TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental governance and political contestation in contexts of illegal small-scale gold mining in Ghana
AU - Kleppa Stærfeldt, Leonora
AU - Stacey, Paul Austin
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Ghana experiences significant environmental harm from illegal small-scale gold mining. Despite government attempts to halt operations, countless sites exist around the country – enjoying local legitimacy, operating with seeming political impunity, and playing increasing roles in both local and national political economies. This article focuses on the environmental governance challenges and the underlying political organisational drivers, analysed from the perspectives of political settlement theory and contentious politics. This shows environmental governance challenges arising from the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) occupying an inferior position in relation to more powerful and competing state entities and endeavouring to fulfil mandates in highly contentious local social and political fields. Accordingly, we argue that challenges to environmental regulation are based in efforts to establish ruling coalition stability amidst fierce political and institutional competition, and which results in an informalisation of resource governance and lack of structural constraints on powerful actors.
AB - Ghana experiences significant environmental harm from illegal small-scale gold mining. Despite government attempts to halt operations, countless sites exist around the country – enjoying local legitimacy, operating with seeming political impunity, and playing increasing roles in both local and national political economies. This article focuses on the environmental governance challenges and the underlying political organisational drivers, analysed from the perspectives of political settlement theory and contentious politics. This shows environmental governance challenges arising from the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) occupying an inferior position in relation to more powerful and competing state entities and endeavouring to fulfil mandates in highly contentious local social and political fields. Accordingly, we argue that challenges to environmental regulation are based in efforts to establish ruling coalition stability amidst fierce political and institutional competition, and which results in an informalisation of resource governance and lack of structural constraints on powerful actors.
KW - Environmental governance
KW - Illegal small-scale gold mining
KW - Political settlements
KW - Informalisation
KW - Ghana
KW - Contentious politics
KW - Environmental governance
KW - Illegal small-scale gold mining
KW - Political settlements
KW - Informalisation
KW - Ghana
KW - Contentious politics
U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104221
DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104221
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0016-7185
VL - 160
JO - Geoforum
JF - Geoforum
M1 - 104221
ER -