Stakeholders call for better compensation in compulsory land acquisition

Stakeholders at a public forum on protecting property rights of citizens have called for a change in the country’s compulsory land acquisition regime to ensure affected communities are not unduly deprived of their rights. 

The stakeholders also stressed the need for the government to incorporate Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) into the mining policy of the country to ensure adequate and fair compensation to original land right holders.

The FPIC is a principle that recognises the right of indigenous people to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands, territories, or rights.

The principle of FCIP ensures bottom-up participation and consultation before development on ancestral land or resource use in indigenous territories.

The forum was organised by A Rocha Ghana, an environmental non-profit organisation; the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), and other partners on the theme: "Rethinking compulsory land acquisition and EPIC in the extractive sector: ensuring equity, environmental sustainability and inclusive development."

In attendance were traditional and opinion leaders from mining communities, CSOs in environment, and other actors in the extractive sector.

Speakers at the event included the Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu; the associate Executive Director of WACCAM, Hannah Owusu-Koranteng; a lawyer and human rights activist, Oliver Barker-Vormawor; and the acting Chief Executive Officer of Petroleum Hub, Dr Tony Aubynn. 

Key issues

The discussions centered on FPIC and other issues surrounding resource allocation rights in the extractive sector, an overview of compulsory land acquisition policy and legal frameworks for Ghana.

Other topics were free prior and Informed Consent, policy and legal framework for Ghana, as well as the roadmap for environmental sustainability and inclusive approach to extractive resource right allocation.

The discussions were held within the context of Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana —Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms — which protects individuals from the deprivation of property, ensuring that compulsory acquisition by the state is only done under specific conditions and with fair compensation.

It was also within the provisions of Section 2 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), which provides that the President may acquire any land or authorise its occupation and use if such land is required for tho development or utilisation of a mineral resource.

Adequate compensation

Mr Bosu said there was the urgent need for adequate compensation for communities affected by compulsory acquisition of land by the government because losing those lands had dire consequences for the unborn generation.

"There is the issue of long-term impact on communities that are affected by the operations of the extractive sector entities that the state engages.

"The acquisition of people's lands also tend to have generational effects because generations that will come after them are no longer going to have those land rights and cultural access that existed," he said.

Petroleum hub

One of the major issues that came up at the forum was the fear by residents of Jomoro, within the Western Nzema Traditional Area in the Western Region that they would lose the ecological value of the area to the project which rested on 20,000 hectares of land.

Dr Aubynn, however, said that the fear of losing the ecology existed because of lack of adequate engagement with the local people.

"We need to engage the people properly and give them the assurance that their environment will not be destroyed," he said.

Dire situation

For her part, Ms Owusu-Koranteng, said the compulsory acquisition of land in the mining sector using the eminent domain was worrying because it was not part of the country’s laws.

She said the situation had reached the point where the state was “using coercive force and manipulating people to take their land almost for free.”

“We have had situations where state agencies and regulators, including the police and the military, have gone to communities to forcefully move them from their land, meanwhile the land has not been appropriately acquired,” she said.