GLF participants call on Gov’t to exclude Atewa from bauxite mining

The 2019 participants of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) have called on government to exclude the Atewa forest from mining.

Government has signed a contract with China to mine Ghana’s bauxite.

Under the pact, Ghana will relinquish 5% of its bauxite deposit to China in exchange for a $2 billion facility to finance infrastructural projects such as roads.

But government’s decision to allow bauxite mining in the Atewa forest has been met with stiff opposition from Non-governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations as well as some citizens.

One NGO that has been vocal with its campaign against the bauxite mining in the reserve is A Rocha Ghana. The group wants government to convert the landscape into a national park instead of its intention to mine.

Other organizations like the Christian Council of Ghana and the US Forest Service have all urged government to be circumspect about the deal as it could affect the source of water for some five million people.

The latest to join calls for government to abandon that project is participants of the just ended Global Landscapes Forum in Accra.

The two-day forum brought together environmentalists, farmers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, local and international leaders, among others to discuss issues of land restoration in Africa.

Topical among these issues was the decision to mine bauxite in the Evergreen Atewa forest.

According to the participants, government should not be blinded by the financial gains in the contract but also be mindful of the impact of bauxite mining on the country’s largest forest reserve.

They urged government to be cautious of some of its investments so as to not jeopardize the ecosystem, claims government has repeatedly debunked that mining in the forest will not destroy the ecosystem.

The team also used the opportunity to call on all traditional leaders and citizens to join in the fight against government’s decision to engage in bauxite mining in Atewa.

Government says it will adopt modern technology that will not destroy the environment and the lives that depend on the resources within the forest reserve.