The moment has come for concerted action to safeguard the country's natural endowments from further devastation after decades of enduring the harmful effects of unwise use of its natural resources.
By jointly addressing the underlying causes of illicit activity in the mining, forestry, and land sectors, this can be accomplished.
A first-ever natural resource management debate was held at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra, Ghana. It was organized by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
Experts, decision-makers in government policy, business leaders, and members of the public participated in the discussion.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo welcomed the discussion and assured Ghanaians that the administration was dedicated to putting mechanisms in place to overcome management bottlenecks with the nation's natural resources to ensure value retention.
As a result, the President stated that initiatives to encourage value addition included measures to outlaw the export of raw minerals.
He again urged all interested parties to support the government's determination to put an end to unlawful mining in the nation.
The government remains dedicated to establishing a strong local content rule to guarantee that the nation benefits from the development of natural resources, as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, stated in his opening comments.
He also emphasized the necessity for collaboration among all parties to deal with unauthorized drivers. safeguard state lands
Stakeholders agreed that tough choices must be made in order to use all of the nation's resources to enact laws governing how to use the land.
The discussion on land management was chaired by Professor Wordworth Odame Larbi, a consultant in land administration, who stated that there was an urgent need to confront the ongoing encroachment on state properties.
He claimed that although there was no information on the precise number of state properties that had been invaded by private property owners, it had been proven that sizable portions of the areas the state had purchased had been occupied unlawfully.
The discussants concurred that beneficiary state institutions whose lands were encroached upon must take action to defend their properties in order to resolve the unlawful occupation of state lands.
They also decided that the government should spend money inventorying all state lands so that it would be clear how much land was available to the state and could be protected.
"It is crucial that we have the inventory to start the discussion of protecting state lands," Prof. Larbi added.
The panelists recommended that the government provide amnesty to anybody currently occupying state properties in order to encourage people to come forward and formalize their ownership of the lands and obtain a land title. This was in regards to state lands that had already been encroached upon.
He said that legalizing already-infringed territory would create cash for the government while resolving the issue of unauthorized use of public lands.
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