Improving landcover data governance in developing countries

Recent advances in open-access satellite imagery and processing tools have accelerated the production of national-scale landcover (LC) maps for land use planning and ecological monitoring. While such technological democratisation has expanded analytical capacity, it has also generated a new governance challenge: the coexistence of multiple, independently produced LC datasets without institutional coordination or custodianship. We use the case of Mauritius as representing a LC data limited country to highlight this governance challenge. Four distinct LC products were published within two years, each using different classification schemes, validation approaches and temporal baselines. Although intended for specific research objectives, their divergence illustrates how data proliferation can undermine policy coherence, create conflicting statistics, and impose disproportionate reconciliation burdens on capacity-constrained administrations. We argue that without designated custodianship, harmonised classification standards, and transparent metadata protocols, spatial evidence risks fragmenting rather than strengthening land and environmental governance. Drawing on the science-policy interface literature, we propose practical coordination mechanisms to ensure that expanding technical capacity translates into policy-relevant knowledge.