First Peoples
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Caring for country: how remote communities are building on payment for ecosystem services
The payment for ecosystem services (PES) model is supporting a new wave of self-determined construction on Aboriginal homelands.
With no secure strategy for government infrastructure investment in homelands, particularly in new housing or new homelands, PES provides an alternative approach to support meaningful livelihoods on country. Importantly, revenue from PES can support self-determined and appropriate building there.
PES can attract funding from government, such as for ranger programs, and from private sources, in the form of carbon credits and corporate social responsibility funds. Research suggests it’s also “crucial for improving social outcomes for Indigenous communities”.
Other researchers argue that PES is “most effective” on remote Aboriginal homelands and outstation settlements where it fundamentally values cultural knowledge and where the vastness of the landscape allows for economies of scale.
Read the full article on The Conversation.
