Forestry Commission Outlines Measures In Fighting Galamsey in Reserves

The Forestry Commission has outlined an eight-point strategy it has mustered to fight illegal mining popularly known as galamsey in forest reserves across the country.

The Commission released this in response to the destruction caused to the Apamprama Forest Reserve in the Amansie Central and Amansie West districts in the Ashanti Region as portrayed in a documentary by JoyNews.

The reserve constituted in 1952 and covering approximately 35km2, according to the Commission has been subjected to illegal mining since 2013.

A statement from the Forestry Commission explained it was one of the three reserves in the country within which the it struggled to rid illegal mining due to the associated violence exhibited by the armed perpetrators.

However, it said, “With the support of military personnel from the Southern Command, illegal miners were flushed out from these three forest reserves between May and July 2023.

“During this period five excavators and 1 bulldozer equipment were seized, with one (1) excavator burnt in the Apamprama forest reserve. Additionally, an unspecified number of other mining equipment and wooden structures used by the illegal miners were also destroyed in these 3 forest reserves.”

The Commission also listed measures it has in place to deal with illegal mining including the training of 964 frontline field officers of the Commission by the military to boost law enforcement; the procurement of one thousand (1000) pump action guns to boost morale and capacity of frontline staff to protect forest reserves; the seizure and decommissioning of equipment used for illegal mining in forest reserves; and the arrest and prosecution of illegal miners, both Ghanaians and foreigners.

Also, are the intensification of surveillance, intelligence gathering, and monitoring of illegal mining activities in forest reserves to ensure early detection and arrest of perpetrators; the training of Forestry Commission staff to prosecute forest offences; stakeholder engagements and education on the adverse effects of illegal mining on the environment, to garner public support to fight this menace; and reclamation exercises to reclaim degraded reserves.