The Deputy Secretary-General of the Ghana Federation of Labour, Kenneth Koomson, has announced that the government has agreed to revoke Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2462, which permits mining in forest reserves.

According to him, in an engagement on Thursday, October 3, the government responded to Organised Labour’s demands, which included declaring a state of emergency, revoking L.I. 2462, and deploying the military to forest areas and water bodies to combat illegal mining.

Speaking on News Night on Thursday, Mr Koomson said that the government expressed its commitment to addressing these concerns and specifically agreed to revoke L.I. 2462.

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“The substance of this meeting is for the government to respond to the demands that Organised Labour has made with respect to the galamsey issue and how our forest reserves are being depleted. 

“Government agreed to respond officially to the demands that we have made. In fact, the government agreed that the L.I. 2462 was going to be revoked, parliament when it reconvenes - steps were going to be taken to ensure that the L.I. 2462 which is one of the demands is revoked,” he said.

He added that while many topics were discussed during the meeting, Organised Labour insisted on receiving an official, written confirmation from the government to ensure transparency and clarity.

Read Also: Mining L.I. permitting forest mining must be withdrawn – Awula Serwaa

“When we receive the response, we will call an organised labour meeting, table the response of government and discuss it thoroughly and once that has been discussed, we will issue our response to government - this is the position,” he added.

A recent report by The Fourth Estate revealed how some politically exposed persons were scrambling for licenses to mine in Ghana's forest reserves including areas that are not to be touched.

Some environmentalists have been calling on the government to withdraw the L.I. to protect the forest reserves.

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