Photo:Benjamin Nsiah, Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE)
A leading environmental advocate has warned that calls to declare a nationwide state of emergency to combat galamsey, Ghana’s illegal artisanal mining, risk deepening insecurity while doing little to tackle the roots of the problem.
Benjamin Nsiah, Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE), said the idea of deploying the military against thousands of small-scale miners would be “a huge problem we may not be able to address in the future”.
“I don’t think we should declare a state of emergency on galamsey,” he told reporters in Accra. “Putting the law aside and sending in the military could push many into crime.”
Deploying the military against an estimated 500,000 to 4 million artisanal miners will only push many into crime.”
He cautioned that a nationwide emergency could overstretch Ghana’s security forces and spark violent clashes, noting that many illegal miners are already armed.
Instead, Nsiah called for a strategy anchored in research, sustainable job creation, and more transparent use of the Minerals Development Fund and mining royalties to tackle the drivers of illegal mining. Improving infrastructure in mining communities and investing in skills training for unemployed youth, he said, would provide alternatives to galamsey and reduce the pool of cheap labour exploited by mine operators.
On the legal front, Nsiah urged a review, or outright repeal, of L.I. 2462, which permits mining in forest reserves. Such lands, he argued, should be protected for eco-tourism and carbon-credit trading rather than short-term mineral extraction.
“We should not always look at the low-hanging option of extracting minerals from forests,” he said. “Our forest reserves can generate wealth through eco-tourism and carbon credits, as many industries are willing to pay to offset their emissions.”
Nsiah concluded that a sustainable, community-focused approach, rather than military intervention, offers Ghana its best chance to curb illegal mining while safeguarding both the environment and livelihoods.
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