We’ll Go After Cartels Mining In Our Forest Reserves – Lands Minister Assures

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has said that the government will clamp down on all cartels mining in forest reserves.

According to the Damongo legislator, President Akufo-Addo’s government is determined to protect the country’s forest reserves for current and future generations.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Mr Jinapor said: “It is a historical challenge and will require a concerted and determined effort to clamp deforestation and the degradation of our nation’s forests, and we will continue to do just that”.

“At the heart of these various illegal enterprises, as you know, is money, and once money is involved, you can be rest assured that the cartels operating in our forest reserves will find every means of outwitting our efforts but let me assure you that the government of President Akufo-Addo remains absolutely determined to protect for current and future generations,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, lamented about the slow pace of criminal trials and the grant of bail to illegal miners who return to sites to continue their galamsey activities.

In a press statement, Mr Dame indicated that a total of one hundred and nineteen (119) criminal cases involving the prosecution of about seven hundred and twenty-seventy (727) individuals for offences connected with illegal mining (galamsey) in the country have been pending at the High Court and some Circuit Courts around the country since January 2022.

Four regions – Eastern, Ashanti, Western and Greater-Accra Regions- are the main regions where the prosecution of persons engaged in illegal mining is conducted. The Upper East Region and the Northern Regions have a few as well.

Mr Dame added that the trials involve, in some cases, Ghanaians, Chinese, Nigerians, Nigerien, Burkinabe and other West African nationals.