PRESENTATION BY HON ESTHER OBENG DAPPAH, MINISTER FOR LANDS, FORESTRY & MINES AT THE ‘MEET-THE-PRESS’ SERIES HELD AT THE PREMISES OF THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & NATIONAL ORIENTATION ON 8TH APRIL 2008

Madam Chairperson (Hon Minister for Information & National Orientation)

Colleague Ministers
Deputy Ministers
Chief Directors
Heads of Agencies under MLFM
Invited Guests
Media Practitioners
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am privileged to make this presentation on behalf of the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines (MLFM). My able Deputies, Hon Andrew Adjei-Yeboah in charge of Forestry sub-sector and Hon Rita Tani Iddi in charge of the Mines sub-sector, are also here to offer their support.

Mission of MLFM

The Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines is mandated to ensure the sustainable management and utilisation of the nation’s lands, forests, wildlife resources as well as the efficient management of mineral resources for the country’s socio-economic growth and development. In carrying out this mandate, MLFM aims at achieving the following goals:
• Wealth creation
• Revenue mobilisation
• Employment generation and
• Environmental sustainability

Sector Agencies

Presently, the Lands Sector is made up of the following agencies:
a. Lands Commission (LC)
b. Land Valuation Board (LVB)
c. Land Title Registry (LTR)
d. Survey Department (SD)
e. Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL)
However, institutional reforms that the Ministry is currently pursuing seek to merge all these agencies into a one-stop-shop corporate organisation soon.

The Forestry Sector agencies have since 1999 been successfully merged into the Forestry Commission with the following divisions:

a. Forest Services Division (FSD)
b. Wildlife Division (WD)
c. Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD)

The Mines sector agencies are:

a. Minerals Commission
b. Geological Survey Department
c. Precious Minerals Marketing Company Limited (PMMC).

Collaborating Ministries and other Stakeholders
MLFM collaborates with other key Ministries. Among them include Ministries of Local Government, Rural Development & Environment; Water Resources, Works & Housing, Food & Agriculture, Energy and Finance & Economic Planning in pursuit of its mandate.

Stakeholders which are actively involved in the implementation of sector programmes and projects include:

• Traditional Authorities
• Ghana Chamber of Mines
• Ghana Timber Millers Organisation (GTMO)
• Ghana Timber Association (GTA)
• Furniture and Woodworkers Association of Ghana (FAWAG)
• Academic and Research Institutions and
• Civil Society including NGOs

Ladies and Gentlemen, after letting you know the set up of my Ministry, I now present to you our performance on sub-sector basis starting from Lands, Forestry and Mines in that order. For each sub-sector, my presentation would cover the operational challenges as at year 2001 and policy interventions and strategies employed to address the situation from that time to date. I would follow on with progress and achievements realised so far and elaborate on current constraints in the implementation of those strategies and finally end up with the Way Forward in addressing emerging challenges.

THE LANDS SUB-SECTOR

Situation as at Year 2001

As at the beginning of year 2001, there were various challenges facing the Lands sub-sector which included the following:

•  Fragmented Land Sector Agencies (LSAs) with entrenched identities and interests, performing overlapping and duplicating functions

• There were 166 Land Laws and Regulations, some of which were conflicting, outdated and/or inconsistent with new policy directives of Government;

• Land Information Management regime was mostly manual comprising of graphical maps, cadastral data and textural records without any systematic linkages thus made records accessibility a very lengthy task

•  It took more than three (3) years with high cost to register a title to land as there were only Two (2) Deed Registries nationwide, located in Accra and Kumasi

•  About 35,000 backlog cases at the formal courts concerning litigation over ownership of land.

Policy Interventions & Strategies (Lands)

In order to address the problems facing land administration in the country, my Ministry instituted measures to streamline policies and legislative framework and establish an efficient and cost effective one stop corporate organisation to handle land management in order to reduce time and cost of land registration and titling

Achievements (Lands)

Madam Chairperson, the Ministry has achieved some progress with the implementation of these strategies.

To make land transaction easier, a bill to establish a new Lands Commission with all land agencies under it is currently before Parliament for consideration. Consequently, negotiations for the construction of a new office building for the new Land Agency have been completed.

During the period under review my Ministry presented equipment to the Judiciary to handle backlog cases on land at the courts and as a result 2,820 representing about 32.7% of backlog cases have been disposed off.

Ladies and gentlemen, in order to reduce insecurity in land tenure and avoid multiple sales of land, 10 customary land secretariats (one in each region) have been established. In addition, Land Banks for investments in various parts of the country have been identified, documented, published and information disseminated to provide ready access to land.

The transaction cost and turn around time in title/deed registration have also been reduced considerably (from 36 months to Two months) by the establishment of seven Deed Registries in Koforidua, Tamale, Sunyani, Sekondi, Bolgatanga, Ho and Wa in addition to existing ones in Accra and Kumasi. The Office building for Cape Coast Land Registry is to be completed and inaugurated this month ( April, 2008).

Current Challenges (Lands)

Madam Chairperson, one major challenge that the Ministry faces in the ongoing reforms in land administration is how to ensure the sustainability of the Customary Land Secretariats (CLS) being established. Presently, the CLS are being supported by Government and other development partners through the Land Administration Project. However, the question is whether the traditional authorities managing these secretariats would continue to financially support them when the Land Administration Project comes to a close.

Way Forward (Lands)

Ladies and gentlemen, the success of land administration in the country depends largely on an effective administrative set up at the local level. For this reason the Ministry would conduct a study and come up with recommendations for effective and sustainable management of the Customary Land Secretariats now being established

THE FOREST AND WILDLIFE SUB-SECTOR

Situation as at 2001

Ladies and gentlemen, the problems within the forest and Wildlife sub-sector as at 2001 was also gloomy. The resource base and revenue generation of the sub-sector were dwindling as a result of the following factors:

•  Discretionary allocation of timber rights

•  Inadequate capacity of the Forestry Commission (FC) to enforce forest laws and regulations

•  Lack of momentum to carry out institutional reforms of FC

• Increased incidence of illegal timber operations

•  Dwindling stock of traditional wood species for export

•  Deforestation (due to farming, fuelwood harvesting illegal logging and wildfires)

• Inadequate forest plantations development due to non-existence of a technical department within FC responsible for plantation development

•  Inaccessibility to degraded but fertile forest lands for agro-forestry purposes

•  Neglect of Bamboo as a useful wood resource and viable alternative to traditional timber species

•  Lack of promotion of eco-tourism strategy within the Wildlife subsector

Strategies and Policy Interventions (Forest & Wildlife)

Madam Chairperson, in addressing the problems facing the forest and wildlife sub-sector, the Ministry adopted the following strategies:
• Policy Review on allocation of timber rights through a Competitive Bidding process to ensure fairness, equity, transparency and prevent substantial loss of revenue to the state.

• Development of a corporate customer focused and business oriented organisation located in a common building to facilitate needed team-work for improved service delivery

• Implementation of a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union on legal timber to ensure legality in timber export trade

• Implementation of a various plantation development programme through a number of strategies namely Modified Taungya System (MTS), Community Forestry Management Project (CFMP), Private Commercial Plantation Development and Forestry Commission Initiative to reduce poverty, encourage employment generation and restore loss of forest cover

• Institution of a benefit-sharing scheme for parties involved in plantation development to make it economically attractive to both local and foreign investment

• Implementation of a Wildfire Management Project to address the menace of wildfire in the Transitional Zone of the Country

• Promotion of eco-tourism focusing on public-private sector partnership in wildlife resources development

• Promotion of the use of bamboo as a useful alternative wood resource to reduce the pressure on the traditionally exploited wood species

Progress (Forest and Wildlife)

Ladies and gentlemen, kindly permit me now, to highlight on the achievement in the forest and wildlife sub-sector.

Current Challenges (Forest & Wildlife)

o Although a comprehensive system such as the VPA is being developed to reduce illegality in forest reserves, the off-reserve areas still pose as a major challenge

o Laissez-faire attitude of some farming communities towards maintenance of established plantations

o Wildfires and activities of Fulani herdsmen remain a major problem in the establishment of Forest Plantations

Way Forward (Forest & Wildlife)

Madam Chairperson, to address the current identified challenges in forest management, the Ministry plans to:

MINING SECTOR

Situation as at 2001

Madam Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, the situation of the mining sector as at 2001 was not different from the other two sectors already highlighted. There were problems limiting mining operations such as:
• Over-reliance on few traditional minerals (gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite)

• Outmoded legal and fiscal regimes

• Hostile relationship between mining companies and host communities

• Environmental degradation (mercury pollution of water bodies by small scale miners)

Strategies and Policy Interventions

In dealing with above problems, the Ministry adopted the following strategies:
• Development of a new Mining Policy and review of the legal and fiscal regimes to attract more investments into the mining sector.

• Implementation of a forty (40) million Euros grant from the European Union, the Mining Sector Support Programme (MSSP) to undertake the following projects:

- Institutional reinforcement and capacity building
- Development of geological data including airborne geophysical survey of the entire Voltaian and Keta Basins minerals and other resources
- Conducting a mining Environmental Impact for Assessment to measure the effects of large scale mining operations and future consequences of mine closures throughout the country in order to find appropriate solutions to impacts that mining operations bring.
- Abatement of mercury pollution resulting from small scale mining
- Information Management Systems to link the various sector agencies to facilitate information sharing
- Promotion of the implementation of Alternative Livelihood Projects in mining communities to improve relationships between mining companies and their host communities.

Achievements

Madam Chairperson, I am pleased to inform you that a lot of progress has been made in this sector since 2001 and the following need to be mentioned:
• An Act, Minerals and Mining Act 2006, (Act 703) has been enacted based on international best practices which does not only make the sector internationally competitive, but also address the interests of other stakeholders such as relocation, resettlement of mining communities and compensation for use of land.

• Since 2001, a total of US$ 4.9 billion has been invested in the sector resulting in a substantial increase in the minerals (gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese) produced over the period.

• Two new mines (Newmont Ahafo and Chirano) have been established as a result of sound policies adopted in the sector.

• As regards the airborne geophysical survey of the entire Voltaian and Keta Basins, the first phase consisting of Satellite Imagery Interpretation has been completed. Phase two involving Spectrometry and Magnetic survey over 98,000 km2 of the Voltaian Basin is also completed.

• The strategy to promote value addition to our minerals has also yielded positive results. The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) has expanded its jewellery operations and an American company has started cutting and polishing diamonds in the country.

• Information Management System within the sector has improved leading to timely production of comprehensive quarterly statistics on mining operations. A website, www.ghanamining.org, has also been established to improve on inter-agency information sharing.
• Apart from promoting the Alternatve Livelihood Programme concept, the Ministry has established an oil palm plantation in the Wassa West District. A total of 800 farm families received oil palm seedlings for planting in 2007.

Current challenges (Mining subsector)

Madam Chairperson, despite considerable improvements that the mining sector has seen since 2001, I must admit that there are still some challenges to face. The major ones include:

• How to get a genuine investor to take over the Ghana Consolidated Diamonds Company Limited which has been on the divestiture list for more fifteen years.

• Continued presence of illegal miners (galamsey) on legitimate concessions of mining companies

• Identification of mercury-free gold processing methods for small scale gold miners.

• Continued reliance on the exploitation of only the traditional minerals (gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese).

Way forward (Mining subsector)