By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Oct 23, GNA – Media practitioners in the Northern sector of Ghana have been urged to step up reportage on the need for mining companies to adhere to best practices to safeguard land and water bodies.
Dr Chrys Anab, the Executive Director, Foundation for the Transformation of Marginal Areas Universal (TAMA Foundation Universal), said that would ensure that the extraction and utilisation of mineral resources were beneficial to mineral rich communities to promote balanced and sustainable development.
He said this in a presentation at a media experts’ forum in Tamale on the role of the media in achieving transparent and accountable natural resources management in the northern part of Ghana.
It was organised by TAMA Foundation Universal, a civil society organisation, and attended by selected journalists from the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West regions.
With funding support from Ford Foundation, TAMA Foundation Universal, in partnership with the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, University for Development Studies, conducted research into the state of mining in northern Ghana and its implications for sustainable development.
The forum, therefore, was to share the research findings with the participants, improve their knowledge on Minerals and Mining (Compensation and Resettlement) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2175).
It was also to explore the opportunity for establishing a media platform for natural resource governance in northern Ghana.
The survey showed an increasing social cost, child labour, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of women, tax evasion and the use of illicit drugs.
It also found that 60 per cent of extremely poor people resided in the five regions of the north, arguing that the continued removal of economic trees like shea and dawadawa, as a result of mining, would further deprive communities of their livelihoods.
Dr Anab said the numerous unresolved chieftaincy and land disputes, coupled with unfair compensation for communities in the mining areas, were threats to peace and security.
He, therefore, urged the media to focus on mining issues in the north to enable community leaders to engage effectively with the companies to optimise mutual benefits whilst minimising the effects on the communities.
Mr Jonathan Adabre Atia, Chief Operating Officer, TAMA Foundation Universal, said the organisation had implemented an 18-month strategic project dubbed: “Natural Resources Accountability in Northern Ghana” and had since built capacities of 300 community leaders on community rights.
The Foundation had also collaborated with the Centre for Public Interest Law to train 50 paralegals from Nadowli-Kaleo, Wa East, Talensi Nabdam and Bawku West districts.
“The paralegals represent critical community level accountability mechanism picking up and monitoring community mining related issues, violation and wrong doings, documenting and providing legal aid to community leaders.”
Major (Rtd) Albert Don Chebe, Chairman of the Northern Development Forum, called on the media to contribute to the development of the area by reporting on human rights abuses, tracking corporate social responsibility and activities of multinationals in the extractive sector.
He urged them to highlight potential drivers of conflicts and collaborate with government and other non-governmental organisations to attract investors with ethical business orientation to the zone.
GNA