New Publication – Compensating Indigenous social and cultural losses: a community-based multiple-attribute approach

Impact evaluations in North America are required to examine not only the economic, environmental, and health effects of activities but also their social and cultural impacts. In practice, however, many important social and cultural effects are often neglected as part of court-sponsored negotiations and decisions by government regulators because they are not represented in terms of economic markets, specific to the decision context, or lack standard measures.

Philip Halteman worked with several colleagues to develop a comprehensive multi-attribute approach for estimating monetary compensation to two Indigenous communities for social and cultural losses experienced as a result of historical exclusion from their traditionally used lands. This approach prioritizes direct depiction of the relevant losses by the community members who have experienced them, and a principles-based approach to valuation that treats the various categories of losses in natural and logical terms.

You can read the paper here.