Gratani, Monica, Sutton, Stephen G., Butler, James R.A., Bohensky, Erin L., and Foale, Simon (2016) Indigenous environmental values as human values. Cogent Social Sciences, 2. 1185811.

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Abstract

The claim that in natural resource management (NRM) a change from anthropocentric values and ethics to eco-centric ones is necessary to achieve sustainability leads to the search for eco-centric models of relationship with the environment. Indigenous cultures can provide such models; hence there is the need for multicultural societies to further include their values in NRM. In this article we investigate the environmental values placed on a freshwater environment of the Wet Tropics by a community of Indigenous Australians. We discuss their environmental values as human values, and so as beliefs that guide communities' understanding of how the natural world should be viewed and treated by humans. This perspective represents a step forward in our understanding of indigenous environmental values, and a way to overcome the paradigm of indigenous values as valued biophysical attributes of the environment or processes happening in landscapes. Our results show that the participant community holds biospheric values. Restoring these values in the natural resource management of the Wet Tropics could contribute to sustainability and environmental justice in the area.

Item ID:	44144
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2331-1886
Keywords:	environmental values; ethics; sustainability; Indigenous Australians; collaborative comanagement; Wet Tropics; worldview
Copyright Information:	© 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
Funders:	Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), James Cook University (JCU)
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2016 01:48
FoR Codes:	05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0502 Environmental Science and Management > 050201 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge @ 50% 05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0599 Other Environmental Sciences > 059999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9503 Heritage > 950304 Conserving Intangible Cultural Heritage @ 50% 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9609 Land and Water Management > 960903 Coastal and Estuarine Water Management @ 50%
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