Environmental Stewardship describes an individual’s actions to preserve, restore and/or sustainably use natural resources. These actions can be undertaken at a variety of levels, from local to global, in rural and urban contexts. 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. Alternatively, extrinsic rewards and sanctions, such as financial incentives, market premiums fines, or losing access to markets are a way to encourage stewardship behaviors.

Despite its widespread use as an expression for conservation, the idea of environmental stewardship also entails an understanding that is more comprehensive of the connection between humans and nature. It is based on a belief that all humans are connected with the natural environment and should treat it with care. This kind of stewardship includes concepts like sustainable livelihoods, adaptive comanagement, and social-ecological system. These concepts can provide a comprehensive basis for thinking about the role humans play in managing natural resources.

Abstracts that are primarily related to stewardship are coded under Action (76 percent), indicating that environmental stewardship is a major role in reaching environmental stewardship 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.