Environmental stewardship covers a broad range of activities undertaken by groups, individuals and organizations that support nature. The term can be used to describe strict conservation of the environment or active restoration efforts. It is practiced locally and internationally in rural and urban regions. There are numerous studies on this topic. However most of them focus on a single part of the many elements that can help or impact environmental management. These include ethics, motivations and capacity as well as networks, institutions and context. 2013; Silbernagel et al. 2015).
The first step in environmental stewardship is to take direct actions of stewardship such as planting trees or removing invasive species safeguarding waterways, or limiting recreation in wilderness areas. These actions may also involve teaching others about the importance of environmental issues as well as encouraging civic action such as writing letters or petitions to legislators or choosing candidates who support eco-friendly policies.
Environmental stewardship can bring positive social effects and ecological ones that include restoring ecosystems that have been damaged. These include economic, cultural and governance benefits. For example, when purchasing products from a local farmer’s market or a community-supported agriculture program consumers are engaged in environmental stewardship by assisting the production of sustainable food and reducing the need for semi-trucks to transport goods across the country (Breslow et al. 2016). In some instances some instances, the results of stewardship could be counterproductive. In indigenous communities that rely on the harvesting of megafauna in order to preserve their culture and livelihoods (Clarke 1999), a conservation approach that does not allow any take could be incompatible with their overall social-ecological view.