President John Dramani Mahama says Ghana is making progress in the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, as his government intensifies efforts to reclaim forest reserves and other environmentally sensitive areas affected by the activities.
According to President Mahama, the renewed campaign against illegal mining is beginning to yield results, particularly in forest reserves that have suffered extensive encroachment by illegal miners.
He said the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) had played a key role in the ongoing operations, including the seizure of excavators and changfang machines and the removal of illegal miners from several forest reserves.
The President made the remarks during his Resetting Ghana Tour of the Upper East Region, where he reaffirmed his government’s commitment to protecting Ghana’s forests, water bodies and other natural resources from the impact of illegal mining.
He said NAIMOS had intensified its operations and was making progress in reclaiming forest reserves that had been taken over by illegal miners.
“NAIMOS is working very hard. We have seized excavators, we have seized Changfang machines, and we have driven illegal miners out of this area, and we are making progress. Out of the almost 49 forest reserves that were invaded by illegal miners, we have been able to clear as many as possible of illegal miners,” he stated.
President Mahama explained that after the initial operations, the reclaimed areas were handed over to the Forestry Commission. However, illegal miners reportedly returned because forest guards alone were unable to deter them.
“What we initially did was that we handed the places to the Forestry Commission after clearing them, but the illegal miners don’t fear the forest guards, and so we now put a military detachment after we clear a forest reserve,” he said.
He said the deployment of the military came with additional costs, including feeding and providing logistics for personnel stationed in the forest reserves.
“That means we will have to spend more money to feed the soldiers and provide logistics for them to continue to stay in the forest, but we will not give up the fight,” he noted.
The President acknowledged the financial burden associated with maintaining security deployments in reclaimed forest reserves but stressed that the government would not allow illegal miners to return to areas that had been cleared.
Illegal mining remains one of Ghana’s major environmental challenges, with concerns persisting over the destruction of forests, pollution of water bodies and the difficulty of preventing miners from returning to previously cleared areas.
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