An investigation by Save the Mining Communities-Ghana reveals how illegal mining is moving deeper into one of West Africa’s most important forests—and how local communities are being caught between economic survival, environmental destruction and alleged institutional failure.
Illegal gold mining in Ghana’s Eastern Region is no longer a hidden or isolated problem. It has developed into an organised and increasingly visible economy, operating across communities and, according to a new investigation, penetrating one of Ghana’s most important ecological treasures: the Atewa Forest.
For years, Ghana has struggled to contain illegal mining, locally known as galamsey. The practice provides income for thousands of people, particularly young people, but it also carries enormous environmental and social costs. Rivers are polluted, agricultural land is degraded and forests are cleared to make way for mining pits.
Now, the threat is moving into the Atewa Forest itself.
A five-month undercover investigation conducted by Save the Mining Communities-Ghana (SMC-Gh) between April and August 2026 provides a disturbing account of mining activity around and inside the Atewa Forest Range. Researchers travelled across seven communities—Asamang Tamfoe, Akyem Ankaase, Pameng, Apampatia, Osino, Sagyimase and Kyebi—to investigate the extent of illegal mining and its wider effects on local communities.
The research team interviewed 350 miners and 120 residents. According to the investigation, many of the miners were not originally from the communities. Some reportedly came from Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Niger.
Their presence points to a wider regional dimension to Ghana’s illegal-mining economy. What may appear to be a local environmental problem is increasingly connected to cross-border migration, informal labour networks and the movement of people and capital in search of gold.
Mining Moves Into the Forest
The Atewa Forest is not an ordinary piece of woodland.
It is one of Ghana’s important remaining rainforest ecosystems and a recognised biodiversity hotspot. Its forest landscape supports biodiversity and plays a critical role in protecting water resources.
Yet the investigation reports that illegal miners have breached the forest reserve itself.
Researchers observed areas where mature trees had been cut down and mining pits had been opened inside protected zones. The transformation is stark: areas that once served ecological functions are being converted into mining sites in the pursuit of short-term economic gain.
The consequences extend far beyond the immediate mining pits.
When mature forest is cleared, the damage is not simply the loss of trees. Forest soils can be disturbed, waterways can become contaminated with sediment and mining-related pollutants, and habitats can be fragmented. Once a rainforest ecosystem is severely degraded, restoring it to its original ecological condition can be extremely difficult.
For communities living around the forest, the stakes are therefore much higher than the future of a particular mining site.
They include the future of their water, agriculture, livelihoods and environmental security.
The People Who Make the Mining Possible
The investigation also highlights the role of local intermediaries.
According to miners interviewed by the researchers, local middlemen familiar with the terrain help foreign miners gain access to areas inside the forest. These individuals are often community insiders who understand the forest and its surrounding pathways.
Their involvement illustrates one of the central challenges in combating illegal mining.
Galamsey cannot easily survive in an area without some degree of local knowledge and access. People who understand the terrain can provide directions, introductions, labour connections or other forms of assistance. In return, they may receive financial benefits from the mining economy.
This creates a difficult situation for communities.
Some residents may recognise the destruction caused by illegal mining while simultaneously depending on the economic opportunities created by it. For unemployed young people, gold can offer an immediate source of income in circumstances where formal employment is limited.
That tension is at the heart of Ghana’s galamsey crisis.
The issue is therefore not simply about stopping miners. It is also about understanding why people enter the illegal mining economy, who profits from it, who facilitates it and what realistic alternatives exist.
Allegations of Security Personnel Complicity
Perhaps the most serious allegation in the investigation concerns the reported presence of police vehicles at active mining sites.
In Sagyimase, Osino and Asamang Tamfoe, researchers reported seeing police vehicles at mining locations during the daytime.
According to the investigation, the officers did not stop the mining operations. Instead, they were allegedly collecting money before leaving the sites.
One miner interviewed by the researchers reportedly described the police presence as friendly, saying:
«“The presence of the police car is not a problem, they are friendly. They come for money and leave us to work in peace.”»
If independently established, such conduct would represent a profound challenge to the enforcement of Ghana’s laws against illegal mining.
The allegation is particularly significant because the fight against galamsey depends heavily on law enforcement and specialised anti-illegal-mining operations. The investigation argues that the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), established to support the fight against illegal mining, has failed to make a meaningful impact in the communities studied.
These allegations warrant careful investigation and accountability. The effectiveness of any national environmental policy ultimately depends on whether laws are enforced consistently on the ground.
A Parallel Economy Emerges
The investigation also documents the social transformation taking place around mining communities.
As mining activity expands, businesses catering to miners and other residents have grown alongside it. Beer bars, game centres and discotheques reportedly operate late into the night, creating a vibrant but increasingly problematic nightlife economy.
Residents interviewed during the study reported rising theft, teenage pregnancies, gang activity and a general increase in insecurity.
These developments suggest that the impact of galamsey extends beyond environmental degradation.
An influx of workers can increase demand for accommodation, food, entertainment and other services. That can generate economic activity and income for local businesses. But where the economy develops rapidly outside formal regulation, communities can also experience social disruption.
For families, the consequences can be particularly serious.
Young people may become exposed to environments where quick money from mining appears more attractive than education or skills training. Teenage pregnancies can interrupt girls’ education and limit future opportunities. Increased insecurity can affect businesses, schools and ordinary family life.
The result is a community economy that can appear prosperous on the surface while becoming increasingly vulnerable underneath.
Atewa Forest: Why the World Should Care
For an international audience, the significance of the Atewa Forest extends beyond Ghana.
Forests such as Atewa form part of the ecological infrastructure that supports human life. They help protect watersheds, preserve biodiversity and maintain environmental systems that communities depend on.
The investigation identifies river bodies feeding major towns, unique biodiversity and long-term ecological stability among the resources threatened by continued destruction.
The question is therefore not simply whether Ghana will lose another forest.
It is whether a globally important ecosystem can survive an economic system built around the extraction of a valuable mineral without adequate environmental safeguards.
Gold is internationally traded. The demand for gold is not confined to the communities where it is mined. It is part of global jewellery, investment and industrial supply chains.
This creates a difficult moral and economic question.
Consumers and businesses around the world may benefit from gold without knowing where or how it was extracted. Yet the environmental and social costs of extraction can remain concentrated in communities thousands of kilometres away.
Atewa therefore represents a local manifestation of a global challenge: how can natural resources be extracted without destroying the ecosystems and communities that make long-term development possible?
“The Government Has Failed”
For Andrews Kwame Perprem, the lead investigator behind the SMC-Gh study, the current approach is not working.
Perprem argues that Ghana’s government has failed to adequately address the galamsey crisis and that national strategies will continue to struggle unless mining communities themselves become active participants in the solution.
His central argument is that communities cannot simply be treated as passive recipients of government enforcement.
They must become part of the response.
Traditional leaders, in particular, have an important role to play. Chiefs and other traditional authorities possess influence and knowledge within their communities and can help shape attitudes towards natural-resource management.
But that influence must also come with responsibility.
The investigation alleges that some traditional leaders may benefit from the illegal mining economy. Where such allegations are substantiated, accountability must extend beyond miners to everyone who enables, facilitates or profits from illegal operations.
Perprem argues that chiefs should be empowered to lead community education, support skills development and help reduce young people’s dependence on illegal mining.
That approach shifts the conversation from enforcement alone to community ownership.
Beyond Arrests: Creating Alternatives
A lasting solution to galamsey will require more than arrests, equipment seizures and military or police operations.
Young people need alternatives.
Where mining provides immediate income and formal employment does not, simply telling young people to leave mining without creating viable alternatives is unlikely to produce sustainable results.
Skills training, apprenticeships, agriculture, small-business development and other livelihood opportunities can provide communities with choices beyond illegal mining.
Education is equally important.
Children growing up in mining communities need opportunities to remain in school and develop skills that can provide long-term economic independence. Without such alternatives, a cycle can develop in which one generation enters illegal mining because of limited opportunities and the next generation grows up believing that mining is the only realistic path to income.
Community education can also help residents understand the long-term value of the forest.
The forest may not provide an immediate cash payment comparable to gold, but its value is measured differently: water security, agricultural productivity, biodiversity, climate resilience and the protection of future livelihoods.
A Moment of Decision
The SMC-Gh investigation presents a picture of a crisis that has become increasingly normalised.
Illegal mining is reportedly operating openly. Foreign and local miners are working through informal networks. Community insiders allegedly facilitate access to protected areas. Residents describe growing social problems. And serious allegations have been raised concerning the conduct of security personnel.
Most importantly, the mining frontier is reportedly moving into the Atewa Forest itself.
That development should be treated as a warning.
Once mature forests are cleared and mining pits transform the landscape, reversing the damage becomes considerably more difficult. The longer illegal operations continue, the greater the environmental and social costs may become.
Ghana now faces a choice.
It can continue responding to galamsey primarily as an enforcement problem, or it can treat it as a broader development challenge involving unemployment, poverty, governance, corruption, community leadership, environmental protection and the international demand for gold.
The second approach is harder.
It requires government institutions, traditional authorities, local communities, civil society, environmental experts and the private sector to work together. It also requires accountability at every level—from the miner digging the pit to those who facilitate access, protect operations or profit from the trade.
The communities surrounding Atewa cannot carry the burden alone.
The international community also has a role. Responsible sourcing of gold, stronger supply-chain transparency and greater attention to the environmental consequences of mineral consumption can help ensure that the demand for gold does not translate into the destruction of irreplaceable ecosystems.
The Choice Facing Atewa
The Atewa Forest is now at a critical point.
The investigation by Save the Mining Communities-Ghana suggests that illegal mining has moved beyond isolated incursions and is becoming part of a wider economic and social system operating around the forest.
The challenge is therefore bigger than stopping individual mining pits.
It is about dismantling the networks that make those pits possible, creating viable alternatives for communities, strengthening local accountability and protecting an ecosystem whose value extends far beyond the communities immediately surrounding it.
Ghana still has an opportunity to change course.
But that opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.
If the forest is allowed to deteriorate beyond recovery, future generations may inherit the consequences of decisions made today.
The gold beneath the ground may generate wealth for a few years.
The forest, if protected, can sustain life for generations.
The question facing Ghana—and, increasingly, the wider world—is which legacy will be allowed to survive.