Public participation GIS to support a bottom-up approach in forest landscape planning

Forest landscape planning analyses all forest aspects (economic, ecological and social) and defines long-term forest management guidelines. Various actors are involved in landscape planning; therefore the analysis needs to take into account goals and targets of the different stakeholders. The participatory process can strongly support the development of a bottom-up forest plan definition when stakeholders are involved throughout the decision-making process. In this way, management guidelines are defined by decision makers and local communities through a shared process. With this approach, Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) is a useful tool to support the decision-making process in forest planning. The aim of the paper is to present a method that matches these requirements by exploiting the potential of GIS. The application of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) is a useful support to integrate stakeholders' priorities and expectations into forest planning strategies. Furthermore, it represents the starting point to draw up management scenarios by integrating and comparing both technical and social priorities. This paper presents an application of PPGIS in a forest landscape plan in southern Italy (Alto Agri district, Basilicata region).