Environmental conservation organisation, A Rocha Ghana is questioning why institutions like the World Bank will continue to fund the reclamation of lands devastated by illegal miners at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer.

Data from Global Forest Watch indicates trees sitting on 1.41 million hectares of land, equivalent to half the land size of the Ashanti region, were destroyed across Ghana between 2001 and 2021.

JoyNews checks indicate there was more destruction of forests in 2022 and 2023, though the country has secured 103 million dollars from the World Bank to reclaim lands destroyed by illegal miners.

A Rocha Ghana describes as unfair how the Ghanaian whose land and water have been polluted is made to pay for the continuous destruction of the nation’s resources.

Deputy National Director of the organisation, Daryl Bossu, spoke to Erastus Asare Donkor in his upcoming documentary, ‘Forests Under Siege’.