Professor Nana Ama Klutse, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), has stressed the need for greater community involvement in combating illegal mining, citing the limitations of state institutions in addressing the escalating crisis.
Speaking on Channel One Newsroom on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Professor Klutse acknowledged the increasing challenges faced by agencies such as the EPA, Forestry Commission, police, and military in enforcing environmental regulations due to the aggressive resistance from illegal miners.
She emphasized that while government institutions continue to battle the menace, a shift towards community-led efforts would significantly strengthen the fight against illegal mining.
“We don’t have so many human resources at the EPA to do this work. Only a few of us are out there doing the monitoring. The illegal miners are fully armed, and they attack state authorities when they go around to monitor. We have had staff from the Forestry Commission, police, and even military men suffering these attacks,” she said.
Professor Klutse believes that engaging local communities through dialogue and collaboration will yield better results in curbing the activities of illegal miners.
“But we believe that if we go on the dialogue way by getting the community along to fight on our behalf or help in the fight, we should achieve more than we are doing now. It looks like there are more illegal miners than the state institutions or the people who are fighting or controlling it,” she added.
The EPA is now prioritizing community engagement to complement ongoing governmental efforts in the fight against illegal mining.
