The Director of Mining at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Michael Ali, has admitted that the agency did not adequately educate the Ghanaian public on Legislative Instrument (LI) 2462, a key regulation governing mining activities in forest reserves.

In a myjoyonline.com report, Ali stated that the legislation was enacted after more than two decades of issuing permits for legal mining within the country's forest reserves.

However, he acknowledged that the EPA fell short in its responsibility to ensure that citizens, especially those in mining communities, fully understood the implications and requirements of the regulation. "After over 20 years of legal mining in forest reserves, the introduction of LI 2462 was a necessary step.

Unfortunately, we did not do enough to sensitise the public and key stakeholders on its provisions," he indicated.