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The ancient forest is currently under pressure from Chinese lenders requiring repayment of loans with mined bauxite. If the mining goes ahead then the drinking water of up to five million people living in downstream catchments in and near the capital Accra may be undrinkable. The mining will also lead to significant loss of biodiversity.

Some of the indigenous species at risk from any potential mining include the White-thighed Colobus and White-naped Mangabey monkeys, White-bellied Pangolin, Afia Birago Puddle Frog, the tree Aubregrinia taitensis as well as the Togo slippery frog.

Seth Appiah-Kubi, Country Director of A Rocha Ghana said: “Mining in Atewa would not only prove to be an unsustainable pathway to follow but would lead to the irretrievable loss of a natural treasure of great global significance and increase the vulnerability to poverty for a great many people. There is an unacceptably high risk that mining in Atewa will lead directly to the global extinction of species – God’s good creation – that are found nowhere else on earth.”

“We are also greatly concerned for the thousands of people living in the immediate catchment and the millions downstream who will be exposed to threats to their water supplies, air quality and general living conditions with consequences for their livelihoods.”