The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has revealed that 44 of Ghana's forest reserves are under serious attack by heavily armed illegal small-scale miners (Galamnsyers).
He says that the forest guards and rapid response team from the Foretsay Commission are unable to tackle these illegal miners because they do not have the sophisticated weapons that the gallamsyers possess.
Briefing Parliament on the state of Ghana's forests on Thursday, February 20, the Minister said "Ghana's forests continue to be under serious threats of deforestation and forest degradation due to factors known to all of us.
Ghana is currently faced with an unprecedented threat to our forest resources and water bodies due largely to illegal small-scale mining activities. "This situation has assumed crisis proportion of dire national security and public health consequences that require immediate attention." He added "Mr Speaker, it will interest you to know that out of the 288 forest reserves, a whopping 44 of these forest reserves are under serious attack by illegal miners, they are heavily armed with sophisticated weapons and very violent with a large number of excavators making it extremely difficult for a forest guard and rapid response to control them since they have no such sophisticated weapons to control them.
