Africa Surveyors November-December 2022 digital issue

MINING
Natural resource
extraction in Ghana needs
tighter regulations,
finds
survey
By Kiran Pandey
Ghana’s natural resources need
to be better regulated to reduce
environmental damage, a recent
survey has found. Local communities are also
deprived of their fair share of benefits of
natural resource extraction.
Over 60 per cent of Ghanaians believe mining,
oil drilling and wood harvesting negatively
impact the environment, a survey released
November 8, 2022, by research network
Afrobarometer found.
The results were based on interviews by
non-profit research and advocacy institute
Ghana Center for Democratic Development
on behalf of Afrobarometer. The research
network provides data on African experiences
and evaluations of democracy, governance
and quality of life.
The government needs to tighten regulation
of natural resource extraction, over 85 per
Mining operations in Tarkwa, Ghana. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
cent of the survey participants said.
The Ghanaians were evenly split in their
views on whether locals get a fair share of
benefits of natural resource extraction near
their communities. Half the participants said
local communities are also deprived of their
fair share of benefits of natural resource
extraction.
Natural resources such as gold and oil,
among others, have helped transform Ghana’s
economic growth, according to World Bank.
But despite this, citizen’s participation in
extraction governance is limited, showed the
survey by Afrobarometer.
About 40 per cent of participants felt that
the benefits natural resource extraction
outweighed the negative impacts.
New research published in the
journal Resources Policy, titled “Artisanal and
small-scale mining formalization challenges
in Ghana: explaining grassroots perspectives,”
supported the Afrobarometer survey findings.
About 85 per cent of artisanal and small-scale
mining operators or the poor communities
engaged in artisanal gold mining have no say
in decision making, according to the research.
These poor people are termed “galamseyers”
and are considered a “menace” to society by
the government and often excluded from the
decision-making process.
Ghana is a signatory to the international
protocol on Free, Prior and Informed Consent
of Indigenous Peoples. The local people need
to agree to any extraction in their jurisdiction,
as per the protocol.
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