospects of the fight against galamsey in Ghana (Khan, 2010 ; Wireko-gyebi et al., 2020 ).

Recently (2020–2021) pressures on the ruling government [NPP] from all sources; social media, pressure groups, academics, NGOs and ordinary citizens in light of the rapid depletion of water and forest resources – have reignited the fight against the galamsey . But as the story has always been, it is not without political interference as the ruling party risks losing an election in 2024 partly due to its open fight against the menace. Since the commencement of the operation (operation vanguard) on 28 th April 2021 with 200 deployed soldiers, an appreciable number of excavators, suspected to belong to some politicians, elite class and traditional leaders have been confiscated and burnt (Citi Newsroom, 2021 ) (Fig.  3 ). While these steps are commendable at the start, two sets of questions emerge; (1) are traditional leaders' (chiefs) involvement going to optimise the effort against galamsey; and how do we achieve that? And (2) is the burning of the confiscated excavators during the operation economically sound? Even though the second question doesn't bear directly on the theme discussed above, it is worth including it as it provides better insight into the short and long term solution hunt. These pertinent issues are discussed shortly alongside some recommendations. Based on the discourse so far, it is noted that the power interplay and relation with regard to mining during the pre and post-colonial times have worked jointly to shape the socio-political effort in fighting illegal mining in the country. On this ground, we proposed some short and long-term recommendations amidst the complications among power actors.

Illustration of excavators being burnt due to galamsey in Ghana

The way forward

The first recommendation is based on the argument that since chiefs and kings do not necessarily risk losing an election – as a result of stopping galamsey (unlike the politicians ) , they must be tasked and encouraged to enforce the laws against illegal mining activities in their various communities. This can be achieved when chiefs are motivated to invert the power bargain between themselves and the politicians for the betterment of their communities. For example, Mr Benito Owusu Bio, Deputy Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources indicated that the support of Asantehene for example is critical in winning the fight against galamsey [Joyonline, 2021 ]. Small Scale Miners Association (SSMA) also supported the idea that the fight against galamsey should be more decentralised to include multiple stakeholders, particularly the chiefs [City Newsroom, 2021 ]. While it is appreciated that, most chiefs in the rural areas are directly or indirectly benefiting from the illegal mining activities (Abdulai, 2017 ), their support in fighting this menace is agreeable likely to be very difficult. Therefore, there should be an external audit body that supervises and audits their participation and performance in the fight against illegal mining. A better performance should warrant an award and other incentives whereas non-compliance must be accompanied by appropriate punitive measures. To make their involvement effective, it may also be crucial to give the chiefs/kings legislative backing. For example, in an interview with Nana Boakye II, Benkumhene of Twifo Traditional Council stated,

“Give us documents and legal backings to exercise our mandate to drive out illegal miners from our lands” (Ghana Business News [GBN], 2021 ).

In the short term, it is also recommended that the nation reforms its punitive procedures or methods immediately, such as the burning of the excavators. It is rather economically meaningful to confiscate and sell the machines to generate revenue which can then be used to reclaim the affected lands instead of burning them. Since the operation commenced on Wednesday, 28th April 2021, a great number of excavators, pumping machines and changfans have been destroyed. For example, as of 29th April 2021, about 127 changfans and 9 excavators have been burnt [City Newsroom, 2021 ]. Particularly considering how expensive excavators are, confiscating and selling them legitimately and using the proceeds to engage in large-scale land reclamation and afforestation projects can help solve two major problems concurrently; provide temporary employment for the miners (while long term solutions are sought) and long-term renewal of the polluted lands and water bodies. However, most comments on social media including Facebook and Twitter point to the fact that the ordinary politician may embezzle the funds generated by selling the confiscated machines, we, therefore, recommend an establishment of a committee headed by a politically independent or neutral person (even if he/she comes from outside the country) to oversee that the monies are used for their intended purpose.

Abdulai, A.-G. (2017) Competitive clientelism and the political economy of mining in Ghana. ESID Working Paper No. 78. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester. Available at www.effective-states.org

Abdulai, R. T., & Ndekugri, I. E. (2007). Customary land holding institutions and housing development in urban centres of Ghana: Case studies of Kumasi and Wa. Habitat International, 31 (2), 257–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2007.02.004

Article   Google Scholar  

Adu-Baffour, F., Daum, T., & Birner, R. (2021). Governance challenges of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: Insights from a process net-map study. Land Use Policy, 102 , 105271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105271

Afriyie, K., & Abass, K. (2020). Profiting from illegality: A discursive analysis of the chainsaw operation in rural Ghana. Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102174

Aidoo, R. (2016). The political economy of galamsey and anti-Chinese sentiment in Ghana. African studies quarterly | Volume 16, Issue 3–4 | December 2016/ a. http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v16/v16i3-4a5.pdf

Akabzaa, T. (2009). ’Mining in Ghana: Implications for national economic development and poverty reduction. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Mining and development in Africa (pp. 25–65). Pluto Publishers.

Google Scholar  

Akabzaa, T., & Darimani, A. (2001). Impact of mining sector investment in Ghana: A study of the Tarkwa mining region. Third World Network , 11 (2), 47-61. http://www.saprin.org/ghana/research/gha_mining.pdf

Amanor, K. (2008). The changing face of customary land tenure. In J. M. Ubink & K. S. Amanor (Eds.), Contesting land and custom in Ghana: state, chief and the Citizen (pp. 55–81). Leiden University Press.

Amanor, K. S. (2009). Securing land rights in Ghana. In J. M. Ubink, A. J. Hoekema, & W. J. Assies (Eds.), Legalising land rights local practices, state responses and tenure security in Africa, Asia and Latin America (pp. 97–131). Leiden University Press.

Amoah-Frimpong, P. (2013). Effects of illegal gold mining on food availability for smallholder farmers. A case study of Saa Community in Wassa Amanfi West District, Western Region of Ghana . 69–73

Arhin, K. (1978). Gold mining and trading among the Ashanti of Ghana. Journal Des Africanistes, 48 (1), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.3406/jafr.1978.1806

Aryee, B. N. A. (2001). Ghana’s mining sector: Its contribution to the national economy. Resources Policy, 27 (2), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4207(00)00042-8

Ayee, J., Soreide, T., Shukla, G. P., & Le, T. M. (2011). Political economy of the mining sector in Ghana. The World Bank, Africa Region, Public Sector Reform and Capacity Building Unit . July , 1–48. https://openknowledge.worldbank.com/handle/10986/3494

Baah-Boateng, W. (2013). Determinants of unemployment in Ghana. African Development Review, 25 (4), 385–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8268.12037

Bebbington, A. (2015). Governing natural resources for inclusive development. In S. Hickey, K. Sen, & B. Bukenya (Eds.), The politics of inclusive development: interrogating the evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bebbington, A., Abdulai, A. G., Humphreys Bebbington, D., Hinfelaar, M., & Sanborn, C. (2018). Governing extractive industries: Politics, histories, ideas (p. 304). Oxford University Press.

Behuria, P., Buur, L., & Gray, H. (2017). Studying political settlements in Africa. African Affairs, 116 (464), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adx019

Boadi, S., Ayine, C., Owusu, O., & Acquah, E. (2016). An analysis of illegal mining on the Offin shelterbelt forest reserve, Ghana : Implications on community livelihood. Journal of Sustainable Mining, 15 (3), 115–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsm.2016.12.001

Boateng, D. O., Nana, F., Codjoe, Y., & Ofori, J. (2014). Impact of illegal small scale mining (Galamsey) on cocoa production in Atiwa district of Ghana. International Journal of Advance Agriculture Research, 2 , 89–99.

Chazan, N. (1982). Ethnicity and politics in Ghana. Political Science Quarterly, 97 (3), 461–485.

Crawford, G., & Botchwey, G. (2016). Foreign involvement in small-scale gold mining in Ghana and its impact on resource fairness. In Fairness and justice in natural resource politics (pp. 193–211). Routledge. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/46735/oa-9781317269885.pdf?sequence=1#page=194

Crawford, G., & Botchwey, G. (2017). Conflict, collusion and corruption in small-scale gold mining: Chinese miners and the state in Ghana. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics , 55 (4), 444–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2017.1283479

van Donge, J. K. (2015). The Politics of African Industrial Policy: A Comparative Perspective Edited by Lindsay Whitfield, Ole Therkildsen, Lars Buur & Anne Mette Kjaer New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. xi and 343, Hb US$89.99, E-book: US$69.19, 978–1–107–10531–7 . The Journal of Development Studies , 51 (11), 1560–1561. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1089655

Raymond E. Dumett. (1999). . El Dorado in West Africa: The Gold-Mining Frontier, African Labor, and Colonial Capitalism in the Gold Coast, 1875–1900. H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Online . https://networks.h-net.org/node/28765/reviews/32764/clark-dumett-el-dorado-west-africa-gold-mining-frontier-african-labor

Duncan, A, E The Dangerous Couple: Illegal Mining and Water Pollution—A Case Study in Fena River in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, Journal of Chemistry, vol. 2020, Article ID 2378560, 9 pages, 2020. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/2378560

Essah, M., & Andrews, N. (2016). Linking or de-linking sustainable mining practices and corporate social responsibility? Insights from Ghana. Resources Policy, 50 , 75–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2016.08.008

Fold, N., Allotey, A. N. M., Kalvig, P., & Moeller-Jensen, L. (2018). Grounding institutions through informal practice: Credibility in artisanal mining of aggregates, Ghana. Land Use Policy, 79(June 2017) , 922–931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.06.022

Daily Graphic (2016). Obuasi: Galamsey operators on rampage, 19 October. Available at: http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/obuasi-galamsey-operators-onrampage . html (accessed 11 May 2017)

Daily Guide (2013). NPP scribe blasts Mahama over galamsey, 7 June. Available at: https://www.modernghana.com/news/467577/2122/npp-scribe-blasts-mahama-overgalamsey.html (accessed 11 May 2017)

Di John, J. & Putzel, J. (2009). Political Settlements. Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, June, 1–46. http://www.gsdrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/EIRS7.pdf

Hilson, G., & Maconachie, R. (2020). For the environment: an assessment of recent military intervention in informal gold mining communities in Ghana. Land use policy , 96 , 104706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104706

Jorgen Stangeland Bach. (2014). Illegal Chinese Gold Mining in Amansie West, Ghana – An Assessment of its Impact and Implications. In Masters Thesis, University of Agder/Faculty of Economics and Social sciences, department of Development studies

JoyOnline (2021) Asantehene’s involvement in galamsey fight a big impetus – Abu Jinapor. https://www.myjoyonline.com/asantehenes-involvement-in-galamsey-fight-a-big-impetus-abu-jinapor/

Khan, M. (2010). Political settlements and the governance of growth-enhancing institutions . file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/Political_Settlements_and_the_Governance_of_Growth.pdf

Lawer, E. T., Lukas, M. C., & Jørgensen, S. H. (2017). The neglected role of local institutions in the ‘resource curse’ debate. Limestone mining in the Krobo region of Ghana. Resources Policy, 54 , 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.08.005

Ghana Business News [GBN], 2021. Give legal backing to chiefs in fighting galamsey. https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2021/06/13/give-legal-backing-to-chiefs-in-fighting-galamsey/

City NewsRoom (2021) Decentralize galamsey fight to achieve better results – Small scale miners to government/ https://citinewsroom.com/2021/04/decentralize-galamsey-fight-to-achieve-better-results-small-scale-miners-to-government/

Ntewusu, S. A. (2018). 10,000 miners, 10,000 votes: Politics and mining in Ghana. Africa , 88 (4), 863–866. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972018000505

Ofosu-Mensah, E. A. (2016). Mining in colonial Ghana: Extractive capitalism and its social benefits in akyem abuakwa under nana ofori atta I. Africa Today, 63 (1), 23. https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.63.1.0023

Owusu, E. E., & Dwomoh, G. (2012). The impact of illegal mining on the Ghanaian youth : Evidence from Kwaebibirem district In Ghana. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2 (6), 86–93.

Quansah, G., Sadick, A., Fenning, J., Nketia, K., & Asamoah, E. (2016). Effects of Illegal Mining Activities on Water Resources for Irrigation Purposes, Amansie West District, Ghana. Environmental Science International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 4 (2), 664–668.

Silver News Online (2016). ‘Obuasi galamsey: Irrate illegal miners destroy MCE, NDC offices, billboards’, 19 March

Standing, A. (2014). Ghana’s extractive industries and community benefit sharing: The case for cash transfers. Resources Policy, 41 (1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2014.03.003

Star FM (2021) Defective Babies and Galamsey. https://starrfm.com.gh/2021/05/defective-babies-your-health-centre-came-to-meet-galamsey-aowin-mp-fumes-at-midwife/

Teschner, B. A. (2012). Small-scale mining in Ghana: The government and the galamsey. Resources Policy, 37 (3), 308–314.

Tsikata, F. S. (1997). The vicissitudes of mineral policy in Ghana. Resource Policy, 23 , 9–14.

Valsecchi, P. (2007). He who sets the boundary. Chieftaincy as a necessary institution in modern Ghana. Department of Communication, University of Teramo., Working Paper, 1–28

Whitfield, L., Therkildsen, O., Buur, L., & Kjær, A. M. (2015). The politics of African industrial policy: A Comparative perspective . Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Wireko-Gyebi, R. S., Asibey, M. O., Amponsah, O., King, R. S., Braimah, I., Darko, G., & Lykke, A. M. (2020). Perception of small-scale miners on interventions to eradicate illegal small-scale mining in Ghana. SAGE Open, 10 (4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020963668

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not Applicable

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Moses Asori, Robert Kwame Jumah Mpobi, Anthony Kwame Morgan, Daniel Katey, Solomon Twum Ampofo, Odei Julius & Divine Odame Appiah

Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Anthony Kwame Morgan & Truus Abuosi Apoanaba

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony Kwame Morgan .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not Applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Asori, M., Mpobi, R.K.J., Morgan, A.K. et al. Is illegal mining socio-politically entrenched? An opinion piece of the interaction between formal politics and chief dominance in mineral governance, and its influence on fighting Galamsey in Ghana. GeoJournal 88 , 1953–1963 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10725-1

Download citation

Accepted : 18 July 2022

Published : 08 August 2022

Issue Date : April 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10725-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Chief dominance
• Politicians
• Mineral governance
• Political settlement
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Download Free PDF

ILLEGAL MINING AS THREAT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY APPROACH

Within the past few decades, Ghana's mining sector specifically the small scale mining subsector has been marred by controversies mainly due to its threat to sustainable development. This paper provides some insights into the inextricable linkage between sustainable development and illegal gold mining popularly referred to as " galamsey " and examines the effectiveness of political response and processes at the local and national level. While acknowledging the incommensurable role of the mining sector in poverty reduction through employment generation, the adverse impact on the environmental, economic and social fabric of society cannot be ignored. Notwithstanding this hard evidence at hand, successive governments are handicapped to reverse the devastating effects partly due to the complicated and multifaceted nature of the small scale mining sub-sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in three illegal mining communities comprised 12 illegal miners and officials task to monitor mining activities. We also extensively utilized official government reports and relevant academic literature to draw attention to the multiplicity and diversity of illegal mining. By examining livelihood strategies and reviewing successive government policies on mining and sustainability, we discovered gaps in the area of policy implementation and systemic marginalization of majority of communities where illegal mining occurs. In this paper, we advocate for a broader multidimensional and sectoral collaboration as a fundamental approach to confront illegal small scale mining activities.

Related papers

Recent years have witness a new approach to development thinking. An approach that place emphasis on grassroots participation, plurality of injustices, and recognition of unequal power relations in development processes. More crucially, it stresses that 'real' development cannot occur in developing countries or anywhere else unless the strategies which are being formulated and implemented are people centered and environmentally sustainable. In this paper, a narrative about illegal gold mining (galamsey) and land degradation in Prestia, a locality in the western part of Ghana, will be discussed. This narrative finds grounds in a growing environmental discourse by local government officials, local environmental researchers, and international development agencies such as the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) that illegal gold mining activities, which is usually done on small-scale basis, are inextricably linked with poverty- that participants are driven to mine illegally because of widespread unemployment (Hilson & Pardie, 2006). As a result, all small-scale mining activities are generally identified in international development circles as the most rudimentary and poverty-driven branch of the mining sector (ibid, p.107). The paper will also highlight the main arguments of the narrative, policy implication and reasons for policy outcomes

International Journal of Global Sustainability

The study aimed at assessing the common constraints that affect the enforcement of small-scale mining laws and regulations which have created a vacuum for illegal operators to infiltrate the space with the associated environmental and social cost implications. Underpinned by the institutional theory, the study analyzes from existing theoretical and empirical studies to assess why institutions and agencies on artisanal and small-scale mining find it difficult to clamp down on illegal gold extractive activities. Retrospective literature analysis was the main method employed by the study. A synthesis from the review suggests that key challenges revolve around poor allocation of resources, poor collaboration among multiple levels and sectors, protection rackets by powerful beings in society, connivance of some traditional authorities and members, poverty, green squeezing, and cumbersome nature of ASM licensing process in Ghana. The study contends on the one hand that laws, policies, and...

In Ghana, an artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activ­ ity called galamsey is considered illegal because operators have not formally registered their sites with the government. Because of recent cases of the involvement of non-Ghanaian nationals in this activity, the government has established the Inter-Ministerial Task Force Against Illegal Mining to curb its growth. However, this endeavor has failed to account for how the absence of socioeconomic safety nets in most mining com­ munities has led many families, including children, into such a business. Drawing upon primary data gathered at Abosso, a galamsey site in the Western Region of Ghana, this article argues that until the underlying causes of socioeconomic mar­ ginalization and unemployment are properly addressed, the quest to regularize these operations will remain far-fetched.

This paper explores the impact of mining on the everyday lives of people in the Wassa West District, Western Region, Ghana. It is based on an interpretative methodology involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, complemented with an analysis of policy documents. The results reveal an extensive geographic transformation of livelihoods at various scales as a result of the local people being displaced from their lands that have become contested economic spaces. Monetary compensation for farmers who have lost their lands to mining companies remains a contentious issue, with farmers reporting that they are always at the losing end of any contestation for land and compensation. Furthermore, the local public perception is that there is hardly any trickle down of mining benefits to the local communities to improve their lives. After more than two decades of operation of various minerals and mining laws, our findings point to a conflicting and confused mining sector policy environment that disadvantages local communities. There is therefore a need to revise the country’s mining laws to reflect international best practices, to help make Ghana a sustainable mining investment destination in Africa, and to facilitate sustainable economic development in the country.

The performance of the gold mining industry globally is in no doubt. However, the industry's susceptibility to the frequent rise and fall in the price of gold, coupled with the various negative impacts it generates in mining communities have made it reliability for economic growth and development questionable. These impacts have often been grouped under environmental, social and economic impacts. Using a case study of Goldfields Damang in Ghana, this study examined in detail how stakeholder communities within the catchment areas of Goldfields can be developed through sustainable mining practices. The study used political ecology theory to understand the powers of the various actors (multinational companies and government) and to further investigate how decisions taken by these bodies have led to a devastation of the local environment. The study revealed that while Goldfields Damang has been doing a lot in terms of development in the areas of education, livelihood programs and in...

Journal of geoscience and environment protection, 2024

Developing Country Studies, 2016

Small scale mining especially illegal mining commonly called “Galamsey” has attracted much attention in recent times. This study seeks to explore the emerging trends and challenges of small scale mining in northern Ghana. Using structured questionnaire, key informant interviews as well as in-depth interviews, the study sampled 57 stakeholders from two major mining communities in the Wa East district of the Upper West Region namely; Manwe and Jonga communities via purposive, snowball and accidental sampling techniques. The result revealed that majority of the respondents in the small scale mining in these communities were Ghanaians between the ages of 18 and 40 years although few minors were recorded to have engaged in the practice. The essay concludes that the search for livelihood among rural dwellers influence them to ignore the cultural norms that govern the use of the natural environment as it gradually look normal for people to engage in activities that degrade the environment ...

Journal of Sustainable Development Studies, 2014

International Journal of Scientific Research and Management, 2020

Przegląd Rusycystyczny, 2021

CLT Atualizada, 2019

El proyecto ético-polítco de Jesús de Nazareth, 2024

Evidence-based …, 2005

The Extractive Industries and Society, 2024

American Journal of Islam and Society

Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2019

Glycobiology, 2021

Analele Universitatii …, 2009

Revista Estudios Juridicos Segunda Epoca, 2011

Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique, 2024

Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2006

Medycyna Weterynaryjna, 2006

Related topics

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Digging Deeper: The Impact of Illegal Mining on Economic Growth and Development in Ghana

Illegal mining has emerged as a pressing issue with significant implications for economic growth and development in Ghana. This systematic review examines the impact of illegal mining on the country's economy and its overall development trajectory. The study focuses on the adverse effects of illegal mining, including environmental degradation, social instability, governance challenges, and lost revenue. It explores the interconnectedness of these impacts and their implications for sustainable development goals. The review reveals that illegal mining hampers economic growth by undermining formal mining activities, reducing investor confidence, and limiting government revenue. It highlights the detrimental effects on key sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure. The environmental consequences, including deforestation, water pollution, and soil degradation, also pose long-term challenges for sustainable economic development. Additionally, the review identifies governance gaps and regulatory weaknesses as key drivers of illegal mining in Ghana. Inadequate enforcement, corruption, and weak institutional frameworks contribute to the persistence of illegal mining activities. These factors erode the rule of law and hinder effective resource management, posing obstacles to sustainable development. The study underscores the importance of addressing illegal mining comprehensively. It emphasizes the need for enhanced regulation, enforcement, and institutional capacity building to curtail illegal mining activities and promote responsible mining practices. Strengthening governance frameworks, engaging local communities, and fostering partnerships with international stakeholders is vital for sustainable economic growth and development. By shedding light on the multifaceted impacts of illegal mining, this systematic review provides valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders. It underscores the urgency of taking concrete actions to combat illegal mining and create an enabling environment for responsible and sustainable mining practices in Ghana.

All papers reproduced by permission. Reproduction and distribution subject to the approval of the copyright owners.

Contact us: [email protected]

This repository has been built using EPrints software .

Illegal mines, pollution and a thirsty global market: Anger mounts over Ghana's gold problem

ACCRA, Ghana — Illegal small-scale gold mining in Ghana has been linked with the destruction of the environment and illness. But for some, the practice known locally as galamsey provides livelihoods and an informal boost to the West African nation’s economy.

With a general election approaching in December, galamsey is proving to be a hot-button issue for the nation’s lawmakers — including President Nana Akufo-Addo — in the face of widespread demonstrations across the country calling for a crackdown on the practice.

In the nation’s capital, Accra, earlier this month, hundreds took to the streets for three days of protests, some carrying signs saying, “Greed is killing Ghana,” and, “Gold for the few, destruction for the many.”

Many carried bottles containing murky, brown water, a reference to the polluting of rivers and waterways in the country. Mercury and heavy metals have contaminated over 60% of the country’s water sources, according to Ghana’s Water Resources Commission.

“If you can drink it, you will stop this protest,” one of the protesters says in a video posted on social media by the activist group #StopGalamsey.

In just the first half of this year, 36% of the gold produced in Ghana came from legal small-scale mines, with a value of around $1.7 billion, according to Ghana’s Ministry of Land and Resources .

But the real total might be much greater, and some estimates suggest that less than 30% of small-scale mines are formally registered with the government, meaning the gold they mine goes under the radar.

Widespread destruction

Legal commercial mines, many of which are operated by multinational firms, often have heavy machinery to dig deep in one concentrated area. But for galamsey, due to its low-budget nature, illegal miners will dig shallow holes across a greater surface area , often near bodies of water. When these holes are not filled back in, the quality of previously arable land diminishes.

The miners will also mix harmful substances like mercury with water to extract the gold they find. This water then leeches into the water supply, tainting sources of water for entire communities.

In August, Ghana Water Ltd., the country’s main water supplier, said it would not be able to provide water to residents of the city Cape Coast and its major surrounding areas because galamsey miners had polluted the nearby Pra River to such a degree that its water could not be treated properly.

Other major rivers like the Ankobra, Oti, Offin and Birim have also been contaminated, sparking public outrage and criticism on social media, while the use of heavy equipment like bulldozers has destroyed forests and affected farmland, according to a report last month by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank.

After Akufo-Addo took power in 2017, the report said, “the state has pursued high-cost interventions such as deploying soldiers in various missions to arrest illegal miners.” It added that in “some instances, mining equipment like excavators were seized and burned.”

But the threat of high sentences and hefty fines has done little to stop illegal miners from destroying thousands of acres of cocoa plantations and virgin forest, according to data from the online monitoring platform Global Forest Watch .

Yaw Amoafo, who owns several small gold mines employing 20 to 30 people each, said public anger at galamsey mining has forced him to cease operations. He added that he feared the government would introduce a short-term ban on small-scale mining, like the one it implemented in 2017.

While he needed water for his business, he said, “at the same time I need it to drink it or bathe with it. So why should I go and spoil it before using it?”

“After doing everything, you have to reclaim the land so that the land will be available for plantation,” he said, before acknowledging that most Ghanaians did not associate mining with land restoration.

While Ghana’s Minerals Commission does not give licenses to mining operations near waterways, Amoafo said that “most of the rivers in Ghana carry gold,” so the likelihood of finding the precious metal was higher near and in the country’s water sources.

Economic benefit

With gold prices rising by almost 40% over the past year, Ghana, as Africa’s top gold producer and the sixth largest in the world, should be in a position to capitalize.

But commercial gold refineries are lying idle in the country, which suffered a severe economic crisis in 2022 that required a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund .

“Most of the customers do not even opt to refine in Ghana, because when you refine here, you do not have the hallmark to authenticate it,” said Eddie James Richmond, a metallurgist for the Sahara Royal Gold Refinery, which is based in Accra.

That hallmark comes from the London Bullion Market Association, a U.K.-based trade association that has become the global standard for gold and silver refineries around the world.

The LBMA maintains a “good delivery list” of about 65 gold refineries worldwide that have been proven to source gold legally. Its certification allows gold bars to be sold directly to any precious metals exchange or financial institution worldwide, but only one refinery in South Africa is accredited to issue it.

Making that list can be an arduous task and can take between three and five years, during which time a refinery must refine 10 tons of legally sourced gold at a 99.9% purity level a year.

“They need to know where every gram of gold that they’re refining comes from,” said Neil Harby, the LBMA’s chief technical officer.

Around 20% of the gold produced around the world comes from small-scale miners, but less than 0.05% of it goes through an LBMA-accredited refinery, Harby said.

As a result, a large amount of this gold goes undeclared and billions of dollars’ worth of the precious metal is smuggled out of Africa each year, according to a 2022 report by Swissaid , a nongovernmental organization based in Switzerland that supports projects in the developing world.

“Twelve African countries are involved in smuggling more than 20 tons of gold a year. Most gold smuggling in Africa takes place in Mali, Ghana and Zimbabwe,” it said.

As a result, the State Department warned in an advisory last year, “the use of gold as currency, the cash-intensive nature of elements of the gold trade, and gold’s portability and lack of traceability — particularly from mining to refining — makes it an attractive vehicle by which criminal organizations, armed groups, terrorist organizations, and others seek to move illicit gains, purchase weapons, evade sanctions.”

Ghana is nonetheless looking to get more control over its top commodity. Earlier this year it opened the government-backed Royal Ghana Gold Refinery, with the intent of getting it accredited by the LBMA.

Harby said this could help the country to build its reserves. “You can be turning your small-scale mined gold into good delivery bars, which are stored in your central bank.”

The standards make sure “your Ghanaian refinery is as good as your South African refinery is as good as your North American refinery,” he added. “You all meet that global standard because you’re equal.”

Zinhle Essamuah is a correspondent and anchor for NBC News.

Ghana’s illegal mining continues because the rules and reality are disconnected

By Richard Kumah, PhD Candidate, Environmental Studies

November 4, 2022

Link copied to clipboard

Artisanal and small-scale mining – a low-tech, indigenous mining subsector – is taking on increasing economic importance in many developing countries. Over 150 million people worldwide are estimated to derive their livelihoods from this activity indirectly. In Ghana, it supports millions and contributes up to 43 per cent  of the nation’s total gold production.

Ghana is one of the first countries in Africa to promulgate a small-scale mining law . Ghanaian mining codes not only recognise artisanal and small-scale mining as a legitimate livelihood source but also establish a framework aimed at formalising it.

So far, though, the regulation of artisanal and small scale mining in Ghana has been mostly unsuccessful. More than 85 per cent of small-scale mining operations still occur in the informal and illegal sector of the economy and remain largely unregulated.

As part of my PhD research I explored the reasons for this persistent illegality , from the point of view of licensed and illegal miners. The study identified two key related factors that drive illegal mining in Ghana. First, the mines are transient but getting a mining licence is time-consuming. Second, the regulatory framework doesn’t take into account the diverse reality of operations. It is difficult for people to comply with rules that do not adapt to their conditions: they will seem irrelevant to them.

To effectively manage and control the activities of artisanal and small-scale mining, these factors must be considered.

Disconnect between rules and reality

I carried out fieldwork between December 2020 and May 2021 in three mining communities in Ghana: Wassa Akropong, Bogoso and Gbane. I conducted interviews with illegal miners and gold dealers, licensed miners, local land owners, government officials, NGOs and others.

The first finding was that informal local mines were transient and often operated on a subsistence basis. The miners lacked adequate capital and geo-prospecting knowledge.

According to local informants, the productive lifespan of most of these kinds of mines was six to 18 months. But the formal procedure to get a small-scale mining licence in Ghana can take up to three years. According to the Minerals Commission, this process should normally take three to four months. A major reason why many locals don’t apply for a licence is this disconnect. As one illegal miner puts it:

to me, it doesn’t make sense to wait for three years for a licence to undertake a six-month project. I will rather hide and do my galamsey (illegal mining).

The second problem is another kind of disconnect. The miners in this research were of diverse kinds but the rules are supposed to apply to all equally. The operators ranged from alluvial miners removing stream bed deposits to those mining hard rock for gold near the surface. They used a wide range of techniques, practices and forms of knowledge to extract and process minerals. Different miners therefore had different perceptions about the formal licensing requirements. For example, some did not think they required a licence to operate because their activities caused no destruction to water bodies.

Ghana’s key legal and regulatory instruments for small scale mining show that the sector is poorly defined and classified. Poor rural people panning for shallow alluvial gold with rudimentary tools are subject to the same permit procedures as operators with more sophisticated tools.

This generic regulatory framework fails to link the diverse types of the sector’s operations to appropriate levels and forms of control. Some of the sector’s most vulnerable operators can’t comply.

Reforming Ghana’s mining regulations

It is important to create a regulatory framework that makes all miners accountable and also enables them to formalise their operations.

The burdensome, costly and overly time-consuming licensing process needs reform.

This could mean devolving more small-scale mining decisions to local governmental agencies and different local stakeholders. Kenya has recently set an example : counties and municipal authorities are empowered to issue mining licences through consultation with different local interest groups.

The reason local miners move their operations frequently lies in poverty and lack of education. So the regulatory frameworks should set up support for miners, including education and training, technical and financial support. This would enable miners to make investments to prolong the economic lifespan of local mines.

Policy reforms also need to reclassify Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale mining sector. This would result in more effective control and accountability measures. “Small-scale” and “artisanal” mining aren’t necessarily the same thing, so they may require different rules. In the DRC, for instance, artisanal mining is seen as an indigenous livelihood source where operators only require “exploitation cards.” Cameroon also distinguishes between “small mines” based on proven ore deposits and “artisanal mines” worked with specified levels of technology.

___________________________________________

Richard Kumah, PhD , School of Environmental Studies,  Queen's University .

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

The Conversation is seeking new academic contributors. Researchers wishing to write articles should contact Melinda Knox, Director, Thought Leadership and Strategic Initiatives, at  [email protected] .

Media Contacts

Editors' Picks

Sparking canada’s supercomputing renaissance, improving bladder cancer treatment, protein research breakthrough.

Journals By Subject

• Proceedings

Information

Effects of Illegal Mining on the Environment, Economy, and Agricultural Productivity

Peter Suglo

Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China

Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Alfred Amponsah Acheampong

Raymond Sunkari

Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biosciences, University for Development Studies, Nyankpala Campus, Tamale, Ghana

Anthony Yeboah

College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China

Add to Mendeley

The mining of minerals has contributed enormously to most African countries' economies. However, the activities involved in these sectors have turned to hunt our environment and human life due to the lack of regulation in this sector. This paper is a review of the effects of illegal mining on the environment, the economy and agricultural productivity in Ghana. The review employed key word findings at the initial stage to obtain relevant articles; peer-reviewed and non-reviewed articles, both published and non-published and other articles from reputable media sources. The findings from the study revealed that in Ghana, just like most African countries, artisanal and small-scale mining has contributed positively to the economy through job creation, increased mineral output, specifically gold, and concurrently increased the GDP of the country. Nonetheless, the downsides of unregistered and unregulated small-scale mining activities overshadow the benefits derived from it. Notable negativities associated with artisanal and small scale mining include: loss of mineral revenue through smuggling, food insecurity, destruction to surface and underground water through toxic contamination and pollution caused by mud and sediments, air and noise pollution and destruction of biodiversity, including the natural flora and fauna and water species. Death, injuries, respiratory and skin diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, physical and psychological stress, malaria, and HIV are among the common legacies of illegal mining. Among other recommendations, the study suggests that perpetrators found in illegal mining activities should be duly dealt with according to law. Also, small-scale mining concessions duly registered and regulated should be demarcated to avoid encroachment into forest reserves, farmlands, and river courses.

Ghana, Illegal Mining, Galamsey, Agriculture, Economic Cost, Environmental Impact, Health

Peter Suglo, Paul Effah, Alfred Amponsah Acheampong, Raymond Sunkari, Anthony Yeboah. (2021). Effects of Illegal Mining on the Environment, Economy, and Agricultural Productivity. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology , 6 (4), 79-91. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bmb.20210604.11

Peter Suglo; Paul Effah; Alfred Amponsah Acheampong; Raymond Sunkari; Anthony Yeboah. Effects of Illegal Mining on the Environment, Economy, and Agricultural Productivity. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 2021 , 6 (4), 79-91. doi: 10.11648/j.bmb.20210604.11

Peter Suglo, Paul Effah, Alfred Amponsah Acheampong, Raymond Sunkari, Anthony Yeboah. Effects of Illegal Mining on the Environment, Economy, and Agricultural Productivity. Biochem Mol Biol . 2021;6(4):79-91. doi: 10.11648/j.bmb.20210604.11

Cite This Article

• Author Information

Verification Code/

The captcha is required.

Captcha is not valid.

Verification Code

Science Publishing Group (SciencePG) is an Open Access publisher, with more than 300 online, peer-reviewed journals covering a wide range of academic disciplines.

Learn More About SciencePG

• Special Issues
• AcademicEvents
• ScholarProfiles
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Conference Organizers
• For Librarians
• Article Processing Charges
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Peer Review at SciencePG
• Open Access
• Ethical Guidelines

Important Link

• Manuscript Submission
• Propose a Special Issue
• Join the Editorial Board
• Become a Reviewer

• Banking & Finance
• Real Estate
• Quick Links
• Press Releases
• Homepage – Less Images
• Building & Construction

Water pollution in Ghana has reached alarming levels, with illegal mining activities emerging as a primary culprit.

This environmental crisis threatens public health, ecosystems, and the country’s water security. Let’s explore the scope of the problem, its impacts, and potential solutions.

The Scale of Water Pollution

Ghana’s water bodies are facing unprecedented levels of contamination. According to the Water Resources Commission, about 60% of Ghana’s water bodies are polluted, with many in critical condition [2]. The pollution is particularly severe in the south-western parts of the country, where illegal mining activities, known locally as “galamsey,” are widespread [2].

The Ghana Water Company has been forced to reduce its clean water supply by a staggering 75% due to pollution, impacting hundreds of thousands of residents across the southern coast[1]. This reduction is a direct result of illegal gold mining on major water bodies in the Eastern, Ashanti, Central, and Western Regions.

 The Role of Illegal Mining

Illegal small-scale mining, or galamsey, is the primary driver of water pollution in Ghana. This practice involves both Ghanaians and foreigners, including Chinese nationals and individuals from neighbouring West African countries [4]. The scale of the problem is massive – between 2008 and 2013 alone, over 50,000 Chinese nationals entered Ghana to engage in illegal gold mining[4].

Environmental Impact

The environmental consequences of galamsey are severe and far-reaching:

• **River Contamination**: Major rivers like the Pra, Ankobra, Oti, Offin, and Birim have been heavily contaminated[4]. The Pra River, one of the largest in the country and a main source of drinking water for local communities, is particularly affected [1].
• **Forest Destruction**: The Forestry Commission reports that 34 out of Ghana’s 288 forest reserves have been impacted by illegal mining, with 4,726 hectares of forest land devastated [4].
• **Farmland Damage**: Galamsey is destroying farmlands, particularly affecting cocoa production. In the Mankurum community alone, over 100,000 acres of cocoa have been wiped out due to illegal mining[4].

Health Implications

The health consequences of water pollution from mining activities are severe and wide-ranging:

• **Chronic Diseases**: Research links water pollution from galamsey to chronic diseases such as kidney failure, birth defects, and cancer[4]. These health issues are particularly prevalent in Ghana’s mining communities.
• **Heavy Metal Contamination**: Studies have found high levels of heavy metals in water bodies near mining sites. Lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, iron, and zinc have been detected at levels exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines[3].
• **Mercury Poisoning**: Illegal miners often use mercury to separate gold, which then contaminates water sources. Dr. Elliot Tanner reports that mercury from mines is killing people, with a tripling of kidney disease cases in the Ashanti region over the past decade[5].

Economic Impact

The economic consequences of water pollution from mining are significant:

• **Agricultural Losses**: Ghana’s cocoa industry, a crucial part of the economy, is suffering. Current production is less than 55% of its seasonal output, largely due to illegal mining activities[4].
• **Water Treatment Costs**: The Ghana Water Company Limited has reported turbidity levels of 14,000 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units) in some water sources, far above the 2,000 NTU required for adequate treatment[4]. This increased pollution leads to higher water treatment costs and potential water scarcity.
• **Future Water Scarcity**: Experts warn that if the current trend continues, Ghana could be forced to import water by 2030[4].

Government Response

The Ghanaian government has implemented various measures to combat illegal mining and its impact on water resources:

• **Legislative Measures**: The Small-scale Gold Mining Act of 1989 and the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act were introduced to legalize artisanal mining and prevent illegal activities[4].
• **Task Forces**: Joint task forces comprising military and other security personnel have been established. In 2013, this led to the deportation of 4,500 Chinese miners[4].

4.**Inter-Ministerial Committee**: In 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo set up the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining[4].

5.**Military Operations**: The government has launched several military operations, including Operation Halt, Operation Vanguard, Operation Flush Out, and Galamstop[4].

• **Legal Action**: As of September 2024, 76 people have been convicted since August 2021, with over 850 facing trial for galamsey-related offenses[4].
• **Community Mining Programs**: The state has introduced regulated small-scale mining programs to ensure responsible extraction[4].

Challenges in Addressing the Issue

Despite these efforts, the problem of water pollution from illegal mining persists. Several factors contribute to the difficulty in addressing this issue:

• **Political Interests**: Key state officials, politicians, and party financiers have been implicated in illegal mining activities but have not faced prosecution[4].
• **Economic Dependence**: Many communities rely on illegal mining as a source of income. A WaterAid survey found that over three-quarters of those involved in illegal mining saw it as a lucrative income source, despite being aware of its environmental impacts[1].
• **Climate Change**: Extreme weather events are pushing more people, particularly those living in poverty, into illegal mining activities as traditional sources of employment like farming become less reliable [1].
• **Enforcement Challenges**: Despite numerous initiatives, the government has struggled to effectively enforce environmental laws and regulations.

Potential Solutions

Addressing Ghana’s water pollution crisis will require a multi-faceted approach:

• **Stricter Enforcement**: The government must strengthen its enforcement of existing laws and regulations, ensuring that all offenders, regardless of their political or economic status, face consequences.
• **Advanced Technologies**: Implementing advanced water treatment technologies could help mitigate the impact of pollution. These include adsorption, ion exchanges, electrokinetic processes, chemical precipitation, phytobial remediation, and membrane technology[3].
• **Community Engagement**: Involving local communities in conservation efforts and providing alternative livelihoods could reduce dependence on illegal mining.
• **Education and Awareness**: Comprehensive public education campaigns about the dangers of water pollution and the importance of conservation could help change behaviors.
• **International Cooperation**: Collaborating with neighboring countries and international organizations could provide additional resources and expertise in combating illegal mining and water pollution.
• **Investment in Water Infrastructure**: Significant investment in water treatment and distribution infrastructure is needed to ensure clean water access for all Ghanaians.
• **Sustainable Mining Practices**: Promoting and enforcing sustainable mining practices in both large-scale and small-scale operations could significantly reduce environmental impact.

 Conclusion

The water pollution crisis in Ghana, largely driven by illegal mining activities, poses a severe threat to public health, the environment, and the country’s economic future. While the government has made efforts to address the issue, the problem persists, highlighting the need for more robust, multi-faceted solutions.

Addressing this crisis will require political will, community engagement, technological innovation, and significant investment in water infrastructure. The stakes are high – failure to act decisively could lead to a future where Ghana, despite its abundant natural resources, faces severe water scarcity.

As Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, WaterAid Ghana Country Director, aptly puts it: “This is not just a problem for the country’s most marginalized; it threatens us all. Water contamination means higher costs and tariffs, while mercury and heavy metals are poisoning our food supply. The time for well-intentioned words is over. The government must act now. Future generations are counting on us. The history books will judge our inaction.”[1]

The path forward is clear, but challenging. It will require the collective effort of government, communities, and international partners to ensure that Ghana’s water resources are protected and preserved for current and future generations. The time for decisive action is now.

[1] https://www.wateraid.org/gh/blog/wateraid-demands-immediate-halt-to-illegal-mining-as-water-supply-drops-75-due-to-pollution

[2] https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/ghana-60-of-water-bodies-polluted-due-to-illegal-mining-and-other-activities-say-authorities/

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10367323/

[4] https://issafrica.org/iss-today/ghana-must-stop-galamsey-before-it-sinks-the-country

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Xv0MoRxPM

[6] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010023000513

[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X22009596

[8] https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-58119653

Africa Bulletin Correspondent

Hamburg Sustainability Conference spotlights youth entrepreneurship in Africa, African Development Bank Group support for continent’s youth-led small and medium enterprises

Control risks and oxford economics africa launch the 2024 africa risk-reward index: opportunity through transformation, world trade organization waives intellectual property rights to support vaccine production in africa, leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Most Popular

Ai has the potential to significantly accelerate development across africa and help close gaps with more advanced economies., biden’s visit to angola pre-analysis, examining the house building sector in nairobi, recent comments.

Ghana Priorities: Illegal Mining

Technical Report

The Problem

Artisanal and Small-Scale gold Mining (ASM) is an important economic activity in several gold-rich developing countries around the world (Kahhat et al., 2019). In Ghana, ASM has provided jobs and supported the livelihoods of many rural communities for over a century (Mantey et al., 2016). It is estimated that over 1.1 million people are currently engaged in it (McQuilken and Hilson, 2016). Since Ghana implemented the mineral sector reforms in the 1980s to attract foreign direct investment into the large-scale mining sector, the contribution of ASM to total gold production has been rising steadily. In 1989, it accounted for 2.2 percent of total production. By 2014 and 2018, the figure rose to 34.4 and 41.1 percent, respectively, (Ghana Chamber of Mines, 2014 and 2019). 

Despite the clearly laid out formalization process in the Ghana’s Mineral and Mining Act (Act 703), bureaucratic bottlenecks and prohibitive licensing costs are compelling between 60 and 80 percent of miners to operate illegally. To minimize production cost, the miners employ technologies that are harmful to the environment, negatively impacting the health of those involved, directly or indirectly, in the mining activities. These environmental opportunity costs are not fully internalized. It is striking that the environmental damages (e.g., land and rainforest degradation, air pollution and mercury pollution of water bodies in the mining communities), occur regardless of whether (or not) the mining operation is formalized. Moreover, owing to weak resource governance institutions, mining laws and regulations are hardly enforced. Over 200 water bodies within mining districts were found to be heavily polluted by alluvial gold mining operations in Ghana. Based on the survey of the existing literature on gold mining externalities, this study proposes and analyses an intervention that could mitigate the environmental impacts, namely the formalization of illegal mining through mining cooperatives.

The Intervention

Mining cooperatives have proven to improve efficiency, reduce environment impacts and minimize social conflicts, and are currently present in many countries including Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. Operating as a cooperative facilitates access to financial resources and procurement of improved mining technologies, hence ensuring increased production efficiency. In addition, cooperatives ensure collective environmental compliance, which reduces enforcement costs and diminishes the administrative burden otherwise required to manage individual operators. It is assumed that the formation of co-operatives leads to more efficient production processes as noted in Alves et al (2019). This increases costs, since co-operatives will use more expensive, improved technology. However, it is assumed to lead to improved revenue, safer production processes and fewer environmental externalities.

Implementation Consideration

Of the total number of 1.1m ASM operators in Ghana, 60 percent (660,000 operators) are illegal or unregistered, and therefore must be targeted to form co-operatives. One thousand one hundred and twenty (1120) co-operatives, representing approximately one per community, in 40 mining districts across seven (7) mining regions will be registered co-operative unions for five (5) years under the Co-operative Societies decree of 1968 (NLCD 252) and Co-operative Societies Regulations, 1968 (L.I. 604). Each co-operative will include 590 ASM operators. According to Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Acts 2006, a license issued to a co-operative shall last for a period of five years and is renewable for a further period to be determined by the Minister. Furthermore, a co-operative society shall be granted a mineralized land not exceeding 25 acres to be mined for 5 years at a time. For the purpose of the cost-benefit analysis, it is assumed that the mining co-operatives will operate for a period of 5 years.

Costs and Benefits

The cost elements related to the establishment of mining co-operatives comprise both one-time set up costs as well as ongoing operational and administrative costs. The largest one-time set up cost relates to sensitization of mining communities to the opportunities of co-operatives. Here we assume a fixed cost of GHs 500,000 per cooperative, which is intended to cover promotion materials, grassroots outreach and community level seminars. Additional minor costs of set up including fees for legal registration, crafting by laws are estimated at GHS 2,130 in the first year. Total one off set up costs across 1120 co-operatives are therefore around GHS 562,000,000.

In terms of ongoing costs, the largest cost category relates to the costs of improved technology, estimated at a marginal cost of GHS 510,000 per cooperative. Across 1120 cooperatives this equates to GHS 574,000,000 per year. Another large cost category is the cost of grants provided by the government to support cooperatives, which we estimate as GHS 192,000 per organization, totaling GHS 216,000,000 per year. Remaining costs include mining concession fees, office and utilities costs, and monitoring and evaluation are estimated at GHS 162,000 per cooperative or GHS 182,000,000 per year.

In total the costs are therefore estimated at GHS 1,534,000,000 in the first year and then GHS 917,000,000 every year after that. At an 8% discount rate over 10 years the total cost of the intervention is therefore GHS 7,040 million.

There are several benefits that we assume arise from the formation of cooperatives. They include increased revenue from improved production practices, reduced environmental damages, reduced deaths and injuries from accidents, and reduced in-utero exposure to mercury from harmful production practices. Additionally, the grant transfer is also considered a benefit. Mechanised investments yields an annual revenue boost of GHS 593,000 per operator in 2018, or GHS 664,000,000 per year across all cooperatives. The benefit from reduced environmental impacts was estimated at GHS 19,000,000 annually. In addition, the values of water for the industrial sector and household consumptive use were estimated based on current usage and market prices, which summed up to GHS 136,000,000 per year. The total value of benefits from reduced fatalities yield around GHS 132,000,000 per year with the vast majority of benefits coming from avoided injuries, while avoided mercury exposure yields an annual benefit of approximately GHS 64,000,000. Lastly, the government grant is also considered a benefit, since it is a transfer to miners under the cooperatives. Total benefits are therefore GHS 8,265 million with most of the benefit coming from improved revenue.

Sign in to continue

• Create an account
• Forgot password?

RESET PASSWORD

• Already have an account?

Sign up to get started

Terms and conditions

• You are only allowed to submit content which you have created yourself.
• You are not allowed to upload photos from another person pretending it is you.
• No nudity, pornography and any unlawful content is permitted.
• You grant GhanaWeb the right to publish and use your content.
• You allow GhanaWeb to communicate with you using the info you provide.
• GhanaWeb reserves the right to reject/remove your content without explanation.
• Other names
• Select your date of birth
• Do you accept the terms?
• By continuing, you agree to the Terms & Privacy Policy

Entertainment

• GhanaWeb TV
• Say It Loud
• section=='memories')?' ':'')?>

Business News of Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Source: thebftonline.com

Cost of illegal mining to economy unsustainable - UN Resident Coordinator

« Prev

Next »

Comments (3)

Listen to Article

The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator for Ghana, Mr. Charles Abani, has observed that addressing illegal mining or galamsey is crucial to establishing a sustainable economy. He further indicated that illegal mining has devastating impacts on people, poverty, jobs, child-labour, the environment and water, while also driving illicit financial flows. The UN resident coordinator made this known when delivering the keynote address at the Institute of Sustainability Professionals Ghana (ISPG) launch. In buttressing his point, he added that a study by the UN estimates the minimum illicit financial flows impact in the region is US$3billion a year. “Per our estimate in the UN, based on proxy figures from other countries in the sub-region where we have done this study, the minimum Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) impact in the region is US$3billion a year.” “That is the size of money you borrowed from the IMF for three years to survive. So, if you address galamsey you will have a sustainable economy,” he stated. Corroborating UN statistics, a study by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) on IFFs and the extractive industry in Ghanam states that in 2013 IFFS from illegal mining alone cost the country US$1.7billion. As a result, Mr. Abani urged citizens to keep up with the conversation on illegal and unregulated mining because it is a catalytic issue that can transform the economy and lead to a sustainable economy. The ISPG is dedicated to advancing sustainability practices and fostering professional development in Environmental, Social and Governance considerations and standards in Ghana. It aims to be a hub for knowledge-exchange, capacity building and strategic collaboration, providing a platform for professionals and organisations to develop a comprehensive sustainability framework. President-ISPG, Professor Mathew Tsamenyi, said the institute aims to create a single platform for conversations on sustainability, ensure standardisation, empower companies and SMEs to embrace sustainability for business growth and preserve the environment for future generations. Indeed, galamsey has emerged as a pervasive issue in discourse across the Ghanaian landscape because it is characterised by environmental degradation, land and water resource depletion, health hazards for miners and social and economic impacts. That is why concerned citizens and organisations have stepped up their game to ensure the country pursues a path to environmental integrity. However, in combatting illegal methods of mining it is important that the extractive sector plays a critical role in economic development. This is exemplified by the fact that the mining sector contributed a record GH₵11.55billion (US$980million) in taxes in 2023, an 81.1 percent increase from GH₵6.38billion in 2022 – making it the largest source of domestic tax revenue. Thus, the sector accounted for 22.7 percent of all direct taxes; highlighting its significant role in the economy. Obviously, this surge in tax revenues is expected to provide a significant boost to government coffers as Ghana works to reduce its public debt and stabilise the local currency, the cedi. Additionally, mineral exports reached US$7.8billion during the year under review – a 15 percent rise from the previous year’s US$6.8billion. The sector accounted for 47 percent of the country’s gross merchandise exports. Consequently, it places the sector ahead of cocoa and oil – traditionally the economy’s main export drivers, solidifying mining’s dominance in the country’s trade portfolio. Meanwhile, US$4.2billion (71.3 percent) was returned to the economy, data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines indicate. In addition to foreign exchange contributions, mining companies spent some US$5.4billion on local products, services and community projects – with US$3.146billion dedicated to local procurement. This development aligns with the country’s efforts to promote local content and enhance Ghanaian businesses’ participation in the mining value chain. The sector also allocated US$31.53million toward corporate social responsibility initiatives in host communities: including investments in education, healthcare and infrastructure development. The mining sector’s robust performance provides crucial fiscal relief as government seeks to balance its budget and implement austerity measures. Despite these positive contributions, concerns about environmental degradation linked to illegal mining remain significant…. with the Chamber severally indicating the danger it poses to investments of member-companies. Consequently, recent times have seen environmental groups, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and organised labour calling for stronger regulation to protect forest reserves and water-bodies.

Kasoa Ritual Murder: 18-year-old sentenced to life imprisonment, 15-year-old referred to juvenile court

Arsenal legend Ian Wright urges Mikel Arteta to bench Thomas Partey against Liverpool

Bouncers are necessary - Sefa argues after ‘scary’ sexual harassment in Kasoa

Uganda reports first Mpox death as cases hit 153

A New Dawn for the Ghana Police Service: Human resources and welfare reforms

Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.