High life satisfaction reported among small-scale societies with low incomes

Global polls have shown that people in high-income countries generally report being more satisfied with their lives than people in low-income countries. The persistence of this correlation, and its similarity to correlations between income and life satisfaction within countries, could lead to the impression that high levels of life satisfaction can only be achieved in wealthy societies. However, global polls have typically overlooked small-scale, nonindustrialized societies, which can provide an alternative test of the consistency of this relationship. Here, we present results from a survey of 2,966 members of Indigenous Peoples and local communities among 19 globally distributed sites. We find that high average levels of life satisfaction, comparable to those of wealthy countries, are reported for numerous populations that have very low monetary incomes. Our results are consistent with the notion that human societies can support very satisfying lives for their members without necessarily requiring high degrees of monetary wealth.

Local indicators of climate change impacts described by indigenous peoples and local communities: Study protocol

INTRODUCTION

In the quest to improve the understanding of climate change impacts on elements of the atmospheric, physical, and life systems, scientists are challenged by the scarcity and uneven distribution of grounded data. Through their long history of interaction with the environment, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have developed complex knowledge systems that allow them to detect impacts of climate change in the local environment. The study protocol presented here is designed 1) to inventory climate change impacts on the atmospheric, physical, and life systems based on local knowledge and 2) to test hypotheses on the global spatial, socioeconomic, and demographic distribution of reported impacts. The protocol has been developed within the framework of a project aiming to bring insights from Indigenous and local knowledge systems to climate research (https://licci.eu).

METHODS

Data collection uses a mixed-method approach and relies on the collaboration of a team of 50 trained partners working in sites where people's livelihood directly depend on nature. The data collection protocol consists of two steps. Step 1 includes the collection of secondary data (e.g., spatial and meteorological data) and site contextual information (e.g., village infrastructure, services). Step 1 also includes the use of 1) semi-structured interviews (n = 20-30/site) to document observations of environmental change and their drivers and 2) focus group discussions to identify consensus in the information gathered. Step 2 consist in the application of a household (n from 75 to 125) and individual survey (n from 125 to 175) using a standardized but locally adapted instrument. The survey includes information on 1) individual and household socio-demographic characteristics, 2) direct dependence on nature, 3) household's vulnerability, and 4) individual perceptions of climate change impacts. Survey data are entered in a specifically designed database.

EXPECTED RESULTS

This protocol allows the systematic documentation and analysis of the patterned distribution of local indicators of climate change impacts across climate types and livelihood activities. Data collected with this protocol helps fill important gaps on local climate change impacts research and can provide tangible outcomes for local people who will be able to better reflect on how climate change impacts them.

Local reports of climate change impacts in Sierra Nevada, Spain: sociodemographic and geographical patterns

While we know that climate change is having different impacts on various ecosystems and regions of the world, we know less how the perception of such impacts varies within a population. In this study, we examine patterns of individual variation in climate change impacts reports using data from a sample (n = 238) drawn from 33 mountainous municipalities of Sierra Nevada, Spain. Sierra Nevada inhabitants report multiple climate change impacts, being the most frequently reported changes in snowfall and snow cover, abundance of terrestrial fauna, freshwater availability, and extreme temperatures. Reports of climate change impacts vary according to informants' sociodemographic characteristics and geographical location. People with life-long bonds with the environment and higher connection and dependence upon ecosystem services report more climate change impacts than other informants, as do people with lower level of schooling. We also found that reports of climate change impacts vary according to geographic areas, which reinforces the idea that climate change generates differentiated impacts even at small geographical scales. Understanding intracultural variation in reports of climate change impacts not only gives an enriched picture of the human dimensions of climate change but might also help design more targeted mitigation and adaptation responses.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-022-01981-5.

Recognizing Indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda

The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with four key points. First, Indigenous peoples and local communities hold knowledge essential for setting realistic and effective biodiversity targets that simultaneously improve local livelihoods. Second, Indigenous peoples' conceptualizations of nature sustain and manifest CBD's 2050 vision of "Living in harmony with nature." Third, Indigenous peoples' and local communities' participation in biodiversity policy contributes to the recognition of human and Indigenous peoples' rights. And fourth, engagement in biodiversity policy is essential for Indigenous peoples and local communities to be able to exercise their recognized rights to territories and resources.

Including Indigenous and local knowledge in climate research. An assessment of the opinion of Spanish climate change researchers

Researchers have documented that observations of climate change impacts reported by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities coincide with scientific measurements of such impacts. However, insights from Indigenous and Local Knowledge are not yet completely included in international climate change research and policy fora. In this article, we compare observations of climate change impacts detected by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities from around the world and collected through a literature review (n=198 case studies), with climate scientists' opinions on the relevance of such information for climate change research. Scientists' opinions were collected through a web survey among climate change researchers from universities and research centres in Spain (n=191). In the survey, we asked about the need to collect local level data regarding 68 different groups of indicators of climate change impacts to improve the current knowledge, and about the feasibility of using Indigenous and local knowledge in climate change studies. Results show consensus on the need to continue collecting local level data from all groups of indicators to get a better understanding of climate change impacts, particularly on impacts on the biological system. However, while scientists of our study considered that Indigenous and local knowledge could mostly contribute to detect climate change impacts on the biological and socioeconomic systems, the literature review shows that information on impacts on these systems is rarely collected; researchers instead have mostly documented the impacts on the climatic and physical systems reported by Indigenous and local knowledge.