Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services: Wellbeing, 2013-2017

The first part of the SPACES project involved populating ES-WB chains with data obtained from each of the 8 sites studied to help answer one of the overarching questions seeking to understand the complex and elastic relationship between ecosystem and wellbeing outcomes (ES – WB chains). This was aimed at helping us explore more dynamic and policy-relevant aspects of ES-WB links as we highlighted relationships and links between chains, feedbacks within chains and identified windows of opportunity where interventions could lead to ES benefits to those most in need. However after the first components of the project were realized, a few gaps were still apparent. Firstly, access had not been sufficiently explored for different goods perceived in the survey (what is needed to gain access to specific livelihoods/food sources). Secondly, the WB contribution of ES goods had not been explored in enough detail. For example, the income of fishermen does not necessarily solely contribute to their economic security but may have an impact on their subjective WB, respect, relationships, autonomy, etc. Since SPACES aimed to inform policy and suggest potential interventions and highlight windows of opportunity to improve the flow of ES benefits to those most in need (and hence improve their WB), we needed to ensure that proposed interventions didn’t have negative effects on aspects of individuals’ wider WB (as opposed to ES specific WB). Therefore, we also wanted to explore individuals’ general WB and perceived factors that influence it. The proposed methodology consequently aimed to (1) focus on a wide range of ES chains, not solely monetary or pre-defined ES benefits, (2) look at the contribution of ES goods/value attributes to different aspects of WB, (3) look at access mechanisms to each ES benefit, and (4) look at WB in a wider context (not solely linked to ES).<p>This project aims to better understand the links between ecosystem services (ES) and wellbeing in order to design and implement more effective interventions for poverty alleviation. We do this in the context of coastal, social-ecological systems in two poor African countries; Kenya and Mozambique.
Despite recent policy and scientific interest in ES, there remain important knowledge gaps regarding how ecosystems actually contribute to wellbeing, and thus poverty alleviation. Following the ESPA framework, distinguishing ecological processes, 'final ES', 'capital inputs', 'goods' and 'values', this project is concerned with how these elements are interrelated to produce ES benefits, and focuses specifically on how these benefits are distributed to (potentially) benefit the poor, enhancing their wellbeing. We thus address the ESPA goal of understanding and promoting ways in which benefits to the poorest can be increased and more people can meet their basic needs, but we also identify conflicted tradeoffs, i.e. those which result in serious harm to either the ecosystem or poor people and which need urgent attention.
Several fundamental questions are currently debated in international scientific and policy fora, relating to four major global trends which are likely to affect abilities of poor people to access ES benefits: (1) devolution of governance power and its impacts on local governance of ecosystems and production of ES, (2) unprecedented rates and scales of environmental change, particularly climate change, which are creating new vulnerabilities, opportunities and constraints, 'shifting baselines', and demanding radical changes in behaviour to cope, (3) market integration now reaches the most remote corners of the developing world, changing relationships between people and resources and motivations for natural resource management, (4) societal changes, including demographic, population, urbanisation and globalisation of culture, forge new relationships with ES and further decouple people from direct dependency on particular resources. Study sites have been chosen so as to gather empirical evidence to help answer key questions about how these four drivers of change affect abilities of poor people to benefit from ES.
We aim for direct impact on the wellbeing of poor inhabitants of the rapidly transforming coastal areas in Mozambique and Kenya, where research will take place, while also providing indirect impact to coastal poor in other developing countries through our international impact strategy. Benefits from research findings will also accrue to multiple stakeholders at various levels.

Local government, NGOs and civil society groups - through engagement with project activities, e.g. participation in workshops and exposure to new types of analysis and systems thinking.

Donor organizations and development agencies - through research providing evidence to inform strategies to support sector development (e.g. fisheries, coastal planning and tourism development) and methods to understand and evaluate impacts of different development interventions - e.g. through tradeoff analysis and evaluation of the elasticities between ecosystem services and wellbeing.

International scientific community - through dissemination of findings via conferences, scientific publications (open access), and from conceptual and theoretical development and new understandings of the multiple linkages between ecosystem services and wellbeing. Regional African scientists will benefit specifically through open courses offered within the scope of the project, and through dissemination of results at regional venues.
Our strategies to deliver impact and benefits include (1) identifying 'windows of opportunity' within the context of ongoing coastal development processes to improve flows of benefits from ecosystems services to poor people, and (2) identifying and seeking to actively mitigate 'conflicted' tradeoffs in Kenya and Mozambique.</p>

SPACES项目第一阶段旨在为生态系统-福祉链（ES-WB链）填充从8个研究站点获取的数据，以助力解答核心问题之一——理解生态系统与福祉结果之间复杂且具弹性的关系（即ES-WB链）。这一举措旨在探索ES-WB关联中更具动态性和政策相关性的维度：揭示链间关系与关联、链内反馈机制，并识别干预机会窗口，使干预措施能为最需帮助的群体带来生态系统服务（ES）收益。然而，项目第一阶段完成后，若干不足仍显突出：其一，调查中感知到的各类商品的获取途径尚未充分探索（即获取特定生计/食物来源所需的条件）；其二，ES商品对福祉的贡献细节未被深入研究——例如，渔民收入不仅影响经济安全，还可能作用于主观福祉、社会尊重、人际关系及自主权等维度。鉴于SPACES项目旨在为政策提供依据、提出干预措施，并识别提升ES收益流向弱势群体的机会窗口，我们需确保干预不会对个体更广泛的福祉产生负面影响（而非仅针对ES相关福祉），因此需探索个体整体福祉及其影响因素。本项目方法论聚焦四点：（1）覆盖广泛ES链，不限于货币化或预定义收益；（2）分析ES商品/价值属性对福祉多维度的贡献；（3）探究每项ES收益的获取机制；（4）在更宽泛语境下审视福祉（非仅与ES挂钩）。

本项目旨在深入理解ES与福祉的关联，设计更有效的减贫干预措施，研究将在肯尼亚与莫桑比克沿海社会-生态系统中开展。尽管ES近年受政策与科学界关注，但生态系统如何切实促进福祉及减贫的知识空白仍存。遵循ESPA框架（ESPA framework），区分生态过程、“最终生态系统服务”、“资本投入”、“商品”及“价值”，项目聚焦这些要素如何相互作用产生ES收益，尤其关注收益如何分配以惠及贫困人口。我们既回应ESPA目标——推动增加最贫困人口收益、助力基本需求满足，也识别“冲突性权衡”（conflicted tradeoffs）——即对生态系统或贫困人口造成严重损害、需紧急关注的权衡关系。

当前国际论坛围绕四大全球趋势展开讨论，它们影响贫困人口获取ES收益的能力：（1）治理权力下放对地方生态系统治理与ES生产的影响；（2）环境变化（尤其是气候变化）速率与规模空前，催生脆弱性、机遇与约束，导致“基线漂移”（shifting baselines），要求行为根本性转变；（3）市场整合触及发展中国家最偏远角落，改变人与资源关系及自然资源管理动机；（4）社会变革（人口结构、城市化、文化全球化）重塑人类与ES的关联，弱化对特定资源的直接依赖。研究站点的选择旨在收集实证证据，解答四大驱动因素如何影响贫困人口从ES中获益的能力。

我们目标是直接改善莫桑比克与肯尼亚快速转型沿海地区贫困人口的福祉，同时通过国际战略间接惠及其他发展中国家沿海贫困人口。研究收益将惠及各级利益相关者：
- 地方政府、NGO及民间团体：通过参与研讨会、接触新型分析方法与系统思维（systems thinking）获益；
- 捐助组织与发展机构：通过研究获得政策依据，指导渔业、沿海规划等部门战略，并获取权衡分析、ES与福祉弹性评估（evaluation of the elasticities between ecosystem services and wellbeing）等干预影响评估方法；
- 国际科学界：通过会议、开放获取出版物传播成果，推动ES与福祉多维度关联的理论发展；非洲区域科学家将通过项目开放课程及区域传播获益。
我们的影响策略包括：（1）在沿海开发中识别“机会窗口”，提升ES收益流向贫困人口的效率；（2）在肯尼亚与莫桑比克识别并缓解“冲突性权衡”。