The Forestry Commission’s Rapid Response Team has arrested thirty-one illegal miners—twenty-eight Chinese nationals and three Ghanaians—within the Apamprama Forest Reserve in the Ashanti Region.
The suspects were apprehended after the team foiled an attempted illegal mining operation inside the protected reserve. According to the Forestry Commission, about fifty percent of the Apamprama Forest Reserve has already been degraded as a result of sustained illegal mining activities.
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The Commission noted that, consistent with previous incursions, the miners had established camps within the forest under the guise that they had been granted official approval to undertake a land reclamation exercise.
Investigations revealed that the group was brought into the area by an individual identified as Alhassan. The arrests were made in Compartment 17 of the reserve, near the Obeng ne Obeng community in the Ashanti Region.
