An abandoned gold mining site in Atewa forestCredit: Nancy Moss, Burness Communications.
Ghana, like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, is embracing renewable energy technologies to reduce carbon emissions, critical for the fight against climate change. But this could worsen food insecurity and safety, threaten biodiversity and pose risks to the livelihood of indigenous communities on the continent.
Environmentalists warn the increasing demand for critical minerals such as bauxite, lithium and cobalt — the minerals used in green energy transition solutions such as electric vehicles and solar panels — is a threat to biodiversity.
Emmanuel Kuyole, Natural Resources and Climate Change team programme officer, at the Ford Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria, says “people should understand that a lot of the green transition minerals are in rainforests and their extraction is destructive to the environment. There is no point in trying to move away from fossil fuels through a process that destroys forests”.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that solar photovoltaic plants, wind farms and electric vehicles “generally require more minerals to build than their fossil fuel-based counterparts.” For instance, IEA cites that a typical electric car will require “six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car and an onshore wind plant requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant.”
Several African countries have been impacted by both renewable energy development and mineral mining. Côte d’Ivoire has lost 99 square kilometres of its forest while Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia have also lost rainforest cover to mining activities.
Atewa rainforest in eastern Ghana covers 260 square kilometers and is home to more than 600 plant species, critically endangered monkeys, the white-naped mangabeys (Cercocebus lunulatus) and the last populations of critically endangered Togo frog (Conraua derooi) in the reserve.
The forest, surrounded by 50 adjoining communities, is under threat from legal and illegal mining activities around and inside the reserve.
“The reserve is an island in the sea of mining activities,” said Daryl Bossu, the deputy national director of conservation NGO A Rocha Ghana.
To its south, north, east and west, the Atewa range is occupied by gold prospecting and mining companies licensed by authorities, as well as illegal miners.
Impact on local communities, habitats and livelihood
The communities around the forest are desperate to protect the reserve that is a source of three main rivers supplying water to approximately five million Ghanaians, half of them living in Accra, the capital. They are desperate to protect the forest that is a rain catchment for water on their cocoa farms and to protect their source of bush meat, wild fruit and honey.A study published in Nature Sustainability shows 77% of global initiatives for the extraction of energy transition minerals are located on or near community land in Africa. This is backed up by a study published in Energy Research and Social Science which highlights serious costs to local communities and their habitats.
An assessment of deforestation between 2000 and 2019 published in Sustainability Science ranks Ghana in the top four countries accounting for 80% of tropical forest that has suffered the most deforestation from mining. Brazil, Indonesia and Suriname make up the top four.
Another analysis of 3081 environmental conflicts over development projects published in Science Advances finds that indigenous people are affected by 34% of all documented environmental conflicts globally.
Arnim Scheidel, the study’s lead researcher and colleagues say that mining, fossil fuels, forestry, fisheries, livestock and dam projects are the key drivers of 75% of these conflicts.
Journey to the epicentre, and the impacts
Nature Africa visited Atewa forest to witness the rush for precious minerals that is putting biodiversity ecosystems at risk.
At the entry of the forest, lie huge open shafts filled with brown water adjacent to huge heaps of stony soil. “It is painful to see illegal mining on the rise in Atewa forest. These people are killing us. They are killing our future generations who will not have access to clean water and clean air,” said Barima Danquah, a local chief.
A scientist mounting a monitoring device in Atewa forestCredit: Nancy Moss, Burness Communications.
The situation in Atewa could worsen following the discovery of bauxite deposits, increasing the pressure from both licensed and illegal miners.
George Mireku Duker, Ghana’s deputy minister responsible for mining and natural resources, says the country is aiming to mine bauxite but will do it cautiously. “We're still consulting and doing feasibility studies,” said Duker.
He repeated the government’s commitment to ensure the energy transition minerals are refined in Ghana before export.In spite of his assurance, 20 NGOs and individuals including A Rocha Ghana have sued the government in an effort to halt mining in Atewa forest.
Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, an associate professor of development politics at the University of Ghana said the fight against illegal mining is affected by vested interests and poor regulation. Abdulai told Nature Africa that the communities around mining areas feel left out and resort to illegal mining. “You own the land, you can farm on it but you cannot mine on it. Heavy centralisation of mining royalties at the national level in the consolidated fund makes communities feel left out. The y feel the impacts of mining but not the benefits, so they resort to illegal mining. To them, it is a form of fighting injustice,” says Abdulai.
A study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment says deforestation is lower in areas where indigenous people bear the responsibility of protecting their forests, arguing that protecting their rights could significantly boost efforts to preserve forests and combat climate change.
Steve Manteaw is Ghana’s representative on the the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the global body setting standards for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. He called for a review of the impacts of energy transition on communities, and consideration of establishing industries to make renewables such as solar panels in Ghana, instead of exporting raw minerals.
The current challenge of illegal mining activities in rainforests and around Atewa could be reduced if the reserve was converted to a national park and profiled as a tourist destination, Bossu said. Additionally, he called for protection of community land under cocoa plantations that are a key income earner. He said that when farms are converted temporarily into mines, the land is not restored properly to allow crops to be viable.
