Causal diagrams linking rural well-being with forest ecosystem services in Mozambique (2014 and 2015)

Data comprise causal diagrams which show links between aspects that influence the well-being of rural inhabitants (e.g. good quality of food, good family relationships, education, etc) with ecosystem services (e.g. food from trees, wood sticks for construction, firewood, wood for charcoal production, etc.) and their causes (e.g. change in land use) in rural Mozambique.

Information was gathered at 20 workshops held in Maputo, Xai Xai, Lichinga, Quelimane, and at village level in the districts of Mabalane, Marrupa and Gurue in 2014 and 2015. The objective of the workshops was to examine aspects that influence well-being and their causes in the miombo woodland area of rural Mozambique. One of the objectives of the project was to construct Bayesian belief networks (BBNs) to model future land use change scenarios in rural Mozambique using a participatory approach, to evaluate the consequences of deforestation in the well-being of the rural population.

The data were collected as part of the Abrupt Changes in Ecosystem Services and Wellbeing in Mozambican Woodlands (ACES) project and were funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, funded by NERC, the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), the three are government organizations from UK. The project was led by the University of Edinburgh, with the collaboration of the Universidad Mondlane, the IIED, and other organizations.