Earth Stewardship: An Initiative by the Ecological Society of America to Foster Engagement to Sustain Planet Earth - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 174

NRC 1999 ), whose goal is to “promote human well-being while conserving the life
support systems of the planet” (Clark and Levin 2010 ). In 2004, ESA initiated a
Sustainability Science Award to recognize authors who have made the greatest con-
tribution to sustainability science through the integration of ecological and social
sciences.
ESA's Earth Stewardship Initiative developed over several years refl ecting the
commitment of several ESA presidents and a broad spectrum of ESA members
(Chapin et al. 2011 ; Power and Chapin 2009 ). Most signifi cantly, the Earth
Stewardship Initiative coincided with increased engagement and commitment to
action by ESA's student section, one of the society's largest sections, clearly indicat-
ing the desire of the next generation of ecologists to address important environmen-
tal challenges. The Earth Stewardship Initiative builds upon the research agendas of
the SBI and sustainability science with an emphasis on applying this understanding
to help shape a more sustainable pathway for Earth as a social-ecological system.
There are numerous ways to shape pathways of change toward a more sustainable
future, including building the science as advocated by SBI and the Ecological
Visions Committee, engaging the public and practitioners, communicating more
effectively with the public and with policy makers, and conducting research that
explicitly includes efforts to shape a more sustainable future. Box 12.1 illustrates
some of these approaches, and the following sections describe ESA's efforts to
engage ecologists and a broader range of scientists and practitioners in meeting the
needs for a more sustainable future of our planet.
Box 12.1: Examples of Stewardship Applications
SEEDS Campus BioBlitz Campaign
BioBlitz is a community engagement exercise developed by ESA's Applied
Ecology Section to acquaint local residents with the biodiversity in their
neighborhoods. It is a quick comprehensive inventory of local biodiversity
that typically requires both professional scientists with ecological and taxo-
nomic expertise and resident volunteers to search for and collect local species
of fl ora and fauna. It has been an effective approach to engagement and com-
munication between ESA members and underserved communities in cities
where ESA holds its annual meetings (Fig. 12.1 ). ESA's Strategies for Ecology
Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS) Program expanded the use
of BioBlitzes by organizing BioBlitzes in communities associated with local
campus chapters, using an informational document they developed. SEEDS
students fi nd that a BioBlitz helps raise community awareness of the diversity
of living organisms in their neighborhood and the ecosystem services they
provide. Goals of the BioBlitz program include promoting environmental pro-
grams on campuses and their surrounding communities, engaging volunteers
in citizen science, providing a vehicle for both informal and formal environ-
mental education, creation of databases of local species, and stimulating
political awareness about biodiversity and environmental degradation.