Stewardship
Stewardship refers to our responsibility to manage and protect the land
and its natural heritage
(Brown & Mitchell, 1998), and involves nourishing something for someone
else: for society, nature, a God, or future generations (Worrell &
Appleby, 2000). Stewardship is therefore essentially different from
traditional management methods, given that the latter are more focused
on efficiency and profitability, while stewardship is more acting for a
benevolent purpose, as a moral duty or responsibility. It is based on
the premise that “pro-organizational, collectivistic behaviours have
higher utility than individualistic, self-serving behaviour” (Davis,
Schoorman, & Donaldson, 1997). Stewardship also refers to shaping
pathways towards ecological resilience, especially in the context of
social-ecological systems such as farming systems (Chapin et al., 2011;
Kofinas & Chapin, 2009); as such building further on elements of
resilience thinking.
In the PIP approach stewardship is stimulated by creating awareness
about changes in natural resources and our own role, inducing the
responsibility in stakeholders to protect and conserve land, water and
vegetation. This is closely related to awareness about environmental
values, such as prevention of pollution, protection of the environment,
respect for the earth and unity with nature; also referred to as
biospheric values (Steg, Perlaviciute, Van der Werff, & Lurvink, 2014).
However, stewardship is only valuable when translated into concrete
actions. Hence, in the PIP approach, during a series of workshops where
farmers exchange knowledge and experiences and receive on-demand
trainings, stewardship is further strengthened with capacity building on
good practices related to land and farm management and use of the
commons.