Valuing Humanity’s Life Support Systems: Inclusive Wealth and Satoyama Landscapes

Abstract

We present a new metric known as the inclusive wealth index (IWI) for evaluating progress in human well-being. The metric is based on a welfare economic framework but goes just beyond incorporating the economic component of welfare to include natural and social systems. There has been much debate on declining natural systems and the implications this will have on human well-being. We make a strong case in contradiction to recent literature from the natural sciences in our assertion that humanity’s life support systems include not just the natural systems but also the social and economic systems. We illustrate how local place-based programs can contribute to maintaining and strengthening these life support systems. The socio-ecological production of satoyama landscapes in Japan will be used to illustrate this synergy.