No Galamsey In Forest Zones Forestry Commission Boss
The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Mr John Allotey has declared that NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO DO SMALL SCALE MINING IN GHANA’S FOREST. Mr Allotey made this statement when the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources meet the Press at the Ministry of Information (MOI) Press House to give account of the state of our forest cover in the country.
The CEO indicated that until recently there was no mining in the forest areas in Ghana. But in 1997 a licence was issued to 30 mining companies for prospecting and exploration in the forest . Thereafter, 22 of these companies were given permission and started doing underground mining in the forest ,not the small scale ones .
He said the small scale mining began with some local implements to scoop minerals from river banks and surface of the earth. So the forest was a no go area .This culminated in the engagement of big mining companies like Newmont , Ashanti Gold, Goldfields ,and other minig companies , etc doing responsible mining in the forests .
He warned that the Forestry Commission is against all forms of small scale mining in the forest areas of the country and would not sit idle to let this canker fester and blow .
He bemoaned the widespread of mining trenches that are prevalent in some parts of Ashanti and the two Western Regions in the country serving as death trap to their guards. He specifically mentioned the Bekwai ,Sefwi Wiaso and Tarkwa areas that have this illegal mining menace . The depth of the trenches according to him is as deep as 300 metres left uncovered. This practice of ; illegal lumbering , agricultural shifting cultivation , bush fires, springing up of new towns and villages as well as road ,dam and bridge construction has drastically reduced the forest to about 40 % of its initial cover.
The commission according to him is training forest guards to contain these illegal miners who wield AK47 that travel over 3 kilometres as against the guards who use pump action guns that travel about 300-400 metres. In this regard about 900 hundred Forestry Guards are being trained at Asutsuare in the Eastern Region by the GAF to counter these illegal miners and loggers who operate mostly in the night .
He outlined some measures put in place to resuscitate the degraded forest. He mentioned that Ghana has about 6.4 hectres of forest as against 4.3 in 2019. To this end his outfit is doing everything to check the illegal practices and all man made challenges to grow the through other various interventions.
