Beyond Market Value: Indigenous Land and Non-Market Preferences

<p dir="ltr">As Indigenous land rights are increasingly recognized, valuing land whose significance extends beyond market exchange remains a critical challenge in environmental economics and policy. Conventional approaches fail to capture Indigenous connections to ancestors, cultural practices, and custodial responsibilities, and no systematic method currently exists to guide planning or compensation decisions. This study examines whether discrete choice experiments (DCEs), supplemented and guided by one-on-one interviews, can elicit Indigenous preferences for land use and valuation.</p><p dir="ltr">We implemented a DCE with Traditional Owners from two First Nations regions in Australia, assessing trade-offs across five attributes: Cultural and Spiritual Significance, Relational Value and Community Ties, Environmental Stewardship and Ecosystem Health, Economic Value and Livelihood Potential, and Governance and Decision-Making Power. Results show that cultural and spiritual values overwhelmingly dominate decisions, being over thirty times more likely to be prioritized than economic considerations. Sixty-three percent of participants balanced secondary attributes alongside cultural priorities, with notable variation across individuals. Qualitative interviews highlighted the interconnectedness of non-market values and helped interpret trade-offs.</p><p dir="ltr">Our study is the first DCE conducted exclusively with Indigenous participants in Australia and the first globally to involve participants with direct land negotiation experience. These insights provide a systematic, evidence-based approach for planners, policymakers, and courts, showing that environmental decision-making should prioritize cultural and governance values, account for interconnections among non-market attributes, and ensure compensation for cultural loss reflects its true significance.</p>