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areas not only are necessary for conservation aims, but they also contribute critically
to human well-being and social justice in the Anthropocene.
Flavio Berchez and collaborators support ICUN's argument with experiences in
South American Marine Protected Areas (MPA), where MPAs are essential for
protecting biodiversity, informing policy making, managing coastal fi sheries, and
supporting ecological education and scientifi c tourism programs.
5
Berchez et al.
indicate that to achieve these goals in MPAs it is imperative to include not only
scientists, but also policy makers, teachers, and importantly, graduate students, a
point that coincides with the perspective that Chapin et al. have for the ESA Earth
Stewardship Initiative. However, socio-ecological problems are complex. Based on
their experience in political sciences and global climate change in Brazil, Eduardo
Viola and Larissa Basso underscore this complexity, and identify plutocratic regimes
as a central problem: “economic sectors have excessive infl uence over governmen-
tal decision-making and the political system.” A governance and ethical shift toward
a low carbon economy and consciousness is required.
To achieve a change in global consciousness, religions are playing a major role.
Uruguayan theologian Guillermo Kerber explains the Climate Initiative of the World
Council of Churches, which brings together most of the Christian communities in
more than 110 countries. Additionally, the Climate Initiative is an inter-faith effort
including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. Kerber explains that the con-
cept of Earth stewardship is at the core of religious messages.
6
These affi rm that
humans are not owners of the Earth, but rather care-takers of the Earth. This idea is
shared by groups of Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who have come together to
address the challenges of Global Climate Change. The role of religions in Earth
Stewardship is further introduced by US theologian Mary Evelyn Tucker. She identi-
fi es six core values that are widely shared by religious traditions:
reverence
,
respect
,
restraint
,
redistribution
,
responsibility
, and
renewal
. These values were adopted by
the Earth Charter initiative of the United Nations, matching them with six corre-
sponding components for human-Earth fl ourishing:
cosmological context
,
ecological
integrity
,
social equity
,
economic justice
,
democracy
, and
non-violence and peace
.
Dorothy Stang (1931-2005), a US Roman Catholic religious who in 1966 went
to the Amazon, is portrayed by Roy May within a tradition of the Latin American
5
The South American Marine Protected Areas framework is similar to the one developed in the US
National Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOOA) created in 2001. NOOA's MPA Center defi nes marine stewardship as
“careful and responsible management to ensure goals and objectives are being achieved for the
benefi t of current and future generations.” The MPA Center focuses its objectives on enhancing
MPA stewardship by strengthening capacity for planning, management and evaluation. (
http://
6
Since the recognition of the environmental crisis in the 1960s, Earth Stewardship has been a pri-
mary metaphor among Christian churches that have been concerned with sustainability and the
wellbeing of life in the planet (see Ball et al.
1992
; Northcott
1996
; Hessel and Ruether
2000
). A
majority of Christian theologians, as well as lay thinkers have been supportive of a stewardship
environmental ethic (see Berry
1981
; Attfi eld
1983
; Callicott
1994
; Rasmussen
1996
; Petrie
2000
).
However, some criticize the concept of stewardship as being anthropocentric and hierarchic (see
Palmer
1992
).
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