Natural Resource Management and Indigenous Well Being

This paper considers the usefulness of a range of analytical approaches to describing the impact of natural resource management on Indigenous people. Six approaches are reviewed here with examples from the literature. These include: a well-being index approach used recently by Greiner with the Australian Nywaigi people; a replacement value approach to valuing wild resource harvests for the Wallis Lake area of north eastern New South Wales; a bio-economic approach to Indigenous/Non-Indigenous fisheries management of the Ontario Great Lakes used by Dyack; a stated preference approach used in New Zealand; a Choice Experiment in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta; and, a Goal Programming/Multi-Criteria Analysis with the Wik People from the York Peninsula in north eastern Australia. The purpose of this review is to provide a discussion document for a new project. This project is developing as a collaboration in the Murray River Basin in south east Australia with the Ngarrindjeri People. Examples highlight the challenges for measuring values and well being especially when the context implies potential tradeoffs between Indigenous interests for health of country and nonindigenous interests. References in this regard are made to sport fishery expansion in the Great Lakes and irrigation diversions for the Murray