meaning and practice of stewardship in South Africa

Abstract

Stewardship offers a means of addressing social-ecological sustainability challenges, from the local to the global level. The concept of stewardship has had various meanings attached to it over time, and the links between the theory and practice of stewardship are not well understood. We sought to characterise the practice of stewardship in South Africa, to better understand the relationship between theory and practice. We found that practitioners’ understandings of stewardship coalesce around two core notions: the idea of stewardship as ‘responsible use and care’ of nature, and stewardship as a ‘balancing act’ between stewards’ use of natural resources for agricultural production and their responsibility to protect and manage the wider ecosystem. Stewardship practice in South Africa is strongly influenced by the biodiversity stewardship tool; however, many practitioners are integrating biodiversity stewardship with other approaches. These emerging social-ecological stewardship initiatives operate at landscape-level and work towards integrated social and ecological stewardship outcomes, by facilitating collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Further research is needed to better understand what is required to support these integrated, collaborative and cross-sectoral initiatives. Policy mechanisms that facilitate integrated place-based stewardship practice can contribute to expanding the practice of biodiversity stewardship in South Africa. Significance: Our findings contribute to a growing understanding of what stewardship looks like in South Africa and how it is put into practice. We show that biodiversity stewardship is a prevalent understanding of stewardship practice in South Africa and is often combined with other approaches for sustainable landscape management. A broader understanding of stewardship, for example through the concept of social-ecological stewardship, can enable more integrated, collaborative approaches to landscape management, addressing the wide range of environmental and social development challenges faced in rural landscapes across South Africa.

Acknowledging Indigenous and Local Knowledge to Facilitate Collaboration in Landscape Approaches—Lessons from a Systematic Review

“…Since it is crucial to mobilize all available knowledge [21], engagements that facilitate the expression of multiple forms of knowledge are encouraged. We urge future studies to consider creative ways of fostering dialogues and collecting stories that help provide a more relational picture of the landscape and its residents [78].…”

Collaborative stewardship in multifunctional landscapes: toward relational, pluralistic approaches

“…The notion of stewardship has recently received renewed attention in response to rising concerns about social-ecological sustainability challenges (Folke et al 2016). This is evidenced in the rapid growth in work conceptualizing stewardship (Bennett et al 2018, Mathevet et al 2018, Peçanha Enqvist et al 2018 especially in the social-ecological systems and resilience literature, in which stewardship is framed as a necessary response of humanity in an era of rapid environmental change (Chapin et al 2009, Cockburn et al 2019a. Emerging from this literature is a growing recognition that, although planetary-level stewardship is certainly needed (Steffen et al 2011), supporting local place-based stewardship activities is as critical (Balvanera et al 2017).…”

“…Multifunctional landscapes provide a suitable place-based unit for addressing complex sustainability concerns including stewardship (Cockburn et al 2018(Cockburn et al , 2019a. Multifunctional landscapes are landscapes that provide a diversity of ecosystem functions or services that underpin social and economic functioning for a range of beneficiaries or landscape stakeholders (Minang et al 2014a).…”

Assessing environmental initiatives through an ecosystem stewardship lens

“…Although "stewardship" is a key concept for sustainability (Cockburn et al 2018(Cockburn et al , 2019, better links between theory and practice and more experimentation, and active learning about Local agricultural production and craftwork should be fostered and socially valued as part of rural livelihoods. Nowadays few people grow produce locally, and there are people interested in learning how to do it.…”