Asantehene’s Flawless Solution to Illegal Mining in Forest Reserves

The King of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has proffered a flawless solution to eradicate illegal mining in forest reserves and in water bodies.

During a courtesy call by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, on Friday, the King suggested that the government first grant a moratorium and amnesty to all galamsey kingpins.

This window, he said, should be used to document them, train them and assign concessions away from water bodies for them to work on.

In addition, Otumfuo said they must be engaged in a contract with the government to sell their extracts to the state.

“If we don’t take an approach like this, it will be difficult to deal with the menace…What we normally see is the arrest of young men undertaking the mining while the superpowers who are responsible for the funding are not sought. This approach is ineffective. Let us institute amnesty and moratorium and engage the powers behind the galamsey, train them in responsible mining and reassign them a concession.”

This, His Majesty foresees, will deal with unemployment among the youth engaged in the illegal act.

The new Minister was at the Palace on February 14, 2025, to seek guidance on the fight against galamsey which is destroying the country’s forest reserves and water bodies.

In his address, he disclosed that of the 288 forest reserves of the country, 44 are under complete attack.

Of that number, nine are operated by ‘untouchable’ thugs, according to a report he cited.

The Ellembelle Constituency Parliamentary representative said three of the nine are located in the Ashanti Region.

“These thugs are unstoppable. No one is able to restrain them and they are wreaking havoc on our forests.”

The issue of illegal mining in Forest reserves is one of the three major challenges confronting the country’s natural resources which he seeks to put an end to.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini