Accra, Dec. 15, GNA – Mr Mike Hammah, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, on Thursday said the Ministry was pursuing land administration reforms under the Land Administration Project.

He explained that it was aimed at stimulating economic development, reduce poverty, and promote social stability by improving security of land tenure and to simplify the process in land acquisition.
Mr Hammah said these in Accra when he took his turn at the meet-the-press series to highlight policies and the current state of implementation of programmes and projects being pursued by the Ministry.

He noted that previous policy of the acquisition of lands without compensation left landowners almost landless and poor and also led to increase in disputes between the State and customary and private landholders.
“To reverse this situation, the Ministry, during the year, returned 60 per cent of lands acquired in 1942 for the Nungua Land Farms covering 976.45 acres to the Nungua Stool. Fifty per cent of the lands acquired for the Madina Social Welfare, Accra Training College and West Africa Secondary School have been returned to the original owners and all the necessary documentation for the return have been completed,” Mr Hammah said.
He announced that the Ministry has paid GH?11,056,363 as compensation to land owners in respect of the Volta Dam project at Dedeso Wireko No.1 Resettlement Site and Volta River Flooded Area for Pai, Krachi, Apaaso, Ahamandi and Makango.
Mr Hammah said despite the positive reforms unfolding in the land administration, the sub-sector continued to face major challenges on service delivery which had impacted adversely on the public image of land sector agencies.
The Sector Minister said a Complaints Unit was inaugurated for the Ministry to stimulate and effectively monitor performance of the sub-sector.
He announced that the second phase of the Five-Year Land Administration Project (LAP-2) was inaugurated last September to address the major outstanding issues of LAP-1 and consolidate and strengthen land administration and management systems for efficient and transparent land service delivery.
On the forestry sub-sector, Mr Hammah said the Ministry through the Forestry Commission (FC) continued to secure the boundaries of Ghana’s forest reserves to maintain their integrity to achieve the objectives for which they were established.
He said to prevent encroachment and maintain the integrity of those forests, the FC in 2010 cleaned 25,000 kilometres of forest reserve boundaries and 4,256 kilometres of forest boundaries through community contracts.
“As at the end of the second quarter of 2011, the total boundary cleaned was 9,823 kilometres while those cleaned through community contracts was 1,580 kilometres. In addition, a total of 2,681.76 kilometres of green fire belts was cleaned and maintained.
“The boundaries of 30 Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas continued to be cleaned and maintained,” he added.
Mr Hammah pledged the Ministry’s commitment to ensure effective and efficient land and natural resources management for accelerated wealth creation and reduction in land disputes.