00:05Ghana is taking a tougher approach to protecting its cocoa farms.
00:10It comes as illegal gold mining continues to devastate one of the country's most important
00:16agricultural sectors.
00:18High global gold prices have made illegal mining increasingly attractive.
00:23Faced with rising production costs, aging farms and relatively low returns from cocoa,
00:29some farmers have sold or leased their lands to miners.
00:32The result has been the destruction of thousands of hectares of cocoa farms, threatening production
00:38and damaging forests.
00:40We all want to protect cocoa farms, but farmers also need support.
00:46If cocoa farming is profitable, people will be looking for other ways to use their land.
00:52The bill stipulates that anyone who destroys cocoa farms through illegal mining could face
00:58between 10 and 20 years in prison, along with substantial fines.
01:03Officials say the legislation will help safeguard cocoa production, protect forests and curb the
01:09expansion of illegal mining into cocoa growing areas.
01:13The government also argues the law will strengthen Ghana's ability to comply with international
01:20market requirements, particularly the European Union's deforestation regulation, which requires
01:26cocoa sold in the block to come from legal, traceable and deforestation-free sources.
01:32We need to soften the mandatory 10-year minimum in the General Offences Cross into what I describe
01:39as a graduate scheme so that when courts, so that courts can distinguish a syndicate from
01:46a smallholder, cocoa farmer or a clerk.
01:48Second, we can also put a mandatory time limit on rehabilitation and change-of-use decisions
01:56on cocoa farms.
01:57Analysts say protecting cocoa farms is essential to Ghana's economy by the caution that enforcement
02:03alone will not solve the problem.
02:06They argue the government must also improve farmers' incomes and make cocoa production more
02:12profitable if it hopes to reduce the incentive to sell or lease farmland for illegal mining.
02:18The bill is now awaiting President John Muhammad's signature.
02:22If signed into law, it could significantly reshape how cocoa land is managed in Ghana.
02:29Look at the
02:30You
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