Ghana’s Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project (GLRSSMP) has advanced sustainable natural resource management in targeted savannah and cocoa forest settings. The GLRSSMP’s first Environmental and Social Leadership and Management Training for Effective Project Implementation was held in the Northern Savannah Zone of Ghana for project beneficiaries with the aim of strengthening integrated natural resource management and benefiting communities.
The trainings, which ran from March 26 to March 31, 2023, and from June 19 to June 23, 2023, in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region and Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, respectively, were a huge success and covered sessions on team-building, assessment and management of environmental and social risks and impacts, stakeholder engagement and information disclosure, land acquisition, restriction on land use, and involuntary resettlement, assessment, developing effective teams for environmental and social risk management, identifying leadership and communication styles, effective communication, Grievance Redress Mechanism, etc.
The training’s major objective was to teach project beneficiaries how to implement the project and improve the environmental framework and monitoring, a subcomponent of Enhanced Governance in support of Sustainable ASM. The beneficiaries are from several communities in Ghana’s Northern Savannah and Cocoa Forest Landscape Zones, and the training gave them the chance to learn and use real tools and techniques to mitigate environmental and social risks and impacts.
The GLRSSMP Project Coordinating Unit is dedicated to project success and beneficiary engagement through regular communication and training. The training’s success establishes a model for future projects encouraging sustainable natural resource management. Environmental and social risk management are essential to sustainable resource management, according to the GLRSSMP. The project staff will continue to equip and build the capacity of beneficiaries on how to meet project goals.
The GLRSSMP remains committed to promoting sustainable socio-economic growth across specified landscapes by equipping beneficiaries with environmental and social risk management skills. The project represents a significant opportunity for Ghana to promote a sustainable and inclusive extractive industry, unlocking opportunities for economic value creation across targeted landscapes.