By Emelia B. Addae
Koforidua, March 27, GNA – Zijin Golden Ridge Limited (ZGRL), has launched the Atewa Biodiversity Offset Project, the first large-scale, science-based mining biodiversity offset to be implemented in Ghana, in partnership with the Forestry Commission of Ghana.
The Project is a 10-year conservation initiative designed to achieve No Net Loss of biodiversity impacted by mining activities at the Akyem Mine.
It targets the restoration and protection of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, a globally significant biodiversity area, through a combination of forest protection, habitat restoration, enrichment planting, and community livelihoods support.
In a media release, Mr Jason Zhang, Vice President for Sustainability and External Relations at Zijin Golden Ridge Limited said ”This initiative demonstrates our commitment to responsible mining and environmental stewardship.”
” Through our partnership with the Forestry Commission, we are working to ensure that biodiversity values impacted by mining are restored and protected for future generations.”
The launch comes as the Government has placed forest conservation at the Centre of its national economic agenda.
Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Acting Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, recently launched the second edition of Ghana’s Tree for Life Reforestation Initiative on the theme “Forests and Economies”, declaring that Ghana planted over 30 million seedlings in 2025, creating more than 41,000 jobs, and targeting another 30 million in 2026.
Mr Zhang said the Atewa Biodiversity Offset Project directly advanced this national vision, linking forest conservation to community livelihoods, employment, and long-term ecological stewardship.
The launch was marked by a logistics handover ceremony at the Forestry Commission in Accra, where ZGRL provided operational vehicles, communication tools and field monitoring equipment among others, to strengthen the Forestry Commission’s capacity to protect the Atewa Range Forest Reserve and support biodiversity conservation activities on the ground, he noted.
The project addresses the ‘residual’ ecological impacts of mining that cannot be resolved through reforestation alone, including the loss of wildlife habitat and the displacement of threatened species.
He said ZGRL had already exceeded its separate reforestation commitment, establishing 317 hectares of plantation forest against a legal requirement of 303 hectares.
The biodiversity offset programme targets the achievement of 371 Quality Hectares, an internationally recognised measure of biodiversity value, over the 10-year implementation period.
In 2026, he said the programme was scaling up significantly, with close to 1,500 hectares earmarked for enrichment planting and 500 hectares for active restoration.
Local communities are central to the programme. More than 200 community members were employed during the enrichment of planting pilots, which recorded an exceptional 94.6 percent seedling survival rate.
Over 44 communities in and around the Atewa Forest Reserve were engaged during the project’s feasibility and planning phases.
He said the logistics handed over to the Forestry Commission included pickup trucks and station wagons for field operations, drones and laptops for monitoring, two-way radios and mobile phones for communication, camp tents for remote patrols, and a specially equipped audiovisual van to carry project information to rural communities across the Atewa area.
The Project entered active implementation in 2025 and will run through to at least 2035.
It has been developed in collaboration with the Forestry Commission, the Resource Management Support Centre, Conservation Alliance, and international biodiversity specialists Wychwood Biodiversity, the Biodiversity Consultancy and many others.
The project is a condition of ZGRL’s Environmental Permit and Forest Entry Permit, and is implemented in accordance with International Finance Corporation Performance Standard 6 on Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources
Zijin Golden Ridge Limited is the operator of the Akyem Gold Mine, located in Ghana’s Eastern Region near New Abirem.
The mine operates within the Ajenjua Bepo Forest Reserve under permissions granted by the Environmental Protection Authority and the Forestry Commission of Ghana.
GNA
Edited by D. I. Laary/George-Ramsey Benamba