Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), A Rocha Ghana has reaffirmed its assessment that more than 50 forest reserves across the country are under threat from illegal mining, despite official disputes that put the number lower.
The group maintains that its evaluation identified 57 locations affected by illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey.
Government representatives, including officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), have contested the figure, stating that 44 reserves are impacted.
Speaking on Starr FM’s Morning Show, Morning Star on Thursday, 10 September 2026, Deputy Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, described the disagreement over the precise number as secondary to the larger crisis.
“It’s not about the numbers. The issue is that are our forest reserves under encroachment? Is it significant? Yes. And this is where I think that we need to put all our effort and our energy to ensure that whatever we are doing as a state, we bring this down significantly,” Bosu said.
“We need to be truthful to the facts of the ground and put in all the effort that we can to address it,” he continued.
Bosu emphasised that isolated gains should not mask the scale of the problem.
“Yes, it’s a small battle won, but the war is bigger than all of us,” he said.
A Rocha Ghana, which focuses on scientific research, environmental education and community-based conservation, has however called for independent verification of the data.
The organisation said it welcomes scrutiny and is prepared to allow credible evidence to establish the actual number of reserves under threat urging the government to treat the galamsey crisis as ecocide.
Bosu noted that many affected forest reserves receive little public attention simply because monitoring efforts have not yet focused on them.
He highlighted severe resource constraints facing the Forestry Commission, which is mandated to protect the reserves, describing the current pressure from illegal miners as unprecedented.
According to him, the Atewa Forest now faces intensive encroachment along its boundaries. This is inspiteof the fact that mining activity was almost non-existent in 2023 and 2024.
This pressure, Bosu warned, risks causing greater damage than earlier proposals for bauxite mining that civil society successfully resisted.
The group recalled the repeal of Legislative Instrument 2462, which had been intended to exclude all forest reserves from mining interests—both legal and illegal—and to compel the state to take necessary protective measures.
A Rocha Ghana further stressed that stronger, better-resourced action is required to enforce that principle on the ground.
The organisation maintained that while the exact count of affected reserves may be debated, the evidence of ongoing destruction is clear and demands a united, transparent national response.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
