Smallholder famers in West Africa use multiple ecosystem services (ES) in their day-to-day lives. The contribution that these services make to human well-being (HWB), and therefore to development outcomes, is not well understood. We analyse smallholder farmer perceptions of ES, ecosystem disservices (ED), and their HWB importance around community-managed reservoirs in four semi-arid landscapes in West Africa, using participatory mapping, focus groups and face-to-face surveys. Farmers identified what nature-based benefits (ES) and problems (ED) they perceived across each landscape and rated the importance of each service and disservice for their HWB. Our results indicate that ES make an important contribution to HWB in our study sites. More than 80% of farmers rated benefits from plant-based foods, domestic and agricultural water supplies, biofuel, medicinal plants, and fertile soil, and problems associated with human disease vectors, as of high or very high importance for HWB. Multiple ES were identified as contributing to each dimension of HWB, and ED as detracting from health and material well-being. Perceptions of the importance of several ES and ED varied significantly with socio-economic group, highlighting the need for careful consideration of trade-offs between HWB outcomes and stakeholders in ecosystem management decisions to support sustainable development.

西非的小农户农民在日常生活中使用多种生态系统服务（ES）。这些服务对人类福祉（HWB）以及因此对发展成果的贡献尚不清楚。我们使用参与式地图绘制，焦点小组调查和面对面调查，分析了小农户对ES，生态系统损害（ED）及其在西非四个半干旱景观中社区管理的水库周围的HWB重要性的认识。农民确定了他们在每个景观中感知到的基于自然的收益（ES）和问题（ED），并评估了为其HWB提供的每项服务和损害的重要性。我们的结果表明，ES在我们的研究场所为HWB做出了重要贡献。超过80％的农民认为植物性食品，家庭和农业用水，生物燃料，药用植物和肥沃的土壤，以及与人类疾病媒介有关的问题，对HWB而言具有非常重要的意义。多个ES被认为对HWB的各个方面都有贡献，而ED被认为损害了健康和物质福祉。不同ES和ED重要性的认识因社会经济群体而异，这凸显了在支持可持续发展的生态系统管理决策中需要仔细考虑HWB结果与利益相关者之间的权衡取舍的必要性。