SPACES: Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services - investigating elasticities, feedbacks and tradeoffs

Overview
Publications
People

This project aimed to better understand the links between ecosystem services (ES) and wellbeing in order to design and implement more effective interventions for sustainable poverty alleviation. This was done in the context of coastal, social‐ecological systems in two poor African countries; Kenya and Mozambique. The research aimed to have direct impact on the wellbeing of poor inhabitants of the rapidly transforming coastal areas, while also providing indirect impact to coastal poor in other developing countries through international dissemination of findings. Research findings were disseminated to benefit multiple stakeholders at various levels.

The project was highly interdisciplinary, including: ecological field methods, simulation modelling, social science methods, participatory dialogues within communities and multi-stakeholder workshops. Particular methods used were:

Underwater visual census of coral reef ecosystems
In field measurements of mangrove vegetation structure and sampling of sediments
Focus groups and semi‐structured interviews with poor coastal stakeholders about their access to ecosystem services, their understandings of wellbeing
A structured household survey of assets, perceptions, basic needs,
Participatory ‘mental modelling workshops’ to explore the social ecological systems, the components within it, with primary and secondary stakeholders
Photo elicitation with local people about their values towards the environment
Participatory system mapping and scenario workshops in which participants developed and explore scenarios of future change and implications for
Participatory dialogues with communities and potential research user organisations.

Further information:

Working papers and other publications are available on the project website
Online feature - Redefining poverty in Kenya's fishing villages

Stories in social-ecological knowledge cocreation

Authors: Galafassi, D.; Daw, T.; Thyresson, M.; Rosendo, S.; Chaigneau, T.; Bandeira, S.; Munyi, L.; Gabrielsson, I.; Brown, K.

Year: 2018

Drivers and predictions of coral reef carbonate budget trajectories

Authors: Januchowski-Hartley, F.A.; Graham, N.A.J.; Wilson, S.K.; Jennings, S.; Perry, C.T.

Year: 2017

Environmental variability indicates a climate-adaptive center under threat in northern Mozambique coral reefs

Authors: McClanahan, T.R.; Muthiga, N.A.

Year: 2017

Elasticity in ecosystem services: exploring the variable relationship between ecosystems and human well-being

Authors: Daw, T.M.; Hicks, C.C.; Brown, K.; Chaigneau, T.; Januchowski-Hartley, F.A.; Cheung, W.W.L.; Rosendo, S.; Crona, B.; Coulthard, S.; Sandbrook, C.; Perry, C.; Bandeira, S.; Muthiga, N.A.; Schulte-Herbruggen, B.; Bosire, J.; McClanahan, T.R.

Year: 2016

Challenging the win-win discourse on conservation and development: analyzing support for marine protected areas

Authors: Chaigneau, T.; Brown, K.

Year: 2016

Authors: McClanahan, T.R.; Muthiga, N.A.

Year: 2016

Advancing sustainability through mainstreaming a social-ecological systems perspective

Authors: Fischer, J.; Gardner, T.A.; Bennett, E.M.; Balvanera, P.; Biggs, R.; Carpenter, S.; Daw, T.; Folke, C.; Hill, R.; Hughes, T.P.; Luthe, T.; Maass, M.; Meacham, M.; Norstrom, A.V.; Peterson, G.; Queiroz, C.; Seppelt, R.; Spierenburg, M.; Tenhunen, J.

Year: 2015

Linking reef ecology to island building: Parrotfish identified as major producers of island-building sediment in the Maldives

Authors: Perry, C.T.; Kench, P.S.; OLeary, M.J.; Morgan, K.M.; Januchowski-Hartley, F.

Year: 2015

Participatory scenario planning in place-based social-ecological research: insights and experiences from 23 case studies

Authors: Oteros-Rozas, E.; Martin-Lopez, B.; Daw, T.M.; Bohensky, E.L.; Butler, J.R.A.; Hill, R.; Martin-Ortega, J.; Quinlan, A.; Ravera, F.; Ruiz-Mallen, I.; Thyresson, M.; Mistry, J.; Palomo, I.; Peterson, G.D.; Plieninger, T.; Waylen, K.A.; Beach, D.M.; Bohnet, I.C.; Hamann, M.; Hanspach, J.; Hubacek, K.; Lavorel, S.; Vilardy, S.P.

Year: 2015

Dr Tim Daw

Lead Principal Investigator

Organisation: Stockholm University

Country: Sweden

Professor Kate Brown

Principal Investigator

Organisation: University of Exeter

Country: UK

Dr Salomao Bandeira

Co Investigator

Organisation: University Eduardo Mondlane