Govt’ll strictly implement Natural Resource dialogue recommendations — Jinapor

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has assured Ghanaians that the government will strictly implement the recommendations of the national stakeholders dialogue on natural resource management.

Mr Jinapor said the two-day dialogue, Natural Resources Stakeholders Dialogue, which was organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in partnership with his ministry, discussed pertinent issues in the land, forestry and mining sectors that were “productive, substantive, comprehensive and capable of enhancing effective natural resource management.

“Across board, there is a unanimous consensus that the dialogue was a huge success.

For building consensus around these issues of national importance, the government commends the leadership shown by the GCGL highly, and I convey that to you,” he said.

Communique

The minister stated this when the Managing Director of GCGL, Ato Afful, led a team from the company to present a report on the dialogue to him at the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry yesterday.

The team from GCGL included the Editor, Graphic, Theophilus Yartey; Director, Marketing and Sales, Franklin Sowa; the News Editor of the Daily Graphic, Samuel Doe Ablordeppey; the Advert Sales Manager, George Danso, and  the Corporate Communications Officer, Yvonne Aryee.

Mr Afful presented the document to the minister, explaining that it contained speeches that were delivered at  the dialogue, outcomes of the panel discussions and breakout sessions, as well as recommendations by the experts and participants in the event. 

Time for action

While commending GCGL for building consensus and rallying other stakeholders to address challenges confronting the natural resource sector, Mr Jinapor said it was time to delve more into specific issues.

“I want to point out that we should not leave it here.

What we did at the dialogue was to examine the broader issues of how we can sustainably exploit and manage our natural resources.

Beyond this dialogue, there is the need to zero in on the specific issues,” he said.

For instance, Mr Jinapor said the issue of land administration was a big one that required special attention.

“Here in Ghana, the issue of land ownership is diverse.

The government has a bit of it; the stools, families and clans have a lot of it.

To what extent does this arrangement have an impact on land administration in the country?

And what kind of land administration or tenure system should we have in the country?

We need to delve deeper into this issue,” he said.

Again, the minister pointed out that the issue of whether to restrict small-scale mining to alluvial mining or allow people to do surface mining must be given special attention.

He stressed that a major decision on that issue was critical, especially so when surface mining in the small-scale sector was wreaking havoc on the environment.

Commitment by GCGL

For his part, Mr Afful said the GCGL remained committed to working with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and its agencies as well as experts to implement the recommendations of the dialogue.

He said the consensus built during the dialogue was positive energy for the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources.

Mr Afful added that the wealth of knowledge shared by experts, policymakers and other stakeholders at the dialogue was crucial and would help to chart a good path for the effective management of the resources.