65 Guri, Banuoko, Derbile, Hiemstra and Verschuuren
Photo: Peter Lowe
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Naa Yaa-yin Niber and his council of elders.
in which it was agreed that the Chief
should approach the Paramount Chief to
discuss the gold mining problem. CIKOD
undertook to do a study (in May and June
2010) of the impact of gold mining on the
well-being of the communities.3 The study
was discussed at an advocacy and validation workshop in June 2010, attended by
the chiefs, the district assemblies and
CIKOD. The district assemblies became
involved because the gold mining threat is
likely to affect the whole of northern
Ghana.
Following the workshop, a regional
forum on gold mining (July 2010) was
organised by CIKOD, the district assemblies and the Upper West regional house of
chiefs. The purpose of the forum was to
assess the impact and agree on a joint statement to highlight strategies to deal with the
situation. For the first time, the country
representative of Azumah Resources
Limited, the gold mining company, also
participated. At the end of the forum a joint
communiqué was issued, demanding that
Azumah listen to communities, and calling
for a public hearing to consider the current
and potential effects of their activities on
communities.
Whilst all of this was happening, work
was also going on to raise public awareness
on the issue. A weekly local radio
programme enabled community members
to call in and voice their concerns. This had
a serious impact on the gold mining
company, which was unhappy with the
negative publicity it was receiving.
Developing a biocultural community
protocol
CIKOD also introduced the idea of developing a biocultural community protocol
(BCP) as a tool for the Tanchara to negotiate with external parties and assert their
rights. BCPs are tools to address conflicts
facing communities and external users of
the same area that share and use genetic
and natural resources and associated traditional knowledge. A first draft of the BCP
was drafted in April 2011 by a Canadian
intern working for CIKOD. This drew on
information gathered during the ongoing
community development work, including
mapping of the sacred groves, wetlands
3 This was funded by the Natural Resource and Environment Governance (NREG) programme
of the Dutch embassy in Ghana.