Embedding GIS Applications into Resource Management and Planning Activities of Local and Indigenous Communities

TLDR

GIS is simultaneously praised as democratizing and criticized as authoritarian, a tension that shapes its adoption debate in indigenous communities. This article reviews the debate on GIS adoption in sub‑Saharan Africa. The authors conduct a literature review and present a case study demonstrating GIS use for forest resource planning by local community representatives. The Kofiase case study confirms that GIS can empower indigenous groups to protect forest resources rather than disempower them.

Abstract

Geographic Information System’s (GIS’s) capabilities for gathering and disseminating information have been hailed as democratizing, whereas the system is simultaneously criticized as inherently authoritarian. These contradictory characterizations of GIS permeate the current debate on transfer and applications of the technology in indigenous communities. This article reviews the debate in the context of GIS adoption in sub-Saharan Africa. A case study is presented to demonstrate how GIS can be used to assist local community representatives to plan for the protection of local forest resources. The results of the study, which was implemented at Kofiase in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, reinforce the belief that GIS can be used for the benefit of indigenous groups rather than for their disempowerment.