No abstract

In this perspective article, we propose a well-being survey instrument based on Bhutan's Gross National Happiness (GNH) framework for use in community-based wildlife conservation projects. Allgood, Hofberg, Musikanski, Michelini and Moser (2019) found that while there is a need, there is not a well-being survey instrument that includes indicators to measure the impacts on community and wildlife for communality-based wildlife conservation projects. The instrument proposed in this paper is designed to meet the unmet need. It is developed based existing instruments as well as indicators adapted by the authors based on the authors' experience. The proposal concludes with recommendations for use of the instrument.

Many wildlife conservation projects aim to create sustainable and effective solutions by incorporating human and community well-being into their projects. While a few of these projects are incorporating a community well-being approach based on noneconomic factors such as health, education, culture, community vitality, and good governance, most define well-being in purely economic terms. Often, the goal is equitable sharing of the economic value of wildlife as the primary incentive for communities to conserve wildlife. However, these projects have had variable results due to a variety of factors. The question of how conservation projects can reliably and consistently improve both community well-being and wildlife outcomes has yet to be answered. The authors posit that existing indices that measure well-being such as the government of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, can provide a framework to systematically identify well-being factors through a community-driven method. In this article, nine sustainable and successful community-based wildlife conservation projects are assessed to determine what aspects of well-being (as described by the nine domains of Bhutan's GNH framework) were considered in project planning and implementation. The results indicate that each project did incorporate a variety of aspects of human well-being into planning and implementation, which likely contributed to their success. Future research recommendations include the development and testing of a community-based well-being instrument to analyze and guide community-based wildlife conservation programs.