Participatory sensitive mapping to strengthen forest governance and management

CartoSens

Authors: Francesca Fagandini, Antonio Villanueva

Course description

Forests are not only ecosystems or productive management units; they are lived territories shaped by meanings, memories, conflicts, fears, attachments, and everyday practices. Yet forest planning and management processes continue to rely primarily on technical and biophysical cartography, often overlooking lived experiences, sensory perceptions, and local narratives that directly influence the legitimacy, acceptance, or resistance to management decisions.

This course introduces CartoSens, a participatory sensitive mapping methodology developed within research-action contexts to integrate territorial perceptions, experiential knowledge, and socio-emotional dimensions into environmental diagnosis and forest governance processes.

Grounded in critical geography, emotional geographies, and participatory approaches, CartoSens understands mapping as a situated and relational practice rather than a neutral representation of space. The method translates affective experiences, territorial memories, zones of attachment, and areas of conflict or vulnerability into collective spatial representations, revealing dimensions that often remain invisible in conventional technical planning tools.

In forest governance and management contexts, CartoSens can contribute to:

• Identifying zones of attachment, care, and cultural value within forest landscapes

• Locating areas perceived as risky (wildfire, land-use conflict, degradation)

• Analyzing differentiated experiences of forests according to gender, age, or productive role

• Strengthening multi-actor dialogue and mediation processes

• Complementing territorial diagnostics and public consultation procedures

The outcomes can be integrated as qualitative inputs in participatory forest planning, collaborative management of protected areas, ecosystem restoration with a territorial approach, or climate change adaptation strategies grounded in local knowledge. They may function as complementary layers within participatory GIS processes or as inputs to formal decision-making frameworks.

The course combines a concise conceptual introduction with a guided practical experience of sensitive mapping applied to concrete forest-related challenges (fire management, restoration, conservation, access to resources). The session concludes with a discussion focused on operational integration, methodological limitations, and ethical considerations.

Target Audience and Format

This workshop is designed for:

• Researchers and academics in forest sciences and social sciences

• Forest managers and policy-makers

• Environmental NGO professionals and community-based organizations

• Advanced undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD students interested in participatory approaches

The format is highly interactive and experiential. To ensure methodological quality, reflective depth, and operational feasibility, participation will be limited to a maximum of 20 participants.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the theoretical foundations of sensitive mapping and its relevance for forest governance

• Design and facilitate a basic workshop protocol adaptable to institutional forest management contexts

• Integrate experiential knowledge into territorial diagnostics

• Use mapping as a tool for multi-actor dialogue and mediation

• Identify ethical risks related to the representation and potential instrumentalization of emotional dimensions

Programme (4 hours)

1. Welcome and Introduction (15 min)

2. Forest governance and the limits of technical cartography (30 min)

   • Current challenges in participatory forest management

   • Gaps between technical planning and lived experience

   • Why integrate experiential dimensions into forest management?

3. Presentation of the CartoSens method (30 min)

   • Core principles of the approach

   • Differences from classical participatory mapping

   • Applied cases in territorial contexts

4. Sensory activation and preparation (30 min)

   • Introduction to the practical activity: guided sensory walk

   • Technical guidelines for individual recording (keywords, sketches, symbols, emotional registration)

   • Brief body-awareness and sensory attention exercise

5. Sensory walk and individual recording (60 min)

   Structured walk with observation pauses and individual recording during the walk.

   • Paired sensory activation exercises

   • Identification of emotions associated with significant places

   • Description of sensory perceptions

   • Individual notes and/or sketches

6. Collective construction of sensitive mapping (60 min)

   • Identifying patterns or contrasts

   • Collective graphic representation (non-metric map): atmospheres, sensory gradients, intensity zones, tension or attachment points

7. Operational application in forest management (30 min)

   • Brief presentation of each map

   • Action-oriented discussion:

     • How could this map influence management decisions?

     • At which planning stages could it be integrated?

     • What ethical precautions should be considered?

     • How can the instrumentalization of emotional dimensions be avoided?