A man holds Vitex cf. doniana fruits. Wild plants used for food consumption are some of the
most important benefits provided by the woodland ecosystem to local peoples in Guinea-Bissau, but the
human-woodland interactions have been changing due to deforestation for cashew plantations.
Photo credit: Luís Catarino.

By Ana Leite, Luís Catarino, Sambu Seck, Quintino Mbunhe, and Aida Cuní-Sanchez.

Read the full paper here.

People value nature in various ways as it offers numerous benefits like water, food, energy, and spaces to connect with identities larger than themselves. It is also known that culture, integral to people as water is to fish, significantly influences how people value nature. However, with our landscapes undergoing profound changes that threaten these benefits, questions arise: Are people’s values of nature and their interactions with it changing? Are the impacts uniform across all people? To answer these, we collaborated with local communities in northern Guinea-Bissau, where cashew plantations for exporting cashew nuts are replacing natural woodlands. We interacted with people from four different ethnic groups across 20 villages, conducting group discussions and woodland walks with the study participants.

In these communities, people identified 19 ways they benefit from the nearby woodlands, which were associated with a broad range of values, including regulating (functional and structural aspects of organisms and ecosystems that regulate environmental conditions such as climate or soil), material (objects or other material elements from nature that directly sustain people’s lives), and non-material (nature’s effects on subjective or psychological aspects underpinning people’s quality of life) values that support basic needs and resonate with each ethnic group’s culture. However, we also found that these benefits, as well as the interactions that people have with them, are being impacted by the changes undergone by the woodlands. Local peoples perceived these changes as having negative effects on both the environment and their own well-being.

In summary, our study highlights the importance of understanding how landscape changes affect local communities’ relationships with nature and their values of it. This insight can shape policies and decisions towards more attainable, culturally appropriate, and socially just futures for both people and nature.