An investigation by The Fourth Estate into a worrying scramble for mining concessions in forest reserves has revealed that the Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Sam Pyne, is entangled in business dealings that threaten the existence of a forest reserve.
This revelation comes despite Mr. Pyne’s public advocacy for environmental sustainability through tree planting.
Records from the Minerals Commission disclose that, just four months before urging the public to help make Ghana green, Mr. Pyne’s company, Sam & Gyan Limited, applied for a lease to mine for gold in the Oda River Forest Reserve, located in the Ashanti Region.
This region, already grappling with the destructive effects of illegal mining, according to the report by The Fourth Estate, continues to witness the degradation of its forest reserves, farmlands, and road networks.
The records retrieved by The Fourth Estate show that Sam & Gyan Limited applied for the mining license in February 2023, mere months after the government enacted the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulation, LI 2462, in November 2022. This law lists some areas, such as the Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs), as protected green belts, forbidding mining and timber harvesting. These protected areas are internationally recognized for their ecological significance.
Further investigations by The Fourth Estate revealed that Mr. Pyne, a former Ashanti Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is a joint shareholder and beneficial owner of Sam & Gyan Limited, which was incorporated in 2017. His business partner, Ohene Amankwah Gyan, a Kumasi-based radio presenter and legal counsel for the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation, also holds ownership in the company.
“Sam & Gyan Mining Limited has been granted a mining lease in the Oda Forest Reserve until 2053,” the investigation reveals. Other companies connected to influential NPP figures are reported to have received or are in the final stages of obtaining mining concessions in forest reserves.
Under LI 2462, the President has the authority to approve mining and prospecting in forest reserves if deemed necessary in the national interest.
The report noted that records from the Minerals Commission suggest a spike in applications for mining concessions in these forest reserves from June 2022, when the LI was submitted to Parliament.
Concerns about the government’s involvement in the destruction of forest reserves aren’t new.
According to the report, in 2019, an internal memo from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raised alarms about an “upsurge in the number of forest entry permits” issued by the Forestry Commission. Three years later, the EPA’s push for LI 2462 appears to have sparked even more interest in mining within Ghana’s forests.
As of August 13, 2024, The Fourth Estate investigation revealed that at least 25 companies had submitted 32 applications to mine or prospect in 24 different forest reserves.
Wontumi’s Involvement
Chairman Wontumi, also known as Bernard Antwi Bosiako, a prominent NPP figure and the Ashanti Regional Chairman, has also been implicated in forest destruction through his mining operations.
Months before the government relaxed restrictions on mining in forest reserves in November 2022, Wontumi’s Akonta Mining Company Limited was actively logging and mining in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve, an operation later declared illegal by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor is currently investigating allegations of illegal mining against Akonta Mining.
Akonta Mining applied for a lease to mine in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve on August 25, 2022, just one month after the LI 2462 was gazetted. Despite the controversy surrounding the company’s illegal activities, the Minerals Commission forwarded Akonta Mining’s application to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for consideration.
“Chairman Wontumi has two other active mining leases in the Amenfi District,” according to The Fourth Estate. In addition to Akonta Mining, Wontumi holds a 50% stake in Akosdwomo Mining Limited, another company with several mining and prospecting leases in the database of the Minerals Commission.
The accused are yet to comment on the claims levelled against them.