National Land Policy 1999

The National Land Policy of 1999 is the first time in Ghana’s history that a complete land policy has been created. The Policy provides a framework (section 3) that enables the opinions of all identifiable stakeholders to be part of the decision-making process, thereby aiming to address some of the fundamental problems associated with Ghana’s land management and ensure equity in land allocation. These constraints of Ghana’s land sector are listed in section 2 and also include weak land administration systems and conflicting land uses.

The actions of the policy, stated in section 5, include methods to protect land rights (5.3) and ensure planned land use (5.4). The strategies listed in 5.4 include the creation of a comprehensive District, Regional and National Land Use Plan and Atlas, as well as an inter-ministerial technical working group, with the Ministry of Lands and Forestry (now the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources) as the lead agency, to settle disagreements among competing users.

The Policy establishes that that no primary forest land or tree plantations will be cleared for the purpose of establishing a mining activity.

Note that the legislation on land and natural resources listed in Appendix 1 is only current as of 1999.