Putting Indigenous water rights to work: the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework as a lens for remote development

Sustainable development programs can lead to tension and conflict in human communities when natural capital is used as the foundation for livelihood programs. Building on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF), this study demonstrates that including community perceptions in the creation of sustainable livelihoods programs is important in designing programs that are legitimate to community members, and this is especially important in the context of natural capital. Using the SLF, the allocation of water rights to Indigenous groups in remote northern Australia is examined to determine the acceptability of this form of natural capital to support sustainable livelihoods. The findings indicate that there are competing values of water within communities, and that balancing the preferences for spirituality and conservation with economic development and self-sufficiency is critical to the success of sustainable livelihoods programs across the region.