The government has revealed that 1,335 acres of land degraded by illegal mining activities (galamsey) were reclaimed in 2025 as part of efforts to restore affected areas.
According to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the reclamation exercise was undertaken in the Ashanti Region through a public-private partnership as part of a broader strategy to transform destroyed mining areas into ecological zones.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, July 15, he maintained that the scale of land degradation caused by illegal mining requires a collective effort from both government and private sector actors.
He noted that the government has secured further commitments from private sector partners to expand the reclamation programme.
“The Ministry, working with the private sector, has embarked on an aggressive strategy to reclaim degraded mining areas and transform them into ecological zones. The last time we were here, we talked about how huge that responsibility is in terms of how much we have to reclaim on this destroyed land.
“I can tell you that just last year we reclaimed 1,335 acres of degraded land, and this was done in the Ashanti Region.
“We have gotten commitment from the private sector to undertake more reclamation, and we are targeting another 1,500 acres of reclamation this year, and this is in addition to the government-owned reclamation effort of 960 acres in selected areas, so we hope to improve those numbers,” he said.
He added that the continued reclamation efforts are aimed at restoring degraded landscapes and recovering lands destroyed by illegal mining activities.
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