Community Well-Being in Biocultural Landscapes

There is a growing recognition that living well must go beyond economic and material plenty to encompass social and spiritual well-being. But what do we understand by these wider aspects of well-being? Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes provides an introduction to the concept of human well-being as it relates to international rural development and conservation policy and practice. It demonstrates that well-being is understood and managed in a variety of ways in different cultures but also across the geographical scales at which decision-making processes take place, from the local, to regional, national and international scales. This book shows how community well-being can be measured using indicators chosen by local people to reflect the worldviews of their culture. It provides a unifying approach that is flexible enough to be used by conservation and rural development workers.This book is important reading for the staff of international aid and conservation agencies, for students of international development and those exploring concepts of well-being.

Bas Verschuuren is a scientist and facilitator with EarthCollective and serves as Co-chair with IUCN's Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas. Bas has over 10 years of international experience integrating cultural and spiritual values in conservation management and policy.

Suneetha M. Subramanian is at the UN University-Institute of Advanced Studies, Japan.

Wim Hiemstra is with ETC-COMPAS Network, The Netherlands.