Mercury and cyanide contamination from galamsey (illegal mining) operations have polluted rivers and streams, leaving many communities without safe drinking water and exposing residents to waterborne diseases, neurological risks, and reported birth defects in newborns. Boreholes are therefore urgently needed to provide clean water and reduce the growing health burden.

The construction of a borehole by Pronature Alliance Ghana and Parrot Forest Association at the Parrot Village near the Cape Three Points Forest Reserve is generously supported by Nancy J. Jacobs and her husband, Peter Heywood, both of Rhode Island, USA. This intervention, designed as a practical incentive to support local communities while strengthening long-term conservation outcomes in the surrounding landscape, is part of Pronature’s Cape Three Points Integrated Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (CTP-IBCI) in southwest Ghana.

In the past, these communities permitted the poaching of Grey Parrots, but following our conservation engagement, the local chief and elders have pledged to ban hunting and the felling of large trees used by the parrots. This shift in attitude towards biodiversity in the area presents an opportunity to align community well-being with conservation goals.