Securing Food and Ecosystem Services in Mining Plagued Regions of Ghana
Illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) imperils food security and biodiversity in Ghanaian mining communities. It deprives local communities of livelihood assets (fertile land, water, non-timber forest products) and other ecosystem services. Nonetheless, because of its positive economic contributions notably rural employment and export revenues, artisanal and small-scale mining will continue to be a driver of landscape change in Ghana.
The way forward? A sustainable solution to the adverse effects of illegal artisanal and small-scale mining on the environment may lie in an integrated approach, which enables the coexistence of mining and other land uses based on proper planning and implementation of mining activities to ensure that, the environmental and social costs of mining do not outrun its benefits. This project will among other things ensure a diversified and harmonized land-use in mining communities in Ghana, improve national policy for integrated land-use in mining areas, help local communities to rehabilitate mined-out lands and integrate farming, settlements, buffer zones and mining into agricultural landscapes.
With funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation - Norad, project activities will be implemented in Amansie West district and Asante Akim Central Municipal in the Ashanti region of Ghana. These areas are characterized by multiple stakeholders with acute conflicting land-use objectives e.g. legal and illegal small-scale miners, export and food crop farmers, natural resource regulating agencies of the state, and environmental NGOs. The target groups of the project are Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry, Environmental Protection Agency, Minerals Commission, Forestry Commission, Water Resources Commission, administrative district and municipal assemblies, legal small-scale miners and their associations, illegal small-scale miners and their financiers, farmers, traditional authorities, small and medium-sized forest enterprises, and civil society actors.
The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
Duration
2018 - 2022
Objective
Diversified and harmonized land-use in mining communities in Ghana, improve national policy for integrated land-use in mining areas, help local communities to rehabilitate mined-out lands, and integrate farming, settlements, buffer zones, and mining into agricultural landscapes.