By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Aburi (E/R), Dec. 12, GNA – Oil palm plantation projects initiated by large-scale mining companies in some mining communities in Southern Ghana have become a major economic game changer for mining communities.
The initiative is contributing to providing long-term and sustainable livelihoods and reducing the pressure on mining firms to employ every local youth in their operational areas, Mr James Bittah German, Health, Safety and Environment Manager at the Golden Star Resources, has revealed.
Speaking during a three-day workshop on green and responsible mining practices for journalists held in Aburi in the Eastern Region, Mr German said the shift towards oil palm cultivation was transforming community economies in areas where mining activities often disrupted farmlands and traditional livelihoods.
“Instead of planting trees which have less economic value and may be chopped down for other purposes, mining companies now plant palm trees with a 25-year economic lifespan and this provides several benefits and creates a sustainable, regular income for farmers,” he said.
Themed “Green Mining: Best Practices and Responsible Reporting”, the workshop was organised by the Ghana News Agency in partnership with the Association of China-Ghana Mining (ACGM).
It brought journalists from Greater Accra, Western and Upper East Regions to equip journalists with knowledge on sustainable mining, ethical reporting, and regulatory compliance in the extractive sector.
Speaking on behalf of Mr Gerard Boateng, Executive Director and Deputy Corporate Affairs Manager of Golden Star Resources, Mr German explained that many mining companies now favoured oil palm plantations over the traditional tree-planting rehabilitation model because palm trees offered long-term economic value for local farmers.
According to him, this model had become so successful that communities themselves now initiated the process, identifying already-disturbed lands and requesting support from mining companies to convert them into productive plantations.
The companies often provide critical support during the first four years, from clearing and weeding until the first harvest, after which farmers assume control of their plots.
Mr German cited the Bogoso area, now known for the Darche Farms project, and the Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation in the Wassa and Akyempim enclave as examples of highly successful community-managed plantations.
“In these projects, chiefs facilitate land release, mining companies provide funding and technical support, and community members operate the farms under cooperative structures. If you are not told, you would not even know the plantation belongs to different people,” he added.
He said the overarching motivation was to diversify local economies so that communities remained economically active even after the mines shut down.
Mining companies, he noted, were fully aware that they could not employ every young person and must therefore create alternative livelihood avenues that were both profitable and sustainable.
Addressing the question of whether similar models could be replicated in northern Ghana, where mining activities were expanding but palm plantations may not thrive, Mr German said mining companies must carry out crop suitability assessments to identify resilient alternatives.
He mentioned shea, cotton and other Sahel-adapted crops as potential options, noting that Ghana’s agricultural history showed that introducing new crops could transform entire regions.
“Someone once brought cocoa to Ghana, and now we are a major cocoa producer so we need to look at what is the next ‘cocoa sibling’ we can introduce to Northern Ghana,” he noted.
He stressed that with proper needs assessments, community collaboration and long-term agricultural planning, the oil palm model, or its adapted alternatives, could offer mining communities a reliable economic path that lasts far beyond the lifespan of the mines.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba