The politicization of nature.

Under what circumstances does nature become figured as a resource, as stuff-waiting-to-be-sold-and-used? For a political ecologist, resources are not, they become (Zimmermann 1933), i.e. not only do they become symbols of modernisation and economic growth, but they are also connected to deforestation and pollution. Resources can become the subject of conflicts over distribution, access, or future development. Political ecology evolved with a strong focus on how power manifests in both discursive and material struggles regarding the environment (Forsyth 2008; Robbins 2012). It emerged as a way of criticising the reductionism of neo-Malthusian explanations of land degradation, or the notion of land degradation itself (Watts 1983; Blaikie 1985). This fusion of political-economic and cultural-ecological perspectives became known in Anglophone geography as political ecology (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Bassett 1988). Political ecology rejects the hypothesis that as a result of greater environmental scarcity or a lack of resources, conflicts will increase; rather, it assumes that all human decisions are inherently political (Adams 2015). Political ecology is about recognising the power that actors have at the moment of deciding what, how, and where to conserve (García-Frapolli et al. 2018).

"The political struggle over ‘Nature’, I maintain, operates today along two interrelated axes. On the one hand, there are major conflicts raging over the material bases of life and the modalities of access, control, and reproduction of the non-human or more-than-human organic and inorganic matter, relations, and processes. On the other hand, major contestation unfolds over the meaning of ‘Nature’, i.e. the discursive configurations through which nature is imagined and symbolised." (Erik Swyngedouw 2022, n.p.).

The Atewa Forest is still standing, but underneath the surface of this forest reserve in the Eastern Region of Ghana, bauxite deposits have awakened dreams and visions of modernisation and industrialisation – visions almost within reach during when the country achieved independence, urged by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah in 1957. The so-called Volta River Scheme involved the production of hydro-electrical power by damming the river and applying the huge amount of resulting power to convert bauxite resources into aluminium. With this plan, the new republic would achieve not only political, but also economic independence.

The Akosombo Dam, finished in 1965, created the largest man-made lake in the world according to surface area. However, plans for an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry remained unfulfilled and were brought to an end due to financial difficulties and a coup in 1966, following which there were no more significant developments in Ghana's bauxite and aluminum industry. Many decades later, it seems almost logical to make use of these resources. A resource has thus been rediscovered and an old promise revived.

President Akufo-Addo (2018) emphasised in his speech that marked the 61st anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain: “Fellow Ghanaians, we have huge infrastructure needs in the areas of roads, bridges, water, electricity, housing, hospitals, schools, etc. The problem has always been where to find the money. However, where there is a will, there is a way. My government is going to implement an alternative financing model to leverage our bauxite reserves, in particular to finance a major infrastructure program across Ghana. This will probably be the largest infrastructure program in Ghana’s history, without any addition to Ghana’s debt stock” (Akufo-Addo 2018, n.p.).

According to Gawu et al. (2012), Ghana’s bauxite reserves are estimated at 554 million metric tons, and the country is currently the third-largest producer of bauxite on the African continent (Knierzinger 2018). However, the raw material has been mined in only one mine since 1942. Besides, its exports accounted for 0.6% of total mineral exports and 0.22% of total merchandise exports in 2014 (Oxford Business Group 2017). What was once described as “Ghana's most useful resource” (Hart 1977, 12) seems to have surprisingly little economic importance to the country.

Bauxite has always been used to make beads and ornaments; however, in 1914, Sir Albert Kitson was the first European to discover this raw material in a British colony, namely the Gold Coast. Kitson (1925) made his discovery on a mountain on the Kwahu Plateau, while further deposits were unearthed through a geological survey at and near the summit of Mt. Ejuanema on the Kwahu Plateau, two miles to the west of Mpraeso and about one mile to the south of Obomen. In the Annual Report of the Colonial Office of the Gold Coast Colony (Colonial Reports 1917, 48), Kitson’s discovery was declared “to be of the highest Imperial importance”.

Between 1915 and 1921, Kitson relentlessly pursued, together with the Colonial Office, the notion of expanding the plans for bauxite mining and, in combination with a dam, constructing a fully integrated primary aluminium operation. The discovery came at a time when aluminum was an important raw material for the production of aircraft for the British Empire (Perchard 2013). However, the colonial government did not have the necessary resources to support Kitson’s plan to build an aluminum industry.

During 1940 and 1950, the Volta River Project became a vast development scheme, which involved the Gold Coast colonial government, the British government as well as the Commonwealth aluminium companies Alcan and BACo (Hove 2013). While Britain was ready to develop the Volta River Project, it was the colonial government that disagreed on the responsibility for its management. Initially, the colonial government claimed responsibility for any aluminium project taking place in the colony, while the British Treasury argued that the scheme was not a colonial matter but rather for colonial development.

In February 1951, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) won the first majority election in the Gold Coast. Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the CPP, became head of the first African government under British rule (Miescher 2014). The new government not only adopted the British 'Ten-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Gold Coast, 1951' with several additions, but it also had the ambition to implement it in five years instead of ten (Ewusi 1973). At that time, according to the 1960 census, Ghana had a population of 6.7 million and an annual population growth rate of 2.5 to 3.0, thus making it one of the most densely populated countries in Africa and one of the most rapidly growing nations(in terms of population) in theworld (Hart 1977). Cocoa exports accounted for 60-70 million dollars of Ghana's total exports, making it the world's leading producer of cocoa and highly dependent on the crop (ibid.).

The Volta River Project performed an increasingly more strategic role in the five-year modernisation programme that promised rapid industrialisation and the reduction of the country’s dependence on cocoa exports. According to Biney (2011), it was essential for leaders such as Nkrumah in the postcolonial environment to demonstrate competence, confidence and innovativeness. While there had been a shortage of aluminium production in 1952, there was a surplus by 1956 (Birmingham and Omaboe 1966). The parties interested in the Volta River Project were now prepared to get involved only on very favourable terms. The British government wanted financial support from the World Bank, while Alcan claimed it needed cheap electricity (Moxon 1969). However, neither international actor was very keen to see the development of an integrated aluminium industry in what was soon to become an independent nation (Hart 1977).

In 1961, construction of the dam began before any steps towards resettlement had been taken. Under pressure due to a revised timetable, the VRA took over the task of resettling about 70,000 people within a brief period of only two and a half years. The migration of people from villages scheduled for flooding (by the Volta Lake) into new areas was initiated in August 1963. In all, 10,000 people chose to resettle themselves (Miescher and Tsikata 009; Amankwah-Amoah and Osabutey 2018). The Akosombo resettlement programme failed to fulfil the promises made by the planners; however, Nkrumah was convinced that it was the right policy to produce more energy in order to transform Ghana into a modernised and industrialised country, and therefore he relied strongly on the construction of large dams. Meanwhile, the development of an integrated bauxite-aluminium industry fell into the background.

While Nkrumah was in East Asia for a peacekeeping mission, a military coup brought an end to the Bui and Volta River Project in February 1966 (Miescher 2014; Knierzinger 2016). The smelter was commissioned in 1967 and built one year later, but the project was no longer pursued with great enthusiasm.

After the failure of the Volta River Project, aligned with the aforementioned military coup, Ghana exported bauxite and primary aluminium, and it imported rolled aluminium and alumina to fabricate it into aluminium products. This situation was economically suitable for the companies, but it did not fit in terms of the economic interests of Ghana (Hart 1977). However, Ghana was placed in a weak position against multinational companies, in that it sold cheap bauxite to the world market and offered cheap electricity for aluminium production. Thisfragmentation of the value chain led to a double dependency on the world market and international companies. According to Knierzinger (2018), Ghanaian bauxite has primarily been exported to Germany, Greece, the UK, Canada and China in the last 20 years, while the smelter in Tema has imported alumina from Latin America (mostly Jamaica) and Europe. In 1982, Reynold sold its bauxite mine to Alcan, while Ghana’s bauxite sector grew moderately, albeit with some difficulties. At that time, the share of bauxite in terms of total national exports was 1.4 % (Akabzaa and Darimani 2001; Knierzinger 2018). In 1998, the government reduced its shareholding in the Ghana Bauxite Company from 5% to 20% (Akabzaa and Darimani 2001).

However, Ghana produced about 837,000 tons of bauxite in 2014 compared to Sierra Leone's 1,161,000 tons, whilst Guinea, as the fourth largest producer worldwide at 17,258,000 tons, produced twenty times more than Ghana (USGS 2016). Compared with the other exported goods, the importance of bauxite decreased rapidly. According to the Oxford Business Group (2017), bauxite exports accounted for 0.6% of total mineral exports and 0.22% of total merchandise exports in 2014.

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Since the very first discovery of bauxite in Ghana and initial attempts to establish an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry in 1924, the Atewa Forest has always been one of three possible sites for bauxite mining in Ghana. In 1942, a mine in the Western Region of Ghana started producing bauxite. The first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, aspired to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum-industry in order to achieve not only political sovereignty but also economic independence. As a consequence, a smelter was set up in Tema and the Volta Dam was built. However, the proposed integrated industry was never realised. Since then, bauxite remained an economically unimportant resource without any further development in that country. This constellation has protected the Atewa Forest from mining activities.

The Atewa Forest Reserve

The Atewa Range is an ecologically important forest reserve (17,400 hectares) established in 1926. Since that time, Ghana has lost roughly 80% of its forested habitat (Cleaver 1992). Ownership of the reserve is vested in the President of Ghana, while the entire reserve falls within the jurisdiction of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area (McCullough et al. 2007). The head of this area is known as Okyenhene, which is the title of the king of Akyem Abuakwa, an ancient kingdom in the Eastern Region of Ghana (with the capital Kyebi or also written Kibi). The Atewa Range represents some of the highest forest covered hills in Ghana (along with the hills of the Southern Scarp and the Nyinahin Range (Swaine and Hall 1977).

The range peaks at 842 m and runs from north to south. It is characterised by a series of plateaus, which are remnants of a Tertiary peneplain. (McCullough et al. 2007). The vegetation within the mountain range is very diverse with elements of upland evergreen forest; in addition, the forest is an important watershed from where three important rivers namely the Densu, Ayensu and Birim originate. The reserve is only one of the two reserves in Ghana with upland evergreen forest (Hall and Swaine 1981; Abu-Juam et al. 2003).

In 2012, the Forestry Commission informed the NGO (thereafter named ARG) that the government had given out concessions to prospect bauxite at Atewa to a national company called Exton Cubic. In response to these news, ARG and some smaller civil groups joined forces and opened a dialogue with the government. In 2013, ARG organised a national summit on Atewa Forest with all the important stakeholders including the Forestry Commission, the Water Resource Commission as well as the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Environment. The main outcome of that summit was that it is important to protect the forest and that no future government should step in and start mining bauxite there. All the participants agreed that upgrading the reserve to a National Park would prohibit any future government of mining bauxite in the Atewa Forest. The Forestry Commission, the Water Commission as well as the Ministry of Lands started the process to declare Atewa Forest Reserve as a National Park.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) garnered the attention of the electorate by promising to develop an integrated aluminium industry, in order to add value to the country’s bauxite deposits: “The establishment of the Integrated Aluminium Industry, Nana Akufo-Addo explained, will provide thousands of jobs for the teeming masses of unemployed Ghanaian youth resident in the Eastern Region and across the country” (NPP 2016; Emmanuel 2016). Following the plans made by the first Republic of Ghana, bauxite deposits in the country would be further developed and an integrated aluminium production unit built. The proceeds from this project would serve to finance many needs such as infrastructure, electricity, schools and water supply and realise a Ghana Beyond Aid.

Following the NPP taking office, the bauxite and aluminium sector received major stimulus. In March 2017, the Ministry of Finance outlined a six-point strategy for developing the industry. The plan included opening new bauxite mines in Awaso, Nyinahin and Kyebi, the construction of an alumina refinery and the development of energy and rail infrastructure to power the industry and cut transport costs (Ministry of Finance Ghana 2018).

In 2018, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo announced “My government is going to implement an alternative financing module to leverage our bauxite reserves, in particular to finance major infrastructure programs across Ghana. This will probably be the largest infrastructure program in Ghana’s history without any addition to Ghana’s debt stock” (Akufo-Addo 2018). In the same year, the government signed a deal with the Chinese state firm Sinohydro in the form of a resource-backed loan with bauxite as collateral. However, Ghana needs to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry, and since there is currently no competitor in the bauxite sector other than China, Ghana has “a unique opportunity to establish an integrated aluminum industry” (Amewu 2018, ii) by using its large bauxite reserves. Ghana’s president highlighted the opportunity to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry and stimulate nationwide industrialisation. Due to the lack of transparency and environmental concerns, however, the Sinohydro deal has increased a growing movement against bauxite mining in Ghana, especially in the Atewa Forest Reserve, which is not only a possible mining site, but also a protected biodiversity hotspot.

Ecological concerns and pressure from social movements are challenging these plans, because one possible mining site is a protected forest reserve, the Atewa Forest in the eastern region of the country, which is only one of the two reserves in Ghana with upland evergreen forest (Hall et al. 1981; Abu-Juam et al. 2003). Due to its uniqueness, the reserve has changed its status over the years, from a special biological protection area in 1994 and a hill sanctuary in 1995, into one of Ghana’s 30 globally significant biodiversity areas (GSBAs) in 1999. In 2001, BirdLife International listed Atewa as an ‘Important Bird Area’ (IBA) (Abu-Juam et al. 2003; McCullough et al. 2007).

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A group calling themselves Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape was formed in 2018 to prevent bauxite mining in the forest. It consists of civil society organisations, youth groups, interfaith groups, farmer-related associations, opinion- and community leaders. Besides, the NGO A Rocha Ghana is an initiator that promotes protest against the government plans. A Rocha Ghana was involved in the plans to declare Atewa Forest a national park.

Read more about the engagement of A Rocha Ghana here:

As Political ecology explores the politicisation of nature through conflicts, instead of naturalising the conflicts through environmental analysis. Furthermore, Political ecologists argue, that resources do not exist in a finite or a fixed state. This notion of resources as becoming and being political is an ongoing concern within political ecology (Richardson and Weszkalnys 014) and was a major aspect in this work. Following Iparraguirre (2016), who defines time as the “phenomenon of becoming" and temporality as the "interpretation of becoming", it is fruitful and obvious to highlight a temporal perspective on resource extraction.

For some reason it is always ‘time’. Akufo-Addo (2018) pointed out in his speech, in which for the first time he outlined his proposals for the bauxite industry, that aluminum is the metal of the future, and therefore it was the right time to develop the industry. Whilst conducting archive work at the library of the University of Ghana, I came across an article from the Journal West Africa 1952. Reporting on the plans of Kwame Nkrumah to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry, the article was headlined “Aluminum: the metal of the future”. As shown, bauxite in Ghana was once afforded “imperial importance” and became important during the Kwame Nkrumah era and, more recently, at the beginning of the Akufo-Addos presidency. This illustrates that there is no ‘right time’ per se; rather, it is a political strategy to address something as the right time.

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