Ethnographic examples show that deployment of the gift economy in opposition to catastrophes of accumulation is both effective and crucial for sustainable living, enriching alternative modes of community.

We presented one case study for a community-based sustainable economy and lifestyle, from which we could learn lessons for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is a rural–urban hybrid, yet nature-grounded, economy, and lifestyle; that is, living within the green environment while accessing modern social services and convenient facilities, where the gift and sharing modes of economy play a vital role for SWB. Previous literature has questioned economic growth as being incompatible with nature conservation and human SWB and has proposed degrowth, especially in high-income settings (Dawes, 2020; Hickel, 2019; LPHE, 2019). In the light of our findings, SWB can be achieved by applying alternative modes of economy, such as gift economy and sharing economy, as well as by having access to other direct sources of well-being, such as social cohesion, natural environment, cultural identity, and spirituality, when basic human needs are already satisfied. These findings can help the resolution of the incompatibility. One additional route for degrowth may be to increase the opportunity for high-income populations to have a close contact with natural environment and experience nature and nature's reproductive cycle, which can foster a sense of security, joy, and satisfaction and alleviate the drive for consumption. It allows human beings to be aware of their life as part of the eco-system and, thus, meaningful. Another rout is to increase low-income community's control over environmental resource management and put their views at the centre of policy and programme planning (Nerfa, Rhemtulla, & Zerriffi, 2020). The family farm campaign by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2020) may be one such example. The small-scale, primary-sector populations are the caretaker of the earth as well as the foundation of the global market, thus we endorse protecting their nature-grounded lifestyle and non-market economy, learning from their knowledge and views.

5 CONCLUSION

This ethnographic study explored community-based economy systems in post-genocide Rwanda, and elaborated the process and mechanisms by which the contemporary gift economy facilitates SWB in Rwandan culture and natural landscape. Findings offered a potential vignette of a future sustainable lifestyle and community-based economic system in environmentally-rich setting. The findings suggested that SWB can be maintained with small income and small consumption when nature is abundant and social services are well-established, in line with previous studies from other low-income or high-income rural settings (Kitayama et al. 2016; Miñarro et al., 2021; Takeuchi et al., 2016). The gift mode of economy, along with social cohesion, natural environment, cultural identity, and spirituality, was vital for SWB. The study contributed to understanding the detailed process and mechanisms of why and how people can be happy without money, and shedding light on a mode of economy that can benefit the development of sustainable community.