Ecosystems and indigenous well-being: An integrated framework

Abstract

In Australia, role of natural resources in Indigenous well-being is completely ignored to date which further leads to inappropriate and ineffective well-being policies. This research addresses the need to develop an appropriate indigenous well-being approach that incorporates indigenous values in relation to natural systems. It focuses on Indigenous people in Australia and examines the available well-being frameworks from global as well as from local (i.e. Australian and Indigenous), perspectives. It applies a holistic approach to assess the role of natural systems in indigenous well-being demonstrating how people’s social, economic and cultural worlds, and how people’s capabilities relate to their natural systems. It integrates various social, economic and ecological values through the application of Capability Approach and the Millennium Assessment Approach. The study proposes an integrated framework that focuses on people’s belongingness to nature i.e. people’s values and capabilities that link to well-being. It emphasises the importance of each connection that people may have with their country in terms of people’s capabilities. The proposed framework can contribute to improved and better-informed policies on indigenous well-being as well as on the use, value and management of natural systems.

Keywords

• Ecosystem services
• Well-being
• Indigenous
• Millennium Assessment
• Socio-economic-ecological framework
• Ecosystems