In the wake of renewed activities of illegal miners, many Ghanaians are asking the government to take a decisive step to save the country’s waterbodies and forest reserves.
A private legal practitioner, Austin Kwabena Brako-Powers, has wondered why President John Mahama has yet to repeal the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2462), contrary to his promise.
“The law that permits mining in Ghana’s forest reserves is still sitting in our books after President Mahama promised to repeal it. The double standard is becoming scary with the passing of each day,” he said.
Read also: Judges must analyse provisions of Procurement Act before pronouncing on them – Ansah Asare
GoldBod’s Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, said in April 2025 that L.I. 2462 would be repealed when Parliament reconvenes.
“L.I. 2462 will be revoked by the NDC/Mahama government immediately Parliament resumes,” he said.
He explained, “There were legal issues as to whether or not it should be amended or revoked because there is a school of thought that revoking it could lead to a certain vacuum and that what had to be cured was the discretion or power given to the president to grant mining leases for people to mine in protected forest zones.”
Mr Gyamfi added, “Then there was another school of thought that said, look, let’s revoke the entire law, even if we get a vacuum, we can come up with a new L.I…but the L.I. 2462 is poisonous. It should go in its entirety. Those who made that argument have won, we are a listening government.”
However, Mr Brako-Powers said it has been nearly a month since Parliament reconvened after the Easter recess, yet there is no bill before the House seeking to repeal L.I. 2462 as promised.
Read also: SML deal: Let’s review the Procurement Act – Constitutional Lawyer on arrest of ex-GRA officials
“Parliament resumed sitting on May 27, 2025, after the Easter recess, and we are yet to see a bill sent to the House to repeal L.I. 2462. This is a major surprise after we were promised this would be done when our lawmakers are back in action. Now that they are back, there is no show,” the synthetic media researcher and development communication expert said.
He said the government’s attitude toward repealing the law showed the lack of commitment on its part in fighting galamsey.
“I have said from the word go that this government is not interested in and committed to the galamsey fight as we witnessed in the beginning of Akufo-Addo’s first term,” Mr Brako-Powers said.
