Rapid rural appraisal in humid tropical forests: An asset possession-basedapproach and validation methods for wealth assessment among forest peasanthouseholds

Researchers and practitioners often use rapid rural appraisal (RRA) methods to secure a representative, accurate, and cost-effective portrayal of weal th rankings among rural populations. This paper proposes an asset possessio n-based approach to developing RRA wealth rankings and portrayals of wealth holdings and portfolios. It also offers new validation methods for RRA eff orts, especially for identifying sources of error in wealth attribution and rankings. The approach and validation methods are examined using data gath ered from forest peasant households in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon. Ways of improving future RRA efforts are suggested. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.