Supporting community governance in boreal forests by introducing participatory GIS through Action Research

We use the case of Vilhelmina Upper Forest Common (VUFC) in northernSweden to test whether the introduction of a Participatory GeographicInformation System (PGIS) can increase shareholder engagement. Wetake an Action Research approach to introduce a PGIS as a tool to helpwith forest management plans, and as a tool for communication betweenmanagement and the shareholders. We found that the board and shareholderswere initially resistant to adopting PGIS. However, continued collaborationand engagement seem to have encouraged the board to be morepro-active in their communication with the shareholders, and also moretransparent regarding the management/governance of VUFC. We also findincreasing interest among previously passive shareholders to engage intheir forest common’s management.