The True Value of Nature: Valuing conventional economic AND non-economic factors for more sustainable and successful wildlife conservation interventions

As pressure on wildlife and habitat continue to increase, we need to find sustainable and effective ways to develop and implement conservation solutions. Many wildlife conservation programs and projects work to improve... [ view full abstract ]

As pressure on wildlife and habitat continue to increase, we need to find sustainable and effective ways to develop and implement conservation solutions. Many wildlife conservation programs and projects work to improve equitable benefit sharing of the economic value of wildlife as the primary incentive for communities to conserve wildlife. These projects are often successful while the project funding continues, but what happens when the funding is pulled or when another more lucrative opportunity is offered to exploit the land or wildlife?  How can a project be successful in generating support within the community and reflect the true values of a deep connection to wildlife, the land, and fellow community members?  Non-economic factors like health and education have been incorporated into conservation projects, while other important societal factors such as cultural diversity and resilience, community vitality, and good governance are beginning to be explored by innovative conservation project managers. We believe that these factors, when clearly understood and assessed from the community perspective, fundamentally contribute to the happiness and wellbeing of the community and ultimately will contribute to the success of wildlife conservation projects over the long term while contributing to greater community cohesion and ecosystem health. We propose using a nationally tested community wellbeing framework, Gross National Happiness (GNH), to surface vitally important but hard to ascertain factors that community members truly value and that are essential to the success of any intervention in a systematic way. We analyzed nine sustainable and successful conservation from around the world and from a diverse set of organizations to determine if the different non-economic values identified by the GNH framework were considered in planning or improved upon by the project. The level of community participation in each project was also assessed. Using the GNH domains, we identified trends and best practices that can be applied to existing and future projects. We conclude that using a framework (such as GNH) to plan community-based wildlife conservation programs around an holistic set of social wellbeing indicators can contribute to positive wildlife conservation outcomes and project sustainability. The case studies demonstrate how structured and deliberate community engagement of project planning and implementation – or better yet facilitating the community to drive conservation – is essential to success. Future research recommendations include the development and testing of a survey tool to analyze the wellbeing of a community organized around the GNH domains, or other human wellbeing index.