Danger Looms As Ghana Losing Out On Forest Cover-Mining in reserves, a contributing factor
Environmentalist organisations in the country have called on the government to institute pragmatic action against the increasing losses of forest cover and biodiversity, and warned of the socio-economic consequences for the country's development.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
Environmentalist organizations in the country have called on the government to institute pragmatic action against the increasing losses of forest cover and biodiversity and warned of the socio-economic consequences for the country's development.
Biodiversity, as defined by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, includes a diversity of ecosystems, species, and genes, and the ecological processes that support them.
According to the organizations, the natural systems that support the economy, lives, and livelihoods, are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there are drastic actions to conserve them from extinction.
The group which includes the Wacam, Centre For Environmental Impact Analysis (CEIA), and Center For Public Interest Law (CEPIL), made the foregoing call to mark this year's World Environment Day. This year's World Environment Day (WED) is being celebrated under the theme, ‘Only One Earth."
The theme is more appropriate given the fact that man-made activities have destroyed the very ecosystem and its services that provide the foundation for human survival. It also re-echoes the fact that we have only one earth without any substitute.
In Ghana, for example, the decline of biological resources has been evident at the turn of the century. It has been estimated that the total forest cover of Ghana has reduced from 88,000 km2 in 1938 to between 15,800 km2 and 17,200 km2 at present.
A study by the World Bank (2002) has revealed that Populations of wildlife species within the savannah have dwindled as a result of increased human activities such as inappropriate farming practices, road construction, bush burning, and deforestation.
The reduction in forest cover has resulted in habitat loss which is important for the maintenance and protection of biological diversity.
In this regard, the Wacam, CEPIL, and CEIA used the occasion of the World Environment Day celebration to bring out some of the challenges facing our planet earth in terms of proper management, control of deforestation
and degradation.
According to Wacam, CEPIL and CEIA, they are unhappy that the government is engaging in policy contradictions that violate national laws, visions, and regulations, and demand that government should as a matter of urgency revoke the mining rights granted to all mining companies in the country that are mining in forest reserves of Ghana and to take a policy decision not to permit mining in forest reserves.
While commending the government for ratifying the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and other policy interventions to protect biodiversity, the group noted with concern that despite these laudable efforts put in place by the government, it engaged in policy contradiction when it granted mining leases to multinational mining companies to undertake surface mining operations in forest reserves that are rich in biodiversity.
The organizations cited an example for which the government has granted mining rights to Newmont Ghana Gold Limited and SAVACEM respectively to mine gold in the Adjenua Bepo Forest Reserve and Limestone in the Yokumbra Forest Reserve near Buipe.
They noted that even though the Ajenjua Bepo Forest reserve contains 10 species new to science, and 29 species of conservation concern, the government had granted a mining lease for the Newmont Akyem Project to undertake surface mining operations in this forest reserve with rich biodiversity.
'We are unhappy that the government is violating national laws and international conventions that it had signed relating to biodiversity conservation, and demand that government should, as a matter of urgency, revoke the mining rights granted to all mining companies in the country to mine in forest reserves,' the group noted.
Additionally, the organizations called on the government to halt attempts to de gazette portions of Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBA) in the Western Region, in particular, and other areas of the country for logging.
