Forest Reserves in Ghana under siege of mining operations

Investigations by a group of environmentalists in Ghana have revealed the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region is under threat of mining.

According to the Forest Watch Ghana, Wacam, National Forest Forum Ghana and Kasa Initiative, the development would be a concern to all Ghanaians due to the negative impact on the environment and livelihoods.

The Exton Cubic Group, a company with close relations to the seat of power, is said to have been granted a permit to mine in the Tano Offin forest reserve.

The Offin River passes through this forest reserve which has a total area of 41,392ha and the 4^th largest Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) in Ghana.

The forest has been classified as a protected area because of its significant biological importance to human existence.

But this biologically significant forest reserve is to undergo mining and the environmentalists want this action stopped.

The company had already mobilized equipment – a loader and a bulldozer – to the site at Kyeriaso even before the issuance of a permit by the Forestry Commission on June 10, 2016.

The records available mention one Michael Mahama as a 50% shareholder in Exton Cubic Group, a company which is said to be backed by a very powerful politician in the country whose might technocrats cannot stand, thus granting it the impunity to mine in the forest reserve.

The company is also reported to have already targeted the Fure River forest reserve in the Western region.

In the last two decades, mining companies have targeted forest reserves and the number of requests for exploration permits to mine in forest reserves has increased.

Mining in forest reserves has been met with resistance not only from civil society organizations but also from regulators including the Forestry Commission.

Considering the increasing degradation of forest reserves, dwindling forest cover and the havoc that surface mining has caused to the State even in the off reserves, the resistance is justifiable.

A research by International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO, 2011) indicates that Togo, Nigeria and Ghana have the highest rate of deforestation in the world. Ghana has a deforestation rate of 2.19 percent and a deforestation rate above one percent is alarming.

Mining in forest reserves will aggravate the already alarming rate of forest degradation in the country and wreak havoc on freshwater systems and watersheds, which are already globally scarce commodities, as well as the entire ecosystem and biodiversity.

Apart from mining in forest reserves contravening the principles underlining the establishment of forest reserves in Ghana, the Forestry Commission has had course to be worried about mining operations in even off forest reserve areas.

The Commission presented its comments on mining in forest reserves with a report titled, “Mining in Forest Reserves, Concern of the Forestry Commission” (2002) that: “Mining companies have often been required to rehabilitate even off-reserve areas they have mined. Although Off-reserve mining has gone on in Ghana for some time, we are yet to see a demonstration from industry any best practice rehabilitation suitable to tropical forests. The Commission is thus hesitant about destroying more areas with the hope of rehabilitating them. We believe we should get the rehabilitation methods right in off-reserve forests before venturing into Forest Reserves.”

Ghana and the world have been experiencing catastrophic weather conditions due among others to bad regulation and misuse of natural resources.

It will therefore be suicidal for anyone to think of further destroying the little pristine environment that is left after the massive extractive activities that has characterized governments of developing countries including Ghana.

The environmental groups are calling on and supporting regulators to live up to the task that the citizens and the Constitution of Ghana has entrusted them with.

“We also wish to call on the President of the Republic Ghana and Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the custodian of the Reserve, to help save our forest reserves, at least for our children,” they said in a statement.