First round of stakeholder meetings: WP6 questions
Jetske Bouma& Dave Huitema
In this note we outline the questions work package 6 would like to see addressed in
the village-level stakeholder meetings, and make a suggestion about the selection of
the study villages. Clearly, we welcome feedback and comments:
jetske.bouma@ivm.vu.nl.
Selection of study villages
First of all, we would like to propose that the (village) communities that we visit in
the first round of stakeholder meetings will also be the focus of the research on socioeconomic vulnerability in the remaining part of the project (e.g. which would mean
we would limit the household survey to these villages and collect socio-economic and
governance-related information mostly for these sites).
Second, to make sure we get a representative picture of socio-economic vulnerability
and adaptive capacity in the study sites, we would like to propose a stratified sample
of 4-6 villages per study site, based on the location of villages in the study sites. For
this, we would like to suggest the following: a) villages located inside the protected
area, b) villages located outside the protected area, but making direct use of the
protected area and/or being (positively or negatively) affected by the earlier
establishment of the protected area and c) villages located upstream the protected
area, not using the protected area directly but affecting biodiversity protection
indirectly through water use. Table 1 gives an indication of what this would imply.
Table 1 Stratified sample of villages for community meetings and household surveys
Costa Rica
India
Vietnam
South Africa
1. Villages
located inside
protected area
In ‘humedales’
near Ballena
national park
In Chandoli
national park
In Na Hang nature
reserve
(no villages inside
Kruger park)
2. Villages
bordering the
protected areas
Indigenous and
other villages
close to the
humedales
Indigenous and
other villages,
close to the park
Indigenous and
other villages,
close to the
reserve
Indigenous and
other villages,
close to the park
3. Upstream
villages
Irrigators
upstream
(pineapple)
(no group
upstream of
Chandoli park)
(applicable ??)
Irrigators upstream
(commercial)
The selection of villages for the third group may be less apparent, but there are a
couple of reasons why we are interested to discuss socio-economic vulnerability and
adaptive capacity in these villages as well. First, we expect these villages to have a
bigger impact on biodiversity than the first two groups. Since we are interested in
exploring potential strategies to improve biodiversity protection and local livelihoods,
it seems important to also include villages that cause important biodiversity threats. It
may not be necessary to ask all questions related to socio-economic vulnerability in
these villages. It would be important knowing on what factors farm-household
livelihoods in these villages depend and we would need to know whether villagers
cooperate in collective actions, how villagers are connected to other governance levels
and whether informal control and enforcement mechanisms exist.
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This information could, for example, be used to explore the use of ‘payments for
ecosystem services’ mechanisms, where upstream farmers would be paid not to
pollute the water or over-extract. In such schemes, moral hazard risks are substantial,
and group based approaches that assume social control and enforcement can work if
informal mechanisms exist. Second, selecting upstream villages fits well into the
catchment based approach to biodiversity conservation. Third, we expect pronounced
differences in socio-economic vulnerability, adaptive capacity, lifestyles and
connectedness between the three types of villages which we would like to explore.
The idea would be to visit these villages during the first round of field visits and to
then randomly select households from these villages for the household survey in stage
two. Finally, we may conduct economic experiments in the study villages, inviting the
households that cooperated in the household survey to join (participants earn real
money in these experiments, so this compensates their participation costs).
In the following, we present a preliminary set of questions regarding livelihood
strategies, definitions of socio-economic vulnerability, livelihood-nature linkages,
natural resource management and adaptive capacity in the study villages.
Questions for village-level stakeholder meetings LiveDiverse
1. General Details
Village name
Location
(inside protected area, outside, upstream)
GPS coordinates
Date of the meeting
Total participants (male/female)
2. Village Details
Total number of households or inhabitants
Does the village have a formal administrative
authority? (mayor, other)
Does the village have an informal, traditional
authority (elder, chief, etc.)
Are the authorities present at the meeting?
Village type
(Indigenous, non-indigenous or mixed)?
Connected by tarmac road? (Y/N)
Distance to nearest (market) town (km)
Short description of village characteristics
(geographic, ethnic, administrative, other)
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3. Livelihood strategies (NB ask for the typical household)
List the main sources of food
and try to get estimates of
relative importance (%)
(for example, 80% from the
market, 15% own production,
5% from the forest)
List the main sources of
income and try to get an
estimate of the relative
importance (%)
(for example, 20% cash crops,
20% livestock, 50% wage
labour and 10% fish)
List main sources of other use
(for example, market, own
production, (communal)
plantation, forest, other)
Agriculture (cash crops)
Livestock (selling)
Wage labour (nearby)
Wage labour (migrate)
Hunting/fishing (selling)
Forest products (timber,
non-timber- selling)
Tourism-related
Other (specify)
Drinking and cooking
Bathing
Washing/cleaning
Livestock drinking
Charcoal
Wood
Natural gas
Cow dung
Coal
Other (specify)
Medicine
Fodder (livestock)
Crafts
Construction
(house,boat)
Other (specify)
NA= non applicable
5. Sources of household income
Get an estimate of the return
from (cash) crop production
(for example, 1 ha of cotton
generates approx. 10,000 Rs)
If villagers cannot give these
estimates, ask for yields
Get an estimate of the return
from livestock production
(for example, 1 cow sells for
5,000 Rs)
Yes/No
Relative
importance(%)
Own production
(agriculture/livestock)
Forest/wetland
(hunting, fishing, other)
Other
(please specify)
Other (specify)
List main sources of fuel use
(for example, market, own
production, (communal)
plantation, forest, other)
Relative
importance(%)
Market (buy)
4. Dependence on ecosystem services
List main sources of water
use
(for example, tap, individual
well, collective well, pond,
river etc)
Product (rice, maize,
meat, vegetables etc)
Crop 1 (specify)
Crop 2 (specify)
Crop 3 (specify)
Crop 4 (specify)
Livestock 1 (specify)
Livestock 2 (specify)
Livestock 3 (specify)
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5. Income from natural resources- continued
List daily wages (for
example, farm labour pays 50
Rs/day, construction in city
pays 200 Rs/Day)
List the prices (per kg, piece
or else) on the local market
for forest/wetland products
Please specify the products
and mention price per unit
Farm labour (in village)
Farm labour (nearby)
Wage labour (migrate)
Wage labour (tourism)
Other
Non-timber forest
products (medicine,
honey, nuts, fruits, else)
Timber
Fish and shell fish
Bushmeat (hunting)
Other
6. Property rights and ecosystem accessList for each land use who
owns the land or resource
entitlement
(for
example,
private
property, community land,
protected area/ government
land, other).
Crop production
If different arrangements
exist for one type of land use,
please list them all)
Hunting/fishing
Livestock grazing
NFTP’s
Harvesting of timber
Other
7. Natural resource and ecosystem management
Describe how the different land and water uses are managed (for example, private decision-making,
village rules and social enforcement, no rules, formal rules and government enforcement, formal rules
but no enforcement etc.)
Crop production
Livestock grazing
Collection of NTFP’s
(medicine, fruit, nuts etc)
Harvesting of timber
Hunting/fishing
Water for household use
Water for agricultural use
Water for livestock use
Other
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8 Informal rules, social sanctioning and community control If the community has defined
certain rules and/or uses social sanctioning or other mechanisms to enforce sustainable resource use,
then please discuss what these mechanisms are, since when they have been in place and how effective
they seem to be.
9 Community participation (
If the community participates in the management of the protected area and/or in the management of
natural resources (water, land, forest etc.) in any other way, please discuss what participation entails
(planning, decision-making, rule enforcement, etc.), since when the community has been participating
and how effective community participation seems to be.
10. Details of village organizations/user groups
Name of the Group
Type of group
# members
# female
members
1.
2.
3.
4.
11. Definitions of poverty
Discuss and list the main characteristics that determine whether a household is poor.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Remarks:
12. Factors causing poverty
Discuss and list the factors that cause households to become poor (disease, crop failure, other)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Remarks:
13. Household responses to external events causing poverty
Discuss household responses and strategies to deal with these risks
1.
2.
3.
4.
Remarks:
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14. Significant events and developments affecting local livelihoods
Discuss the main events and developments that happened in the last 5-10 years to the village
15. Significant events: village response
Has, and if yes how, the village tried to respond to these external events?
16 Linking with other levels
We were just discussing some significant developments in your village. We would like to ask
some further questions about these developments and how people in your village respond
Who do you talk to in your community to get advice on what will happen and what to do
about these developments? Please give names
How do people in the village respond to these developments, in your opinion?
1.People act on their own
2.People act with their families
3.We ask our leaders to act for us
4. The village acts collectively
Who in your opinion, leads the discussion on how you will respond? Please give names
17 Linking with other levels
Some of the developments we were discussing have their origins outside the village. In many
cases, decision about these developments are taken at other levels, such as the region,
province, the national level or even at the international level
Do you feel that these other levels that the interest of your village into account when they
make decisions that affect you?
1. Villages nearby: Yes -No
2. In the region/province: Yes-No
3. The national government: Yes-No
4. International level: Yes-No
Why did you say yes or no to these questions? Please explain to us:
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Do you feel that your village is able to influence decisions made at these levels?
1. Villages nearby: Yes -No
2. In the region/province: Yes-No
3. The national government: Yes-No
4. International level: Yes-No
Would you like to give an explanation for your answer? Why did you say yes or no to these
questions?
We are interested in meeting with those people that make the connection between your village
and these other levels? Who is talking, on your behalf, to these others? Please give names
Do these other levels have representatives in your village? If so, who represents the higher
levels? You can think of government representatives, but also of people who works for
multinational companies, and international NGOs
1. The region/province. Has representation Yes – No. If yes, by whom?
2. The national government. Has representation: Yes-No. if yes, by whom?
3. International organizations have representation? Yes-no, if yes, by whom
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