Chamber of mines move to solve land disputes
After years of grumble between land owners and mining companies over compensation and conveyance on concessions, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, with the assistance of the Business Advocacy Fund has initiated moves to end the impasse.
With the collaboration of stakeholders in the mineral and mining sectors, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mining and Civil Society Organisations, the chamber has began drafting the first National Compensation Policy to give specification on what should be accepted by property and land owners as fair and appropriate benefits deals. It will also aim at protecting the future of people who lose their properties for mineral activities aside monetary compensation to sustain and improve their future livelihoods.
At a recent media launch of the project, dubbed "Advocacy for the establishment of standards of compensation for mining concessions" in Accra, Joyce Aryee,Chief Executive of the Ghana chamber of Mines described compensation as an "albatross'.
According to her, the mention of it sends shivers down the spines of investors and state agencies that are mandated to mediate between companies and relevant stakeholders. She said the nebulous nature of compensation issues had always been a source of worry to the chamber and its members, hence the need for an effective and reliable legislative instrument to regulate the delivery of fair compensation to beneficiaries.
" The need for a standardized and systematic compensation regime is long overdue. We believe the hassle that investors and mining communities go through over compensation can easily be avoided if there are proper guidelines on compensation ', she stated.
Land economists say litigations on compensation occur mostly as a result of the low knowledge of the linkages and benefits associated with the presence of a mine in a community. They have therefore mentioned as essential, the need to finding a solution to issues of compensation since delays in project implementation due to compensation related litigations increase cost of doing business in Ghana.
Meanwhile, Critics in the minerals and mining sectors have called on the Chamber and policy makers to consider developing a Corporate Social Investment Policy besides the compensation policy.
This, the believe will compel corporate institutions operating in Ghana to invest a percentage of their annual profit in some specific projects as experienced in countries like South Africa Zimbabwe to facilitate some community infrastructural projects and lessen the burden on government.
With the discovery of oil in the offshore basin of the West Cape three point of the country, experts presume that developing compensation and Social Investment Policies will go a long way to resolve challenges and differences over fair share of earnings from the sale of natural resources as discovery of oil in the Volta basin is also possible.