Resume
To address gaps in our joint cocoa strategy for smallholders in Ghana, Rikolto Ghana and Preferred by Nature are targeting illegal, small-scale goldmining (galamsey) in our overlapping priority cocoa landscape of Western-South Ghana, where it leaves a trail of misery and environmental destruction as low income from cocoa and lack of alternatives cause cocoa farms and farmers to succumb to galamsey and suffer displacement or pollution. To halt this development, we (i) mobilise communities, traditional and public authorities, NGO networks and private sector to build an alliance against galamsey and increase policy enforcement, (ii) demonstrate competitive models increasing farm income, and (iii) introduce longer-term models to reverse the impact of galamsey by agroforestry-based phytoremediation to the collective benefit of ‘galamsey-free’ communities. By showing effective ways to halt galamsey, we also encourage cocoa buying companies to stay engaged with and invest in communities.