NAELP to reclaim 2000 hectares degraded lands
The National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP) has targeted to reclaim 2000 hectares of land that have been degraded by illegal miners.
Currently, the managers of the programme are exploring private partnerships, carbon credits and green financing to undertake the reclamation exercise.
The Coordinator of NAELP, Frank Asare, made this known when the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, paid a working visit to the secretariat of the programme.
Mr Buah was in the company of the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Yusif Sulemana, the Advisor on Mines to the minister, Professor Jerry Samuel Yaw Kuma, and other officials of the Lands Ministry.
The courtesy call was meant to engage the managers of NAELP on the current state of affairs and how to make it more relevant to the government's agenda to address illegal mining through alternative livelihoods.
Alignment
At the meeting, Mr Asare said the outlook was to align the reclamation component of NAELP to the Tree for Life Initiative that was launched by President John Dramani Mahama, seeking to restore the country’s degraded landscape, particularly in forest environments.
"The thinking is that the places that have been mined out can be reclaimed through external funding, without necessarily using funds from the government," he said.
When we reclaim it, the land can serve viable alternatives such as planting of rubber, teak and other economic trees.
In addition to the reclamation targets, he said NAELP would train at least 1000 people under the skills training and capacity building component of the programme.
He said the strategy of NAELP was to collaborate with other government agencies that had modules for job creation to leverage those opportunities.
"The government is embarking on the Feed Ghana initiative, so we are strategically positioning ourselves to tap into that project and bring it to the doorstep of mining communities.
"Also, the technical committee that will oversee the apprenticeship programme has been set up, so we will engage them more," he said.
Arrears
Despite the progressive initiatives being explored, NAELP is riddled with arrears and has sent a distress call to the government for support.
Mr Asare said NAELP owed contractors who executed reclamation projects last year to the tune of GH¢105 million.
He said the total amount spent on reclaiming 1000 hectares of mined out lands at various locations in the Eastern, Western-North and Ashanti regions was GH¢150 million, out of which GH¢45 million had been paid.
"Apart from this, there are security contracts that have been executed but the people have not been paid; we owe providers of cleaning services and even the workers at NAELP are owed," he said.
Mr Asare said he had engaged the Lands and Natural Resources Minister on the way forward to clearing the arrears of the workers.
"All other arrears, particularly the GH¢105 million, have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance for review and payments," he added.
Support
Mr Buah said NAELP was integral to the government's overall scheme to tackle illegal mining and restore the environment.
In that regard, he said the needed resources would be provided to keep the programme on its feet.
"It is true that we have serious financial challenges now, but NAELP is a priority of the government, so in this difficult situation, we will ensure that some money is made available to the programme," he said.
He stressed that going forward, NAELP must be private-sector led, "and that is why we have already started engaging the big mining companies to support."
