Nkonkonsa Celebrity Gossip From Africa
The President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has revealed that his administration is making significant progress in the battle against illegal mining.
He stated that the government has reclaimed seven of the nine forest reserves that were seized by illegal miners to combat illegal mining and protect the environment.
The president stated that to demonstrate the government’s commitment to combating illegal mining, a legislative measure has been presented in Parliament that removes the president’s authority to permit mining access in forest reserves.
“We promised to ban illegal mining activities and ban mining in forest reserves and roll out our Tree for Life and Blue Water initiatives to heal and sustainably harness our environment.
In the first 120 days, we’ve taken decisive actions through a five-pronged strategy to overhaul and sanitize the mining sector. This includes regulatory reforms and strengthening law enforcement, including joint task forces, arrests and seizures of mining equipment, stakeholder collaborations, and reclamation of degraded lands. Seven out of nine forest reserves have been reclaimed.
Illegal miners have been flushed from these forest reserves. Concerning the ban on mining in forest reserves, on March 20, a legislative instrument, LI2462 was presented to parliament to amend the environmental protection mining in forest reserves regulation. This amendment removes the president’s power to grant approval for mining in forest reserves.
I plan also to Amend the minerals and mining act 2003 Act 703 to prohibit mining in forest reserves. This will effectively ban mining in our forest reserves,” he explained while addressing the people of Ghana.
