Land Stewardship
Land stewardship is a set of strategies and instruments that aim to involve landowners and users in the conservation and good use of natural, cultural and landscape values and resources.
It builds on the social fabric to improve the state of biodiversity and ecosystems. Its great potential is the direct involvement of people and civil society to conserve and restore nature.
“Conversation for conservation”
It brings together administrations, non-profit organisations, landowners, owners/title holders, universities and other institutions. It does so on a voluntary basics, which makes it even more valuable.
It is gaining more and more strength, and more owners, landowners, entities and agents are promoting agreements and collaboration mechanisms to achieve a positive environmental, cultural, economic and social impact on their territory.
Nature conservation on private land is a priority for biodiversity conservation in Europe. Land stewardship in Spain has become a genuine and constantly growing tool to achieve this objective, not only in private areas but also on public land..
Key elements
A stewardship agreement is a voluntary procedure between a landowner and a land stewardship entity to agree on how to conserve and manage land. The agreement can be verbal or written.
Land stewardship entities are public or private non-profit organisations that actively participate in land conservation through land stewardship techniques. Organisations as diverse as a neighbourhood association, a conservation organisation, a foundation, a city council, a consortium, and other types of public bodies can act as land stewardship entities.
Stewardship networks are organisations that articulate the entities of an autonomous community to develop a stewardship model that fits their own social, cultural, and natural reality, taking into account the particularities of their territory. They promote this conservation tool and support stewardship organisations in the development and improvement of their activity.
For more information, you can consult theland stewardship glossary. In the Resources section you will find publications, reports, and materials to learn more about this conservation tool.