The tussle to rescue the Atewa Range Forest Reserve from alleged exploitation by the government continues, as the plaintiffs, 11 in all, have pleaded with the General Jurisdiction ’10’ of the Accra High Court grant them leave to file an additional witness statement.

The plaintiffs through their legal counsel, Martin Kpebu, informed the court to grants them one more opportunity to file the said witness statement, which will help their case.

The court presided over by Justice John Nyante Nyandu indicated that although he will grant the leave and the filing of the additional witness statement, the court would equally scrutiny the witness statements and in case, the statements are repetitive they will be reduced.

He, however, added that if the witness statements are testimonies from different dimensions they would all be allowed to go in for whatever they are worth.

The Attorney-General on its part also indicated that in pursuance of its orders all the necessary witness statements have been filed.

The plaintiffs are Rocha Ghana, Flower Ghana, Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape, Ghana Youth Environment Movement, Ecocare Ghana, Kasa Initiative Ghana, Save the Flogs Ghana, Awula Serwah, Oteng Adjei, Boakye Twumasi-Ankrah, and Nana Ashanti.

While seven of the plaintiffs are Non-governmental organizations and the remaining four are private citizens of Ghana who share in the ideals of nature conservation for the benefit of humanity.

In the plaintiffs’ claim, they have been compelled to bring the suit against the state on the count of them being patriotic citizens of Ghana and bear a constitutional duty under article 41(k) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to protect and safeguard the environment.

According to them, they also have a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to environmental harm, especially when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk.

The legal action was warranted by the Government decision, acting through the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) to enter the Atewa Range Forest in May 2019 to explore for bauxite by drilling deep holes into the Forest ground. 

According to them, the bauxite explorers had so far drilled holes at 53 different points across the Forest without any mineral rights.

Meanwhile, they argued that the government has a greater responsibility to protect and safeguard the environment; and to address climate change as well as secure biological diversity as obligated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), both of which Ghana is a signatory.

The plaintiffs added that even though they are not opposed to the government’s quest to mobilize revenue through various endeavors including exploiting Ghana’s natural resources for national development, they believe that the country does not need to exploit the Atewa Range Forest bauxite reserves. 

They argued that it is estimated that there are 900 million tons of bauxite minerals across Ghana, with Nyinahin alone holding up to 700 million tonnes (77.98%) whilst Awaso and Kyebi contain 60 million (6.68%), and 160 million tonnes (17.78%) respectively.

“Only 17.78% of Ghana’s bauxite can be found in Kyebi, the area within which the Atewa Range Forest can be found. Hence over 82% of Ghana’s bauxite can be mined without compromising the existence of Atewa Range Forest,” they stated.

In their view, Atewa Range Forest has been traditionally managed for water production, catchment protection, biodiversity conservation, and recreation, all of which are incompatible with bauxite mining.

To them, for the fact that the forest is also administratively classified as Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) and a protected forest reserve, it must be exempted from all mining activities.

The plaintiffs added that the Atewa Range Forest is a site of high biodiversity value and protects the watershed for three major rivers and several other streams serving clean water to about five million Ghanaians yet efforts to compel the government to rescind its decision had not yielded any fruit.

To add insult to injuries, they alleged that the government has also failed to engage local communities and environmentalists who maintain that strip mining is not a sustainable approach and does not reduce the mining footprint.

The plaintiffs claim that out of the several walks to create awareness among Ghanaians and 150,000 individuals across the globe have now added their names to petitions calling for Atewa Range Forest to be protected.

By Adelaide Oforiwa Adimer