Illegal mining is one of Ghana’s greatest environmental threats. Forest reserves are destroyed, rivers are heavily polluted, farmlands have disappeared, and communities continue to bear the long-term consequences of activities that benefit only a few individuals.
While prosecuting those who directly engage in these crimes is necessary, it is equally important to ask a more difficult question: who made these crimes possible?
The significance of the Wontumi case extends beyond the individual conviction. It highlights the importance of the legal framework that allows responsibility to reach beyond the person physically operating the excavator.
Under the earlier legal regime, enforcement was more heavily focused on direct operators and licensing violations, creating potential gaps where influential individuals could distance themselves from illegal mining conducted through third parties.
The post-2019 framework broadened the scope of accountability to include those who knowingly instigate, procure, aid, facilitate or promote illegal mining activities. This is an important shift because large-scale illegal mining rarely depends on the excavator operator alone.
Those who knowingly facilitate or participate in illegal mining should be investigated for potential criminal liability, while public officials whose conduct amounts to negligence, dereliction of duty or abuse of office should face the appropriate administrative or legal consequences.
Illegal mining on the scale witnessed across Ghana rarely happens in isolation. Heavy machinery does not enter protected lands unnoticed, and excavators are not transported through communities without local knowledge. Operations that continue for months or years often do so because influential people choose to look the other way or actively facilitate them.
In many cases, local authorities are best positioned to prevent these activities before they begin.
This is why the role of traditional leaders deserves particular attention. Chiefs and queen mothers remain custodians of customary lands and are among the most influential voices within their communities. While they may not always have direct legal authority over mining concessions, they possess considerable moral authority and local knowledge. Their cooperation or lack of it can significantly influence whether environmentally destructive activities succeed.
A powerful example comes from the Queen Mother of Jamasi-Tabre. Recognising the ecological importance of lands under her jurisdiction, particularly as part of the watershed that feeds the River Offin and several smaller streams, she reportedly wrote to the Minerals Commission requesting that no concessions be granted within her traditional area without prior consultation.
Her reasoning was simple: government and traditional authorities should jointly assess whether any proposed mining activity is environmentally sustainable before approval is granted.
The Queen Mother’s intervention should not be viewed as an isolated act of environmental stewardship. Rather, it reflects the standard of custodianship that His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has consistently demanded of traditional authorities throughout Asanteman.
In 2021, the Asantehene publicly warned chiefs against participating in or facilitating illegal mining, declaring that any chief found complicit would face severe sanctions. He specifically raised concerns about reports of illegal mining in areas such as Amansie and Fomena and reminded chiefs that protecting the environment is a sacred responsibility of traditional leadership.
His words have been matched by decisive action. This commitment to environmental stewardship is reflected in the destoolment of the Chief of Bekwai-Abodom, following findings that he had indiscriminately sold lands to illegal miners, facilitating the destruction of water bodies and forests; the Gyaasehene, Akyeamehene and Baamuhene of Sabronum, after investigations found them complicit in illegal mining, with the matter subsequently referred for criminal investigation; and the Chief of Ohwim, following findings that included alleged involvement in illegal mining and the misuse of stool lands.
These actions, taken between 2023 and 2025, demonstrate that under the leadership of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, traditional authority is expected to protect the environment, not facilitate its destruction.
The Wontumi case demonstrates the importance of extending accountability beyond those who are physically present at the site of illegal mining. Where evidence establishes that persons exercising traditional authority, political influence or public office have knowingly enabled or facilitated such activities, they too should be subjected to appropriate sanctions under the law.
Doing so would reinforce the standards of custodianship that the Asantehene has consistently championed and send a clear message that no position of influence places anyone beyond accountability.
This is not about targeting chiefs, politicians or security agencies. It is about upholding a simple principle: responsibility should extend to everyone who knowingly contributes to or facilitates environmental destruction. The law loses much of its deterrent effect when those who physically carry out an offence are held accountable while those who knowingly enable or facilitate it escape scrutiny.
Ghana’s fight against illegal mining will not be won by prosecuting only those found behind the controls of an excavator. It requires an enforcement system capable of tracing responsibility through the entire chain of illegal activity; from those who physically conduct the mining to those who knowingly provide the machinery, resources, access or protection that make it possible.
The destruction caused by illegal mining cannot be reversed overnight, but Ghana can reduce its recurrence by ensuring that accountability reaches every level of responsibility. The lesson from the Wontumi case should therefore be clear: where evidence establishes criminal involvement, regardless of a person’s position or influence, the law must apply equally. Those who enable environmental crimes must understand that they too may be held responsible for the damage inflicted on Ghana’s forests, rivers and future generations.
This article is written by Dr. Camynta-Baezie
