## 3 Case Study  
### Background of Research Site  
The present case study concerns the Wu-Wei-Kang Wildlife Refuge in Ilan County, northeastern Taiwan where we introduced PPGIS and worked with a local conservation organization, Wu-Wei River Cultural and Education Association (WRCEA), on refuge planning and management and community monitoring from 2007. Since the project requested the participation of local stakeholders multiple times and adopted their views in decision-making in refuge management, we found it suitable to take up the issue of governance quality. The Wu-Wei-Kang Wildlife Refuge was designated in 1993, and its area was expanded to 103.35 ha in 2015 [60; 61; 62]. It is a semi-enclosed wetland, identified as an important roosting site for migratory waterfowl in northeastern Taiwan. (See Figure 1 for more information about the refuge and neighboring areas.)  
The management objective of this refuge is to protect the wetland ecosystem and biodiversity, to provide a favorable habitat for migratory birds, and to develop environmental education and sustainable tourism with active community participation, thereby ensuring the sustainable development of local communities [62; 63; 64; 65]. When the Wetland Conservation Act came into effect in 2013, the Wu-Wei-Kang Wildlife Refuge was included and it was extended northward to the river mouth of the Shin-Cheng River and the coastal wetland as a wetland of national importance to cover a total area of 642 hectaes [63].  
Since 2007, sponsored by the Ilan County Government, WRCEA started to host platform meetings to communicate and discuss issues concerning the wildlife refuge. The participants in this platform meeting are primarily stakeholders who are relevant to the management of this refuge. They include 1. government agencies (Ilan County Government, Lou-Dong Forest District Office, etc.); 2. academic teams (National Ilan University, Biodiversity Research Center of Academia Sinica, and this research team); and 3. local community organizations/residents (community development associations by this refuge, village chiefs, WRECA, and other local residents). Meanwhile, some scholars and experts were also invited to the discussion according to the target requirements in operation and management [64; 65]. In general, the topics discussed in the platform meeting are mainly those of refuge management including habitat restoration, community communication, infrastructure maintenance, research and survey, and environmental education. These platform meetings offered an opportunity for the stakeholders to learn to use PPGIS proficiently and for local communities to apply PPGIS-relatedknowledge and software to the decision-making process regarding the main governance issues [62]. It also covered annual planning for the following year. In addition, the participants are able to distribute missions and responsibilities and to divide labors of stakeholders for different operational and management issues at platform meetings [63] (Figure 2). Up to the present, platform meetings have been held once or several times per year and they have become important occasions to reveal situations, to discuss issues, and to make decisions on managing the refuge and wetland of national importance, as well as to provide occasions for interactions between different stakeholders.