Burn galamsey excavators - Activists advocate

Key environmental activists have called on President John Dramanni Mahama to reconsider the directive not to burn excavators used for illegal mining, commonly called galamsey in local circles.

They said the outright directive to confiscate excavators used by illegal miners without creating room for burning the equipment in difficult situations was not deterrent enough and also had the potential to stall efforts to crack down on the menace.

Those who raised the concerns are the Convener of the Media Coalition against Galamsey, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey; Daryl Bosu of A Rocha Ghana, an environmental civil society organisation (CSO); and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Dr Hugh Brown.

In separate interviews with the Daily Graphic, they stressed that the impunity with which illegal miners were destroying the country’s land, forest and water resources could be stopped if excavators were burnt to send a strong signal that their activities would not be countenanced.

They said the use of a dual approach, namely burning and confiscating the excavators, was currently the best approach because the Forestry Commission was not well-resourced to immediately move all seized excavators from forest reserves.

Context

The Daily Graphic spoke to the activists against the backdrop of President Mahama’s directive for excavators to be confiscated rather than being burnt.

After taking office on January 7 this year, the President sent a signal regarding his commitment to tackle illegal mining head on.

Subsequently, he gave express orders to the ministers of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah; Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, as well as related ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to work closely together to deal decisively with the environmental crime.

The President further ordered the security forces and the Forestry Commission’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) to seize excavators used for galamsey rather than burn them.

He made that directive public when the leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) paid a courtesy call on him at the seat of government on Friday, February 21, 2025.

“I have told them not to burn the excavators; they should confiscate them,” the President stated, adding that the focus was to ensure a sustainable approach to fighting galamsey.
At a press briefing last Wednesday, the Lands Minister said at least 60 excavators used for galamsey in forest reserves had been confiscated.
 
Dissenting view

In the view of Dr Ashigbey, the new directive not to burn excavators would give criminal elements the opportunity to use all manner of strategies to get back their equipment to continue destroying the environment.

“An excavator costs not less than $200,000, so if the illegal miners know that they can lose that amount through burning of the equipment, they will fear to continue their activities.

“The ideal approach should be that if it is possible to move the excavators out, we do it; but if it is difficult to do so, it should be burnt,” he said.

Additionally, he said, since excavators had become weapons of mass destruction of the environment, the galamsey fight was now a war situation that needed to be handled ruthlessly.

Restrict excavator importation

Dr Ashigbey further called on the government to restrict the importation and usage of excavators in the country to help to address the illegal mining menace.

He said the policy on excavator importation and usage that was piloted by the previous government needed to be reviewed and tightened to ensure every equipment was accounted for through effective tracking system,

“There should be a policy that regulates how excavators are imported and allowed to be rented.

Excavators must be used as a source of evidence for prosecution,” he added.  

Let’s burn

Mr Bosu, who is the Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, stressed that the burning of excavators was the best approach "to send a strong signal to illegal miners to stay away from our forest reserves and waterbodies".

"Our experience on the field has shown that when excavators are burnt, it is a big blow to the illegal miners because you are taking away something precious to them; and they do not want to go back. It is the most significant punitive measure for illegal miners," he stressed.

Mr Bosu said inasmuch as the order of the President was within the mining laws, it came with dire consequences.

For instance, he said, it was an opportunity for politically-connected persons to go behind the scene to take their excavators back and go back to perpetrate their illegal acts of destroying the environment.

"In the previous administration, they said the seized excavators will be put to other uses, but they found their way back to the mining sites; so there is no guarantee that there will be accountability for these excavators if they are not burnt," he said.

The A Rocha Deputy Director further said that the process of confiscating the excavators and transporting them to designated locations for storage would be costly to the Forestry Commission, and by extension, the state.

"If excavators are seized and the operation team is unable to move them out of the sites immediately, it means that there must be effective policing until they are taken away.

This also gives room for people who are politically connected to find a way around it," he said. 

Accountability

Mr Bosu said much as the President's directive was to be respected, the government needed to amply demonstrate that there was a watertight system to ensure that every seized excavator was accounted for.

“If the President wants to go the way of the law to say that excavators should not be burnt, the responsibility is for the government to demonstrate how the equipment would be accounted for so that all of us can keep an eye on them and ask the necessary accountability questions," he said.

Engagement

Meanwhile, Dr Brown said from the deterrence point of view, the burning of excavators was the ideal approach to adopt as “it put the fear of God in illegal miners”.

He, however, added that following the directive by the President not to burn excavators, the commission would engage the relevant authorities behind the scene on the way forward.

Speaking to whether the Forestry Commission had the capacity to protect excavators seized in the forest reserves, he said “we have offices across our forest districts where we can keep the excavators”.

He further stated that there were police depots and Forestry Commission depots that could host some of the seized excavators.