Abstract
<p>The article draws on the insights of political ecology to illuminate the politics shaping the enforcement of environmental regulation in the mining sector of Ghana. We argue that the Ghanaian state uses strong-arm measures against artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operators, particularly, the subaltern classes engaged in the industry for survival. Periodically, the state deploys the military and the police to clamp down on ASM for destroying the environment, but treats with kid gloves foreign companies engaged in large-scale mining (LSM), wreaking similar disastrous ecological effects on mining communities. The state believes that LSM by foreign companies is a source of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign mining companies should be incentivized to come and stay in the country. Presented in broad-brush strokes as illegal (<em>galamsey</em>), the Ghanaian state sees ASM as an environmental menace to be fought with all the coercive apparatuses that it can command. Disputing this claim, the article argues that mining-FDI is essentially ecological imperialism, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem of mining communities whose livelihood strategies are in conflict with the accumulation and political interests of foreign mining companies and the Ghanaian political class respectively. The article demonstrates that concerns over the harmful impacts of mining on the ecology of Ghana are neither class-neutral nor free of politics. They are rather highly imbricated in power structures and relations, in which the interest of the ruling class is supreme in the enforcement of environmental regulations in Ghana. The paradox of the biases of the Ghanaian state against ASM, particularly ASM operated by its own citizens for survival, and in favor of foreign mining companies engaged in LSM for profits, is explained with the insights of ecological imperialism.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Large-scale mining, artisanal and small-scale mining, Operation Vanguard, Ghanaian state biases, ecological imperialism</p>
Highlights
A large oeuvre of literature, scholarly and grey, documents and severely criticizes the Ghanaian state and foreign mining companies for the violence they wreak on inhabitants of mining communities
In the pages that follow, we flesh out our arguments: we address the charge of ecological biases we make against the Ghanaian state by discussing the strong-arm measures it uses against ASM operators for destroying the ecology on one hand, and on the other, its inaction against large-scale mining (LSM) by foreign mining companies whose mining activities wreak disastrous environmental effects on mining communities
In the empirical core of the article we present and discuss evidence of ecological imperialism; namely, the destruction of the ecosystem by foreign mining companies engaged in LSM in Ghana
Summary
A large oeuvre of literature, scholarly and grey, documents and severely criticizes the Ghanaian state and foreign mining companies for the violence they wreak on inhabitants of mining communities. These soldiers are accused by members of mining communities of engaging in acts of violence against them (CHRAJ 2008) The excuse for these biases is that ASM operate illegally while LSM operate legally, including the possession of valid environmental permits issued by The Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana (EPAG) in accordance with the Ghana Environmental Assessment Regulations 1999, LI 1652 and the Minerals and Mining Policy of Ghana 2014. Contributing to a discussion on the fight against galamsey on Newfile, one of the highly rated weekend political talk shows in Ghana, he stated that Aisha Huang and her partners are very powerful Chinese women, well-connected politically to powerful people in both NDC- and NPP-led governments in Ghana He suggests they offer favors to these powerful politicians in exchange for protection of their illegal mining activities from the law enforcement agencies (Myjoyonline TV n.d). The difference is the inaction of the Ghanaian state in the case of the former, and the forceful action it has taken against the latter
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