The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has put words into action by signing an agreement with the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Forestry Commission (FC) to reclaim and restore degraded mining lands inside the Tano-Nimri Forest Reserve. The arrangement, officially signed by senior representatives of the three institutions, is intended to reverse the ecological damage caused by illegal mining, especially the destruction of vegetation and land integrity in forest reserves.
Speaking at the programme, GoldBod Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, emphasised that the Board was created by law in 2025 to regulate and support Ghana’s gold trading industry, including sustainability responsibilities such as land reclamation. He said the Board’s reclamation programme is a response to a painful reality: while gold trading from legitimate large-scale and artisanal small-scale mining supports national benefits, illegal mining practices have left vast areas devastated. Instead of treating reclamation as an administrative exercise, he said GoldBod intends to deliver restoration that is practical, supervised, and aligned with legal safeguards.
Mr. Gyamfi disclosed that the Board has engaged the GAF Engineer Regiment through the Ministry of Defence to execute the civil engineering side of the works—activities such as backfilling, grading, reshaping, compaction and site stabilization. He said the choice of Tano-Nimri was not accidental; joint inspections with the FC and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources revealed the seriousness of the damage and the urgency of restoring the forest environment. He also stressed a key lesson from past challenges: reclamation has sometimes been exploited as cover for continued mining. This time, he said, the structure of the partnership and the separation of roles are meant to ensure genuine restoration under state oversight.
A central feature of the deal, according to GoldBod, is the division of labour between state institutions. The GAF will handle the engineering rehabilitation, while the Forestry Commission will oversee afforestation, vegetation restoration, and authorisation responsibilities, given its custodial role over the reserve. GoldBod will provide the funding and supervision, ensuring that the project is delivered transparently and correctly. The agreement is scheduled to take effect on 1 July 2026, with detailed work plans to be submitted and mobilisation supported through initial payments.
On scope and cost, the CEO stated that the first phase will target compartment 161 in Tano-Nimri, covering 50 hectares out of an estimated 200 hectares of degraded land in that area. He said the civil engineering component alone is budgeted at roughly 27.9 million cedis, while the afforestation and authorisation component will cost about 7.2 million cedis over ten years—starting with around 2.2 million cedis in the initial phase, likely within 2026 and part of 2027. Overall, the pilot is projected at about 36.35 million cedis, positioned as an ESG and corporate social responsibility initiative intended to be replicated in other devastated forest zones across the country.
The Deputy Minister for Defence, Ernest Brogya Genfi, described the partnership as a balanced approach to illegal mining—one that combines preventive enforcement with active restoration of already damaged lands. He argued that stopping further degradation alone cannot heal what has already been destroyed, adding that standards and discipline will underpin execution to ensure legality and accountability. He also described the Tano-Nimri project as a pilot meant to prove feasibility and results before scaling to other areas.
In his remarks, the CEO of the FC, Mr. Hugh Charles Agyeman-Brown, said the Commission had reached out to multiple institutions earlier in the year, with GoldBod responding first and acting beyond consultations. He highlighted that the agreement is rooted in practical implementation: the Commission physically inspected the site, leading to faster agreement signing and a clearer path to fieldwork. He noted that military engineering capacity and professionalism can remove operational barriers that have previously limited the effectiveness of reclamation efforts, particularly where approvals were not translating into real restoration on the ground.
Together, the three institutions framed the deal as more than a one-off attempt to “reclaim” land. It is designed to restore ecological integrity, rehabilitate mined-out landscapes so forests can return to their intended function, and, crucially, ensure that restoration is not used as a disguise for ongoing illegal operations. With the partnership now set to begin in July 2026, the agreement stands as a structured state response to the damage inflicted on forest reserves, offering a model for healing Ghana’s degraded landscapes where illegal mining has left deep scars.
