Ghana’s worsening economic crisis is prompting concerns it will further erode the country’s already weak environmental governance system that Chinese actors have profited from in the mining, fishing, and timber sectors. Meantime, local communities across the country suffer amid declining fish stocks, polluted waterways, and unregulated deforestation.
Francis Xavier Tuokuu, a leading environmental scholar and a research fellow at the Ghana-based Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations contends that until there is new and better leadership that is actually willing to crack down on the corruption that Chinese and others use to their advantage, there is little hope the situation will improve.
Francis joins Eric & Cobus from Keene, New Hampshire to discuss what, if anything, can be done.
Show Notes:
- Graphic Online: Chief wants government to protect Kwapia lands from Chinese illegal miners by Daniel Kenu
- Peace FM Online: Go after Chinese engaging in illegal activities in Ghana – Akomea charges National Security
- Seafood Source: Time running out to stop Chinese overfishing before African fishery stocks collapse, Ghanaian fishing leader says by Mark Godfrey
About Francis Xavier Tuokuu:
Dr. Francis Xavier Tuokuu is an International Development and Sustainability professional. He has over a decade of experience in policy consultancy and academia in multiple locations on three continents (Africa, Europe, and North America). His areas of expertise are: sustainability, energy transition, extractive sector governance, environmental and energy policy, human rights and rural livelihoods, and the intersection of these topics. Francis recently joined Mercy Corps as Senior Advisor – Global Environmental Sustainability within the Technical Support Unit (TSU) in Washington D.C. Before joining Mercy Corps, he lived and worked in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ghana in the following roles: Lecturer in Sustainability at Bournemouth University and Adjunct Researcher at the Robert Gordon University (both in the United Kingdom), Postdoctoral Fellow at York University in Canada, Postdoctoral Fellow at Keene State College, Adjunct Professor at Antioch University, Adjunct Professor at Plymouth State University, Sustainability Coordinator at Franklin Pierce University (all in the United States), and Research/Teaching Assistant at the University of Ghana.
