By Amos Safo
In 2021, the Government of Ghana launched the “Green Ghana Day” to implement the planting of trees across the country. An estimated five million trees were reportedly planted in 2021. The second edition came off on June 10, 2022, with government targeting 20 million trees to be planted. The theme for this year’s program is “Mobilizing for a Greener Future.”
During the launching of this year’s program, President Akufo-Addo noted that though forests continue to be one of Ghana’s most important resources, the country’s forest cover is depleting at an alarming rate. The Green Ghana Initiative therefore seeks to generate a collective action towards restoration of degraded landscapes in the country, mitigate climate change and inculcate in the youth the values of planting and nurturing trees and their associated benefits.
The specific objectives the Green Ghana initiative seeks to achieve are to;
• Create enhanced national awareness on the necessity for collective action towards restoration of degraded landscape in the country.
• Inculcate in youth the value of planting and nurturing trees and their associated benefits.
• Mitigate watersheds.
• Enhance livelihoods towards communities through engagement in the production of trees seedlings.
• Beautify our communities and environment
Donor support
In 2020 the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, UNCDF and SNV launched the “Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana – (GrEEn)”. It has a four-year action plan to create greater economic and employment opportunities for women and the youth. It also aims at creating opportunities for women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in Ashanti and Western regions. GrEEn is implemented under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa.
Through a combination of grants, technical assistance and convening power, the GrEEn programme will work with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to:
• Support the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development.
• Improve the ability of women, youth and returning migrants to take advantage of job and entrepreneurship opportunities in green and climate resilient local economies
• Create and strengthen local ecosystems that support youth (self-) employment and the development of MSMEs.
GrEEn has 4 result areas:
• Supporting growth of local economies and creating short-term job opportunities through cash for work.
• Improving the ability of women, youth and returning migrants to take advantage of green job and entrepreneurship opportunities in their local economies.
• Increasing access to and use of financial services to support cash-for-work beneficiaries and MSMEs to meet the needs for youth women and returning migrants while also benefiting their local communities.
• Supporting and speeding the growth of Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) in the green and circular economy so they can offer decent, fair and sustainable jobs to youth, women and returning migrants.
GrEEn will contribute to addressing the root causes of irregular migration by supporting sustainable and climate resilient local economies, green jobs and development in regions of departure, transit and return. The objective of GrEEN is to create local financial ecosystems that facilitate the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and enable the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development.
Saving Atewa Forest
Meanwhile as the Government of Ghana and its development partners are embarking on a sustainable development path, the plan to mine bauxite in the Atewa forest in Ghana’s Eastern Region continues to draw criticisms from home and abroad. The campaign to save Atewa Forest forms part of the Green Livelihoods Alliance.
This alliance is supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a result, the Dutch Ministry together with IUCN Netherlands a local NGO ARG conducted a study named the ‘The Economics of the Atewa forest range, Ghana’. The study compared four different development scenarios for the forest and concluded, that declaring Atewa Forest as a national park with a supporting buffer zone will yield the highest cumulative returns for Ghana. Such a buffer zone can ensure that part of the traditional activities of local communities develop in a sustainable manner and still provide economic benefits locally.
Politicization of Atewa
Since the discovery of bauxite in 1914 in the Atewa Range, the region has remained one of three possible sites for bauxite mining in Ghana. Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, aspired to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum-industry for two reasons; first to achieve political sovereignty and secondly for economic independence. Consequently, a smelter was set up in Tema to draw power from the Volta Dam. However, the proposed integrated industry was never implemented, perhaps because of the 1966 coup. Since then, bauxite has remained economically insignificant to the economy of Ghana. Perhaps, this constellation has protected the Atewa forest from mining activities to date.
In 2012, the Forestry Commission announced that the government had given out concessions to Exton Cubic to prospect bauxite at Atewa. This drew public outcry by local and foreign stakeholders, compelling the government to backtrack on the plan.
It was the signing of a resource-for-infrastructure swap (the Sinohydro Deal) between Ghana and China in 2018 that reignited the Atewa forest debate. Some critics view the agreement as non-beneficial because the repayment shall be done with the revenue from refined bauxite. This requires the development of a bauxite industry and, therefore, further extraction of bauxite.
Geological studies have indicated that Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone are endowed the most important bauxite deposits in Africa. In 2014, Guinea, the fourth largest producer in the world, produced 17.3 million tons of bauxite, Sierra Leone 1.16 million tons, and Ghana only about 837,000 tons. Thus, though Ghana has extensive reserves, the bauxite- aluminum industry makes insignificant economic contribution to Ghana, compared to gold and cocoa.
Bauxite exports
Currently, Ghana exports bauxite in its raw state, imports aluminum oxide, processes it in a smelter and then exports aluminum. This fragmented supply chain, which began in the 1970s, benefitted the companies involved, but not Ghana’s economic interests. This anomaly has raised the big question, whether the Atewa forest should be explored for economic gain, or its ecology should be maintained for future generations.
The Atewa Range represents some of the highest forest covered hills in Ghana. In addition, the forest is an important watershed from where three important rivers namely the Densu, Ayensu and Birim originate. Because of its uniqueness, the reserve has changed status over the years as a Special Biological Protection Area in 1994, a Hill Sanctuary in 1995 and as one of Ghana’s 30 Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs) in 1999. In 2001, Atewa was listed as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International. Besides, Atewa is a key Biodiversity Area populated with thousands of species, and a source of clean drinking water for more than five million Ghanaians.
Bauxite-aluminum industry
Since independence various governments had plans to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminium-industry, but this was never fully realized. Developing a modern bauxite-aluminum industry means that the Atewa Forest cannot be spared future exploitation. The current government views mining bauxite as key to its plans for industrialization and has been framed along with iron and steel as a Strategic Anchor Industry.
But stakeholders, mostly local and international NGOs are advocating that the forest should be left in its virgin state. Several studies have shown that the conservation of biodiversity is an increasingly controversial public policy issue. In many parts of the world the geographical overlap between mining sites and biodiversity hotspots often lead to serious social and ecological challenges over the short and long term.
Conservation involves making choices about the relations between people and nature. For instance, if a forest is protected, farmers, hunters or loggers are restricted from exploring it for a living.
Dialogue and opposition
In late 2016, the Ghanaian government-initiated plans to mine bauxite in Atewa Forest as part of a financial deal with China. In the same year Rocha and partners published a report that showed that protecting Atewa Forest as a national park and a buffer area around it had the highest economic value, with tremendous benefits to communities both up and down stream.
In 2017 three global manufacturing companies—BMW Group, Tetra Pak and Schüco International opposed plans to mine bauxite from the Atewa forest. BMW Group, Tetra Pak and Schüco International are members of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), established to certify the production and supply of aluminium including bauxite extraction. The companies indicated their unwillingness to accept these supply chains due to the catastrophic and irreversible effects of mining on the people and wildlife. In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) passed a resolution demanding global action to save the irreplaceable Atewa from bauxite mining.
“Saving Atewa Forest should be an inter-generational priority, and we are happy and grateful that big businesses in the aluminium value chain understand the importance of a healthy forest and the environmental services it provides,” said Oteng Adjei, president of the Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape (CCAL).
Specifically, Schüco says, “it would oblige our aluminium suppliers not to supply aluminium derived from bauxite mined in the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, and we intend to encourage other aluminium users to join us in this commitment.”
Tetra Pak, says, “Sourcing aluminium produced from bauxite mined in the Atewa Range Forest Reserve… presents a level of risk that is completely unacceptable to Tetra Pak. No matter how high the environmental standards that are applied, any form of mining at this site will have an unavoidable destructive impact on the values inherent in such a natural habitat.”
On its part BMW Group affirms that, “Bauxite from the region of the Atewa Forest needs to be in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UNFCCC Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Ghana’s voluntary national contributions towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. If this is not the case the BMW Group will not accept aluminium in its supply chains that originates from the Atewa Forest.”
Consequently, if bauxite from Atewa becomes part of Ghana’s aluminium supply, the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) risks outright rejection of all Ghana’s bauxite and aluminium. According to Patricia Zurita, Chief Executive of BirdLife International, the consumption of aluminum should nurture nature rather than destroying and depleting it.
But a section of Ghanaians has questioned the justification of the western powers and corporations opposing the mining in Atewa forest solely based on preserving the forest. They argue that these western countries reached their level of development by exploiting natural resources from poor countries like Ghana. Thus, the stance taken by western powers on mining in Atewa forest could amount to double standards.
The writer is a Development and Communications management Specialist, and a Social Justice Advocate. All views expressed in this article are his personal views and do not represent those of any organization(s).
