Ghana: Civil Society Demands Ecocide Law to Combat Illegal Gold Mining Crisis

Summary

3 October 2025 – A coalition of Ghanaian civil society organisations has issued an urgent call to President John Dramani Mahama to take immediate action against what they describe as an ongoing "ecocide" driven by illegal gold mining (galamsey) in the country. 

The detailed letter from the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey, representing organisations including OneGhana Movement, A Rocha Ghana, Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Ghana Institution of Engineering, University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), and more than 20 others, presents evidence from nonprofit Pure Earth and Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency showing mercury, arsenic, and lead contamination across Ghana's water, soil, and food systems.

This intervention from Ghanaian civil society comes as African leadership on ecocide law is accelerating. In July 2025, the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Nairobi, spearheaded by the DRC, placed ecocide among Africa's strategic environmental priorities for 2025 to 2027, marking the first time a UN forum has explicitly recognised it as a continental concern. In September, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi confirmed his country's support for Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa's proposal to establish ecocide as a standalone international crime at the UN General Assembly, declaring that vital resources are "seriously threatened by destructive activities often fueled by recurring armed conflicts, which amount to veritable crimes against nature." The DRC is the first African nation to formally back amending the Rome Statute to include ecocide.

Guillaume Kalonji, Africa Coordinator at Stop Ecocide International, said:

"What we're witnessing in Ghana is civil society refusing to accept the normalisation of mass environmental destruction. The evidence they've presented - mercury levels 560% above safety limits - shows why the regional movement for ecocide law is gaining such urgent momentum. When communities across the African continent face similar crises from vested interests and extractive industries, the demand for ecocide law isn't abstract. It's about survival."

Read the full statement from Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey here.