In step 3 of our Well-being Approach to Conservation series, we are delving into participatory planning for well-being. In the Wild Happiness approach that OneNature employs, we collect well-being data via our survey, analyze this data, and present a “Wild Happiness Report Card” to our project partner and the local community as a basis for participatory planning. We have a handbook with examples of successful conservation projects that provides the partners and community with global examples of how other projects have incorporated well-being domains into their projects to improve the community’s well-being and support thriving wildlife.
By providing the community with a report on their data and this global context, the community has well-being and conservation information to co-create their own solutions. This enables informed participatory planning and supports community capacity for decision-making and implementation of the project.
Participatory planning is an approach a community and implementing partner undertakes to achieve a particular goal. In this process, community members are tasked with identifying their community’s problems. They then partner with a conservation or development organization to develop an action plan to address and rectify them. These experts serve as facilitators and can provide experience in how other communities have worked through similar issues. The community leaders and members are experts in the local context, culture, and community prioritization. Using a participatory planning approach allows the community to put their well-being in their own hands with the help and support of trusted wildlife conservation experts.
Using a participatory approach for well-being allows conservation practitioners to gain perspectives, understand points of view they may not have known, and avoid obstacles brought about by unfamiliarity of the communities’ realities. It also allows all the community members and conservation organizations to consider a range of well-being domains not often considered in conservation projects. These include not just livelihoods, health and educational improvements, and environmental sustainability but the less commonly included domains of well-being that are very important to happiness and well-being: social relationships and cultural and spiritual practices. These social, cultural, and spiritual values and practices of a community can be critical to the community’s identity and how they relate to wildlife. Not having a good understanding or appreciation of this context could be one of the reasons conservation has not been more successful in many communities.
Community co-creation creates a mutual relationship, one of trust and respect, between all stakeholders involved. Working hand in hand in equal partnership with community members and leaders builds a solid and reciprocal connection between all parties. Since community members are involved from the initial stages of the project, they have a stake in the plan’s success. When conservation projects are developed without the involvement of community members or without including areas of life that are foundational to their well-being, there is less incentive and appeal for the community to participate and contribute to the project, making the project, the people, and the wildlife less likely to thrive.
OneNature is currently developing and implementing “Wild Happiness”, a project utilizing our well-being approach to conservation. This is a five-step process designed to work with community members to sufficiently meet their needs. Community involvement is an essential component of our strategy, as we believe conservation centered on holistic community values allows conservation practitioners to better support communities and wildlife as well as inform and encourage decision-makers. A well-being approach to conservation can contribute to more equitable and sustainable policies and plans that lead to thriving and healthy communities, wildlife, and economies.