Networking for land stewardship
Promoting land stewardship cannot be a solo effort, so social and institutional alliances and partnerships are essential to develop a strong network of people and organisations promoting land stewardship.
The numbers and variety of stakeholders engaged in stewardship is one of the strengths of this approach to conservation. Through strong and effective partnerships, many actors, facilitators and enablers join their voices to make the entire system stronger. All these stakeholders can be put together under an umbrella organisation, specifically land stewardship networks, which evolve in most regions where stewardship becomes a stable and valued strategy.
A special feature of land stewardship networks is that they may be formed by more than one kind of organisation. While most umbrella organisations are formed by members sharing a similar profile, land stewardship networks bring together stewardship organisations, public administrations, landowners and the full array of stakeholders that interact in land stewardship, for a common goal.
The functions of a land stewardship network
Recommendations to be considered by land stewardship networks (at national or regional level)
The following guidelines may be useful for land stewardship networks aiming to promote land stewardship in their region or country:
- Get acquainted with land stewardship strategies developed in other parts of Europe, and try to share and to learn from their experience (see website map experiences);
- Organise debates, congresses, meetings, and exchanges that create momentum and nurture the drive for a joint stewardship vision;
- Involve the most relevant parties (as many and diverse as possible) into the land stewardship project;
- Set a plan to involve government and public agencies into the land stewardship network strategy;
- Gather information on stewardship organisations and local stewardship practices in some sort of national or regional databases so that sharing experiences is made easier.
Read more about networking for land stewardship in the online Land Stewardship Manual.
