ECOTOURISM AS A CONSERVATION TOOL: A CASE OF AFADJATO–AGUMATSA CONSERVATION AREA, GHANA

Nature tourism is being increasingly promoted as a means to combat the inequality and depend-ency in rural areas. Furthermore, ecotourism as a subset of nature tourism has emerged as a po-tential mechanism for involving rural communities in the management of their natural resources, and thus benefit from their conservation efforts. This paper presents the results of a study under-taken within three traditional areas around the Mt. Afadjato and Agumatsa Range in Ghana. I examined local peoples ' perceptions on whether the costs of conservation can be offset with the potential benefits of the biodiversity of the area. Local people in all traditional areas see ecotour-ism as an opportunity to develop the area than as a conservation tool. However, the status of biodi-versity, and the range of potential opportunities and costs, suggest that local people could benefit more from conservation and ecotourism, if they are prepared to the bear the costs. Equally, this will only be possible with the adoption of a holistic strategy that embraces the conservation of the whole of the Mt. Afadjato and Agumatsa Range, rather than the piecemeal approach currently being promoted by different traditional areas. Furthermore, since poverty in diverse forms is con-sidered as one of the major threats to sustaining biodiversity, benefits from ecotourism must be appropriately targeted so that local people benefit and understand that these benefits are linked to the conservation of natural resources of the Afadjato-Agumasta Conservation Area