Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes

Are We Living Well?

Edited by Bas Verschuuren, Suneetha M. Subramanian and Wim Hiemstra

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COMMUNITY WELL-BEING IN BIOCULTURAL LANDSCAPES: ARE WE LIVING WELL?There is a growing recognition that living well must go beyond economic and material plenty to encompass social and spiritual well-being. But what do we understand by these wider aspects of well-being? Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes: Are We Living Well? provides an introduction to the concept of human well-being as it relates to international rural development and conservation policy and practice. It demonstrates that well-being is understood and managed in a variety of ways in different cultures but also across the geographical scales at which decision-making processes take place, from the local, to regional, national and international scales. Using case studies and examples from a number of institutions the book presents different approaches to well-being measurement and provides valuable reflections on the applicability of these experiences.

This book shows how community well-being can be measured using indicators chosen by local people to reflect the worldviews of their culture. Deriving such indicators can be a lengthy process, but the results are typically locally owned and recognized. When assessing well-being between different communities, a quicker approach that relies more on uniform indicators is often needed – and some loss of local diversity is to be expected. This book discusses how both approaches may go hand-in-hand and provides a unifying approach that is flexible enough to be used by conservation and rural development workers.

This book is important reading for the staff of international aid and conservation agencies, for students of international development and those exploring concepts of well-being.

Bas Verschuuren is affiliated with the ETC-COMPAS Network; the department of Sociology of Development and Change at Wageningen University, Netherlands; and is co-Chair of the IUCN Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas.

Suneetha M. Subramanian is a Senior Research Fellow, United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies, Japan.

Wim Hiemstra is International Programme Coordinator at ETC-COMPAS, the Netherlands.

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Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes

Are We Living Well?

Edited by Bas Verschuuren, Suneetha M. Subramanian and Wim Hiemstra

Practical Action Publishing LtdThe Schumacher Centre

Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby,Warwickshire CV23 9QZ, UK

www.practicalactionpublishing.org

Copyright © ETC-COMPAS and United Nations University, Institute for Advanced Sciences, 2014

ISBN 978-1-85339-837-7 HardbackISBN 978-1-85339-838-4 Paperback

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The contributors have asserted their rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identi!ed as authors of their respective contributions.

Verschuuren, B., Subramanian, S.M. and Hiemstra, W. (2014) Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes: Are We Living Well?, Rugby, UK: Practical Action Publishing <http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/9781780448374>.

Since 1974, Practical Action Publishing has published and disseminated books and information in support of international development work throughout the world. Practical Action Publishing is a trading name of Practical Action Publishing

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No. 247257, Group VAT Registration No. 880 9924 76).

All images used in this publication have been contributed with the permission of the photographers and/or the collaborating institutions. Images have been contributed based on consent of the people depicted in the images and

care has been taken to ensure respectful and truthful reference to them.

Cover photo: Don Pablo, a Kallawaya healer from the Andean highlands of Bolivia, performing a healing ritual at sunrise.Photo credit: David Ducoin (www.tribuducoin.com)

Cover design by Mercer DesignTypeset by Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire

Printed in the United Kingdom

Contents

Figures, tables and boxes viiPreface ixForeword xiAbbreviations and acronyms xiv

1 Re!ections on well-being: from GDP to local communities and their landscapes 1Bas Verschuuren, Wim Hiemstra and Suneetha M. Subramanian

A seed-blessing ceremony in Peru 3Community well-being in a globalizing environment 4A brief history of measuring welfare through economics 6GDP rather than quality of life and environment 7Broadening our understanding and measure of well-being 8Different ways of measuring well-being 10Conclusions 17

2 Exploring a new approach to well-being assessment 21Wim Hiemstra, Suneetha M. Subramanian and Bas Verschuuren

It’s the ecology, stupid! 21Biocultural landscapes 25Community well-being and healthy ecosystems 27Well-being and worldviews 27Communities conserve biodiversity and revitalize traditional knowledge 28UNDP Equator Initiative prize winning communities 33The UNU-IAS community well-being assessment framework 34Conclusions 39

3 Community well-being in Bolivia: an indigenous perspective 42Cesar Escobar

Context 43The concept of ‘living well’ 44Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation 46The National Biocultural Programme 54Conclusions 55

4 Community well-being in Sri Lanka: a Buddhist perspective 58K.A.J. Kahandawa

Chemical agriculture and its implications 59Future In Our Hands supporting well-being on the ground 62Therela village and challenges in improving the community’s well-being 63The Buddhist worldview 64De!nition of well-being from a Buddhist perspective 65

http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/9781780448374.000

vi COMMUNITY WELL-BEING IN BIOCULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Monitoring change processes 65Change stories to complement quantitative indicators 66Interpreting the change stories 71United Nations University measurement approach 72Conclusions 75

5 Community well-being in Ghana: an African perspective 78Bernard Yangmaadome Guri and Bas Verschuuren

The sacred caves of the Forikrom community 79Planning to use the resources 80Managing the caves 81Bene!ts 82Assessing well-being 83Most signi!cant change stories: a qualitative approach 84Self-assessment scores: a quantitative survey 86Triangulation: validation of the results 88Applying the UNU-IAS framework 89Methodology 89Discussion 92

6 Community well-being and biodiversity conservation: examples from the Equator Initiative 101Tristan D. Tyrrell, Joseph Corcoran and Oliver Hughes

Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary 102Village of Andavadoaka 103Pole Pole Foundation 104Shinyanga Soil Conservation Programme 105Yayasan Pengelolaan Lokal Kawasan Laut 106Phu My Lepironia Wetland Conservation Project 107Vida Verde Association of Amazonia 108Lessons learned and discussion: well-being in Equator Prize winner case studies 109Assessment in the UNDP Equator Initiative network 114Conclusions 118

7 An analysis of community well-being in biocultural landscapes: are we living well? 122Wim Hiemstra, Suneetha M. Subramanian and Bas Verschuuren

Community well-being assessment 123Impacts on community well-being and biocultural landscapes 128External support to endogenous processes 131What are we trying to change? 137Resilience within ecosystem boundaries 140Policy relevance of community well-being 142Final re"ections: are we living well? 144

Annex Poverty reduction outcomes in Community-led Natural Resources Management Programmes 148

Figures, tables and boxes

Figures

1.1 The many elements of happiness and well-being 22.1 Overall framework of co-creation of ways of knowing for positioning well-being re"ections 252.2 In endogenous development approaches, well-being is de!ned as real life: where material,

social and spiritual life overlap 293.1 Map of Bolivia and the community of Jatun Mayu watershed in the province of Cochabamba 433.2 Towards the construction of an index for well-being in Bolivia 453.3 Quantitative evaluation results using living well indicators, comparing 2006 and 2010 503.4 Qualitative evaluation results comparing 2006 and 2010 523.5 The participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation system of the National

Biocultural Programme developed by AGRUCO 554.1 Map of Sri Lanka and project location 604.2 Community well-being outcomes for nine villages in south-east Sri Lanka 675.1 Map of Ghana with the location of the Forikrom community 805.2 Triangulation evaluation method used in Forikrom 845.3 The tree seedling scoring method 875.4 Graphical representation of the data in Table 5.1 887.1 The four-quadrant model of change towards gender equality 1377.2 Four-quadrant analysis of the ecological value of nature spirits in Bhutan 1397.3 Four-quadrant analysis of community well-being changes through endogenous

development programmes in Sri Lanka 139

Tables

1.1 Approaches to well-being assessment using prede!ned or community indicators 112.1 Integrated framework to enable communities to assess their overall well-being 373.1 Summary of participatory community resource diagnoses 473.2 Indicators and project activities for the well-being project 483.3 Indicators and scoring in the well-being project 503.4 Quantitative evaluation using living well indicators, comparing 2006 and 2010 514.1 Community well-being outcomes in villages in south-east Sri Lanka, including Therela 664.2 Well-being assessment for Therela and Sirimalgoda villages 735.1 Self-assessment scores before and after CIKOD intervention in Forikrom 875.2 Community perceptions of changes in well-being using the UNU-IAS framework 906.1 Indicators used in Equator Prize selection 1106.2 Alignment of case studies with material well-being indicators 1116.3 Alignment of case studies with social well-being indicators 1156.4 Alignment of case studies with spiritual and cultural well-being indicators 1177.1 Stages for endogenous development 133

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Boxes

2.1 Equator Prize selection criteria 347.1 Human–nature relationships: the importance of place names in biocultural landscapes 1267.2 Economic, social and environmental bene!ts of Equator Prize activities 1297.3 How sharing change stories captured by video were disseminated and enabled

accountability in Ghana 1367.4 The Bolivian well-being concept in international dialogues 144

Preface

This book explores different ways in which biocultural landscapes are linked to human well-being. Although there are several studies that look into the relations between culture, environment, and well-being worldwide, there is still a lack of understanding among deci-sion makers and programme implementers about the importance of community well-being in relation to landscape management.

While assessments such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) postulate the relations between human well-being and environmental services, this is an area of work that typically overlaps with otherwise largely disparate !elds of social and ecological studies and requires more scienti!c research. To truly understand community well-being in relation to biocultural landscapes we are required to take an integrative approach that will help us bridge the chasm between nature and culture and help us to connect human well-being and the environment in practice and policy.

This book therefore builds on the experiences of !eld practitioners. It uses case studies from communities from Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Ghana, and the Equator Initiative and offers re"ec-tions on different methodologies used for assessing community well-being in the context of biocultural landscapes. To the many people contributing to this book, the separation of culture and nature has proven an arti!cial or foreign concept. This divide or fused space can be understood using the concept of ‘biocultural diversity’, which allows the inclusion and representation of locally de!ned human relationships with their environments.

Each chapter is written and narrated by people who work with the communities where the well-being approaches were implemented. As editors, we have tried to retain the authen-ticity of the notions and worldviews that were conveyed in the original form in which they were contributed. This helps us to understand the primary motivations and distinct approaches each community undertakes to achieve its well-being goals. Thus, by making use of examples that are drawn from grounded experiences, this book advocates that understanding well-being in the context of different worldviews enables practitioners and policymakers to work with local perceptions of well-being.

In the Foreword that follows, David Choquehuanca, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Decolonization of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, provides us with his interpretation of well-being. Although his views and claims on pre-colonial South American societies are subject to different positions in various academic !elds (as we will show later on in this book), he encourages the reader to look beyond our common understanding of these societies. In this way, David Choquehuanca helps us to imagine what it would be like to live with a different worldview, even though this would be based on a generalization of several more distinct and unique worldviews that would have existed in the region. We

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question some of these assumptions made about pre-Columbian societies, but we value this Foreword because it introduces the reader to a certain mental and emotional capacity required to imagine and understand different ways of seeing the world.

A lot of recent debate on the search for multidimensional indicators for ‘development’ goes beyond limitations of GDP as a sole measure for societal progress. Through this book we argue for taking a multidimensional approach to assessing well-being at a level of governance that has a collective outlook to welfare. At the community level, we believe that understanding well-being from an endogenous community perspective will bring an important complementary aspect to macro-level indices of well-being and can also inspire planning and assessment purposes at various levels of decision making. In this book we present a methodology which we have developed on the basis of in-depth enquiries and comparisons of quantitative and qualitative approaches for measuring community well-being using a common interpretive framework.

Across these experiences of local communities in various countries and developmental contexts our analysis has helped in creating a more complete understanding of community well-being in biocultural landscapes.

It has been an interesting journey not only for us, the editors and authors of these chapters, but also in terms of institutional and community collaboration. Two writing workshops in Germany with facilitator Paul Mundy and Evelyn Mathias of Mamud helped to clarify conceptual issues and discuss draft texts. We explored the multiple dimensions of well-being and even discovered some that were initially hidden to some of us. As editors, we acknowledge the kind support received from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), UNEP, UNU-IAS, and PSO – a programme for capacity building in developing countries. We also acknowledge the support of our families and loved ones who have been patient and looked after our personal well-being as we worked to make this book a reality.

We hope this book will inspire you to explore and re"ect on the question that has been our source of inspiration throughout this endeavour: ‘Are we living well?’

Bas Verschuuren, Wim Hiemstra and Suneetha M. Subramanian

Foreword

Well-being is knowing how to nourish ourselves, love and be loved

The Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Choquehuanca gave a speech on the concept of well-being on 1 November 2011 in the community of Tarata, province of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Well-being is the central concept in the new Bolivian Constitution (accepted January 2009) and is being translated into policies. The speech was a contribution to the international confer-ence ‘Endogenous Development and Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education’ organized by the CAPTURED network – Capacity and Theory building for Universities and Research centres on Endogenous Development. AGRUCO (Agroecologia Universidad Cochabamba, Bolivia) is one of the partners in the CAPTURED and in the ETC-COMPAS network working on well-being indi-cators. These experiences are described in Chapter 3 of this book. The Spanish version of the speech, El Signi!cado del ‘Vivir Bien’, is included in Delgado and Ricaldi (2012).

We gather together to allow different forms of knowledge to meet in the taipi – the centre, focus. In Bolivia, we have a symbol, the huipala.1 The huipala is not a "ag, but ‘a code of inclusion’ and shows the direction for those seeking wisdom. The huipala tells us that each one of us has a size. We are what we are, not more, not less. The knowledge that the brothers and sisters from India bring is as important as the knowledge of the people from Bolivia. Our task is to !nd that taipi, where different forms of knowledge are complemen-tary, above all without excluding anyone. We are all the size we are, not more, not less. Women are not inferior to men. The indigenous logic is complementarity of values and principles. But this complementarity was disrupted 500 years ago. Before colonization, our continent used to be known as Abya Yala.2 Through colonization, our Abya Yala was divided into countries and countries were divided into departments. We were divided, we became individualistic. Now we live in a society without unity. We only defend our own interests. Nowadays there are con"icts between provinces about borders. But if we are ‘one family’, I wonder: why are there con"icts?

Bolivia is currently going through a time of decolonization. Initially, the ministry of which I am in charge was called ‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Colonization’. We have changed the label to ‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Decolonization’. We are in the middle of the process of decolonization, deciphering our codes, because we are not well. We live in a society of inequality, of individualism. We have forgotten the values and principles that guaranteed a balance of ourselves with Mother Nature, a harmonious life.

As individuals, we can study at a university. But in the natural universities, the sacred places, places of energies, you can’t go alone, you have to go as Chacha warmi, as a humane person, as a couple. A couple (two) is important and in some instances, depending on

xii COMMUNITY WELL-BEING IN BIOCULTURAL LANDSCAPES

the location and time, four couples are needed. This wisdom emerged from our elders who told us about their cosmovision.3 We have forgotten our cosmovision; we only talk about knowledge.

Presidents and leaders meet to discuss solutions to the crises. We can ask: ‘Who is responsible for the crisis?’ and the answer is evident. It’s the application of the Western development model, resulting in laws made for people only. Unfortunately, only these laws for people are taught in universities. We only consider knowl-edge, but I think we need to be looking for the complementarity between knowledge and cosmovision. That’s where the balance can be found.

Today we do not realize that we are not living well, we are in macha, which means ‘drunk, dis-balanced’, what the Mayans call ‘no-time’. But the time of no-union is coming to an end, let’s not forget that the Mayan calendar ended in 2012. Why did the Mayan calendar end in 2012? Why does the Pachakuti 4 tell us that we are in the !nal days? It’s impor-tant to retrieve our spirituality, our codes, our symbols, our own forms of organization, so that the knowledge and cosmovision are complementary. It’s important to talk about knowledge and emotions. When we talk about our cosmovision, in reality this refers to a cosmo-bio-vision. For us, life is central. That’s why we are nurturing the ‘culture of life’.

The Bolivian governmental policies are searching to enhance vivir bien or well-being of the people. Not ‘living better’. The Western development model that aims for living better, not well-being, has created big inequalities between regions, between countries. We are not in a

hurry, the day in which we govern ourselves is near. Self-governance means that communities are enabled to solve their problems. When we ask someone else to solve our problems that is not self-governance. Today we live in a Western logic in which we expect the president to solve all problems. We have to organize ourselves to enable self-governance at the community level. Self-governance knowledge exists in the community and we need to revitalize the language that captures this ancient wisdom.

The universities need to incorporate indig-enous knowledge. For example, some time ago a group of students consulted me about a study on kaschwa. This is a dance which is

The huipala is a symbol of the Andean indigenous peoples.

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Community members gather around the huipala in the Jatun Mayu watershed in Bolivia.

FOREWORD xiii

celebrated on 20 January each year to ask the gods whether the land will be generous to the people. Unfortunately, there are no written texts on this dance. I suggested they consult the elders and ‘read their wrinkles’. We can’t deny that we have lost much wisdom. This wisdom needs to be recovered and revitalized. Researchers in the universities can’t remain ignorant of the loss of wisdom. The university needs to establish creative dialogues, which will prosper once the mainstream knowledge stops being considered mainstream. The conventional higher education system will be then renounced.

It is important to look at all elements of living well. ‘Well-being’ is knowing how to nourish ourselves. Usually we don’t nourish ourselves, we eat. Maybe that’s why we say: ‘I invite you to eat’, we don’t say ‘we invite you to be nourished’. In the earlier days, isañu was eaten, a tuber crop which is also used as a natural medicine to treat prostrate problems. While we dialogue about our food crops, the rest of the world has declared quinoa (a grain crop grown in the Andean highlands) and ollucu (a tuber crop which is grown 3000 metres above sea level) as strategic food crops for planet Earth. ‘Well-being’ is knowing how to communicate, how to self-govern, how to dance. Well-being is knowing how to work, knowing how to sleep, knowing how to meditate, reproduce, love and be loved, how to balance knowledge with cosmovision.

Jallalla – for life, brothers and sisters.

David Choquehuanca is an Aymara Bolivian citizen, expert in Andean culture, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Notes1 The huipala is the indigenous quadrangular emblem in seven colours (49 squares, arranged 7 # 7)

used by indigenous peoples of the Andes.2 Abya Yala was the name given to the American continent by the native Kuna nations of Panama and

Colombia before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. It means ‘land in its full maturity’. Since 1992, this is also the name that the indigenous nations of America have been using for the continent instead of naming it after European explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.

3 Cosmovision is used in Latin America to refer to worldviews. ETC-COMPAS and the CAPTURED programme use the following de!nition of cosmovision or worldview: ‘The way a certain population perceives the world and cosmos. It includes assumed relationships between the human world, the material world and the spiritual world. It describes the perceived role of supernatural powers, the relationships between humans and nature, and the way natural processes take place. It embodies the premises on which people organize themselves, and determines the moral and scienti!c basis for intervention in nature’ (COMPAS, 2007).

4 Pachakuti refers to overturning of space–time. In the Andean concept of time, it is believed that long periods of time are linked by severe events, which are called Pachakuti (pacha means both space and time (also world or Earth), and kuti means to overturn or turn back). Pachakuti means a millennial moment in which one world ends and another begins; a total transformation of things.

References Delgado, F. and Ricaldi, D. (eds) (2012) Desarollo Endógeno y Transdisciplinariedad en la Educación Superior:

Cambios para el diálogo interscientí!co entre el conocimiento eurocéntrico y el conocimiento endógeno, AGRUCO/Plural Editores, La Paz, Bolivia.

COMPAS (2007) Learning Endogenous Development, Practical Action Publishing, Rugby, UK.