Public Agenda (Accra)
Selorm Amevor
6 June 2008
The Executive Director of WACAM, Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng has expressed concern about large tracts of agricultural lands being given to mining companies as leases to engage in the mining activities.
According to WACAM, as at 1998, government had granted more than 200 mining leases, resulting in mining companies holding 30% of the country's lands surface area in mining concessions.
Currently multinational mining companies are mining in the Western Region, Eastern, Ashanti and in the Brong Ahafo Region which are areas that constitute the food basket of the country. In addition multinational mining companies such as AngloGold Ashanti, Golden Star Resources, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited, and Chirano Gold Mines etc hold large tracts of agricultural lands as mining concessions.
According to WACAM many of the affected communities have lost their economic livelihood through displacement and areas that used to be important food production areas have become areas of net food deficit.
In a statement signed by the Executive Director, WACAM indicated that concessions of mining companies could cover land areas from 50 km2 to 400 km2 and these mining concessions are agricultural lands that form the economic base for many mining communities.
WACAM is of the view that with the present soaring global food prices their effects on national food prices makes it imperative for national discussions on our economic direction.
"Ghana possesses enormous agricultural potential which if properly developed would insulate the country from the global food crisis," it added.
WACAM argues that in the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the economic policy by government from dependence on agriculture to mining and this has been exhibited by a strong desire and commitment to promote the mining sector above all sectors through the provision of generous incentives to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the extractive sector.
Globally, FDI inflows to the agricultural sector is about 5%, while in Ghana , FDI inflows into the extractive sector accounts for about 70% of the total inflows into the economy.
Citing examples of communities that have been deprived WACAM alleged that Kojokrom, a farming community which was displaced by the mining operations of Bogoso Gold Limited now Golden Star Resources have been resettled near Bogoso in buildings can pass as hencoops.
The statement said Damang in the Western region was a major food growing area that supplied foodstuffs to Tarkwa and other major towns in the Wassa West District until the community was resettled by Abosso Goldfields Limited (now a subsidiary of Goldfields Ghana Limited) between a Forest Reserve and the company thus denying the community access to land.
WACAM indicated that in majority of cases, farming communities that are displaced by mining operations are deprived of economic activities because they are resettled without access to land.
The statement said that mining had caused the displacement of thousands of people. Goldfields Ghana Limited is recorded to have displaced 30,000 landlords in 5 years and the official records of Newmont Ahafo mine indicates that about 10,000 landlords were displaced in the first phase of the company's operations and by the time the company completes its second phase operations, a total of about 20,000 Landlords would be displaced.
According to WACAM mining companies pay ridiculous compensations to farmers affected by their operations. An example being that Newmont made a one-off compensation payment of 7 to 9 Ghana cedis for one Cocoa tree when a Cocoa farmer could earn between 15 to 20 Ghana cedis each year from a Cocoa tree for the economic life of 40 to 50 years and also use the Cocoa farms to gain Cocoa Marketing Board Scholarship to support their children's education in High Schools.
In addition companies like Chirano Gold Mine paid less than 3 Ghana Cedis for a Cocoa tree as compensation.
Another problem of serious concern according to the NGO is the issue of mining in forest reserves; Newmont intends to mine in the Ajenua Bepo Forest reserve in the Akyem area, while Chirano Gold Mine wants to mine in the Tano Suraw Forest reserve.
Farmers living on the fringes of the two Forest Reserves have expressed opposition to the mining in the two forest reserves. The chiefs and people in communities around Tano Suraw Forest reserve, where Chirano intends to operate rejected the claims that about 80% of the forest reserve was degraded.
WACAM realizes that surface mining is gradually killing agriculture but the negative effect of mining on the agricultural sector is completely missing in the discussions of the rising cost of food prices.
According to them major areas of agricultural production are gradually becoming areas of net food deficit as a result of the operations of surface mining by companies.
WACAM further condemned the theme for the 80th Anniversary of the Ghana Chamber of Mines "Life without mining is impossible".
According to them the theme does not reflect the realities of the destruction of the basic human needs for survival such as the need for clean air, clean water and good agricultural lands which mining destroys.
"Mining affects the health status of affected communities which reduces the productivity of farmers. For example, abandoned pits become breeding grounds for mosquitoes thus increasing the incidence of Malaria in mining communities,"
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