Dr. Ken Ashigbey, the Convener for the Media Coalition against illegal mining, has passionately blamed the Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Mr. John Allotey, for the recent invasion of the Atewa forest reserve by illegal miners.
Mr. Ashigbey’s comment comes after some unknown persons on Monday January 30, invaded the Segyemase section of the Atewa Forest with excavators and other mining equipment despite the government’s ban on mining in forest reserves. Even though the Forestry Commission swiftly moved in to set ablaze the excavators and mining equipment, it was unable to make an arrest upon arrival.
Dr Ken Ashigbey , in an interview, attributed the invasion to the lack of supervision by the Forestry Commission.
”The leadership of the Forestry Commission should be held responsible. How did it happen that they did not see that the excavator was in there, and the commission want to pretend as if they have done something?
“They are hiding evidence in destroying the excavator. They know who took the equipment in there, and so we need to hold the Chief Executive of the Forestry, up to the Regional officer and then the district officer responsible. We cannot accept this level of incompetence and complicity in this particular fight.”
Dr Ken
The Convener to a greater extent questioned the effectiveness of the supposed tracking of excavators and the geo-blocking initiative launched by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources last year.
“We have been told by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources that they are going to be tracking these excavators; we have been told that they are going to geo-block them, so how come we did not see them?”
Dr. Ken
Meanwhile, the Forestry Commission made known after the incident that, it will take the necessary steps to reclaim the portion of the forest lost to the illegal mining activity while working with Operation Halt II to prevent the national menace.
Mining At Atewa
Atewa Range Forest Reserve is earmarked as one of the sources of the raw materials. Bauxite mining in the range presents a threat to its biodiversity, and endangers the rights of communities who depend on the forest for food, livelihoods and clean water.
The forest reserve is internationally recognized as one of the highest priority ecosystems in West Africa for its high species diversity, high levels of endemism and great hydrological importance. The forest was gazetted as a National Forest Reserve in 1926, then subsequently a Special Biological Protection Area in 1994, a Hill Sanctuary in 1995 and as one of Ghana’s 30 Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs) in 1999. It is also recognised as an Important Bird Area.
Extracting bauxite in Atewa would require ‘strip mining’ where the whole surface layer of soil is removed. This would mean a total loss of the forest in the mined areas, along with all the biodiversity including habitats for Endangered and endemic species. Bauxite mining poses a great danger for polluting the water sources that so many communities and downstream users depend on.
There has been a very strong community-led resistance to the mining of Atewa within the country, mainly by A Rocha Ghana. The combined efforts of these community activists to raise awareness of the impacts of bauxite mining and protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services of Atewa can only be praised and admired. It is hoped their successes inspire other communities and community-led organisations in their challenges to protect their environments against similar detrimental and long-lasting developments.
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