Biodiversity Stewardship Research Articles

Discerning the state of the art in Italy of voluntary disclosure on biodiversity and endemic species

PurposeThis study aims to examine the extent and quality of biodiversity reporting within publicly traded companies in Italy during 2022, amidst growing calls worldwide for enhanced corporate environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThe study proposes a framework derived from existing biodiversity reporting literature and international guidelines on the topic. Using data from companies’ non-financial reports, the voluntary biodiversity disclosure index is quantified on disclosed information. Various quality reporting characteristics are also deepened. Sector-specific analysis is conducted across 11 industries.FindingsApproximately 30% of companies in the sample release information on their biodiversity practices/initiatives regarding biodiversity and extinction loss risks. Quantitative analysis reveals a general commitment to disclosure yet falls short of optimal standards. Qualitative insights suggest a genuine intention towards reporting exists, with notable gaps in future orientation, double materiality and mitigation strategies. The quality analysis underscores that the reporting is mainly generalised, narrative and disaggregated concerning actions to restore habitats and ecosystems.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this study is the observation of annual reports during one reporting period. Future studies of longer duration would provide cross-period insights into corporate behaviour.Practical implicationsPolicymakers should implement regulations and guidelines specifically tailored to biodiversity reporting, providing clear frameworks and standards for companies. Collaborative initiatives between governments, businesses and environmental organisations offer potential to develop best practices and facilitate knowledge-sharing in biodiversity reporting.Social implicationsCollaborative initiatives between governments, businesses and environmental organisations offer potential to develop best practices and facilitate knowledge sharing in biodiversity reporting.Originality/valueThe study contributes to future biodiversity disclosure research by introducing a comprehensive framework that fosters stakeholder trust and environmental accountability. It also sheds light on biodiversity stewardship among Italian companies, under EU directives.

Using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis to prioritize invasive plant treatment: A creative solution for a pernicious problem

Invasive plant infestations are projected to rapidly increase with continued habitat fragmentation and climate change. The rate of spread often outpaces land managers’ ability to effectively detect and control infestations. Land stewards need tools that can match the rapid pace and scale of invasive infestations and help prioritize control efforts in the most ecologically important areas and optimize resource allocation. It is imperative that proposed control be informed by the best available ecological information. We present a spatially explicit modeling framework for prioritizing invasive plant treatment. In our case study from Michigan, we employ a multicriteria decision analysis model that synthesizes four critical factors for prioritizing invasive plant stewardship: integrity, biodiversity, resilience, and ecosystem services. Data for quantifying these factors were compiled from several state, federal, university, and non-governmental data sources. The model uses a geographic information system (GIS) to identify places that are impacted by invasive plant infestations that threaten to degrade ecosystem composition, structure, and function; are characterized by high ecosystem integrity; support high biodiversity; are resilient to disturbance; and provide ecosystem services. While specific to Michigan, our modeling framework is broadly applicable. This type of integrated analysis can help inform decisions about allocation of limited resources for numerous biodiversity stewardship and landscape-level conservation planning needs, regardless of geographic location.

Learning biodiversity care in everyday life: teacher education in contrasting biocultural contexts

Earth’s biodiversity decline poses critical biocultural challenges, including food sovereignty and climate change adaptation. Teacher education can play a pivotal role in addressing biodiversity care. This study explores how preservice teachers learn about biodiversity care in teacher education programs, focusing on local biocultural contexts to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education pertinent to local communities. Conducted across three diverse Education Faculties in Chile, qualitative methods such as questionnaires, syllabi analysis, and interviews were employed. Findings reveal that preservice teachers primarily acquire biodiversity knowledge through natural sciences courses, albeit with variations across Faculties. The study highlights the importance of situated perception in connecting biodiversity education to the everyday experiences of preservice teachers. It also underscores the ethical and political dimensions of biodiversity education, including participation, interdependence, social commitment, and integration into daily life. Recommendations include fostering collective responsibility, contextualizing teaching methods, incorporating hands-on projects, and modeling responsible biodiversity stewardship in teacher education.

Prickly Connections: Sociodemographic Factors Shaping Attitudes, Perception and Biological Knowledge about the European Hedgehog

The modern lifestyle of humans is leading to a limited exposure to nature. While several wild species are adapting and thriving in anthropic environments, natural history knowledge is declining, and positive attitudes and behaviours towards nature are facing challenges. Because anticipating attitudes and engendering broad-based support for nature-related measures requires a good grasp of social contexts, we set out to evaluate the sociodemographic factors driving the perception, attitudes towards, and natural history knowledge of a keystone species—the European hedgehog. In 2022, we conducted a questionnaire answered by 324 Portuguese adults. We found generally positive feelings and attitudes towards this species. A higher degree of academic qualifications and previous personal experience with the species seem to play a role in (i) people’s perception about human impacts on hedgehogs and (ii) positive attitudes, especially during encounters where the animals were in difficulty. Despite this, the extent of natural history knowledge was low overall, and the study population was self-aware of this. Our insights underline the need to tailor educational programmes if we are to encourage people to re-establish meaningful connections with nature, to foster social support for biodiversity stewardship, and to implement the One Health approach in a way that resonates with distinct social groups.

Towards richer knowledge partnerships between ecology and ethnoecology

Indigenous and traditional practices based on ethnoecological knowledge are fundamental to biodiversity stewardship and sustainable use. Knowledge partnerships between Indigenous Peoples, traditional local communities, and ecologists can produce richer and fairer understandings of nature. We identify key topical areas where such collaborations can positively transform science, policy, and practice.

Developing a new technology for demonstrating environmental sustainability in the Australian grassfed beef industry

Meeting the increasing consumer and market expectations for sustainably produced beef requires measurement and demonstration of the producers’ sustainability practices. Typically, demonstration of sustainable production relies on time consuming and costly on-ground audits. Online tools using combinations of remotely sensed data and other information sources could offer a cost-effective alternative. However, there are also concerns about the merits and risks of such tools. This paper presents a case of the development process of an online platform for Australian beef producers to demonstrate their sustainable production practices, connected with learning opportunities for continual improvement of their sustainability performance. The project is led by an innovative cross-sectoral collaboration of beef industry, non-government organisation and university partners. Our approach combines producer and market perspectives; focusing on the “value proposition” of the proposed technology for producers, and value chains’ priorities in sustainability markets and in having the ability to demonstrate sustainability in a cost-effective manner. The development process adopted co-design at three levels: (1) the “Consortium” of project partners (2) collaborative co-design through small online groups with producers and value chain representatives; and (3) consultative co-design through producer testing of the platform as it is built by software developers. The design process focused on five themes: tree cover, ground cover, biodiversity stewardship, carbon balance, and drought resilience. We present the main platform design characteristics sought by the co-design groups, and the indicators and measures they considered important for each of the five themes. We then discuss a set of key issues and their implications for technology development, according to a framework expressing interactions between people and their properties, processes and technology. This case shows the importance of taking a “demand-led” rather than a “supply-driven” approach, for the best possible fit of new technology to its users. Since co-design is more often consultative than treating users as equals or leaders in a technology design process, our case highlights the desirability of a fully collaborative approach to co-design.

Plant communities and veld condition of Glencoe farm in the North-Eastern Cape Grasslands Priority areas, South Africa

Privately owned properties declared as protected areas through Biodiversity Stewardship Programme (BSP) increase South Africa's priority biodiversity areas. The North-Eastern Cape grasslands, recognised as high biodiversity areas, are crucial for conserving the Grassland Biome. BSP plays a key role in effectively managing these vital vegetation types, securing and preserving threatened species. This study aimed to describe the vegetation and to determine the condition of Glencoe farm, located within the Eastern Cape Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area and planning domain for the Eastern Cape Protected Area Expansion Strategy priority areas. The Braun-Blanquet method was employed to classify the plant communities. Two major communities consisting of three subcommunities and four variants were classified. Fifty-nine sample plots were surveyed and 156 plant species dominated by herbaceous species (137), and only 19 woody species were recorded. The area has high species diversity (Shannon Diversity Index: H’ = 2.272) that is evenly distributed (EH = 0.987). The Ecological Index Method (EIM) results indicated a moderate veld condition score of 49%. The area is dominated by Increaser II species (52%) followed by Increaser I (16%) species. These findings have broader implications for stakeholders managing privately owned properties designated as protected areas through the BSP in South Africa. The North-Eastern Cape grasslands, recognized for their significant biodiversity, require safeguarding to preserve the Grassland Biome. Effective management of these critical vegetation types is essential for securing and conserving threatened ecosystems, thereby protecting South Africa's priority biodiversity areas.

Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures, Biodiversity Stewardship and Statutory Intervention – A South African Perspective

Area-based approaches are a central component of global efforts to conserve biodiversity. While the focus of many countries has been mainly on protected areas, other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMS) have been accorded global recognition in the past decade as a vital complementary approach to protected areas. This recognition has been reemphasised in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, with its Target 3 ratchetting up area-based coverage targets to 30 per cent by 2030. A growing focus and reliance on OECMs to contribute towards achieving this target is anticipated. The international community has in the past few years introduced some guidance to identify, secure, manage, monitor and verify the anticipated long-term biodiversity conservation outcomes of OECMs. Some commentators have argued for domestic legal intervention to complement this general international guidance. The South African Government has recognised the potential contribution of OECMs towards the achievement of domestic and global area-based biodiversity targets in its National Protected Areas Expansion Strategy (2018) but has alluded to the need for legal intervention to ensure that they achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in situ conservation of biodiversity. Some domestic commentators have highlighted the strong link between biodiversity stewardship (particularly conservation areas) and OECMs, advocating that these conservation areas should form the priority focus of domestic efforts to identify OECMs. This article scopes this potential link and specifically considers whether the current domestic legal and policy framework applicable to these conservation areas is sufficiently robust to ensure that only appropriate areas are identified as OECMs and that once recognised, they are governed and effectively managed in the long term. It highlights several frailties of the existing framework and drawing from anticipated legal reform in the Western Cape relating to biodiversity stewardship, it proposes a possible model for future national legislation regulating OECMs.

Collaborative Adaptive Stewardship for Invasive Alien Plants Management in South Africa

This study examined the knowledge of Collaborative Adaptive Stewardship (CASt) to advance Invasive Alien Plants (IAPs) management in South Africa. This concept promotes the involvement of private landowners and other stakeholders in the management and action processes, hence promoting social inclusivity, job creation, and sustainable biodiversity stewardship. It demonstrates that landowners are major stakeholders in IAPs management, thereby practising biodiversity stewardship in the 80% of privately owned lands of the country. The involvement of landowners in the management process aids in the prevention of further expansion of IAPs, the mitigation of risks (such as fire and flooding), and the maintenance of ecosystem functionality and landscape-scale connectivity. CASt fosters synergy among many stakeholders for the management of IAPs and long-term sustainable biodiversity stewardship. In South Africa, a number of landowners have entered into stewardship agreements as a result of incentives and subsidies for IAPs management. The benefits should be contingent on private landowner actions to IAPs management; this will support biodiversity stewardship. This study serves as a foundation for collaborative IAPs management and will be crucial in achieving long-term sustainability goals (e.g., economy, society and environment) to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Net gain: Low‐cost, trawl‐associated eDNA samplers upscale ecological assessment of marine demersal communities

AbstractMarine biodiversity stewardship requires costly and time‐consuming capture‐based monitoring techniques, which limit our understanding of the distribution and status of marine populations. Here, we reconstruct catch and demersal community composition in a set of 24 fishing sites in the central Tyrrhenian Sea by gathering environmental DNA (eDNA) aboard commercial bottom‐trawl fishing vessels. We collected genetic material from two sources: the water draining from the net after the end of hauling operations (“slush”), and custom‐made rolls of gauze tied to a hollow perforated sphere placed inside the fishing net (“metaprobe”). Species inventories were generated using a combination of fish‐specific (Tele02 12S) and universal metazoan (COI) molecular markers. DNA metabarcoding data recovered over 90% of the caught taxa and accurately reconstructed the overall structure of the assemblages of the examined sites, reflecting expected differences linked to major drivers of community structure in Mediterranean demersal ecosystems, such as depth, distance from the coast, and fishing effort. eDNA also returned a “biodiversity bonus” mostly consisting of pelagic species not catchable by bottom trawl but present in the surrounding environment. Overall, the “metaprobe” gauzes showed a greater biodiversity detection power as compared to “slush” water, both qualitatively and quantitatively, strengthening the idea that these low‐cost sampling devices can play a major role in upscaling the gathering of data on both catch composition and the broader ecological characteristics of marine communities sustaining trawling activities. This approach has the potential to drastically expand the reach of ecological monitoring, whereby fishing vessels operating across the oceans may serve as opportunistic scientific platforms to increase the strength and granularity of marine biodiversity data.

Reframing governance possibilities for urban biodiversity conservation through systemic co‐inquiry

AbstractDespite decades of effort, biodiversity has not attracted effective political discourse, policies, or action to halt its decline. In cities in particular, biodiversity conservation is challenged by short‐term approaches, separately focusing on biodiversity or community well‐being rather than on their interconnection, and pervasive beliefs that urban citizenry lack the requisite ethic or skills for conservation action or biodiversity governance. We describe how a systemic co‐inquiry in Victoria Australia, conducted by citizen and agency practitioners alongside policy developers and academic researchers, modified understandings, practices, and institutional arrangements (governance) for urban biodiversity conservation. The most impactful outcomes of the early co‐inquiry period were (1) start‐up funding for a network to forge collaborations between community and local government actors that engage urban residents in supporting indigenous biodiversity in their gardens, and (2) empowered co‐inquiry members driving the network's development. These efforts have led to on‐going social learning and long‐term institutional arrangements for a burgeoning network of municipally based nature stewardship collaborations that are nurturing local human–nature relations. Key challenges include(d): maintaining the co‐inquiry, paradigms that undervalue urban biodiversity and the role of citizens, organizational inertia, and evaluation measures incommensurate with strengthening person‐nature relationships. Our research shows how systemic co‐inquiry involving citizen practitioners can surface misleading assumptions around biodiversity stewardship and governance, and help to empower citizen and agency actors to focus on nurturing sustainable human‐nature relations in cities.

What are the links between tree‐based farming and dietary quality for rural households? A review of emerging evidence in low‐ and middle‐income countries

Abstract In most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), conventional agricultural policy promotes specialized production systems of carbohydrate‐rich crops to address hunger and food insecurity. For rural populations, however, increased landscape uniformity can reduce both agrobiodiversity and wild biodiversity, which can contribute to diet uniformity. Although maintaining diversity in and around agricultural systems is far from a new approach, there is growing empirical attention on the contribution of trees on/around farms to dietary quality. While recent research suggests that forests can contribute to improved diets, there is only emerging evidence on how incorporating trees into farming systems not only benefits nature but also positively affects the diets of rural households. This review synthesizes the existing empirical research on the linkages between different types of tree‐based farming systems and indicators of dietary quality in LMICs. The objective is to build a foundation for future research that supports sustainable production systems with dual benefits for people and the natural environment. The small, yet heterogeneous literature pool (n = 36 studies) reflects the high variance in how trees on/around farms are examined across cultural and geographical contexts. Our analysis identifies three major outcomes: (a) managing tree‐based farming systems for both direct provision of wild and cultivated foods, as well as income used to purchase foods, may give households more strategies for dietary diversification and improve dietary quality; (b) the relationship between different tree‐based farming systems and dietary quality is moderated by socio‐economic and biophysical factors at the national, landscape and household levels; and (c) indigenous populations engaged in traditional forms of subsistence‐oriented tree‐based farming seem to maintain high levels of dietary diversity, indicating the importance of local knowledge and biodiversity stewardship to maintain these food sources in the face of commercial agricultural expansion. Our synthesis of existing evidence highlights a need for a more nuanced understanding of how different types of tree‐based farming systems contribute to dietary quality. Combining research methods from the domains of agriculture, forestry and nutrition can lead to more precise measurement of tree‐based farming/diet linkages, and in doing so, support programs promoting increased landscape and dietary diversity in LMICs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

A framework for catalysing the rapid scaling of urban biodiversity stewardship programs

Despite growing interest in promoting urban biodiversity conservation, there are few concrete examples of how nature stewardship initiatives can be rapidly scaled, in number and across landscapes. This paper explores the factors that promote or inhibit the proliferation and impact of collaborations between citizens and their local governments that involve residents in municipal biodiversity conservation efforts in their gardens (wildlife gardening). We studied the Gardens for Wildlife Victoria network in Australia, which supports citizen-agency co-development of municipal wildlife gardening programs. In three years the network has expanded from one program to 39 initiatives in various developmental stages in 49% of the local government areas in the state of Victoria. Data are drawn from 21 semi-structured interviews of network participants running or developing programs in 12 municipalities, complemented by a survey of 33 network participants, and participants' evaluation of network workshops. We find that scaling occurs in four different domains of policy, values, locales and participants. Scaling is influenced by six interlinked factors: empowerment of actors; a civil-agency co-design and delivery model; conservation framing; links to and between landscapes and communities; resources – particularly time; and the network's role in promoting innovation and shared learning. Key barriers include short-term, top-down, and monetary agency foci; conservation framed as the principal domain of specialists and professionals; and prioritisation of listed species rather than local species more broadly. We present a framework for considering scaling of biodiversity stewardship and related factors.

Combining high-resolution remotely sensed data with local and Indigenous Knowledge to model the landscape suitability of culturally modified trees: biocultural stewardship in Kitasoo/Xai’xais Territory

Environmental management and monitoring must reconcile social and cultural objectives with biodiversity stewardship to overcome political barriers to conservation. Suitability modelling offers a powerful tool for such “biocultural” approaches, but examples remain rare. Led by the Stewardship Authority of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in coastal British Columbia, Canada, we developed a locally informed suitability model for a key biocultural indicator, culturally modified trees (CMTs). CMTs are trees bearing evidence of past cultural use that are valued as tangible markers of Indigenous heritage and protected under provincial law. Using a spatial multi-criteria evaluation framework to predict CMT suitability, we developed two cultural predictor variables informed by Kitasoo/Xai’xais cultural expertise and ethnographic data in addition to six biophysical variables derived from LiDAR and photo interpretation data. Both cultural predictor variables were highly influential in our model, revealing that proximity to known habitation sites and accessibility to harvesters (by canoe and foot) more strongly influenced suitability for CMTs compared with site-level conditions. Applying our model to commercial forestry governance, we found that high CMT suitability areas are 51% greater inside the timber harvesting land base than outside. This work highlights how locally led suitability modelling can improve the social and evidentiary dimensions of environmental management.

Meaning and practice of stewardship in South Africa

Stewardship offers a means of addressing social-ecological sustainability challenges, from the local to the global level. The concept of stewardship has had various meanings attached to it over time, and the links between the theory and practice of stewardship are not well understood. We sought to characterise the practice of stewardship in South Africa, to better understand the relationship between theory and practice. We found that practitioners’ understandings of stewardship coalesce around two core notions: the idea of stewardship as ‘responsible use and care’ of nature, and stewardship as a ‘balancing act’ between stewards’ use of natural resources for agricultural production and their responsibility to protect and manage the wider ecosystem. Stewardship practice in South Africa is strongly influenced by the biodiversity stewardship tool; however, many practitioners are integrating biodiversity stewardship with other approaches. These emerging social-ecological stewardship initiatives operate at landscape-level and work towards integrated social and ecological stewardship outcomes, by facilitating collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Further research is needed to better understand what is required to support these integrated, collaborative and cross-sectoral initiatives. Policy mechanisms that facilitate integrated place-based stewardship practice can contribute to expanding the practice of biodiversity stewardship in South Africa.
 Significance:
 
 Our findings contribute to a growing understanding of what stewardship looks like in South Africa and how it is put into practice.
 We show that biodiversity stewardship is a prevalent understanding of stewardship practice in South Africa and is often combined with other approaches for sustainable landscape management.
 A broader understanding of stewardship, for example through the concept of social-ecological stewardship, can enable more integrated, collaborative approaches to landscape management, addressing the wide range of environmental and social development challenges faced in rural landscapes across South Africa.

Privately protected areas and biodiversity stewardship in South Africa: Challenges and opportunties for implementation agencies

Privately protected areas and biodiversity stewardship in South Africa: Challenges and opportunties for implementation agencies

Locating financial incentives among diverse motivations for long-term private land conservation

A variety of policy instruments are used to promote the conservation of biodiversity on private land. These instruments are often employed in unison to encourage land stewardship beneficial for biodiversity across a broad range of program types, but questions remain about which instruments are the appropriate tools when seeking long-term change to land-management practice. Drawing on three case studies, two in Australia and one in South Africa, spanning various program types—a biodiverse carbon planting scheme, a covenanting program, and a voluntary stewardship program—we investigate the importance of financial incentives and other mechanisms from the landholder’s perspective. From participant interviews we find that landholders have preconceived notions of stewardship ethics. Motivations to enroll into a private land conservation program are not necessarily what drives ongoing participation, and continued delivery of multiple mechanisms will likely ensure long-term landholder engagement. Financial incentives are beneficial in lowering uptake costs to landholders but building landholder capacity, management assistance, linking participants to a network of conservation landholders, and recognition of conservation efforts may be more successful in fostering long-term biodiversity stewardship. Furthermore, we argue that diverse, multiple instrument approaches are needed to provide the flexibility required for dynamic, adaptive policy responses. We raise a number of key considerations for conservation organizations regarding the appropriate mix of financial and nonfinancial components of their programs to address long-term conservation objectives.

Training a New Generation for Careers in Wildlife Management in Ethiopia

This article describes the start-up of a new interdisciplinary Master’s program in Wildlife Management at Arba Minch University (AMU), Ethiopia. The need, salient features, review of curriculum, and stakeholders of the program are examined. The human dimensions of wildlife management have been given its due with an aim to get biodiversity stewardship on a firm footing in the country. The program, aims to link young graduates to regional stakeholders on conservation perspectives through courses such as Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Economics and Entrepreneurship and Biodiversity Conservation. The scope of wildlife tourism in Ethiopia has been highlighted in the program. The survey results of stakeholder representatives found good prospects for the sustainability of the MSc program in wildlife management provided stakeholder coordination and community participation in the program are diligently ensured. In conclusion, the Master’s program in wildlife management is interdisciplinary, job-oriented and intended to prepare a new generation for placements with the government, NGOs and private sector in order to contribute to wildlife management and biodiversity stewardship in Ethiopia

Broader view of stewardship to achieve conservation and sustainability goals in South Africa

Stewardship is a popular term for the principles and actions aimed at improving sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems at various scales and in different contexts. Participation in stewardship is voluntary, and is based on values of altruism and long-term benefits. At a global scale, ‘earth stewardship’ is viewed as a successor to earlier natural resource management systems. However, in South Africa, stewardship is narrowly applied to biodiversity conservation agreements on private land. Using a broader definition of stewardship, we identify all potentially related schemes that may contribute to sustainability and conservation outcomes. Stewardship schemes and actors are represented as a social network and placed in a simple typology based on objectives, mechanisms of action and operational scales. The predominant type was biodiversity stewardship programmes. The main actors were environmental non-governmental organisations participating in prominent bioregional landscape partnerships, together acting as important ‘bridging organisations’ within local stewardship networks. This bridging enables a high degree of collaboration between non-governmental and governmental bodies, especially provincial conservation agencies via mutual projects and conservation objectives. An unintended consequence may be that management accountability is relinquished or neglected by government because of inadequate implementation capacity. Other stewardship types, such as market-based and landscape initiatives, complemented primarily biodiversity ones, as part of national spatial conservation priorities. Not all schemes related to biodiversity, especially those involving common pool resources, markets and supply chains. Despite an apparent narrow biodiversity focus, there is evidence of diversification of scope to include more civic and community-level stewardship activities, in line with the earth stewardship metaphor.

Temperate indigenous grassland gains in South Africa: lessons being learned in a developing country

The fragile state of temperate indigenous grasslands globally has galvanised action in the form of the Temperate Grasslands Conservation Initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas. However, despite this initiative raising the profile of temperate grassland conservation on the global conservation agenda, one still requires country-based interventions at the hands of local conservation authorities, in collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to improve protection levels on the ground. To this end we report on progress made with temperate indigenous grassland conservation in South Africa since 2006, a landmark heralding the birth of biodiversity stewardship in our temperate grassland biome. Since then an additional 124,983 ha of temperate grassland have been brought under formal protection with a further 96,641 ha in the declaration process, most of which should be secured by the end of 2014. We also discuss the driving forces underpinning these gains - namely the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, the Grasslands Programme of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, provincial biodiversity stewardship units and funding channelled through the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund into civil society to augment the state’s contribution. Given the clear benefits derived from each intervention, we encourage other relevant countries with temperate indigenous grasslands to develop similar structures in the quest to safeguard representative, viable samples of one of the world’s great terrestrial biomes.