A Landscape Governance Approach to Mining Landscape Restoration: Assessing the Evidence in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana has been struggling to manage the human insecurities of mining resource extraction for several years. Many past approaches have been piecemeal and sector-based interventions, producing limited results. In recent times however, government with support from the World Bank, has shifted attention toward integrated landscape management programs. But to what extent do these programs address the principles and challenges of landscape governance? We answer this question using two landscape restoration programs― the Multi-Sectoral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP) and the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project (GLRSSMP)―as empirical lenses. Using document analyses as methodology and integrated landscape governance as analytical framework, our findings suggest that the two programs partially meet the desired criteria, and have shortcomings in terms of polycentric governance, multistakeholder engagement and capacity building. The study thus proposes a reconfiguration of the current district mining committees in multi-scalar and multi-actor mining governance regimes. It also articulates knowledge pluralism that is community driven.