Protect Ghana's Land and Resources for Future Generations: The Case for Trusteeship Laws

Across Ghana, a quiet crisis is unfolding. Young people in communities from Labadi to the mining belts of the Western and Ashanti regions are discovering that the land and natural resources their forebears preserved have been sold off, degraded or simply stolen — often with little accountability and no meaningful benefit flowing to those who should have inherited them. Legal scholars and civil society voices are now calling on Parliament to act decisively by enacting a comprehensive Land and Natural Resources Trusteeship Act.

The problem: who really benefits from Ghana's land and minerals?

Ghana's customary land tenure system places significant authority in the hands of chiefs, family heads and other custodians. In principle, these figures are meant to hold land in trust for their communities — not as personal owners who may dispose of assets at will. Yet in practice, large tracts of communal land have been sold or leased, with proceeds benefiting a small number of individuals rather than the broader community.

The situation is no less troubling in the mining sector. Illegal small-scale mining — galamsey — has devastated farmland and poisoned water bodies across the country, robbing local communities of livelihoods and leaving behind environmental ruin that will take decades, if not generations, to address. Even where mining is conducted legally, there are persistent concerns that community benefit funds are poorly managed and that rehabilitation obligations are either underfunded or ignored entirely.

Ghana's 1992 Constitution does acknowledge fiduciary obligations over communal and public land. It also vests ownership of minerals in the ground in the President on behalf of the people of Ghana. However, critics argue these constitutional principles lack the detailed implementing legislation needed to give affected communities real enforcement power when things go wrong.

Why it matters for Ghana

The stakes could scarcely be higher. Ghana is endowed with some of Africa's most significant natural resources — gold, bauxite, oil, fertile agricultural land and rich forests. How well this inheritance is managed today will determine whether the next generation is wealthier or poorer than the present one.

Proponents of reform point to instructive international models. The United Kingdom's National Trust manages designated land under restrictions that prevent arbitrary sale, preserving it across successive generations. Norway's Government Pension Fund Global — commonly known as the Oil Fund — channels petroleum revenues into a sovereign wealth fund, with strict rules limiting how much can be spent in any given year, so that exhaustible resources are converted into lasting financial wealth. Alaska's Permanent Fund operates on a similar principle, investing mineral revenues under constitutional protection and paying dividends to residents.

Ghana has its own precedent in the Ghana Petroleum Funds established under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, though concerns have persisted about the rigour with which spending rules are enforced and whether local communities in oil-producing areas receive a fair share.

A dedicated Trusteeship Act, campaigners argue, should go further — requiring community trusts for significant customary land transactions, mandating protected accounts and independent audits, guaranteeing representation for beneficiaries in decision-making, and creating enforceable legal remedies so that dishonest or negligent trustees can be removed and misappropriated assets recovered.

What Parliament should do

Reformers are calling on legislators to consider a package of measures, including:

• Mandatory community trusts for substantial customary land deals, with full public disclosure of transaction terms.
• Protected rehabilitation funds that mining companies must contribute to, ring-fenced from general corporate finances.
• Beneficiary standing — giving ordinary community members the legal right to challenge abuse in court without depending solely on the goodwill of traditional authorities.
• Conflict of interest disclosure for trustees and the legal professionals who advise them.
• Stronger prosecution of illegal mining operators and of those who facilitate the squandering of communal assets.

The argument is straightforward: a chief's reign ends, a government leaves office, a family head passes away — but the consequences of poor stewardship endure for decades. Ghana's children deserve a legal framework robust enough to ensure that the country's inheritance is not consumed by the present generation before they have a chance to benefit from it. Without enforcement teeth, any trusteeship law risks becoming, as critics put it, merely another feeding trough for the well-connected.