The European Union is threatening to impose restrictions on Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire on cocoa exportation into ports of their member countries if the deforestation that is being caused by illegal mining is not dealt with.

According a Deputy CEO of COCOBOD Dr. Emmanuel Agyeman Dwomoh, who revealed this at the ongoing national Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining, the EU also believes growing of cocoa in the thick forest might be one of the driving forces.

“As we speak, EU is threatening to ban Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, to impose restrictions on the importation of cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to their ports.”

He added “When you take the satellite images, you will see those places in red. The EU thinks that all those places are red because cocoa is causing land degradation [in Ghana], meanwhile, it is as a result of the galamsey activities.”

Ghana exports 80% of its cocoa into the European Union market according to COCOBOD and are worried the impact the galamsey menace will have on the finances of the country and the cocoa sector.

Dr. Emmanuel Agyeman Dwomoh also disclosed that galamsey is impacting crop yield negatively and the pits that have been dugged are killing humans and wildlife and eroding the gains of COCOBOD and government

“The impact of these mining activities on cocoa production is enormous. There is crop loss, reduction of crop yield and income, loss of vegetation, the fertility of the crop soil is destroyed and [there’s also] an early dropping of immature pods, as a result of the chemicals that they use,” he lamented.