...but industry watchers blame the law

The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) has been indicted for encouraging illegal mining in the country through the purchases of the booty of galamsey miners.

The practice is said to give an indirect national support to illegal mining which has been said time and again to be degrading lands and the country's national forest cover.

The accusers of the PMMC are the participants of the 2014 National Forest Forum held at the Institute of Local Government Studies, in Accra recently.

The 164 participants, in a communiqué issued at the Forum, said, “We are concerned about the destruction of forests including protected areas for both small-scale and large-scale mining. We are also concerned about the disregard for law, the culture of impunity and complicity of high profile persons in illegal mining activities.

“Furthermore we find the policy inconsistency and weak co-ordination between the mining and forests unacceptable. We also find the indirect national support to illegal mining through the purchases of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) rather disturbing."

To scale these challenges, the Forum participants recommend the passage of a mining policy that reflect national development objectives as well as expectations of mining communities.

They also call for a national debate on developing a type of Legality Assurance Scheme to guide the extraction, sale and export of only legally produced gold in Ghana.

However, industry watchers, including Dr Steve Manteaw of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) have absolved the PMMC from any blame and cite the law as the culprit.

According Dr Manteaw, the statute establishing PMMC precluded it from finding the source of the mineral for sale, whether legal or illegal.

The rationale, he said, was to prevent the situation where illegal gold miners will smuggle their gold out of the country for fear of prosecution.

The Minerals Commission, he said, has subsequently issued licenses to private companies to purchase illegal minerals, who in turn export them.

Participants find extremely worrying, the “long unaddressed social, environmental and security challenges posed by the free-range activities of nomadic herdsmen which negatively impact the livelihoods of communities.”

To this end, they called for a review of Ghana's approach to implementing the ECOWAS protocols on free movement; and urge MMDAs to be more proactive in developing guidelines to guide the activities of herdsmen.

John Agyei & Ezekiel Clottey in a paper, Operationalizing ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of People among the Member States: Issues of Convergence, Divergence and Prospects for Sub-Regional Integration, provides the rationale for the ECOWAS Treaty on free movement of persons and goods.

Article 27 of the ECOWAS treaty, Agyei and Clottey noted, affirmed the need for economic integration, which includes free flow of persons, goods and services by calling on the Member States to ensure graduation removal of all obstacles to free movement of persons, services and capital.

ECOWAS member states, they further noted, were as a matter of fact required to stop demanding visa and residence permits, and therefore allow West Africans to work and undertake commercial and industrial activities within their territories. The re-creation of borderless West Africa was in consonance with the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and UN human rights.

The National Forest Forum was full of praise for the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL) for its efforts at publishing on regular basis, reports on disbursement of royalties to traditional authorities, stools and district assemblies. Similarly, it praised the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in that endeavour.

They nonetheless have an issue with the distribution arrangement. “We are however concerned about the percentages in the disbursement arrangement which misleads the public on real revenues accruing to district assemblies and traditional institutions from royalties.

“We are also concerned about the misuse, misapplication and abuse of royalties from natural resource rents accrued to district assemblies and to traditional institutions which do not directly benefit forest fringe communities.”

Additionally, they demand that royalties to district assemblies be invested in well-labelled development projects in line with the priorities of communities whose forests generate the revenues. They also recommended the development of clear guidelines for the use of royalties by the districts, stools, skins and families who receive royalties.

Forum members also had concerns with land grabbing for large-scale plantations. “We have observed the social insecurities that have arisen from the creation of land banks, large-scale tree plantations and land-based commercial investments particularly in the Western, Central and Brong Ahafo regions.

“We reiterate the call for a land use plan to manage the competing land uses; and also, thorough consultations in line with the Free Prior and Informed Consent of the affected local people.”

The high rate of logging of rosewood and other species in Ghana's ecologically fragile zones is also of concerned to National Forest Forum as it threatens resource sustainability and the cohesion of communities in those areas.

To them, attempts by the Forestry Commission and the District Assemblies which seek to salvage some gains from this destruction are misplaced.

“The forum welcomes the ban on rosewood exploitation and export seeking to redress the widespread abuse. We recommend that the presidential ban be sustained until comprehensive measures are developed to address issues of the permit abuse; resource sustainability and benefit sharing arrangements which support communities in the resource areas.”

They call on the Forestry Commission, District Assemblies and civil society organisations to sensitise traditional authorities and citizens in areas endowed with rosewood to monitor, report and take action to protect their vulnerable environment.

The Forum participants pledge to collaborate with Government and its agencies to secure a more sustainable environment towards national development.

The Forum consists of stakeholders of Ghana's forest sector comprising representatives of civil society organisations, industry, traditional authorities, forest sector agencies, the media, and representatives of local communities from 43 administrative districts in nine out of Ghana's 10 regions.

The four-day programme was funded by the European Union (EU) through the Governance Initiative for Rights and Accountability in Forest Management (GIRAF II) and FERN's Implementing FLEGT: Promoting Good Governance in the Forest Sector Projects; UKaid through the Strengthening African Forest Governance (SAFG) project; and DANIDA through the Yen Sore programme.