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The potential of the Global Person Generated Index for evaluating the perceived impacts of conservation interventions on subjective well-being

Publication ,  Journal Article
Rasolofoson, RA; Nielsen, MR; Jones, JPG
Published in: World Development
May 1, 2018

There is growing interest in the importance of ensuring that biodiversity conservation is not achieved at the expense of local people's well-being. It has been suggested that when evaluating the impact of an intervention, the affected population should be allowed to define well-being (requiring a subjective measure), and impacts (requiring a participatory approach), but very few, if any, conservation evaluations live up to these standards. We used a participatory impact evaluation approach with the Global Person Generated Index (GPGI) to investigate the relative impacts of strict protection and community forest management on local well-being in Madagascar's rainforests. The GPGI captures the subjective and multidimensional nature of well-being by asking respondents to identify the five most important domains for their quality of life, to evaluate their own performance in each domain, and the relative importance of the five identified domains. Participatory impact evaluation establishes local perceptions of the cause-effect relationship between an intervention and respondents’ performance in each domain. Over half the respondents perceived no positive or negative impacts from the conservation interventions. We found no significant difference between strict protection and community forest management in the measures we used to examine the magnitude of their relative impacts, but there were differences in the characteristics of domains impacted and in the priority domains that could be targeted to improve well-being in locally meaningful ways. Because of its subjectivity, the GPGI cannot provide quantitative information on the magnitude of impacts. Its strength lies in the wealth of information it provides on what life domains people value and their performance in these domains. Combined with the participatory impact evaluation approach, the GPGI provides highly relevant insights that can be used to improve interventions in ways which increase the local legitimacy and acceptability of conservation initiatives.

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Published In

World Development

DOI

EISSN

1873-5991

ISSN

0305-750X

Publication Date

May 1, 2018

Volume

105

Start / End Page

107 / 118

Related Subject Headings

  • Development Studies
  • 44 Human society
  • 38 Economics
  • 16 Studies in Human Society
  • 14 Economics
 

Citation

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Rasolofoson, R. A., Nielsen, M. R., & Jones, J. P. G. (2018). The potential of the Global Person Generated Index for evaluating the perceived impacts of conservation interventions on subjective well-being. World Development, 105, 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.032
Rasolofoson, R. A., M. R. Nielsen, and J. P. G. Jones. “The potential of the Global Person Generated Index for evaluating the perceived impacts of conservation interventions on subjective well-being.” World Development 105 (May 1, 2018): 107–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.032.
Rasolofoson, R. A., et al. “The potential of the Global Person Generated Index for evaluating the perceived impacts of conservation interventions on subjective well-being.” World Development, vol. 105, May 2018, pp. 107–18. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.032.
Journal cover image

Published In

World Development

DOI

EISSN

1873-5991

ISSN

0305-750X

Publication Date

May 1, 2018

Volume

105

Start / End Page

107 / 118

Related Subject Headings

  • Development Studies
  • 44 Human society
  • 38 Economics
  • 16 Studies in Human Society
  • 14 Economics