Friar Joseph Kwame Blay, center, a Ghanaian Franciscan Catholic Pries and native of Jema, and members of a local anti-illegal gold mining task force patrol a forest reserve in the Jema community in the Western North Region, Ghana, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsraha Yaw)

JEMA, Ghana (AP) — As day broke in a remote part of western Ghana, a priest, farmers and other residents combed through the forests, looking for signs of illegal gold mining.

They have done this for the past year as part of a grassroots task force created to combat the mining that has poisoned rivers in one of the world's largest gold producing countries.

The group is also driven by the sight of Ghana's unemployed youth being attracted to illegal mining and the elusive promise of quick wealth. Meanwhile, the economy suffers: Ghana has lost $11.4 billion in the last five years to gold smuggling, the development nonprofit Swissaid said this year.

The task force's 14 members call themselves the Jema Anti-Galamsey Advocacy, and their arrests of suspected illegal miners have sparked debate in Ghana’s Western North region over their potential abuse of power.

Members point to the 450-square-kilometer (173-square-mile) Jema area's relatively clean water bodies as evidence that their approach can be effective.

A weakening economy

Rampant illegal mining, or galamsey — local shorthand for “gather and sell” — is a growing concern in this West African nation, Africa’s top gold producer.

Ghana's once-promising economy collapsed under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inflation hit a 21-year high of over 50%. Nearly 39% of youth are unemployed, according to government data, pushing thousands into illegal mining.

The illegal mining has contaminated significant portions of Ghana’s water bodies with cyanide and mercury, according to government authorities and environmental groups.

As of January 2024, illegal miners were present in 44 of the country’s 288 forest reserves, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources data show. It said nine of them were “completely taken by armed thugs.”

Tip-offs from villagers

Since 2015, the Jema community of about 15,000 people has banned all mining on its land, empowered by a law that grants local chiefs powers to make and enforce customary law. Chiefs and the heads of clans and families serve as land custodians.

The new task force usually patrols water bodies and the Jema Forest Reserve, wielding sticks in place of guns, at least once a week, watching for changes in water color as a sign of mining activity upstream and for new clearings in the forests.

When it receives a tip-off from villagers, it arrests the suspects and hands them over to the district police office. Such arrests are allowed by laws that grant powers to citizens to make arrests in certain cases.

So far, the group has arrested two Nigerien nationals caught attempting to mine gold in the forest. The court case has proceeded slowly, and villagers seek the establishment of special courts to try illegal miners.

Task force members say they are filling a void left by a lack of government enforcement.

“All our water bodies that take their source here are clean because of our strong resistance to galamsey,” said Joseph Blay, a Catholic priest and Jema resident who helped to form the task force.

“If we stop fighting, we will lose everything,” he said.

Another member, Patrick Fome, said the local Ehole River was starting to turn a milky brown color, a sign that illegal miners appeared to be working upstream.

“We cannot go there now without adequate preparation,” Fome said, calling their unarmed patrol work dangerous. ”We sometimes receive death threats."

A national crackdown

A year ago, Ghana saw nationwide protests against illegal mining. Thousands took to the streets to demand a government crackdown.

President John Mahama, who took office in January, has inaugurated a national task force to combat the practice. But he has rejected calls for a state of emergency, which would grant more powers to police and the military to tackle the issue, saying his government has not exhausted all other approaches.

The government’s inability to crack down on illegal mining points to a lack of political will, said Daryl Bosu, deputy national director for the A Rocha Ghana conservation nonprofit.

While the Jema task force could have its benefits, operating without the supervision of security forces could lead to human rights abuses by its members, said Festus Kofi Aubyn, a regional coordinator with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, a civil society group.

“If the task force is not properly regulated by the state, it could have dangerous consequences, including ethnic targeting or stereotyping,” he said.

Tensions at home

Some Jema residents said they don't support the task force because they want to work with the illegal miners for financial gain.

One 27-year-old resident said he was willing to sell his land to the miners, citing the lack of profit in farming. Fertilizer prices have tripled since 2022. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Local leaders acknowledged that declining farming income and limited job opportunities could create divisions and weaken community enforcement of the mining ban. Residents called for investment in other work to make illegal mining less attractive.

Blay, the priest, proposed turning the Jema Forest Reserve into a tourism park to create sustainable jobs.

“And if the government is really serious to fight, we can use the Jema template to also diffuse it in other communities," he said.

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