‘The fight against galamsey has not been lost’ – Schandorf responds to Barker-Vormawor 

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Paa Kwesi Schandorf, has rejected claims by social activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor that Ghana has lost the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

His comments followed Barker-Vormawor’s declaration on October 1 that Ghana had “lost the fight” against galamsey and his call on Ghanaians not to believe what he described as propaganda.

However, reacting to this, Schandorf said the continued existence of illegal mining did not, on its own, mean that efforts to tackle the menace had failed.

He argued that the scale of the environmental damage accumulated over several years meant that reversing it would require sustained enforcement, policy changes and time.

In an opinion piece published on Friday, October 2, Schandorf said the government is aware that galamsey remains a major challenge and had not assumed that the problem had disappeared.

“I see the work at close. I see the frustrations, the meetings, the operations, and the constant review of policies when existing approaches are not producing the desired results, and, to be frank, the fight is not lost at all,” he wrote.

Schandorf pointed to measures including tighter controls on excavator imports and the tracking of registered excavators, as well as enforcement against changfan machines used in illegal mining.

According to figures cited by the Lands Ministry, authorities had seized or immobilised 1,724 changfan machines as of July 2026.

He, however, acknowledged that enforcement activities should ultimately translate into tangible improvements in Ghana’s rivers, forests and mining communities.

“Ghanaians will actually judge this fight not by the number of meetings held, policies announced, or operations conducted, but by the tangible changes in our rivers, forests, and mining communities,” Schandorf wrote.