The government reclaimed 1,335 acres of land degraded by illegal mining activities in 2025 as part of efforts to restore damaged landscapes and convert affected areas into ecological zones, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has said.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, Buah said the reclamation exercise was carried out in the Ashanti Region through a public-private partnership aimed at addressing the environmental damage caused by illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
He said the scale of land destruction requires collaboration between government and private sector actors, adding that additional commitments have been secured to expand reclamation efforts.
“The Ministry, working with the private sector, has embarked on an aggressive strategy to reclaim degraded mining areas and transform them into ecological zones,” he said.
Buah said the government had set an ambitious target to reclaim more degraded lands in the coming year.
“I can tell you that just last year we reclaimed 1,335 acres of degraded land, and this was done in the Ashanti Region,” he said.
“We have gotten commitment from the private sector to undertake more reclamation, and we are targeting another 1,500 acres of reclamation this year. This is in addition to the government-owned reclamation effort of 960 acres in selected areas.”
The minister said the continued reclamation programme forms part of broader government efforts to restore lands affected by illegal mining and recover ecosystems damaged by mining activities.
He added that transforming degraded mining sites into productive ecological zones remains a key priority in the fight against environmental degradation caused by illegal mining.
