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Wacam Associate Executive Director Ms. Hannah Owusu Koranteng called on stakeholders to make Ghana the leader in advocating for responsible development in Africa.
According to her, this will send the right signals that it is possible to have sustainable development where communities and vulnerable people do not suffer collateral damage for the greed of foreign companies.
She also highlighted the need for Ghana to start implementing the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in new areas of mining and especially in communities that would be affected by onshore oil production. .
Ms. Owusu Koranteng said this in an opening speech at the Responsible Mining Forum in Accra on Wednesday.
The forum, which had the theme: “Promoting community participation in the exploitation of mineral resources for responsible mining”, brought together almost all actors in the extractive sector, including people from certain vulnerable communities.
The event aims to inform and explore the level of awareness and respect for the rights and participation of communities and stakeholders in onshore oil and gas and mining exploration activities.
Despite the mining industry’s positive contributions to the country’s economy, concerns have been raised about the environmental, health and social impacts on host communities.
Most of the human rights violations reported in oil exploitation areas involve violence perpetrated by state and corporate security against citizens who hold opinions contrary to exploitation.
The Associate Executive Director of WACAM citing research conducted by their team said that the initial engagements of agents of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) with affected communities in parts of Ghana where onshore oil exploration is underway do not not meet the minimum. CLIP protocol standards.
“If we are wrong about the foundations of community consent processes with regard to onshore oil exploration, we are bound to reap the same outcome from conflicts, human rights violations, environmental pollution, of social and cultural disintegration that had been associated with gold mining. and mining operations in the country. We must avoid this trajectory associated with gold mining and oil exploration, ”she stressed.
She added that in order to satisfy the greed of a few people, the world has erred in undertaking destructive business operations like mining which has destroyed the land and the associated loss of biodiversity and livelihoods of several communities. , resulting in the poverty of billions of people. .
Powerful countries use their economic strength to force developing country governments to make decisions that exclude vulnerable groups of people who are equal owners of natural resources, she said.
“We have made similar mistakes in Ghana regarding gold mining in our quest to attract mining investors to exploit our natural wealth.
… It is not late to change the narrative by placing human beings, in particular the citizens who will be affected by the bad decisions we make at the center of our development options to reduce their suffering, ”she argued. .
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