Philosophies of Good Living and Values of Nature: Power and Uncertainties in Decision-Making to Achieve Social-Environmental Justice in the Americas

Decision-making processes among Indigenous peoples and local communities are driven by the contextual and sociocultural integration of the intrinsic, relational, and instrumental values, worldviews, and knowledge of humans and other-than-humans. In this article, we review how the values of nature are articulated in the philosophies of 'good living' shared by Indigenous people of the Americas to inform decision -making processes. We further analyse how power dynamics and uncertainties impose certain values in decision making, and can therefore hinder or enable ways to achieve the socio-environmental justice.