District managers lament that political meddling is causing galamsey in forest reserves.

Despite the efforts of the Forestry Commission’s rapid response squad to eradicate the threat, illegal miners continue to encircle the nation’s forest reserves.

Politicians’ and traditional leaders’ meddling keeps illegal mining, often known as galamsey, afloat.

District managers of the Forestry Commission expressed concern that political officials and chiefs were using their power to liberate obstinate illegal miners, although their fast response teams were risking their lives to apprehend them in hazardous circumstances.

Under the condition of anonymity, they told the Daily Graphic that several illegal miners who were turned over to the police after being detained by the fast response teams were released from custody.

Galamsey forest reserves.
From February 6 to 9, the Daily Graphic team visited several forest reserves in the Ashanti and Western-North areas. While there, they saw firsthand how much illegal mining had affected the reserves.

The Afao Hills in the Bibiani Forest District in the Western-North Region, as well as Denyau and Supoma in the Bekwai Forest District in the Ashanti Region, were among the forest reserves that were visited.

Many gaping and exposed mining pits were seen scattered across the restricted forests, even though reclamation work was still going on at some of the sites in those forest reserves.

Issues

One of the Forestry Commission district managers, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “You arrest the people and there is political pressure mounting on you to release them; traditional authorities demand their release, and pressure mounts from all angles.”

He clarified that those interlopers typically called to inform them not to pursue the issue because they knew the individual to be a member of this or that political party.

The Forestry Commission officer went on, “If you are not so strong, you will give up in this kind of situation.”

The careless way in which the police and courts are handling the prosecution of those detained for illicit mining was expressed as concerning by a different district manager.

The officer remarked, “You can see that the police get disinterested in the cases they are handling, which is frustrating because it makes gathering evidence harder.”

The insider emphasized that the ongoing postponement of cases was concerning and detrimental to efforts to combat illicit mining.

“Trials never begin; cases never begin; they maintain that they must obtain a Chinese interpreter before the trial, which takes a great deal of time,” the statement read.

Threat from Galamsey

According to data from the Forestry Commission, 218 people who were engaged in galamsey in forest reserves were taken into custody.

Some of them have already been charged, but others are awaiting court trials.

Additionally, according to the numbers, 108 excavators, over 200 heavy-duty generators that powered operations at galamsey sites, as well as a few vehicles, were demobilized by forest guards.

Speaking about the arrests, Ernest Adofo, the manager of the Bekwai Forest District, stated that from January of last year until the present, the district’s fast reaction team had set fire to 76 excavators, 283 pumping machines, as well as a large number of motorbikes, cars, and engine blocks.

He claimed that although a large number of illicit miners had been detained at that time, the legal system had moved slowly.

“Since I became the district manager in August of last year, 15 people have been arrested, three of whom are Chinese. However, the court system is one of the biggest problems we have,” he stated.

To the best of his knowledge, Mr. Adofo stated, “Prosecution has not begun on the 15 cases.”

The matter is called and postponed when we appear in court, he continued.

Work ethic

The fast response team in the area apprehended around 20 persons in four forest reserves in January of this year, of whom seven were facing criminal charges, according to Kobinah Baiden, the manager of the Bibiani Forest District.

He urged the judges and the police to show their patriotism by making every effort to guarantee that anyone detained for engaging in illicit mining was prosecuted per the law.

“I will propose that the prosecution procedures for undocumented miners be expedited and strengthened.

Mr. Baiden emphasized that those who are arrested but released will not be able to understand how their actions affect the environment.

Context
392,714.81 hectares of the nation’s 288 forest reserves had been “significantly impacted” by illicit mining operations as of May of last year, according to the commission’s State of the Nation’s Forest report. Of those, 4,726.26 hectares in 34 of the reserves had been verified as destroyed.