ABSTRACT

Geographic Information System’s capabilities for processing and disseminating information has been hailed as democratizing and empowering while it is simultaneously criticized as inherently authoritarian, complex and intimidating. These contradictory characterizations of GIS permeate current debate on the transfer and applications of the technology to "empower" local and indigenous communities. This paper discusses participatory uses of GIS in a community-based Collaborative Forest Management Organization located at Kofiase in Southern Ghana. It is observed that the debate on the extension of GIS applications into local communities has in large part focused upon purely beneficial or purely adverse uses of the system. The paper draws attention to the fact that both positive and negative appraisals of GIS adoption are complimentary and fundamental segments of a dynamic, inherently social dialectic that would guide the path to future developments in GIS.

The second part of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the ways GIS was used to assist local community representatives and foresters prepare a management plan for the protection of Aboma Forest Reserve in Southern Ghana. The results of the study reinforce the view that GIS can be used to facilitate resource management activities of local groups. Like any other technology, unintended changes in society and other dilemmas often accompany the beneficial uses of the system. Finally, whilst being cautious about the beneficial claims of PPGIS applications, we note that a surer way of securing appropriate and less harmful uses of GIS facilities (already available in Sub-Saharan African countries) is to involve local users in the development and applications of the technology. PPGIS practice provides desirable alternative applications of the technology in the African communities.
 

Key words: Public participation GIS, local community, empowerment, collaborative forest management, Sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana.