TITLE:
Exploring Community Engagement in Ecotourism Development in Ghana: Power Dynamics, Benefit Sharing, and Sustainability
AUTHORS:
Peterkin Senanu Kofi Danyo
KEYWORDS:
Community Engagement, Ecotourism, Political Ecology, Benefit Sharing, Institutional Bricolage, Sustainable Livelihoods, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.9,
September
21,
2026
ABSTRACT: Ecotourism is widely promoted as a means of combining biodiversity conservation with local socioeconomic development. However, evidence from the Global South indicates that the benefits of ecotourism are not automatically distributed equitably and that community participation may remain limited to consultation rather than meaningful decision-making. This paper critically reviews community engagement in Ghanaian ecotourism through a political ecology perspective, with particular attention to power dynamics, engagement quality, benefit-sharing equity, and sustainability. The review combines a structured literature synthesis with a bibliometric analysis of 327 publications identified through a documented search and screening process covering 2000-2025. The bibliometric analysis uses Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, Dimensions, and CitNetExplorer to examine publication performance, citation structures, thematic co-occurrence, co-authorship, institutional collaboration, and temporal keyword evolution. The evidence indicates a shift from predominantly descriptive and nature-centred studies toward greater attention to governance, equity, livelihoods, and institutional arrangements. Ghanaian cases, including Kakum National Park, Boabeng-Fiema, and Wechiau, demonstrate substantial variation in community decision-making authority and benefit-sharing arrangements. The paper distinguishes findings supported by the reviewed literature from its own conceptual propositions and develops an integrated, feedback-based framework that links institutional context and power dynamics to engagement quality, benefit-sharing equity, and economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Five directional hypotheses are proposed and operationalized for future empirical testing. The paper argues that sustainable ecotourism in Ghana depends not only on conservation and tourism revenues but also on meaningful local authority, equitable benefit distribution, procedural inclusion, and institutional arrangements capable of adapting to social and technological change.