An environmental Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Friends of Rivers and Water Bodies, has launched a campaign demanding an immediate and comprehensive review of Ghana’s mineral licensing regime.
They frame the issue as a critical battle for the nation’s food security and the survival of its agricultural communities.
In an interview with The Chronicle, the NGO’s President, Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, delivered a scathing critique of the current system, accusing it of systematically privileging mining interests at the catastrophic expense of farmers’ livelihoods.
“We should examine best practices in other countries and learn from them,” Nana Sarpong stated, suggesting that Ghana’s policies are dangerously out of step with international norms that often afford greater protection to agricultural lands.
Cocoa
The group’s outrage is particularly focused on the destruction of cocoa farms, a sector central to Ghana’s economy and global export identity.
Nana Sarpong, who is also a cocoa farmer, painted a bleak picture of the human cost.
“The current trajectory has turned many farmers, especially those in cocoa production, into miserable individuals. They are always the ones who suffer as miners destroy their livelihoods.”
He questioned the fundamental logic of granting mineral rights on actively cultivated land, asking rhetorically, “If someone has cultivated a cocoa farm, why should the Minerals Commission grant mineral rights to mine on that land? In other countries, this cannot happen.”
His criticism extended to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). “They should show interest in helping to save the cocoa industry,” he urged, highlighting their perceived silence amid the widespread encroachment of mining on cocoa-growing regions.
The NGO argues that the damage inflicted goes far beyond the loss of a single season’s crop.
He detailed a cycle of failure in the mining process itself, where inadequate environmental reclamation and chemical contamination permanently sterilise fertile soil.
“Reclamation is not being done. The money given to farmers is insufficient to recover the mined-out land,” he explained, noting that this renders vast tracts of land useless for future agriculture.
Compensation
As a critical corrective measure, Friends of Rivers and Water Bodies is demanding a radical overhaul of compensation schemes. Nana Sarpong asserted that any compensation for the takeover of cocoa farms must be “sufficient to support the farmers and their families” in the long term, moving beyond one-time payments that fail to account for the permanent loss of income-generating land.
Linking the plight of farmers to a broader national concern, Nana Sarpong issued a stark reminder of their foundational role: “These are the people who feed the nation, so we should reconsider granting mining rights for cocoa farms.”
He ventured further, controversially suggesting that the willingness to sacrifice long-term agricultural productivity for short-term mineral gain reflects a deeper societal malaise.
He connected this exploitation to a recent, contentious global ranking that placed Ghana 8th among countries with the lowest average IQ, implying that poor policy choices that harm the nation’s future are part of a troubling pattern.
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The post Friends Of Rivers: Ghana’s Mining Licenses Regime Must Be Reviewed! appeared first on The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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