Kwadwo Kyei Yamoah
Executive Context : Rationale for Parliamentary Revocation of LI 2462: Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022
Legislative Instrument (LI) 2462 authorizes regulated mining within Ghana’s forest reserves subject to permitting and ministerial approvals. Forest reserves currently constitute approximately 1.2 million hectares of protected national natural capital, including critical watersheds and biodiversity refugia. Extensive analysis indicates that permitting mining within these reserves poses significant quantified risks to hydrological systems, biodiversity integrity, public health, and intergenerational economic security. The scale and irreversibility of these risks materially outweigh expected near-term mineral revenues.
Revocation of LI 2462 therefore aligns with constitutional duties to protect the environment (Article 36(9)), fulfil national climate and biodiversity commitments, and protect current and future generations from adverse environmental and economic harms.
Revoking LI 2462 is important in order to protect Ghana’s forest reserves, uphold strong forest governance, ensure sustainable socio-economic outcomes, comply with national & international commitments, and prevent further environmental degradation.
The risks of not revoking include loss of biodiversity, impaired ecosystem services (water, climate regulation), undermining of laws/policies, and potential harm to communities and future generations.
LI 2462 continues to allow mining activity within gazetted forest reserves, and up to about 1.2 million hectares of Ghana’s reserved forest estate is legally exposed to mining operations; this exposure carries measurable, near-term and long-term risks including (a) freshwaters frequently exceeding drinking-water safety limits for mercury and other heavy metals (documented concentrations up to 6.6 µg/L Hg at sampled river points, vs WHO drinking-water guideline 1.0 µg/L), (b) accelerated forest loss beyond recent background rates (Ghana lost about 77.4 kha natural forest in 2024 alone), and (c) large economic and welfare losses to communities and the State (informal mining already reduces state revenue by an estimated about US$2 billion/year while forest-dependent economic flows, e.g., bushmeat, water-related ecosystem services are valued in the hundreds of millions USD). These combined impacts represent acute public-health, ecological and fiscal risks that are likely to be concentrated in high-forest, high-biodiversity landscapes such as Atewa, the Offin, Pra and other basins.
Strategic and Legal Imperatives for Revocation
Constitutional and Policy Alignment
· Policy Coherence : LI 2462 conflicts with the National Land Policy, National Forest and Wildlife Policy, and Ghana’s climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Forest reserves serve as carbon sinks, watershed protectors, and biodiversity sanctuaries. Allowing mining distorts existing conservation frameworks and undermines long-term sustainable development strategies.
· Public Trust Doctrine and Sustainable Development Mandate: The Constitution obliges the State to safeguard natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations. Permitting extractive activity in forest reserves jeopardizes this duty by enabling irreversible ecosystem degradation.
Governance and Institutional Coherence
· Discretionary Authority Risk : LI 2462 expands ministerial and executive discretion over mining approvals, creating governance vulnerabilities in a sector already challenged by regulatory leakage and illegal operations proliferation.
· Precedent Setting : Legalising mining access to protected forest reserves risks normalising resource extraction in ecologically critical zones and will intensify pressures on other conservation estates.
Quantified Environmental and Public Health Risks
Water Resource Threats
Forest reserves protect headwaters for major basins, including the Pra, Offin, Oda, and Birim. Mining in these zones introduces elevated risks of heavy metal contamination, sediment loading, and altered hydrology.
· Mercury Concentrations : Independent analyses in mining corridors record surface water mercury levels ranging approximately 0.30 to 6.60 µg/L. The World Health Organization guideline for drinking water is 1.0 µg/L. Exceedances are associated with impaired neurodevelopment in children and neurological damage in adults.
· Population Exposure : Conservative modelling suggests that even if five to ten percent of reserve land experiences mining expansion, tens of thousands of downstream residents may lose access to safe surface water supplies, with potential for hundreds of thousands in high-impact scenarios.
· Agricultural Impacts : Irrigation-quality decline and soil contamination reduce food security, crop yields, and market value of agricultural produce.
Biodiversity Loss and Ecological Collapse Risk
Ghana’s remaining high-forest ecosystems harbour a disproportionate share of endemic and threatened species.
· Forest Loss Baseline : Ghana recorded approximately 77,400 hectares of natural forest loss in 2024 alone.
· Reserve Sensitivity : Reserves like Atewa host approximately twenty percent of known nationally threatened species. Mining-induced habitat loss of even ten percent of a reserve can elevate local extinction probability for forest-dependent species to above fifty percent within decades, based on global tropical forest fragmentation evidence.
· Ecosystem Services : Pollination, soil stabilization, flood control, and climate regulation services provided by reserves hold substantial economic value that mining cannot replace.
Socio-Economic Risks and Development Consequences
Economic Losses
· National Revenue Erosion : Ghana already loses an estimated USD 2 billion annually through unregulated gold flows and tax leakage. Allowing mining in reserves risks increasing informal extraction, complicating formal sector enforcement, and depressing overall state revenue capture.
· Local Income Impacts : Household income reductions of twenty to sixty percent have been documented in communities displaced or disrupted by mining expansion, with particular harm to rural agricultural and artisanal households.
Loss of Natural Capita land Livelihood Systems
· Forest-Dependent Economies : The bushmeat economy alone has been valued at approximately USD 350 million annually. Additional non-timber forest products, water services, ecotourism opportunities, and cultural resources represent significant tangible and intangible national wealth.
· Public Health Burden : Neurological and developmental impacts from mercury exposure impose long-term productivity losses and healthcare costs that are seldom internalized in mining revenue projections.
Risk of Enforcement Failure .
Historical evidence demonstrates persistent enforcement capacity challenges in regulating mining in sensitive landscapes. Introducing a legal pathway for mining inside reserves, despite strong theoretical safeguards, creates an enforcement burden that empirical experience shows cannot be reliably met at scale. Forest reserves currently serve as the last line of defence against illegal mining encroachment. Weakening this barrier increases the probability of uncontrolled degradation.
Strategic recommendation
Mining within forest reserves carries profound ecological, social, and economic risks that far exceed potential short-term fiscal benefits. Ghana’s remaining high-forest ecosystems represent strategic national capital essential for water security, climate resilience, food systems stability, and long-term development.
Parliament should revoke LI 2462 in full to safeguard national ecological assets, maintain policy coherence, and uphold constitutional and intergenerational equity duties. Revocation will:
Prevent irreversible ecosystem loss and water contamination.
Support national climate and biodiversity objectives.
Preserve long-term economic stability and community livelihoods.
Strengthen State capacity to combat illegal mining and environmental criminality.
Protect Ghana’s international reputation as a leader in responsible natural resource governance.
Parliamentary revocation of LI 2462 is essential to protect these irreplaceable resources, uphold constitutional stewardship obligations, and secure sustainable prosperity for present and future generations.
By: Kwadwo Kyei Yamoah, (Kkyeiyams@gmail.com, 0244817020 )
in partnership with HELP Foundation Africa Policy and Research Support Desk
Website: www.helpfoundationafrica.org
Org. Email: helpfoundationafrica.gh@gmail.com
