Tyron J. Venn

Socio-economic Evaluation of Indigenous Enterprise Development Tyron J. Venn

There is increased awareness of the positive role indigenous enterprise development can play in addressing socio-economic disadvantage in indigenous communities in developed and developing countries. In contrast to much of the literature about forest-based livelihood activities for indigenous people, this work evaluates sustainable production of timber rather than non-timber products. Overall, the research adopts a cost-benefit analysis framework to assess a suite of timber utilization strategies for Wik people on Cape York Peninsula, Australia. A goal programming model is developed to generate and evaluate forestry strategies that satisfy the objectives of Wik people, subject to cultural, property rights, environmental, timber resource, technical and financial constraints. These strategies are then socio-economically evaluated. The book sheds light on culturally appropriate methods of socio-economic analysis in an Australian indigenous context and is written to be accessible to non-economists. As such, this book will be required reading for scholars of natural resource economics, practitioners of project appraisal, indigenous issues policy-makers and natural resource managers.