Interplays between nature’s contributions to people, values of nature, and emotions expressed by smallholder farmers in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: insights for inclusive conservation

Recent literature suggests considering plural ways people relate with nature to make conservation inclusive. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of the complex interplays between nature’s contributions to people (NCP), values of nature, and emotions, which are three essential layers for understanding people’s motivations to connect with nature. We applied the photovoice method to understand how smallholder farmers in Kilimanjaro benefit from, value, and emotionally connect with nature. Through content analysis and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), we found three types of associations between NCP, values of nature, and emotions: (1) the association between unpleasant emotions, several materials and regulating NCP, intrinsic values, and the relational values of stewardship, responsibility, and aesthetics was expressed by smallholder farmers below the border of the national park; (2) the association between pleasant emotions, non-material NCP, and several relational values, such as sense of place and cultural heritage was expressed by smallholder farmers in their homegardens; and (3) the association between instrumental values, relational values, and NCP of social cohesion and social relations was expressed by all smallholder farmers from the lowland to the upland. These three types of associations suggest that, in the spirit of inclusive conservation, we need; (1) to consider the multiple ways smallholder farmers relate with nature, (2) to reduce access restrictions of local actors to protected areas to avoid eroding meaningful human-nature relations, and (3) to expand conservation-related benefit-sharing mechanisms beyond instrumental thinking and consider non-material NCP, relational values, and emotions.