The General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trade Union Congress has raised alarm over how the plantation of the Ghana Rubber Processing Company (GREL) had been heavily encroached by illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
Given the extent of encroachment, GAWU believes that it was a matter for the state to deal with, and that the government had a duty to protect investments of investors.
The General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kareweh, who raised the alarm at the inspection of the rubber plantation site, asked: “Where are our authorities? Why should galamsey be the only activity we should be so proud of?”
He added: “Even if we are going to do galamsey, must we destroy other trees in order to do galamsey?”
Cocoa, oil palm trees and crops, he said, were being destroyed in the name of galamsey, “and now we are destroying our rubber trees,” he said.
He indicated that it was very expensive to cultivate a rubber tree given that it took seven years for it to bear fruit. In that direction, he called on the government to step in and save the agriculture industry.
He said the agriculture industry was already faced with eminent destruction, and the attention now on the destruction of rubber trees made the issue worse.
Recently, some hoodlums invaded the plantation of GREL and cut down 19,000 rubber trees belonging to the company. Other illegal miners had also invaded a GREL plantation located at Estate Division 3, where they were alleged to have cut down trees in the name of community mining.
GREL secured an injunction against the leaders behind the community mining in the Estate Division 3 plantation, but they defied the injunction order and were still engaged in the illegal activity.
According to the GAWU Secretary, agriculture was the foundation of the economic transformation of this country, but given the extent of destruction, called for the government to intervene urgently.
