The Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS) has urged the government to adopt a community-driven, incentive-based strategy in the national fight against illegal mining, widely known as galamsey.
According to the organisation, the long-standing reliance on arrests, military operations, and distant task force interventions had yielded limited success because it sidelined the very communities whose water bodies, farmlands, and livelihoods were directly affected.
CCCFS is therefore advocating for a new model that placed traditional leaders and local residents at the heart of the solution with measurable targets and development rewards linked to community performance.
“The fight against galamsey cannot be won from offices far away from the affected communities. It must be owned and led by the very people whose lives depend on the rivers and forests being destroyed,” said Mr Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS.
“When chiefs and citizens know their success will bring schools, water systems, and scholarships, they will rise to protect their own environment,” he added.
Under the proposed “Reward-for-Results” framework, each mining-affected community would be assigned specific anti-galamsey targets.
Communities that demonstrate progress or achieve their targets would receive priority development incentives ranging from social amenities to economic empowerment opportunities.
A community that maintains zero illegal mining activities for a full year could earn a fully equipped maternity clinic, a modern hospital, or a CHPS compound.
Traditional areas that reclaim degraded lands and undertake tree-planting programmes may receive scholarships for up to 50 students at various levels, including PhDs, or a digital learning centre.
Youth groups that help track illegal mining or safeguard water bodies could benefit from vocational training, startup capital, or international climate exchange programmes.
Communities that actively prevent river pollution could be rewarded with solar-powered boreholes or clean energy systems.
Farmers who choose sustainable agriculture over mining could receive irrigation facilities or agro-processing units.
CCCFS further proposed that each community compile its priority development needs such as roads, markets, health posts, or schools and link them directly to their anti-galamsey performance.
Once achievements were verified by district assemblies and environmental monitors, government or development partners would deliver the agreed incentives.
The organisation argued that communities would defend initiatives that directly benefit their welfare, especially when the rewards support long-term development.
“People will defend what benefits them,” Mr Mahmud noted.
“If keeping rivers clean brings scholarships and development, communities will become protectors of the land, not destroyers.”
CCCFS drew inspiration from successful conservation initiatives in Rwanda and Kenya, where communities receive development benefits in exchange for protecting forests, wildlife, and water resources.
The proposed system aligned with Ghana’s National Climate Change Policy, its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those relating to clean water, sustainable communities, and environmental protection.
To maintain credibility and prevent political interference, CCCFS recommended the establishment of local monitoring committees comprising chiefs, youth and women leaders, assembly members, and environmental officers.
These committees would verify progress and ensure rewards were distributed transparently.
Source: GNA
The post Centre for Climate Change proposes innovative incentive-based approach to fight galamsey appeared first on Ghana Business News.
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