Environmental stewardship program australia

Stewardship can also take the form of passive management—leaving an area to regenerate—or simply choosing to not harvest from an area. In other words, stewardship might be accomplished through purposeful inaction. We do not pre-suppose the types of actions that constitute stewardship—and encourage a view of stewardship that looks beyond western conceptualizations of conservation and is inclusive of indigenous world-views and approaches Berkes ; Brosius and Russell ; Hunn et al.

Stewardship actions can occur at different scales from local to macro scales. As an example of stewardship at the local scale, individual landowners might restore habitat on their land or a community might conserve a local forest or a coral reef. At the meso-scale, stewardship might take the form of protected land-scapes or sea-scapes—for example, through the creation of biosphere reserves Reed or marine conservation planning that includes social and ecological considerations Ban et al.

Broader scale stewardship actions might be taken at national, eco-regional scale, or even at transboundary or regional scales—for example, this is the case with the planning of the Yellowstone to Yukon protected area and wildlife planning initiative McGregor or regional marine conservation efforts such as the Coral Triangle Initiative Walton et al.

These different stewardship actions can have impacts across scales and, in particular, local stewardship can be undermined or supported by stewardship actions taken or not taken in other places or at higher scales. Pulling invasive species from a single farm may do little good if not supported by actions in the surrounding landscape.

For example, the local retention of benefits from sustainable use of a forest resource is more likely than from a marine protected area designed to protect a migratory fish species. The latter example may instead benefit others who are further away. In sum, to comprehend the nature and effectiveness of local stewardship, it is critical to analyze the scales where stewardship actions are taking place, cross-scale interactions and whether stewardship action is occurring at the relevant scale to achieve the desired ecological and social outcomes.

While our focus here is on direct stewardship actions, some activities that are labeled environmental stewardship operate indirectly. These stewardship supporting activities might include activities such as environmental education of resource users or youth Stern et al. Activities such as these are fundamental to local stewardship; however, these activities alone do not improve the environment.

The premise is that through promoting motivations and augmenting capacity these activities can indirectly encourage and enable the direct actions of actors to protect, restore or sustainably use the environment. Stewardship supporting activities can be implemented by local groups, or as discussed later, instigated by external organizations.

We define social—ecological context as the broader set of social, cultural, economic, political and biophysical factors occurring beyond the local system of study.

The broader social—ecological context influences local stewardship efforts in two ways. First, stewardship capacity is influenced by the speed, scale, severity, complexity, and predictability of the social and ecological changes that are occurring and how these impact social and ecological aspects of local systems.

This framing builds on both resilience Holling ; Lebel et al. Communities are constantly confronted with a number of other social, economic, political, governance, and biophysical drivers of change occurring at higher scales that might challenge stewardship efforts Tuler et al. Barratt and Allison highlight how vulnerability to environmental change can undermine community management of natural resources through a case study of Lake Victoria.

Yet, not all changes are negative and change can also support community stewardship efforts—for example, the resurgence of external market interest in Community Supported Fisheries or Community Supported Agriculture can incentivize local management Brinson et al. Second, the broader social—ecological context determines which stewardship actions will be socially, culturally or politically feasible, appropriate or effective.

In different cultural contexts the types of stewardship actions that will be deemed appropriate will differ Gavin et al. Additionally, in a context where local cultural identity depends on the harvest of certain mega-fauna e. Considering what might constitute due and appropriate process for promoting management or conservation interventions in different socio-political or governance contexts is also important. Thus, it can be instructive to understand the extent to which stewardship actions and decision-making process align with or fit the local social and ecological context Wilson ; Epstein et al.

Stewardship is for naught if it is not producing desirable ecological and social outcomes. Environmental objectives may be a primary motivator for engaging in stewardship—for example, improving the sustainability of resources, restoring degraded habitats, recovering wildlife, increasing fish stocks or preserving a wilderness area. However, these environmental objectives are often directly linked to or associated with desired social outcomes, which might be social, cultural, economic, health, physical or governance-related Donatuto et al.

Social objectives also include process considerations—e. Local resource users and communities may pursue both ecological and social objectives simultaneously Kittinger et al. Thus, analysis of the outcomes of environmental stewardship should seek to understand how stewardship affects both ecological and social aspects and whether the outcomes of stewardship match with desired objectives. Given that stewardship occurs in complex social—ecological systems, attention is needed to feedbacks, synergies and trade-offs between social and ecological considerations in stewardship planning processes and in monitoring and evaluation frameworks Chan et al.

Additional considerations when seeking to understand the full impact of environmental stewardship requires inquiry into: a both the intended and unintended consequences of stewardship actions Larrosa et al. Understanding the extent to which outcomes match objectives and produce other positive or negative outcomes provides feedback for evaluating and adapting local stewardship approaches or to aggregate lessons learned and improve broader policies and programs intended to improve stewardship.

Additionally, demonstrably positive outcomes from stewardship may be necessary to establish the legitimacy of local stewardship efforts. In sum, we bring these various elements together in an integrative conceptual framework for environmental stewardship Fig.

Analytical framework for the elements of local environmental stewardship. Having set out a framework, we now briefly examine how different organizations might use it to guide interventions aiming to support or promote local stewardship and also how it might be applied in future research efforts. Different organizations—including governments, NGOs, and the private sector—and individuals often attempt to develop or support pre-existing environmental stewardship efforts by local people.

Leverage points is a term which refers to the levers or places in a system where a strategic shift can produce changes in the entire system Meadows Payments for environmental service PES programs were originally designed to provide external financial rewards for engaging in stewardship Wunder , thus targeting extrinsic motivations , though PES programs are becoming more nuanced in how they are designed to match a variety of local motivations Rode et al. Some stewardship programs focus on building stewardship networks, at times introducing new actors or organizations to facilitate these processes Kowalski and Jenkins ; Jenkins et al.

Sustainable livelihoods programs aim to build local capacity for environmental stewardship Cattermoul et al. Programs that advocate for recognition of local rights i. Some conservation organizations often simply promote specific actions —for example, the creation of more marine or terrestrial protected areas, the use of stream buffers in farming to protect streams, etc.

Many real-world interventions focus on more than one leverage point simultaneously—for example, the Fish Forever program that is promoted by Rare and Environmental Defense Fund combines environmental education and outreach, property rights, capacity supports for technical management with specific actions Fish Forever —and many programs are getting more holistic and comprehensive over time.

Yet, the leverage point s being targeted through different interventions, and how these interact with other elements of stewardship, are often not explicitly articulated by government policies or NGO programs Foale et al. This is surprising as many of the interventions focus not on promoting specific actions but rather on stewardship supporting activities.

The overall effectiveness and appropriateness of the myriad interventions and associated leverage points is a matter of ongoing debate, which requires more space than we can devote to it here. The effectiveness of these different interventions and leverage points needs to be better understood and tested empirically, to understand whether they are actually supporting or undermining local stewardship efforts. The analytical framework that we provide here might be applied to future research that seeks to: a descriptively assess the elements of stewardship in case studies in different contexts, b guide decision-making and the design of environmental stewardship initiatives or interventions, c evaluate the effectiveness of local initiatives or external interventions that seek to promote stewardship, and d delve more deeply into questions related to specific aspects of stewardship to provide crucial theoretical and practical insights.

We discuss each of these briefly below. For example, one might find that local communities are highly effective at conserving local resources and thus that their efforts should be recognized and supported by external organizations rather than undermined through the imposition of external models of conservation Jupiter Conversely, local community groups may have strong motivations to take stewardship actions but may simply lack the capacity to do so Bennett et al.

However, accurate analysis of stewardship in different contexts may require extended engagement to get a complete picture of how the different elements of stewardship come together. In the case of traditional resource harvesters, different motivations for stewardship are co-constituted with culture, customs, harvesting practices, and traditional knowledge, manifested in group norms and rules of engagement and emerge as linked use and management actions Berkes ; Reo and Whyte Analysis of case studies can help to build a corpus of research on the topic, might inform local deliberations in other locations on how to re design local stewardship actions or could help to guide the investments of external organizations who are interested in investing in environmental stewardship in different locales.

By strengthening environmental stewardship, it is hoped that communities will be able to foster a virtuous circle of improved environmental management and social welfare.

One of our aims in proposing this framework is to aid in the integration of stewardship considerations into planned or anticipated interventions, and to provide the basis for making recommendations for the types of interventions likely to be most beneficial i. For example, when interventions are made by outside organizations, care must be taken not to undermine pre-existing institutions or cooperation between actors by targeting specific levers as if they were merely a resource or a means for external organizations to meet their own goals and motivations of environmental conservation.

This does not mean that attempts to intervene, support, leverage and, where necessary, promote local stewardship should be abandoned. However, we urge cautious and mindful engagements as there are no panaceas. In particular, it can be critical to understand the local context, including the level to which stewardship already exists and the current configuration of the different elements actors, capacity, motivations of stewardship, to ensure that outside efforts are aligned with local efforts, realities, and aspirations.

Recent attention to motivations, and related concepts, has stressed the need for alignment of conservation policy incentives with local ethics, values, norms, and motivations Chan et al.

Murtinho et al. Careful consideration is also needed to minimize any negative impacts of stewardship actions on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups within these communities Mansuri and Rao , and to ensure that the responsibility to steward is not expected from individuals or groups who do not have the capacity to carry out such actions, or who might experience costs that are greater than benefits.

The genuine inclusion of local communities in decision-making and stewardship practices has the potential, if done well, to help improve the fit of stewardship interventions and increase the likelihood of success. We highlight the potential of participatory methods of engagement, human-centered design thinking, and adaptive co-management for innovating in the design of stewardship programs Evans et al.

The effectiveness of local stewardship can be improved through monitoring and evaluation, either by scientists or through participatory processes Driscoll et al. As discussed above, in all environmental policy realms, there is an array of external interventions that target different leverage points to promote and facilitate environmental stewardship.

Yet it is often unclear the extent to which these different programs, policies or market mechanisms are effective at enhancing stewardship outcomes. There is thus a need to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of both local initiatives and external interventions as well as to understand the impacts of focusing efforts on different leverage points motivations, capacity, governance, etc. This research can build on past research that focuses on specific elements—such as actors, actions, local capacity, governance or motivations—and synthesize these findings to better understand the effects of different elements on stewardship outcomes.

Finally, the framework that we have provided here might serve as a guide for more systematic analysis to develop practical insights or targeted theoretical inquiries into the individual elements and their relation to overall environmental stewardship. Practically, there is a need to better understand what factors or combinations of factors are enabling or inhibiting the success of environmental stewardship. The framework that we provide can aid in the systematic analysis of how contextual factors, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and the various elements of local capacity or institutions influence the stewardship choices of actors and their respective effectiveness.

The application of this framework across a suite of research case study sites would enable comparison across sites and the scaling up of insights to develop more generalizable insights or lessons learned to guide future initiatives. Theoretically, there is a need for continued research on and testing of hypotheses around many of the elements of the stewardship framework.

The global scale of many current environmental issues might lead to the perception that targeting local environmental stewardship could no longer meet these challenges. However, environmental stewardship is one way through which people get involved in promoting sustainability. This paper addresses a gap in the literature by articulating a definition and presenting an integrative analytical framework that encompasses important elements of local environmental stewardship.

The framework is applicable to different social and ecological contexts. A common language for the elements of stewardship is proposed to stimulate further engagement while helping to build a more robust body of academic research and theory on environmental stewardship. This more comprehensive understanding and analytical framework for environmental stewardship will also provide important practical insights into how to design and promote more meaningful and effective environmental policies and programs.

All authors acknowledge the support of their respective academic institutions. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Environmental Management. Environ Manage. Published online Jan Nathan J. Bennett , 1, 2, 3 Tara S. Allison 2. Tara S. Edward H. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Bennett, Email: ac. Corresponding author. Received Jul 10; Accepted Dec This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Abstract There has been increasing attention to and investment in local environmental stewardship in conservation and environmental management policies and programs globally. Introduction The need to promote improved human-environment interactions through stewardship is ever pressing, which applies to terrestrial, marine, aquatic, and aerial environments in both rural and urban environments Millenium Ecosystem Assessment ; Allsopp et al.

Open in a separate window. Actors: Individuals, Groups or Networks of Stewards Stewardship actions are carried out by stewards—which can be individuals, groups, or networks of actors Svendsen and Campbell ; Wolf et al.

Table 1 Categories of assets that provide capacity to enable local environmental stewardship. Motivations: The Rationale and Will for Stewardship Even when adequate capacity is present, some individuals or groups choose to steward resources while some do not. Table 2 Categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for engaging in environmental stewardship. Types of motivations Definition Sub-categories of motivations for environmental stewardship Intrinsic motivations Intrinsic motivations are associated with actions that are expected to bring personal pleasure or satisfaction Alignment with underlying ethics, morals, values, and beliefs Psychological needs for self-determination or self-actualization Extrinsic motivations Extrinsic motivations are associated with the expected achievement of separable outcomes Perceived balance of direct costs and benefits of stewarding natural resources External rewards or sanctions, including economic, social, physical or legal.

Stewardship Actions: Protection, Care or Sustainable Use Taking action is the central focus of any discussion of environmental stewardship. The Social—Ecological Context of Stewardship We define social—ecological context as the broader set of social, cultural, economic, political and biophysical factors occurring beyond the local system of study. The Outcomes of Stewardship Stewardship is for naught if it is not producing desirable ecological and social outcomes.

A Definition and Analytical Framework for Environmental Stewardship In sum, we bring these various elements together in an integrative conceptual framework for environmental stewardship Fig.

Table 3 Definitions of key concepts related to environmental stewardship. Elements of stewardship Definitions Stewardship actions The approaches, activities, behaviors, and technologies applied to protect, restore or sustainably use the environment.

Stewardship actions can occur at different scales, can address issues that are more or less complex, and are taken by different actors or groups based on their characteristics, motivations, and capacities Actors or stewards The different individuals or configurations of stewards across scales of organization who are driving stewardship initiatives. Actors have different actual and desired rights, roles, and responsibilities.

Actor characteristics may influence willingness, motivations, and ability to participate in stewardship Motivations for stewardship The intrinsic or extrinsic incentive structures or reasons that people take action to care for the environment. Intrinsic motivations are associated with actions that are expected to bring personal pleasure or satisfaction, through a alignment with ethics, morals, values, and beliefs or b the achievement of psychological needs for self-determination and self-actualization.

Extrinsic motivations are associated with the expected achievement of separable outcomes including a the perceived direct costs and benefits of stewarding resources and b externally provided rewards or sanctions. The capacity of actors to take stewardship actions is enabled or constrained by local assets and broader governance factors. Local assets that support stewardship capacity can include social, financial, physical, cultural, political human, and institutional capital.

Broader governance—including institutions i. The nature of change, including complexity, scale, speed, type, and severity, occurring can challenge local stewardship capacity Outcomes of stewardship The ecological and social impacts of stewardship actions.

The outcomes of stewardship can be intended or unintended, produce synergies or trade-offs, be desirable or undesirable, and have differential costs and benefits for distinct groups Stewardship interventions The policies, programs or market mechanisms that different organizations and actors—including governments, NGOs, interest groups, and local communities—promote and implement with the intention of enabling or developing environmental stewardship Leverage points for stewardship The specific levers or points where different local or external organizations and actors might intervene to produce change in the stewardship of a system in order to facilitate desirable ecological and social outcomes.

Leverage points can include introducing new actors, providing incentives, augmenting capacity or governance, promoting certain actions, or monitoring outcomes to facilitate adaptive management. Supporting and Researching Local Environmental Stewardship Having set out a framework, we now briefly examine how different organizations might use it to guide interventions aiming to support or promote local stewardship and also how it might be applied in future research efforts.

Interventions and Leverage Points for Stewardship Different organizations—including governments, NGOs, and the private sector—and individuals often attempt to develop or support pre-existing environmental stewardship efforts by local people. Future Applications of the Stewardship Framework The analytical framework that we provide here might be applied to future research that seeks to: a descriptively assess the elements of stewardship in case studies in different contexts, b guide decision-making and the design of environmental stewardship initiatives or interventions, c evaluate the effectiveness of local initiatives or external interventions that seek to promote stewardship, and d delve more deeply into questions related to specific aspects of stewardship to provide crucial theoretical and practical insights.

Prescriptive analysis to aid design and decision-making By strengthening environmental stewardship, it is hoped that communities will be able to foster a virtuous circle of improved environmental management and social welfare.

Evaluating the effectiveness of local stewardship initiatives, external interventions, and associated leverage points The effectiveness of local stewardship can be improved through monitoring and evaluation, either by scientists or through participatory processes Driscoll et al. Further research to develop theoretical or practical insights Finally, the framework that we have provided here might serve as a guide for more systematic analysis to develop practical insights or targeted theoretical inquiries into the individual elements and their relation to overall environmental stewardship.

Conclusion The global scale of many current environmental issues might lead to the perception that targeting local environmental stewardship could no longer meet these challenges. Compliance with Ethical Standards Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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