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As part of this year’s Save The Frogs Day celebrations, SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana will join forces with local groups to campaign in Accra on June 5th, 2019. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana members and other protesters will march to the seat of government and the Forestry Commission of Ghana to demand an immediate termination of impending bauxite mining operations at the Atewa Range Forest Reserve. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana will be joined at the protests by Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape; A Rocha Ghana; and students from STF! Ghana’s UCAES Chapter.
SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Co-Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger sighted this beautiful Togo Slippery Frog (Conraua derooi) during the 2016 SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Expedition. The frogs are under severe threat from mining operations in the Atewa Hills.
Protest Schedule
The protest will be in two parts:
- From 8am to 11am, protesters will march along the Presidential route and other principal streets leading to the office of the Forestry Commission, while holding placards bearing target messages such as:
- “Atewa Forest has the last population of the Togo Slippery Frog”
- “Atewa Forest is the crown jewel of Ghana’s biodiversity”,
- “Atewa Forest supports our livelihoods”,
- “Atewa Forest is our heritage, not bauxite”
- Concurrently, there will be a statement release on behalf of local communities at the Ghana International Press Centre to an estimated 50 national press houses. The statement demands the government to consider environmentally-friendly economic alternatives to mining, such as ecotourism. The statement is expected to be featured on the 12pm, 6pm and 7pm news broadcasts to an estimated 1 million Ghanaians and most importantly, to the government.
An illegal mining wasteland with the Atewa Hills in the distance
Impending Mountain-Top Removal Mining
We are staging this protest as a result of recent developments in which a new contract has been signed between Ghana and China for a loan of USD $19 billion. According to the contract terms, the loan will be repaid from proceeds from bauxite mined from Atewa Range Forest Reserve. The forest is home of the last population of the critically endangered Togo Slippery Frog (Conraua derooi) and other endangered frogs. It is also the most biodiverse region in Ghana and the headwaters of two of Ghana’s largest rivers, which provide drinking water to over half of Ghana’s human population.
SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana has been campaigning for the creation of the Atewa Hills National Park since our formation in 2011.
Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape
Local people whose livelihoods, food and water supply are tied down to the existence of the forest, have expressed concern over this development and the impact bauxite extraction will have on these services. Subsequently, a group has been formed called the Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape to pressure government to halt with the agenda to mine Atewa Forest. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana is taking advantage of the willingness of these local people to protect their ancestral land, and with their support we will take our campaign to the seat of government in Accra.
Visiting the A Rocha Ghana headquarters in the Atewa Hills to strategize during the 2016 SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Expedition.
You Can Join & Support The Protest
This campaign is being funded in part through a Save The Frogs Day Grant, which has been made possible by the generous donors of SAVE THE FROGS! and SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana. We encourage you to donate to help us save the Atewa Forest and the critically endangered Togo Slippery Frogs and we appreciate your support!
To join us in Accra or for further information, please contact SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Campaigns Coordinator Sandra Owusu-Gyamfi: (Phone: 020 2100 198; Email: sandra@savethefrogs.com)
The Atewa Forest is home to not only endangered frogs, but also chameleons, pangolins and over 700 species of butterflies. Photo by Dr. Kerry Kriger.