Relationship with the land as a foundation for ecosystem stewardship

Abstract

We examined the hypothesis that adapting to ecosystem change on working landscapes can be enhanced by supporting the place‐based stewardship values of landowners. On the basis of responses to a survey of more than 500 landowners across a landscape dominated by working lands, we clustered landowners into five groups based on their sense of place meanings. Relationships with the land are differentiated by the degree to which an owner’s land makes positive contributions to well‐being and the degree to which the land supports livelihoods. Positive contributions to well‐being are related to stronger stewardship‐oriented management styles, yet a combination of well‐being and livelihood dependence is most closely related to increased sensitivity to ecosystem transformation. In a social–ecological system dominated by private lands, understanding an individual's relationship with the land is central to understanding adaptive capacity and for identifying policy options to successfully respond to ecological transformation.