Over 60 CSOs petition China Dev’t Bank against bauxite mining in Atewa Forest

It has emerged that a group of both local and international Civil Society Organisations and non-government organisations committed to environmental sustainability, have written to the China Development Bank appealing to it reconsider its role in the exploration of bauxite in Ghana that may lead to an invasion and subsequent destruction of the Atewa Forest in the Eastern Region.

In the letter signed by the Sixty-Five (65) organisations, which is yet to be replied after nearly nine months, the group urged the bank not “to fund any bauxite mining within the fully protected Atewa Forest.”

At the time the letter was written in December 2017, indications to the group were that the bauxite development in Ghana was to be funded by the China Development Bank at $10 billion.

The groups also presented a Chinese language copy of the letter.

Since then, it has been confirmed that China’s Sinohydro Group Limited, is expected to provide $2 billion of infrastructure; including roads, bridges, interchanges, hospitals, housing, rural electrification, in exchange for Ghana’s refined bauxite.”

The Finance Minister has said the $2 billion of infrastructure to be provided by Sinohydro will not add to the debt stock and will involve a moratorium period of three years to give Ghana the time to establish an aluminum refinery.

After the moratorium period, Ghana will fulfill its part of the barter agreement over another 12-year period.

But of concern to the groups is the fact that the China Development Bank is regulated by the China Banking Regulatory Commission “and its mandatory ‘Green Credit Directive’.”

“This obligates all China’s banks to: ensure the projects they finance abide by applicable laws and regulations on environmental protection, land, health and safety of the country or jurisdiction where the project is located; be consistent with international best practices and standards; “undergo environmental and social risk assessments at all stages; and for credit to be suspended or terminated where major risks or hazards are identified,” the letter explained.

The letter also notes that “the Bank’s Board of Directors is also obliged to promote environmental protection and sustainable development in the projects it chooses to fund.”

The group believes that the Global Biodiversity Hotspots of Kibi and Nyinahin bauxite deposits for mining under the Atewa and Tano Offin forest reserve will be affected.

“The Atewa Forest, one of Ghana’s last remaining intact forests, is an area of unique and very complex ecosystems with rich combinations of species found nowhere else on Earth… The Tano Offin Forest Reserve, Ghana’s fourth largest Globally Significant Biodiversity Area, contains similarly important biodiversity and species richness.”

In view of this, the groups feels China Development Bank may be moved to adhere to the Green Credit Directive.

It also argued that Mining in Ghana’s Forest reserves is illegal

“Mining in Ghana’s Forest reserves is illegal, but companies are mining there because a verbal directive from the Ghana government in 1996 allowed mining in 2% of Ghana’s forest reserves. This 2% may have already been breached. As there is no legal instrument backing this, it is essentially illegal. In Protected Forest Reserves, which include the whole of the Atewa Forest and parts of the Tano Offin Forest, mining is illegal throughout 100%. Even now, 35% of the mining in the off-reserve areas of the Atewa Range is illegal.”

“Furthermore, Ghana’s Constitution stipulates compliance with international laws and treaty obligations such as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity ratified by Ghana in 1992. Mining bauxite within the Protected Forest Reserves of Atewa and Tano Offin would break not only Ghana’s laws but also the Constitution, UN conventions, and the obligations under the Green Credit Directive of the China Bank Regulatory Commission.”

The groups maintain that the “China Development Bank’s financing of bauxite mining in Ghana’s forest reserves to be deeply concerning” and that it is also “completely inconsistent with the Bank’s stated Green Growth core values.”

It thus pleaded with the bank “to urge the Governments of Ghana and the People’s Republic of China to completely eliminate Atewa from the bauxite mining agreement.”

The letter was copied to China’s Ministers of Environment and Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Chairman of China’s Banking Regulatory Commission and other relevant stakeholders.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citinewsroom.com/Ghana

The post Over 60 CSOs petition China Dev’t Bank against bauxite mining in Atewa Forest appeared first on Citi Newsroom.

Read Full Story