Burden without benefit: Examining environmental injustices in stone extraction in Buoku, Ghana

Abstract

Ghana’s strategy of partnering with multinational and transnational corporations to extract natural resources has often yielded unevenly distributed benefits, while leaving host communities burdened by significant environmental costs. This paper focuses on stone quarrying in Buoku, Ghana, to examine the dimensions of distributive and procedural justice in such extractive contexts. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with eight key community stakeholders, we explored how residents understand, experience, and respond to the unequal allocation of environmental benefits and burdens in the context of quarrying operations in Buoku, Ghana. Our findings indicate that profits and advantages accrue primarily to quarrying firms and external authorities, while the host community bears the brunt of environmental degradation and related social harms. Moreover, meaningful local participation in decision-making is largely absent, reflecting a lack of procedural justice and further entrenching community marginalization. These results highlight the critical need to integrate distributive and procedural justice considerations into environmental policy frameworks. We recommend policies that ensure community members’ active involvement in environment-related decisions, and that directly address their unique needs, perspectives, and values. Such measures can help establish a more equitable distribution of resource benefits, mitigate harms, and contribute to more just and sustainable extractive practices.