President John Dramani Mahama has invited more than fifty of Ghana’s most influential civil society organisations (CSOs) for a landmark dialogue on illegal mining, widely known as galamsey.
The meeting, scheduled for Friday, October 3, 2025, at Jubilee House, will bring together leaders from religious bodies, professional associations, think tanks, and advocacy groups to craft a unified response to the escalating environmental and social crisis.
Among the groups expected are the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Ghana Bar Association, IMANI Ghana, the Ghana Journalists Association, and Eco-Conscious Citizens.
A letter signed by the President’s Secretary, Dr. Callistus Mahama, stressed that the session will provide “a platform for frank and constructive dialogue between government and civil society, with a view to harnessing collective expertise and solutions to address this national challenge.”
The dialogue comes at a time when illegal mining continues to devastate water bodies, forest reserves, and farmlands, sparking growing demands for the government to declare a state of emergency in mining communities.
Meanwhile, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has declared all rivers and forest reserves as security zones—a move aimed at strengthening enforcement against illegal mining operators.
President Mahama’s decision, according to experts signals a more collaborative, all-hands-on-deck approach to tackling galamsey, drawing on the moral authority, technical insight, and advocacy power of civil society.
Read below the statement
