Towards capturing human well-being-nature relationships in poverty assessments in rural Malawi and Rwanda

Abstract

Despite repeated emphasis on the links between the natural environment and human wellbeing, and the disproportionate and direct dependence of the rural poor on natural resources, these links have not been well addressed in poverty assessments. Common poverty profiles neither reflect the contribution of nature to wellbeing nor the multiple values and meanings that people ascribe to nature.
Building on a conceptual grounding for including environmental components in wellbeing measures, the aim of our work was to determine for which components it is legitimate to do so according to the people whose wellbeing is measured. We developed a focus group discussion protocol to elicit perceptions of environment-wellbeing relationships in rural settings in Rwanda and Malawi. The protocol included a wellbeing free-listing exercise, a matching exercise linking the listed items to predefined wellbeing dimensions, and a discussion of environment-wellbeing connections.
We found that severe environmental degradation, hazards and conflicts over access to land and forests in these diverse rural areas are deeply and directly linked to wellbeing. Environmental changes such as flooding or extended drought led to losses of income, crops and assets, as well as prolonged periods of psychological stress, constrained freedom of choice, and in extreme cases, death.
Our results suggest that some environmental components are constituent to wellbeing. We emphasize the importance of validating the precise environmental components that are considered relevant to wellbeing in different contexts. Extending poverty measurement with relevant environmental components can help in targeting action towards reducing poverty in a more legitimate, context-specific way.

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ORCID for Marije Schaafsma: orcid.org/0000-0003-0878-069X

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