NPP Manifesto Highlights (Promises) - On Natural Resources
Ghana is endowed with rich soils and minerals. The NPP government's policy on land and natural resources is based on rehabilitation, conservation and sustainability and include the following specific promises:
1. The NPP will target annually 30,000 hectares (ha) of degraded areas within and outside forest reserves for reforestation and plantation development, using fast growing indigenous and exotic species.
2.Establish tree and plantain suckers in a minimum of 800 communities.
3. The NPP will support the annual establishment of 1,000 hectares of bamboo and rattan plantations.
4. Replant of trees along the banks of all major water bodies and their tributaries, to reduce silting and other negative human activities adjacent to river banks.
5. Dry season gardening within the buffer zone, to protect river banks.
6. Construct canals and/or the use of water pumping equipment to transport water to the farms to ensure efficient water use.
7. Speed up land services and enhance the accuracy of land certificates and records by investing in turning the Lands Commission into a true digital organization.
8. Commit to ensuring that turnaround time for land registration is reduced to 30 working days.
9. Fully decentralize Lands Commission and land services to the district level.
10. The NPP will reduce the cost of land services, by making such services accessible electronically and at the district levels.
11. The NPP will free up surplus and underutilized lands, held by public departments for housing and commercial developments, to boost economic development and reduce the housing deficit.
12. The NPP will enact a consolidated Mineral Revenue Management Law, similar to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815), to guide the use of mineral revenues in strategic sectors of our economy.
13. Facilitate the revival of Anglogold Ashanti’s Obuasi mines and other mines as part of an overall strategy of protecting the jobs and livelihoods of mining communities.
14. Support local mining capability, by introducing institutional arrangements that promote coherence between mining policies and Science Technology and Innovation (STI) programmes.
15. Ensure a positive socio-economic impact of mining on local communities, through appropriate interventions for community development.
16. Increase transparency in the allocation of mineral rights and the utilization of mineral revenues at national and community levels.
17. Fully decentralise the Minerals Commission by establishing additional district offices of the Commission, where appropriate.
18. Replant trees along the banks of all major water bodies and their tributaries, to reduce silt.