Bolstering community well-being through wildlife conservation: Broadened approaches engaging wildlife well-being and indigenous wisdom

ABSTRACT

This perspective article highlights the global well-being movement within and beyond community development, which can be informed to examine the interconnections between wildlife well-being and human well-being. COVID-19ʹs global impact has brought into sharp focus the magnitude of the social, economic, and environmental crises facing leaders, communities, nations, wildlife, and the planet. Post-COVID-19, community development research, policy, and practice require comprehensive approaches addressing social unrest, climate, and biodiversity in tandem. This article showcases how community development professionals can leverage wildlife conservation to bolster and mutually reinforce community well-being, drawing on the natural and cultural capital literature, which can inform empirical research, theory, and practice. This article guides community development professionals to link wildlife capital/well-being to human well-being, embrace Indigenous wisdom around conservation, and build upon momentum in scientific inquiry around well-being measures. This perspective article concludes showcasing how community well-being pursuits can integrate wildlife and local wisdom in community development.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiversity
• extinction
• indigenous knowledge
• community empowerment
• environment and sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Due to page constraints, we are unable to further dive into ancient wisdom regarding wildlife-human interactions/well-being. Many scholars and practitioners have invoked ancient wisdom, but few (if none) have explicitly connected wildlife well-being and human well-being in community development work.

2. This online survey instrument is free use at: https://wildlifeandwellbeing.happycounts.org/survey/directToSurvey. It is accompanied by a step-by-step community outreach, engagement, and empowerment approach designed to empower communities to take action for their well-being and the conservation of neighboring wildlife. The Wild Happiness survey instrument and data gathering process can be used to more deliberately include women, youth, and marginalized community members in conservation decision-making by assessing them how they think wildlife contributes to their well-being and to the well-being of their community. The survey instrument and step-by-step process to be used as a basis for understanding the community priorities of well-being linked to wildlife conservation. Local circumstances and values are first explored and integrated into the survey tool to make certain it is culturally relevant. The survey results are given to the community and discussed so that the community can better understand how they want to improve their well-being linked with wildlife, prioritize project interventions, and adaptively manage their projects. The survey results can be used as a baseline to monitor impacts of the community-led projects to all areas of well-being survey.