Stewardship practices enhance nature’s contributions to people
: Mattalia, Giulia; McAlvay, Alex; Reyes-García, Victoria; Asfaw, Zemede; Ban, Natalie C; Caviedes, Julián; De Meyer, Emiel; Díaz, Sandra; Franco, F Merlin; Ibarra, José Tomás; Loayza, Gabriela; Loring, Philip A; Lukawiecki, Jessica; Montúfar, Rommel; Moola, Faisal; Ojeda, Jaime; Schunko, Christoph; Uprety, Yadav; Wall, Jeffrey; Zafra-Calvo, Noelia; Teixidor-Toneu, Irene
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
: 2026
Bioscience
: biag047
: 76
: 6
: 491
: 500
: 0006-3568
: 1525-3244
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biag047
: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biag047
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.
biodiversity conservation, Ecosystem management, Kunming-Montreal biodiversity framework
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G.M. acknowledges funding from the Margarita Salas grant MGSC2022-13; SD Red Federal de Alto Impacto CONATURAR (CONVE2023-102072649-APN-MCT), Argentina, and the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, UK. J.T.I. and J.C. thank ANID/FONDECYT Regular 1240070, CIIR (ANID/FONDAP/15110006), CAPES (ANID PIA/BASAL AFB240003), and CHIC (ANID PIA/BASAL PFB210018). N.C.B. was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the University of Victoria. Y.U. received support from the UGC-IOST start-up grant at Tribhuvan University. V.R-G. has received support from the ICTA-UAB “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CEX2024-001506-M funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). I.T-T. has received financial support from the IRD ANR-CPJ contract number 402299/00 and from the French government under the France 2030 investment plan, as part of the Initiative d’Excellence d’Aix-Marseille Université—A*MIDEX (AMX-22-CPJ-05).
