A political ecology of bauxite extraction at Atewa Forest, Ghana

In 2018, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo announced “My government is going to implement an alternative financing module to leverage our bauxite reserves, in particular to finance major infrastructure programs across Ghana. This will probably be the largest infrastructure program in Ghana’s history without any addition to Ghana’s debt stock” (Akufo-Addo 2018). In the same year, the government signed a deal with the Chinese state firm Sinohydro in the form of a resource-backed loan with bauxite as collateral. Ghana’s president highlighted the opportunity to develop an integrated bauxite-aluminum industry and stimulate nationwide industrialisation. Due to the lack of transparency and environmental concerns, however, the Sinohydro deal has increased a growing movement against bauxite mining in Ghana, especially in the Atewa Forest Reserve, which is not only a possible mining site, but also a protected biodiversity hotspot. I analyse this dispute from a political ecology perspective. Political ecology examines the political dynamics surrounding material and discursive struggles over the environment. Additionally, political ecologists acknowledge that resources are relational assemblages which are in a constant state of becoming. In this regard, ecology is always political. During three fieldtrips in March 2018, 2019 and 2020, I observed this conflict with the empirical goal to contextualise it. The dynamics, actors and subjects of conflict are related to a variety of factors. Social environmental movements and disputes emerge at certain historical points, specifically in geographical and cultural contexts. Moreover, as I argue, they emerge as a specific set of relationships between structures, institutions, agency and narratives. Therefore, my empirical goal is to contextualise the dispute over the Atewa Forest and analyse how the bauxite reserves at Atewa Forest were and are politicised. For this empirical part, I refer to the framework provided by Dietz and Engels (2020) which examines structure, agency, institutions and narratives. This is done alongside actor-mapping, in order to identify key actors in this conflict. I demonstrate herein that the Ghanaian government is under a lot of pressure, not only from local NGOs, but also from international NGOs, intellectuals (or actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio) and major manufacturing companies that oppose mining in the Atewa Forest. In addition, Ghana has to meet the loan obligations of the Sinohydro deal, and it is yet to build any refineries. Second, as part of my theoretical-conceptual goal, I argue to adapt temporalities to a political ecology of resource extraction. This involves temporalities of resources, temporality surrounding resource extraction and time as a political strategy. Activists have for example urged for a decision to act immediately, but simultaneously they have tried to delay the mining project. By coupling the protection of the forest with global climate discourses, NGOs point out that in times of environmental crisis, it is essential that the forest is protected. They push this agenda forward via open letters, protests and social media campaigns. On the other hand, the delay they hereby produce gives rising attention to this topic. Additionally, by building more pressure, it makes mining at Atewa Forest unattractive to investors who cannot afford any delays. On the contrary, the government promotes imaginaries of future growth, jobs and prosperity. Creating such a historical momentum suggests that now is the right time to solve a long-lasting problem and to decouple seemingly fast economic benefits from long-term environmental pollution. With the theoretical notions of becoming and temporalities in mind, an empirical contextualisation helps attain a detailed understanding on how nature is politicised. The decision to mine bauxite at Atewa Forest is not a given, or logical, per se. For a political ecologist, decisions are inherently political and therefore the result of power asymmetries. Meanwhile, as a result of the always recurring discussions on bauxite mining at Atewa Forest, the building of an extractive industry with its facilities and infrastructure, connected with the promise of fast and rapid industrialisation and prosperity, the forest is – at least currently – still standing