Impact of Small-Scale Mining Activities on the Livelihoods Assets of Rural Households in the Bekwai Municipality, Ghana

The livelihood asset is a primary concern in support of household livelihoods, poverty elimination and enhancing sustainable development, particularly true for mining communities. Underpinned by this, the general objective of the study was to assess the impact of small-scale mining activities on the livelihood assets of households in the Bekwai Municipality, Ghana. The study areas included were mining (Kokotro and Koniyaw) and non-mining (Poano and Ntinanko) communities within Bekwai Municipality with 400 household sample size. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was used to generate propensity scores to estimate the average mining effect on the household assets. The results revealed that that the household financial assets were positively (3.15) impacted by the activities of Small-Scale Mining (SSM) activities while natural capital was negatively impacted (-4.15) followed by human capital (-3.78) and social capital (-3.25). Virtually, the negatively affected households do nothing (45%) as a coping strategy while others also relied on efforts by District Assembly Taskforce (27). It is recommended that the severe negative impact on the natural assets needs an urgent and strict supervision on mining concession sites and also calls for an alternative source of livelihood activities (cash crops, palm plantation and processing) which are prospects for the government’s policy of planting for food and agriculture and one district one factory