NDC MPs introduce private members' bill to repeal L.I. granting mining in forest reserves

Tamale North MP Alhassan Suhuyini, MP for Madina Francis-Xavier Sosu, and North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have submitted a private members' bill aimed at repealing Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations 2022 (L.I. 2462).

The said L.I. grants the President of Ghana the authority to issue mining leases for exploration within forest reserves in Ghana.

The three National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs submitted the bill in a formal memo to the Clerk of Parliament on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

They asserted that their mandate as lawmakers includes ensuring Ghanaians enjoy a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment; controlling the executive against unacceptable expressions of power; and crafting laws and policies to protect public health, ecosystems, and the environment.

They underlined that Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations 2022 (L.I. 2462) has allowed environmental degradation, resulting in, among other things, health, economic, and social complications.

“Hence, it is in view of the above, and considering that Parliament passed this all-important and consequential L.I. 2462, which, among others, grants His Excellency the President the authority to issue mining leases for exploration in forest reserves, the impact of which has brought so much environmental degradation, as well as health, economic, and social devastation to our country, that we, by this proposed bill, seek to repeal Section 3(2) of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2462), which grants the President the authority to issue mining leases for exploration in forest reserves in Ghana,” the MPs said.