The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has announced the roll-out of a multi-pronged measure to deal with illegal mining (galamsey) activities in the country. 

Apart from strengthening intelligence-led swoops that had been deployed over the years to tackle the menace, the minister said there would also be a comprehensive and coordinated intervention involving chiefs, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), security agencies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to help deal with the root cause of the illegal practice.

While counting on the support of external stakeholders in the fight, he also called on officers of agencies under the ministry to be more committed to playing their respective roles to help stem the tide.

"Our collective objective must be to take urgent steps to halt illegal mining activities, restore our forest reserves and create a mining path that will not destroy our water bodies,” Mr Buah added.

The minister, who made the announcement during his first meeting with management of the ministry in Accra yesterday, described galamsey as an existential threat which needed the total commitment of all duty-bearers and citizens to address.

He further said that innovative interventions would be implemented to monitor the activities of illegal miners, especially in forest reserves and water bodies while also introducing more programmes to restore degraded lands.

The minister said he was aware of the mandate given him by President John Mahama in line with the reset agenda of the government, adding that he would not renege on his responsibilities as far as the protection of the country’s natural resources was concerned.

"We have the mandate of the people to reset the country, and for us at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, our focus is to reform the forestry, mining and land sectors, and make sure that we have a pathway to legal mining," he said.

The minister, therefore, urged staff of the ministry to roll up their sleeves to bring an end to the destruction of lands, water bodies and forest reserves in the country.

Reforms

Touching on the land sector, he said efforts would also be made to reform the Lands Commission to make services accessible to the people.

"The Forestry Commission should also focus on protecting our forest reserves and ensure that we heal our degraded forest resources," he added.

Mr Buah urged the officials to, therefore, gird their loins "because the work will not be in the office".

Again, he said in the coming days, he would be visiting traditional authorities to solicit their support to tackle environmental crimes.