“When Will the Tree Grow for Me to Benefit from It?”: Tree Tenure Reform to Counter Mining in Southwestern Ghana

Abstract

In 2021, Ghana was Africa’s largest gold producer and sixth largest producer worldwide. However, mining wrecks tremendous environmental havoc and poses significant human health risks. Efforts to mitigate these impacts have focused exclusively on regularizing mining, with little recognition of the crucial role farmers play in mining, particularly as agents that lease their land for the same. Ghana’s new tree tenure policy allows cocoa farmers to acquire individualized, allodial rights to commercial timber species on their farms, which permits famers to capture forestry sector payments. We examine farmers’ impressions of tree tenure reform as a potential counter to mining in eleven communities in Western and Western North regions, using focus group and individual interviews. While the concept of tree tenure is enthusiastically embraced, practical difficulties encountered by smallholders attempting to navigate the bureaucratic registration system limit the sway of tree registration and ownership as a means of limiting mining proliferation.

Keywords:

• Environmental hazards-risks and health
• indigenous peoples
• resource dependent communities
• West Africa
• human behavior in the environment
• focus groups
• policy analysis
• qualitative analysis
• environmental degradation-global change

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank community members in: Wassa Akropong, Adesu, Asankrangua, Asankranbreman, Kwaben, Kunkumso, Elluokrom, Asempanaye, Frenchman, Navrongo, and New Sanfo for their time and willingness to participate in this research. We are also very appreciative of the special contribution from the following individuals, in assisting with organizing the research participants for focus group meetings and individual interviews: Joseph Cudjoe Mono, Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Ankasa Conservation Area, Ghana—for assisting in organizing research participants in Frenchman, New Sanfo, and Navorongo communities. We also thank Sampson Mensah, Conservation Alliance, Sefwi Debiso, Western North, for assisting in organizing Kunkumso, Elluokrom, and Asempanaye communities. And finally, we acknowledge the contributions of Kofi Anto for his role in organizing research participants in Asankranbreman and Kwaben.

Notes

1 Galamsey is the familiar name associated with small-scale gold and other mineral mining, both legal and illegal. It derives from colloquial terms meaning “gather them and sell” (Owusu-Nimo et al. 2018).

2 An alternative spelling for Wassa is “Wasa.” The latter is used more often by locals, whereas the former is more common on official mappings of the area.

3 From this point on, farmers who mine intermittently will be referred to as farmers.

4 To ensure that the meaning of this question was understood by Twi speakers, it was rephrased in colloquial terms or administered as multiple questions using phrases more familiar to respondents. Researchers were careful to maintain the intent and meaning of the question in all of its iterations.

5 This coding method should not be confused with the software package “NVivo.”

6 Provided by Tropenbos Ghana, Conservation Alliance, and the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana.

7 A District Chief Executive is an appointed position within Ghana’s statutory governance system. Although appointed, the position is analogous to that of a mayor in the United States.

8 Abunu tenant sharing provides for more secure rights to land, compared to abusa arrangements. For the abunu, the (typically) cocoa farm is split 50/50, with the landowner/landlord retaining one-half of crop revenues and the farmer the other half. Abunu farmers may alienate or sell the land as well as make improvements, either with or without the owner’s approval, while the land is being used to cultivate cocoa. No annual rent is paid to landlords. In contrast, abusa agreements are more akin to the American sharecropping system where few rights of tenure accrue to the sharecropper/caretaker. The tenant receives one-third to two-thirds of the crop yield. The sharecropper or caretaker may be dismissed summarily (Roth et al., 2017).

9 Name withheld for anonymity.

10 The reference is to the unit of measure, one bag or sack of harvested cocoa beans. The standard weight of the bag is 64 kg or roughly 141 U.S. pounds.

11 Compare these earnings to the roughly $0.40–$0.45 per day that the typical cocoa farmer earns (International Cocoa Initiative 2017).