Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.3.
Household interview on livelihood activities and attitudes to saiga
antelope conservation, Kalmykia, Russia. Photo © Aline Kuhl.
Protected Area after having asked which of a set of animals they think are endan-
gered, it will be fairly clear that biodiversity protection is what you are interested in).
●
Ensure that the survey will give you information on your
dependent
variables (for
example, how much hunting do they do?), your
explanatory
variables (for exam-
ple, what other activities are they engaged in, how much income do they get from
each?), and
background
variables that will be used to split the respondents into
groups (for example, wealth rank, education level, age, sex, household size, vil-
lage). Alternatively you should have a clear linkage established between different
ways of obtaining each of these data categories (for example, you are collecting
detailed offtake data from hunters belonging to the same households that you are
now obtaining livelihoods data from).
●
Always give people the option to say '
Don't know
', so that you can distinguish
those who are truly neutral from those who don't know what they think.
Avoid:
●
Ambiguous questions.
For example, the common use of the word 'important',
as in 'What is your most important livelihood activity in the wet season?'
Importance has many dimensions. It could mean the activity that generates the
most cash, takes up the most time, provides the most reliable income or that
carries the most status. Each respondent (and each researcher) will put different
interpretations on the word. Instead use words that are not ambiguous, and if
you wish to look at all the dimensions of 'importance' ask about them explicitly.
●
Leading questions.
For example, 'Have wildlife numbers declined in your area?'
may be what you actually want to know, but the direct question suggests that you
