Measuring Livelihood Vulnerability to Large-Scale and Small-Scale Mining in Rural Ghana: A Comparative Examination of Agrarian Households

Abstract

While promoting both large-scale and small-scale mining to facilitate rural development and poverty reduction, it becomes imperative to examine the level of exposure and the risk of mining on assets and livelihoods of agrarian households in mining communities. The study was, therefore, designed to examine the differential effect of the risk of large-scale and small-scale mining on livelihoods of agrarian households. The study covered five regions of Ghana namely, Ashanti, Eastern, Western, Central and Brong-Ahafo Regions, where both large-scale and small-scale mining are pervasive. A two-stage sampling technique was used to sample 864 agrarian households in the study area for primary data. The 864 households comprised 432 households selected from 36 communities which are exclusively exposed to the activities of large-scale mining and 432 households selected from 36 communities exclusively exposed to the activities of small-scale mining. Household livelihood vulnerability (HLV) index was used to measure livelihood vulnerability to the risk of mining. The study established that though agrarian households are susceptible to both large-scale and small-scale mining, assets and livelihoods of such households are more vulnerable to the risk of large-scale mining than small-scale mining. Emanating from the study are recommendations to reduce household livelihood vulnerability to both large-scale and small-scale mining and facilitate livelihood development among agrarian households in mining communities of rural Ghana.