Socio-Ecological Studies in Urban and Rural Ecosystems in Chile - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 291

Keywords Capacity building ￿ Conservation in farmlands ￿ Earth stewardship
￿ Mediterranean ecosystem ￿ Social inequity ￿ Sustainable urban planning
A novel framework for Earth Stewardship as a means of engaging science and
society to reduce the rates of anthropogenic damage to the biosphere has been
proposed by the Ecological Society of America (ESA) (Power and Chapin 2009 ;
Chapin et al. 2011 ). In our era of the Anthropocene (Crutzen 2002 ), the integration
of social and ecological dimensions of ecosystems is essential to advance towards
Earth stewardship. However, in order to truly embrace “Earth Stewardship” as a
planetary phenomenon, researchers associated with the Chilean Long Term Socio-
Ecological Research (LTSER-Chile) network have highlighted the urgent need to
integrate a wide variety of heterogeneous ecosystems and cultures, and overcome
the bias of information centered in Northern Hemisphere sites (Rozzi et al. 2012 ).
To address these needs, the recently created LTSER-Chile has added a new biome
(South American Temperate Forests) to the International LTER network, and also
has introduced the methodological approach of fi eld environmental philosophy
(FEP) (Rozzi et al. 2012 ). FEP's methodological approach which integrates
ecological sciences and environmental ethics into biocultural conservation, thereby
contributing to the implementation of Earth stewardship (Aguirre Sala, in this
volume [ Chap. 15 ] ).
LTSER-Chile is a valuable initiative, however it does not include the Chilean
territory under the strongest anthropogenic infl uence, and where most of the popu-
lation lives and relies economically: agricultural lands and the cities. The Chilean
population is markedly urban (> 87 %, MINVU 2014 ), concentrated in cities that
occupy only 0.23 % Chile's continental land. The Chilean Economy relies on natu-
ral resources: mining, fi shing and agricultural industries account for approximate
25.8 % GDP (Banco Central 2012 ). This context raises two major challenges for the
Chilean LTSER: to reach the urban population, and to engage the economic sector,
both private and public. Private sectors have been incorporated into conservation
partnerships worldwide, through approaches such as corporate social responsibility
strategies (Tang and Li 2009 ). 1
In this chapter we present two innovative projects that can contribute to both the
LTSER-Chile network and the international Earth stewardship initiative: urban
planning in the city of Valdivia in southern Chile, and the development of sustain-
able winery in central Chile. Both projects are funded by national scientifi c research
funding agencies, demonstrating an emergent recognition by the Chilean govern-
ment of the importance of addressing urban ecosystems, and engaging in partner-
ships with the private sector. We discuss how a socio-ecological approach might
essential to advance towards ecosystem stewardship.
1 The concept of integrating corporate social responsibility into conservation projects, and some
specifi c cases, have raised a strong controversy (see MacDonald 2010 ).