The Minority Caucus in Parliament has thrown its weight behind calls for the annulment of legislative instrument L.I 2462, crafted to safeguard the nation’s forest reserves.
This comes after a group of civil society organizations petitioned Parliament and asked the President to rescind the L.I, contending that since its enactment a year ago, eight mining leases have been granted for exploitation within the country’s forest reserves.
The coalition further asserted that 15 mining lease applications, seeking approval for operations within these reserves, are currently in different stages of consideration. This, they argue, poses a potential threat to effective forest management and exacerbates the challenges in combating climate change.
Dr. Rashid Pelpuo, the Ranking Member on the Lands and Forestry Committee of Parliament, stressed on the need for the legislation to be brought before the House for thorough deliberations and scrutiny.
“It has not been brought to Parliament, but it is necessary for it to be presented to Parliament. I have listened to the Minister and engaged with him directly, and he told me the details of where he wanted the thing to go. He has been able to negotiate up to 13 percent, and there is another 3 percent that can be added. At the end, we will have Ghanaians buy into the shares and become shareholders. It is all attractive to hear, but is that the best, and that is what we need to ascertain.
“So what we are saying is that the Minister should bring the matter directly to Parliament for us to take a closer look at the agreement. We need to see what we can do to support the agreement by ensuring that our inputs find space in the agreement. This will give it the colour and quality that we want so that we don’t regret it later.”
