BUDGET: Govt to Resolve and Minimise Land Disputes

The Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines will undertake a tenure reform and pursue alternative conflict resolution mechanisms in order to resolve and minimise land disputes in the country, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, said on Friday.

Presenting this year's fiscal budget to Parliament, the Minister said this would be done with the full participation of traditional and customary landowners through negotiations. He further said the Ministry would, in line with that, pursue legislative reforms to review, update, harmonise and consolidate all existing laws and policies on land, forestry, wildlife and minerals to make them more relevant and applicable to current and future needs.

"New legislation will be enacted to require stool, skin, clan, family, and other landowners to survey and demarcate boundaries of their lands with the approval of the Survey Department," Mr. Osafo-Maafo said.
He said the government has allocated 123.04 billion cedis to the ministry to enable it to implement its programmes for 2001.
The Minister said in order to balance the economy's over- reliance on precious minerals, promotion would be given to the production of industrial minerals and value addition be encouraged. According to him, the participatory resource management initiative would be further strengthened to increase the involvement of landowners and fringe communities bordering the resources in decisions that affect their interest.