President Mahama rules out state of emergency in galamsey fight, touts progress on forest recovery

Accra, Ghana – President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated his government’s resolve to combat illegal mining (galamsey), stressing that while the task remains complex, all available legal mechanisms will be deployed to root out the menace.

Speaking during his first media encounter at the Jubilee House on Wednesday evening, the President acknowledged the worsening turbidity of many water bodies due to illegal mining but ruled out declaring a state of emergency at this stage.

“I never deluded myself that the fight against illegal gold mining was going to be an event. The decay has eaten so much over the last eight years, and it’s going to take a lot of work,” he said.

He noted that over four million Ghanaians depend on small-scale mining for their livelihoods, which made addressing the issue “a process” rather than a quick fix. “We will not give up. We have a determination to get on top of it,” President Mahama stressed.

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The President explained that the powers currently available to the state were sufficient without invoking emergency measures. “We have the opportunity to arrest anybody and to confiscate,” he said.

Since assuming office in January 2025, President Mahama said no license had been issued for mining in forest reserves. He added that steps were underway to repeal LI-2462 to formally end such practices.

The government’s national task force, he reported, had seized hundreds of excavators, water pumps, and other heavy equipment, while nine forest reserves had already been reclaimed from illegal miners. A nationwide “Tree for Life” initiative has also been rolled out to restore degraded lands.

On gold trade reforms, President Mahama said changes at the GoldBod now reserve the commodity’s trade exclusively for Ghanaians, a move aimed at boosting national benefits, improving transparency, and reinvesting resource wealth into communities and development projects.

Additionally, the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, Customs, and the Ports and Harbors Authority have introduced a system to track imported excavators and earth-moving equipment from entry points.

Touching on responsible mining, the President disclosed that Ghana was partnering with the Australian government to provide training and knowledge exchange programmes for small-scale miners.

“We must not only think about just chasing them over the place without providing alternatives for them,” he said, calling on stakeholders to support the national effort to end galamsey.