The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has announced an ambitious target to reclaim 150 hectares of degraded forest reserves and heavily polluted mining sites across the country by the end of 2027, as part of broader efforts to mitigate the environmental fallout of illegal small-scale mining.
The targeted reclamation initiative forms a core component of GoldBod’s newly established sustainable mining framework, which seeks to integrate ecological restoration into the gold supply chain. Officials disclosed that the project will focus heavily on heavily impacted river basins and denuded forest zones within mining-endowed regions, where unchecked alluvial extraction has decimated water bodies and vegetation cover. The board intends to leverage funding mechanisms generated from responsible gold trading levies and collaborative partnerships with international environmental agencies to finance the massive earth-moving, soil-conditioning, and re-forestation exercises.
Environmental experts and civil society groups have welcomed the initiative while emphasizing the urgent need for strict enforcement to prevent re-entry into reclaimed lands by illegal miners. GoldBod leadership reiterated that long-term ecological recovery requires continuous surveillance, alternative livelihood programs for mining communities, and uncompromising regulatory accountability across the entire small-scale mining sector.
Source: joyfmonline.com
