Atewa Forest: Ministry awards prospecting permit to bauxite mining company regardless of pending suit
There is uplifted public worry about the destiny of one of the greatest need biological systems in West Africa, following a choice by Ghana's Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
While a body of evidence against the public authority of Ghana is set to move to preliminary, the public authority of Ghana, through the service, has conceded a permit to Vimetco Ghana Bauxite Ltd to lead prospecting in the Atewa Forest.
The permit distributed on the site of the Minerals Commission is set to terminate in February 2025.
The choice by the public authority to mine bauxite in the woodland save has been met with resistance from a few natural gatherings who are worried about the wellbeing of the basic watershed and biodiversity center point.
Comprised of seven Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and four confidential residents, they have together sued the public authority over the mineral investigation plans for the Atewa Forest Reserve.
In spite of the forthcoming suit, the public authority is said to have given the mining firm the approval to lead prospecting in the Atewa Forest Reserve for conceivable mining of bauxite.
This has prompted serious worries being communicated by different people and gatherings including a few inhabitants around the Atewa region.
The choice by the public authority goes in opposition to its declaration of a worldly restriction on prospecting exercises inside woods holds the nation over recently.
Serve for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, from the get-go in the year, gave a delivery suspending observation and prospecting exercises in Ghana's woods saves.
"The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources thus coordinates people and additionally organizations participated in observation as well as prospecting in Forest Reserves, regardless of legitimate approval, to suspend such exercises until additional notification… ,"
"The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, in like manner, thus gives people and additionally organizations participated in observation as well as prospecting in Forest Reserves, seven (7) days from the date of the distribution of this notification, to stop their tasks and clear their gear as needs be," the issue said.
The declaration by the service shaped endeavors by the public authority to handle uncontrolled unlawful mining which had impacted a few backwoods and water bodies in the country.
In the interim, Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has been pushing for the improvement of the Atewa Forest into a public park.
The Okyehene, while getting a designation comprised of Tourism Minister Dr. Awal Mohammed, his Deputy, Mark Okraku-Mantey, and authorities from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), approached the public authority to rather zero in on forming the hold into a recreation area as opposed to freeing it up to mining.
Foster a public park at Atewa timberland, the species that God has given us there is sensational yet assuming we start to take a gander at gold and its foolishness of galamsey and different things in the woodland, we could never arrive," the Okyenhene said.
"Gold would disappear. It's anything but a sustainable asset. The crazy felling of lumber is a negligence for our temperament. Construct a gallery notwithstanding the recreation area that would tell our set of experiences and show relics," the Okyehene added.
Situated in Ghana's Eastern Region, Atewa Forest structures a piece of the compromised Upper Guinea Forest, one of the world's worldwide biodiversity hotpots. Atewa Forest is a Protected Forest Reserve, a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA), and meets the circumstances for Alliance for Zero Extinction status. The woodland is home to many jeopardized, endemic and uncommon plants and creatures, north of 100 of which are undermined or close compromised with elimination.
Four species are recorded as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species, and a lot more as helpless. The timberland is additionally home to five species accepted to be endemic to the backwoods, meaning they are found no place else on Earth.
As a basic watershed, the woods is likewise the hotspot for the Birim, Densu and Ayensu streams, which give water to exactly 5 million individuals, including occupants of the capital, Accra.
In June 2018, the state-claimed Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation (GIADEC) began getting access streets to the culmination free from the Atewa woods to permit test boring for bauxite stores, a move which was met with enormous public disturbance.
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