Accounting for the Impact of Conservation on Human Well‐Being |
| |
| Authors: | EJ MILNER‐GULLAND JA MCGREGOR M AGARWALA G ATKINSON P BEVAN T CLEMENTS T DAW K HOMEWOOD N KUMPEL J LEWIS S MOURATO B PALMER FRY M REDSHAW JM ROWCLIFFE S SUON G WALLACE H WASHINGTON D WILKIE |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Imperial College London, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, , Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom;2. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, , Falmer, United Kingdom;3. Department of Geography and Environment and Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, , London, United Kingdom;4. Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University of East Anglia, , United Kingdom;5. D?l Alice, Llanthony, , Abergavenny, NP7 7NW United Kingdom;6. Wildlife Conservation Society, , Bronx, NY, U.S.A.;7. School of International Development, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, and Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, , Stockholm, Sweden;8. Department of Anthropology, University College London, , London, United Kingdom;9. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, , London, United Kingdom;10. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College, London, , SL5 7PY United Kingdom;11. National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, , Oxford, United Kingdom;12. Centre for Development Oriented Research in Agriculture and Livelihood Systems, , Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| |
| Abstract: | Conservationists are increasingly engaging with the concept of human well‐being to improve the design and evaluation of their interventions. Since the convening of the influential Sarkozy Commission in 2009, development researchers have been refining conceptualizations and frameworks to understand and measure human well‐being and are starting to converge on a common understanding of how best to do this. In conservation, the term human well‐being is in widespread use, but there is a need for guidance on operationalizing it to measure the impacts of conservation interventions on people. We present a framework for understanding human well‐being, which could be particularly useful in conservation. The framework includes 3 conditions; meeting needs, pursuing goals, and experiencing a satisfactory quality of life. We outline some of the complexities involved in evaluating the well‐being effects of conservation interventions, with the understanding that well‐being varies between people and over time and with the priorities of the evaluator. Key challenges for research into the well‐being impacts of conservation interventions include the need to build up a collection of case studies so as to draw out generalizable lessons; harness the potential of modern technology to support well‐being research; and contextualize evaluations of conservation impacts on well‐being spatially and temporally within the wider landscape of social change. Pathways through the smog of confusion around the term well‐being exist, and existing frameworks such as the Well‐being in Developing Countries approach can help conservationists negotiate the challenges of operationalizing the concept. Conservationists have the opportunity to benefit from the recent flurry of research in the development field so as to carry out more nuanced and locally relevant evaluations of the effects of their interventions on human well‐being. Consideración del Impacto de la Conservación sobre el Bienestar Humano |
| |
| Keywords: | development ecosystem services impact evaluation intervention poverty Desarrollo evaluació n de impacto intervenció n pobreza servicios ecosisté micos |
|
|
