Govt moves to revoke Mining in Forest Reserves law

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has expressed optimism that the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2023 (L. I. 2462) will be revoked before the end of the year.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic last Wednesday, Mr Jinapor said the instrument for the revocation of the L.I was expected to be laid before Parliament when the House resumed on Tuesday, October 15.

He said although most of the processes for revocation of the L.I would depend on Parliament when laid in the House, he was optimistic that it would be done before the end of the year.

“Those matters in the revocation of the L.I are within the bosom of Parliament, but the government will discharge its commitment by triggering the process of revocation, and thereafter it will be within the remit of Parliament to deal with it,” he said. 

President’s instruction

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has already initiated the process to revoke the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2023 (L. I. 2462), on the instruction of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The move forms part of immediate measures by the government to bolster the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

Context

Following the resurgence of galamsey in the country, the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey, a consortium of stakeholders, including Organised Labour, Media Coalition Against Galamsey, civil society organisations (CSOs) and religious bodies, mounted pressure on the government to take immediate steps to deal with the menace.

The stakeholders called for the declaration of a state of emergency and imposition of an immediate ban on all forms of small-scale mining in the country.

They also stressed the need to revoke L.I 2462, which gave the President the authority in section 3(2) “to approve, in writing, a mining company to undertake mining activity in a globally significant biodiversity area (GSBA) in the national interest.”

After days of back and forth, the government issued a statement on October 7, 2024, indicating that an agreement had been reached with Organised Labour for the L.I to be revoked.

Action

Mr Jinapor told the Daily Graphic that the President’s directive to the Attorney-General to immediately start the process for the revocation of the L.I was to demonstrate goodwill and commitment to fight the galamsey menace.

He added that even as preparations were being made to lay the instrument for the revocation of L.I 2462, the government was also at the point of deploying a crack team of security personnel to weed out the illegal miners.

“I cannot put out the details of the deployment in terms of the day, target areas or numbers involved because it is a security operation,” he explained, when the Daily Graphic asked for details of the intended operation.

The minister added that the river guards who were trained to help in monitoring the activities of illegal miners in water bodies, would also be deployed as soon as possible.

When asked why the river guards were not deployed almost two years after they were trained, he said, “we needed to ensure that there is full complement of logistics so that we will be able to monitor these river guards to ensure that people do not abuse the system.”

Contrary to suggestions by some groups and individuals that the government was paying lip service to the galamsey fight, the minister said that could not be the case because more resources had been channelled into the rolling out of more interventions to stem the tide.

He also rejected assertions that the government was refusing to fight illegal mining because of the fear of losing elections.

“We have fought the galamsey menace since 2017, and no government has made more interventions in dealing with galamsey than the Akufo-Addo government.

“He has fought this menace for the past seven years and it cannot be the case that just two months to the end of his tenure, he will abandon the ship,” he stressed.

Galamsey politics

Mr Jinapor said it was worrying that the fight against an environmental disaster that posed existential threat to the country was being politicised.
“Some people have made it their stock-in-trade to politicise the galamsey fight for the purpose of votes, and this is unfortunate. The government does not support such a development and all persons must act in the national interest,” he said.

The minister indicated that the government fully supported the call for political parties and their presidential candidates to sign a pact that committed them to fight against galamsey. 

Concerted effort

He observed that because the illegal mining menace had historical antecedents dating back to over 100 years, fighting and winning the fight would not just be a one-off event.

He said it was in that regard that collective efforts, involving all stakeholders, were required to deal with the menace in a holistic manner.

The minister added that the government would continue to engage all stakeholders on the best approach to tackling the menace.