Kakum National Park is the great nature experience of Ghana's central coast and the perfect complement to the historical weight of the Cape Coast and Elmina castles. It protects a fragment of genuine West African humid tropical rainforest, an increasingly rare and threatened ecosystem, with giant trees, lianas, colourful butterflies, hundreds of bird species and elusive wildlife such as forest elephants, monkeys and antelopes. It is a green lung just a short hop from the sea.
Its worldwide fame comes from the 'canopy walkway': a 350-metre hanging walkway made up of seven bridges suspended between huge trees, more than 30 metres above the forest floor. Walking along it, swaying over the rainforest canopy with the treetops at your feet and green horizon all around, is a thrilling and unique experience: it was the first walkway of its kind in Africa and is still one of the few on the continent.
This guide covers Kakum from a practical angle: how to get there from Cape Coast, Elmina or Accra, how the canopy walkway visit and rainforest walks work, what wildlife and birds you can see, when to go to avoid the crowds and enjoy the forest, and how to combine it with the castles on the coast. Ideal for a morning out in nature and for balancing the historical intensity of the Central Region with greenery, fresh air and adventure.
The Kakum forest was declared a forest reserve in 1931 to protect its woodland and watercourses, in an area inhabited by the Akan people. In 1989-1992 it became a National Park to halt deforestation and develop ecotourism, with international support. In 1995 its famous canopy walkway opened, designed by Canadian and Ghanaian engineers, turning Kakum into one of the best-known natural destinations in West Africa. Today it is managed by the Forestry Commission of Ghana and is the most visited park in the country. Its history and ecology are covered on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The epicentre of the Atlantic slave trade: Elmina (1482) and Cape Coast, World Heritage castles with their 'door of no return', next to the Kakum rainforest.
Read the history of Central Region: the coast of castles →They depart from Acra, 135 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Kakum National Park protects one of the last large patches of lowland tropical rainforest in southern Ghana. It is part of the Upper Guinean rainforest belt, which once covered much of West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Ghana. This ecosystem is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on the planet and also one of the most threatened. Logging, farming and mining have destroyed much of it across the continent, which makes Kakum an especially valuable refuge.
The Kakum forest is a humid, shady, lush world. It has emergent trees over forty metres tall, a dense understorey, lianas, epiphytes, ferns and a very rich but elusive animal life: forest elephants, several species of monkeys and antelopes, the bongo, hundreds of butterflies and more than 260 bird species, some of them rare and sought after by birdwatchers from all over the world. It is a complex ecosystem where each tree supports dozens of other species.
Since ancient times, this forest was part of the territory of the Akan people, who lived on its edges and used it in traditional ways: hunting, gathering, medicinal plants and timber. The forest also had symbolic and spiritual value. For centuries, that relationship kept a certain balance. In the 20th century, however, the spread of commercial farming, above all cocoa, and logging began to seriously threaten the forest's survival.
The first step towards protecting Kakum came in colonial times. In 1931, the British administration of the Gold Coast declared the area a forest reserve. The main goal was to conserve the forest as a source of timber and, above all, to protect the watersheds of the rivers that rise there and supply water to the region, including Cape Coast. For decades, though, logging went on, and by the late 20th century the pressure on the forest from logging, poaching and spreading farmland threatened to damage it beyond repair.
The decisive change came in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With support from international bodies, among them the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the US agency USAID and conservation organisations such as Conservation International, a plan was drawn up to turn Kakum into a national park. It would be managed not only for conservation but also for ecotourism, so that the forest would bring income and jobs to local communities and be worth more 'standing'. Around 1989-1992, Kakum (together with the neighbouring Assin Attandanso reserve) was reclassified as a National Park.
The idea was a pioneering one for Ghana: use nature tourism as a conservation tool, involve local communities and show that a protected forest could be more profitable and sustainable than a logged one. For the strategy to work, Kakum needed an attraction that would bring visitors all the way there. That attraction would be the canopy walkway.
What made Kakum famous was its 'canopy walkway', the suspended walkway above the forest canopy. It opened in 1995. A team of two Canadian engineers who specialised in canopy structures and several Ghanaian workers designed and built it, with the stated aim of boosting ecotourism and giving visitors a unique experience worth the trip to the forest.
The walkway is made up of seven suspension bridges, about 350 metres in total, strung between large trees at a height of around 30-40 metres. It is built from steel cable, aluminium ladders, wooden planks and safety netting. It was the first structure of its kind in Africa and one of only a few in the world. It let Kakum offer something almost no other park on the continent had: the chance to walk above the forest at treetop level and see the canopy from the inside.
It was a huge success. Kakum quickly became one of the most visited tourist destinations in Ghana and a symbol of African ecotourism. It drew foreign travellers as well as large numbers of Ghanaian visitors, school groups and students. Tourism income helped pay for the park's protection and made forest conservation make economic sense, fulfilling the original idea: save the forest by making it valuable standing.
Today Kakum National Park is managed by the Forestry Commission of Ghana through its Wildlife Division. It is the most visited park in the country and a key part of what Ghana offers tourists, especially when combined with the castles of Cape Coast and Elmina, less than an hour away. Every year it welcomes tens of thousands of visitors, including international tourists, Ghanaians and school groups who come to discover the forest and its famous walkway.
The park still faces conservation challenges: deforestation and hunting in the surrounding area, the need to maintain its facilities, and the need to balance visitor numbers with protecting the forest and its wildlife. The relationship with neighbouring communities is central to its future. They get jobs and benefits from tourism, but they also live with the park's restrictions. Environmental education and community development programmes support the park's management.
Beyond the walkway, Kakum offers forest hikes, first-class birdwatching, night walks and the chance to spend the night deep in the forest. It is a model, imperfect but valuable, of how ecotourism can help preserve a unique ecosystem. For travellers, it is a chance to immerse themselves in West Africa's great rainforest and to balance the heavy history of the castle coast with a dose of nature, greenery and adventure.
