President John Dramani Mahama says Ghana is making progress in the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, as the government intensifies efforts to reclaim forest reserves and other environmentally sensitive areas affected by the practice.
The President made the remarks during his Resetting Ghana Tour of the Upper East Region, where he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to protecting the country’s forests, water bodies and other natural resources from illegal mining.
“NAIMOS is working very hard. We have seized excavators, we have seized Changfang machines, and we have driven illegal miners out of this area, and we are making progress. Out of the almost 49 forest reserves that were invaded, we have been able to clear as many of them as possible of illegal miners,” he said.
According to President Mahama, the government’s renewed campaign is beginning to yield results, particularly in forest reserves that had been heavily encroached upon. The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has played a key role through the seizure of excavators and Changfang machines and the removal of illegal miners from several forest reserves.
The President said the government had also changed its approach to protecting cleared forest reserves from re-invasion.
“What we initially did was that we handed the places to the Forestry Commission after clearing them, but the illegal miners don’t fear the forest guards, and so we now put a military detachment after we clear a forest reserve,” he said.
He acknowledged that the new approach would come at an additional cost.
“That means we will have to spend more money to feed the soldiers and provide logistics for them to continue to stay in the forest, but we will not give up the fight,” he said.
President Mahama acknowledged the additional resources required to sustain security deployments in reclaimed forest reserves but stressed that the government remained committed to preventing illegal miners from returning to the cleared areas.
Ghana|Atinkaonline.com|Nana Achiaa Aboagye