Cape Coast, Ghana
The planned work in Cape Coast is based on natural asset mapping and stakeholder engagements. Key priority natural assets will be mapped and socio-economic assessments undertaken, alongside in-depth consultations with various departments in the City Administration and other stakeholders.
FACTS & FIGURES
- Cape Coast is a town in the centre of the seaboard of Ghana, lying around 120 km southwest of Accra
- It covers an area of 122 km square and is the smallest metropolis in Ghana, and has an estimated population of 143,015 (2021 estimate).
- Cape Coast is one of Ghana’s smaller urban centres, ranking only about tenth in population size. However, its importance outweighs it size, not least because of its role as a trade and transit centre for the region’s coastal fishing industry and the surrounding agricultural zone, but also its position as a leading education centre (with some of Ghana’s elite schools and one of the country’s three main universities) and its growing role in Ghana’s tourist industry due to the city’s historical significance.
- Sea turtles are important marine creatures that provide unique services to the marine and coastal environment in Cape Coast, with schemes in place to try protect them from negative human-related impacts.
- Kakum National Park remains a focus of Ghana’s ecotourism programme. Forest elephants, seven species of primates and high antelope and bird diversity provide tremendous potential to ecotourism. The Kakum canopy walkway, perched 30 meters above the ground, gives a unique bird’s eye view of the rainforest. It is the first of its kind in Africa.
- The Cape Coast area is dominated by batholiths and generally undulating with steep slopes. There are valleys of various streams between the hills – with Kakum River being the largest. The minor streams end in wetlands, the largest of which drains into the Fosu Lagoon.
- Rich diversity of mangroves occurs in the flood plains of the Kakum Rivers.
- The area’s major rainy season occurs between May and July and the minor rainy season between November and January.