Dr. Kenneth Bansah, a mining engineer and environmental researcher, has raised alarm over reports that illegal small-scale miners, locally known as galamseyers, are returning to reclaimed lands to restart illegal mining operations.
Commenting on the persistent vulnerabilities within Ghana’s environmental management drive, the expert highlighted that current land restoration activities are failing to prevent illegal re-entry once reclamation teams vacate degraded mining concessions.
The resurgence of illegal operations at previously remediated sites exposes severe institutional gaps in site monitoring, community surveillance, and long-term security post-reclamation.
“We are hearing that galamsey miners are returning to reclaimed lands to restart mining. In October last year, I stated that reclamation of galamsey areas around the country appeared rushed and lacked careful planning. I indicated that miners could return to reclaimed sites and asked about plans to protect those areas from re-entry.”
Dr. Kenneth Bansah
This alarming trend underscores a broader systemic flaw in how national land restoration initiatives are designed and executed across mining districts.
Dr. Bansah cautioned that nationwide reclamation efforts appeared hasty and lacked the strategic planning necessary to ensure post-mining stability.
While state institutions, private entities, and community groups have rushed to backfill pits and plant vegetation, these interventions often proceed without standardized guidelines or risk assessment protocols.
Without continuous protection mechanisms and legally binding site-management plans, newly turned soil remains an easy target for illegal syndicates seeking residual gold deposits.
Absence of Standardized Planning in National Restoration Initiatives
The lack of coordinated technical direction across regional reclamation projects has created a fragmented environment where restoration quality varies wildly.
Dr. Bansah observed that “everyone seems to be reclaiming galamsey lands, but it is unclear whether these activities are even guided by reclamation plans.”
In many instances, backfilling is executed without proper soil compaction, hydrological assessments, or topsoil preservation, leaving degraded sites ecologically fragile and economically unviable for agriculture.
This ad-hoc approach not only wastes state and private resources but also leaves the physical landscape exposed to rapid re-excavation by returning miners.
Establishing a structured protocol is essential to transition land restoration from a temporary public relations effort into a permanent environmental recovery strategy.
A rigorous framework must establish baseline environmental criteria, compel operators to follow strict engineering standards, and mandate continuous post-reclamation monitoring.
“Galamsey-degraded lands need to be reclaimed, but such a large-scale activity needs a rigorous national framework,” Dr. Bansah emphasized, adding that “such a framework, when implemented effectively, will help sustain the reclamation effort.”
Integrating local traditional authorities, District Assemblies, and technology-driven security surveillance into this framework remains the only viable path to securing remediated lands.
Economic and Ecological Imperatives for a Unified Policy Framework
The urgent need for a comprehensive national framework stem from the compound ecological and socio-economic risks posed by unguided reclamation.
When illegal miners re-excavate remediated terrain, they churn up heavily toxic subsoil, often contaminated with historical mercury and cyanide residues, releasing pollutants back into local river basins and agricultural soils.
This repeated cycle of destruction destroys natural drainage channels, accelerates severe soil erosion, and permanently destroys the arable land capacity of rural host communities.
Furthermore, uncoordinated reclamation projects represent a failure of fiscal responsibility and resource management. Capital spent on earth-moving equipment and sapling planting is entirely wasted when sites are left unguarded against illegal re-occupation.
A unified policy blueprint would tie land restoration directly to sustainable alternative livelihoods such as commercial agroforestry, aquaculture, and renewable energy farms giving local communities a vested economic interest in defending reclaimed land against returning galamsey operators.
Without a legally enforceable blueprint that binds security enforcement to environmental engineering, Ghana risks sinking millions into a repetitive, ineffective cycle of land restoration and re-destruction.
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