Atewa Forest under siege: Five million Ghanaians risk losing water source

The Atewa Range Forest Reserve, which provides drinking water to more than five million Ghanaians, is under siege from illegal mining, a coalition of environmental groups has warned.

The coalition, comprising A Rocha Ghana, Eco-Conscious Citizens and the Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape, said evidence from court records, operational reports, Forestry Commission correspondence and field documentation pointed to an unprecedented and escalating assault on the reserve, while institutions mandated to protect it were increasingly overwhelmed.

At a press briefing in Accra last Monday, 14th September, 2026, the group said the situation posed a direct threat to the country's water security, climate commitments, globally significant biodiversity and the cultural heritage of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area.

The coalition recalled that on January 5, 1926, the Okyeman State Council, under the leadership of Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, gazetted the Atewa Forest not for themselves but for future generations. It said that 100-year legacy was now at a tipping point.

Forest of national importance
Rising to more than 800 metres and covering approximately 26,300 hectares, the reserve represents 33.5 per cent of the remaining closed forest in the Eastern Region. It is a Key Biodiversity Area and one of the most biologically important forests in West Africa, spanning more than 52 communities.

Atewa forms the headwaters of the Ayensu, Densu and Birim rivers, as well as more than 99 streams. It was reserved in 1926 primarily to protect those headwaters.

The forest is home to 239 bird species, 69 mammals, 40 amphibians and 14 reptiles and protects at least 78 species threatened with global extinction.

A total of 969 vascular plant species have been identified there, while an estimated 711 butterfly species have been recorded, equivalent to 77 per cent of all butterfly species found in Ghana, making Atewa the most diverse location for butterflies in West Africa. It is also among just two per cent of the world's protected areas assessed to be resilient to higher levels of climate change impacts.

Climate and economic value
The coalition said the forest stores an estimated 3.6 million tonnes of carbon, while protecting it could reduce emissions by about 200,000 tonnes annually. Removing the forest for mining would incur an estimated carbon replacement cost of about 23.2 million dollars.

It cited a 2016 study which found that protecting Atewa as a national park and restoring its surroundings would generate the greatest economic value of 1.157 billion dollars over a 30-year period, compared with scenarios involving mining.

Non-timber forest products alone were estimated at 12.4 million dollars per annum for 40 forest-fringe settlements, while tourism potential was estimated at more than 5 million dollars annually. An EU-sponsored study estimated that blended green development could generate about 1.3 billion dollars per year.

Cultural heritage and Okyenhene's stand

The group also stressed the cultural significance of the forest, noting that it was gazetted in honour of Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, whose declaration that land belonged to a vast family of whom many are dead, a few are living and countless hosts are still unborn underscored the intergenerational responsibility to protect Atewa. That vision, it said, had been reaffirmed by the Kyebi Declaration led by the Okyenhene.

The Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has been unequivocal in his defence of Atewa. At the centenary celebration on January 5, 2026, he reaffirmed his commitment to protecting the forest, stressing the importance of leadership and recalling that traditional authorities had resisted bauxite mining. He questioned how flora and fauna could be protected if mining were allowed and expressed concern about foreigners taking over portions of the reserve, adding that although they did not have soldiers and guns to fight the illegal miners, they would not relent. The coalition said as far back as 2024, legal proceedings at the Accra High Court had confirmed that the Okyenhene opposed bauxite mining in the forest.

Illegal mining intensifies
Despite its legal protection, the group said Atewa was being systematically plundered. Evidence from illegal mining hotspots inside the reserve, including the Wankobi Stream headwaters on the left-arm road of the Y Junction, showed excavated pits, stripped forest cover, muddy and polluted streams, makeshift camps and abandoned equipment.

Court records from the Kyebi Forest District revealed a troubling pattern of arrests followed by repeated adjournments and bail. Between 2021 and 2026, numerous cases had been adjourned multiple times, including a 2021 case involving six suspects adjourned to August 14, 2026, a 2023 case involving 10 suspects adjourned to July 25, 2026 and a May 2026 case involving 24 suspects, all of whom were granted bail, with the case adjourned to August 2, 2026. The coalition acknowledged that there had been successful prosecutions in some cases, with one suspect sentenced to 20 years and three others to 15 years with hard labour, but said those convictions remained exceptions.

Forestry Commission overwhelmed
The Forestry Commission itself had acknowledged that arrests alone could not resolve the problem. In a letter dated March 2, 2026, the District Manager for the Kyebi Forest District, Mr Owusu Ameyaw, informed the Abuakwa South Municipal Chief Executive of an influx of illegal miners into the Sagyimase-Asikam portion, reporting that 60 people had been arrested in that area alone, yet illegal mining continued.

Leaked operations and hostage guards
An operation involving 55 police officers on February 20, 2026 was compromised by an apparent leak, resulting in only five arrests. The District Manager further reported that illegal miners had become increasingly aggressive and combative, with two forest guards reportedly held hostage before being rescued by a police reinforcement team.

Operations by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat in the Kyebi and Atewa forest area also confirmed the scale of criminal activity, resulting in the arrest of 19 suspects on July 6, while an excavator, two drilling machines and dynamite were seized. Generators, water pumps and chanfang machines were destroyed during operations on July 8 and 10, while further arrests on August 16 and 19 led to the seizure of a pump-action shotgun, ammunition, police pepper spray, machetes and suspected narcotics.

Systemic challenges
The coalition said the challenges were systemic. The Forestry Commission lacked sufficient personnel, logistics, protected camps and enforcement capacity to secure the reserve on its own, while judicial delays and repeated grants of bail undermined deterrence.

Weak inter-agency coordination was compounded by information leaks, selective enforcement and alleged complicity at the local level. The government's 2016 manifesto commitment to convert Atewa into a National Eco-Tourism Park remained unfulfilled, leaving the forest in a legal and management limbo.

The green alternative
The group said the Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape, with the endorsement of the Okyenhene, had proposed the Atewa Centenary Celebration and Green Atewa Forest Festival to commemorate 100 years of gazetting and unite the more than 52 communities surrounding the landscape. Under the proposed Transformational Development Agenda for Atewa National Park, the forest would protect water sources serving more than five million people, safeguard biodiversity of global significance, create at least 3,000 direct jobs in tourism facilities and services, generate potential tourism income of more than 5 million dollars annually, support a vibrant cocoa-processing industry including a proposed 50,000-tonne factory capable of creating more than 1,000 direct jobs building on 3,500 jobs already supported by cocoa farming, develop high-end green value chains, unlock climate finance through REDD+, the Green Climate Fund and carbon markets and support circular-economy initiatives and land restoration.

Urgent call to action
The coalition described Atewa as a national security asset whose water sustains millions, whose forests regulate the climate, whose biodiversity is globally significant and whose cultural value is irreplaceable, maintaining that mining, whether legal or illegal, was incompatible with those values.

It called on the President, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Forestry Commission, the Ghana Police Service, NAIMOS, the Attorney-General and other relevant institutions to immediately declare Atewa a National Park, rescind all plans for bauxite mining, deploy a permanent, well-resourced joint security task force to secure the entire reserve, provide the Forestry Commission with adequate personnel, protected camps, vehicles, equipment and intelligence capacity, fast-track prosecutions by establishing a dedicated court for illegal mining cases in the Eastern Region, publish the status of all pending cases, ensure that bail conditions were sufficiently deterrent, prosecute alleged kingpins and politically exposed persons without fear or favour, investigate and sanction complicity and information leakages and implement the Atewa Green Option.

A test of national resolve
The coalition said that 100 years ago, Ghana's forebears chose to protect Atewa not for themselves but for posterity and that without clean water, clean air and standing forests, the nation was done as a people, describing Atewa as a test of the country's collective resolve.