Adaklu Ecotourism Project

Ecotourism can generate badly needed revenue for local and regional economies, heighten local awareness of the importance of conservation, and add new incentives for governments and the dwellers in and around natural areas to preserve them.

--Kathryn Fuller, World Wildlife Fund, President 1995

Adaklu Mountain is the most impressive mountain in Ghana. In the past, travelers would randomly arrive at any one of the nine villages that surround the mountain and ask whomever they met whether they would lead them to the top. They would wait to greet the chief and offer a small gift at their own discretion, and then go up to the top with whoever happened to be present that day. Although many passersby would stop their car to observe the scenery, only five to twenty visitors a year ever went for a hike to the pinnacle.



Adaklu Mountain


Adaklu Mountain Tourism Committee officers.

 In 1996, the Adaklu Chieftancy lead by Togbui Krakani consulted with the Ghana Tourist Board to discuss creating a locally run ecotourist site. The Chieftancy subsequently requested a volunteer from the Peace Corps to help establish the site and educate the community about the benefits that such a project can bring. Each village provided one representative to sit on the Adaklu Mountain Tourism Committee to work in conjunction with the volunteer. During the next three years the committee members met for semi-monthly meetings which created an ongoing inter-cummunity dialogue. The committee members mobilized their communities and accomplished a number of important tasks in building the basic infrastructure for a tourism site:

The Adaklu Mountain Tourism Committee semi-monthly meeting.

  • Built a Visitor Center to receive guests.
  • Trained local tour guides.
  • Established homestays and trained local     cooks.
  • Organized drumming groups for     entertainment.
  • Erected small billboards in the regional     capital.
  • Designed brochures and distributed them     among hotels in the region.
  • Established receipts and accounting     systems.

   In 1999, just one year after the tourism committee began work, 100 visitors came to Adaklu, and in 2000 that figure doubled. Today there is a modest but steady stream of tourists visiting the site. This has encouraged the community to continue investing themselves in the project and begin taking added precautions to protect the environment. For example, the chieftancies have prohibited the practice of careless bush-burning and put sanctions on farmers who negligently allow fires to get out of control and spread. The tourism committee is presently working to develop new opportunities to generate income for the community. Some of the top priorities include:

   • a women’s kente weaving cooperative
   • traditional kente cooperative
   • bottling and labeling of wild honey and local gin
   • making local drumming cassettes
   • traditional uniforms for their performance groups
   • completing a guesthouse for travelers

Anyone interested in finding more information about these projects and how to get involved can contact us at Jon@bridgingdevelopment.org

Listen to the libation that was poured after the first official customer arrived in 1998.

Ecotourism brings new markets to local artisans.