Ghana has received $103.4 million from the World Bank to reverse the degradation of about three million hectares of devastated lands and strengthen the country’s integrated natural resource management.
250,000 people are intended as direct beneficiaries, the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining project will place emphasis on land-use planning for integrated landscape administration and promote sustainable mining by assisting in the formalisation artisanal and small-scale mining.
The World in a statement said the project would liaise with communities of the northern savannah zone and the cocoa forest landscape.
It said the cost of environmental degradation in Ghana due to unsustainable use of land for agriculture, forests, and mining stood at 2.8 percent of GDP (2017).
According to the statement, if the current natural resource extraction persists, Ghana would see her natural resource base destroyed over the long term, with fewer opportunities to sustain growth and shared prosperity.
Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana said the project will enhance post-COVID-19 economic recovery, generate employments, and secure livelihoods in some poor neighbourhoods in the country.
Laporte said it will be “focusing on agricultural productivity, ecosystems management and sustainable small-scale mining.”
The statement added that the project would also support sustainable land, water, and forest management activities in the climate-vulnerable target landscapes.
“This joint project aligns with the World Bank’s Forest-Smart Mining Initiative and will promote forest-smart interventions in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector and strengthen regulatory compliance and sustainable mining practices,” said Zubin Bamji, World Bank Acting Practice Manager, Energy and Extractives Global Practice.
The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960 has supported development work in 113 countries with average commitments of about $21 billion over the last three years. More than half coming to Africa.