Environmental www.mountaincountryfarm.com/what-is-environmental-stewardship Stewardship is a term used to describe the describes an individual’s or a group’s actions to preserve, restore and/or sustainably use natural resources. These actions can be taken on a variety of scales, from local to global, both in rural and urban settings. Stewardship-supporting activities can include educational programs, social marketing campaigns, and payments for ecosystem services (PES) that aim to promote intrinsic motivations by creating a connection with nature, or changing people’s ethics, values or beliefs. Rewards or sanctions that are extrinsic such as financial incentives can also be used to inspire to stewardship behaviors.
Despite the fact that it is commonly used as an expression for conservation, the idea of environmental stewardship also involves an understanding of the connection between humans and the natural world. It is based on the notion that all human beings are interconnected to the natural environment and therefore must treat it with care. This type of stewardship embraces concepts such as sustainable livelihoods, social-ecological systems, and adaptive co-management that can provide a more comprehensive perspective on the role of people in managing natural resources.
The majority of stewardship-related abstracts are coded under Action with 76%, indicating that environmental stewardship is a crucial part of getting the desired ecological and social outcomes. Of the remaining abstracts, the smallest proportion is coded under Outcome with only 1%, suggesting that interventions that target outcomes tend to be at broader eco-regional and/or national-international scales, and not on the individual level.