Stewardship practices enhance nature’s contributions to people
Abstract Humans shape landscapes through the management of organisms and ecosystems, either degrading or sustaining biodiversity. Despite their essential role in sustaining biodiversity, stewardship practices have been overlooked by conventional conservation research and action. To improve understanding of biophysical stewardship practices, we propose a classificatory framework and illustrate it by applying it to cultural keystone species (CKS), which are rich in examples due to their high value to people. We identified 19 types of biophysical stewardship practices with impacts across ecological levels. Through a review of CKS literature, we identified 343 reports of biophysical stewardship practices directed toward almost 1000 CKS and 1652 reports of nature’s contributions to people associated with these species. Integrating stewardship practices into biodiversity conservation frameworks would facilitate consideration of both biodiversity and its stewards. Strengthening Indigenous, local, and other place-based stewardship practices within scientific and policy settings could contribute to more effective and inclusive conservation.
Institutions
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- The Nature Conservancy (US)
- Tribhuvan University (NP)
- University of Turku (FI)
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
- Turku University of Applied Sciences (FI)
- Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (AR)
- Turku Centre for Computer Science (FI)
- Universiti Brunei Darussalam (BN)
- Université d'Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse (FR)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- New York Botanical Garden (US)
- State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (DE)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (EC)
- Basque Centre for Climate Change (ES)
- Center of Applied Ecology & Sustainability (CL)
- Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (AR)
- Community Partners (US)
- Addis Ababa University (ET)
- Universidad de Magallanes (CL)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- University of Guelph (CA)
- BOKU University (AT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BioScience
- Published
- 2026-05-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biag047
- Primary Topic
- Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- University of Victoria
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
- Northern Ireland Connected Health Innovation Centre
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- China University of Labor Relations
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico