Forum on galamsey touching on issues already known – A Rocha Ghana

The ongoing two-day consultative forum being organized by the Government of Ghana on illegal small scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana, is raising issues that are already known by all stakeholders, Forest and Climate Change Manager at A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, has said.

He explained on the New Day show on TV3 with Johnnie Hughes Thursday, April 15 that the problems in the sector have to do with permitting and licensing, compliance and enforcement of the laws in the sector as well as environmental issues.

What is needed at the moment, he said, is the will by authorities to deal with these issues that have been on the table for a very long time.

The forum being held at the Accra international conference centre will end today Thursday, April 15.

Mr Bosu said “Yes, this dialogue is long overdue. I think that we have been speaking to these galamsey issues and we have been having dialogues for a very long time. Maybe we will give the government the benefit of the doubt because you start a whole project management cycle, you go through everything but it doesn’t work so you want to start all over again."

“The good thing about this process is that we know the issues. It is just a matter of making sure the issues that have been identified in the last four years we actually flag them, put them on the table and ask them how do we address these challenges that have made us not to make progress."

“That is what I am expecting this dialogue to give us. So far, from yesterday to today, I see we still share a lot of information, information that we already know.

“We need to zoom in, there are challenges with the legal framework, the compliance and enforcement. How do we deal with those challenges."

“There are issues with environment safeguards, how do we address those. There are issues with permitting and licensing what are the solutions. These solutions should then be vetted by the composition you see on the table now.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said at the forum that he will not act on hearsay in his quest to end the galamsey practice in Ghana.

He said this while delivering a speech at the National Dialogue on Small Scale Mining Wednesday, April 14.

“I am determined to enforce the laws on illegal mining no matter the subject, high or low. I will, however, not act on hearsay or mere allegations without more. I will not hesitate to act though where the evidence is hard before the police."

“And I will do so irrespective of the standing of the person or persons involved. That is the true meaning of equality before the law,” he stressed.

“There are aspects of our national life which are of first subject matters of partisan politics. We must however come to the understanding that small scale mining with the requirement to do away with the illegalities in that sector should be beyond partisan politics.

“Some subjects simply cannot be part of our everyday politicking and I use this forum to insist that illegal small-scale mining and matters relating to it should be one of such issues requiring national efforts,” he said.