l Sacred groves versus gold mines: biocultural community protocols in Ghana 127
and burial grounds, and traditional decision-making structures. The draft was then
discussed with community groups – men,
women, elders, youth and traditional leaders – to ensure that all parts of the
community had a say. The draft documented the community’s cultural values,
vision for endogenous development,
customary rights and responsibilities, and
institutions and processes for PIC.
Currently (end 2011), the ‘gold mining
BCP’ needs completion with information
on legal rights. CIKOD has begun working
with the Commission on Human Rights
and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in
Ghana to document community rights
according to customary laws and international/national laws, so that this can be
included in the BCP. The anticipated legal
recognition of customary laws in Ghana, as
promoted by the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) Nagoya Protocol (Article
12), will be a significant boost in the
Tanchara’s efforts to assert their rights.
After its completion, the protocol will be
signed by the Chief, the Pognaa and the
Tingandem, and hopefully by the District
Chief Executive and Paramount chief.
Following the communities’ protests,
gold mining by Azumah Resources has
been postponed to 2013. This is a very
significant achievement for the Tanchara
community.
Lesson and challenges
The community strength developed
through the community organisational
development process laid the foundations
for the development of the BCP. Taking
endogenous development seriously means
going at the pace of the community, especially the elders, and ensuring that
traditional authorities are aware of their
developmental roles and are accountable
to the community. It is known that the gold
mining company has tried to bribe other
chiefs, bypassing the broader community’s
views and consent.
Whilst traditional authorities and
customary laws have been revitalised
during this process, it is important to evaluate these laws and practices, and educate
the community where these fall outside
national laws or are detrimental to some
sections of the community. In this case, this
was part of the work of the lawyer from
CHRAJ. For the process to be valid, it is
critical to gather the views of all members
of the community, not just the elders.
Documentation of the community’s
cultural resources and biodiversity by the
community has been key to the community
re-valuing these resources, which they had
previously taken for granted, and has highlighted the communities’ role as stewards
of biodiversity.
Whilst an internally focused community organisation process involving
research and visioning is essential for
developing a BCP, the involvement or
endorsement of local and national government is also needed if it is to be a strong
tool for legal empowerment. The Tanchara
community has been very successful in
enlisting the support of local government
structures and including all stakeholders
in the process of mobilising and challenging the gold mining company from the very
beginning.
The main challenges encountered in
the BCP development process included:
• There is currently no legal backing in
Ghana for customary laws and BCPs.
• Customary laws are not obeyed by the
youth because of western religion and
education.
• The community had no information on
district assembly bylaws, national laws and
international agreements that Ghana had
signed in relation to community rights. (As
noted earlier, CIKOD has brought in legal
expertise to tackle this problem.)
• The community is still unclear about the
importance of having a written BCP document for negotiation with other
stakeholders. This is because the BCP as it
stands is not a legally binding instrument;
it depends on the goodwill of the stake-