Money, soils and stewardship-creating a more fruitful relationship?

Abstract

<p>This paper examines the complicated linkages between money, soils, and ethical land stewardship. Law and policy reform is important, but the many impediments to voluntary soil stewardship that exist must be dealt with. To expect that people will do things that are not financially feasible for them is to invite failure.</p><p> The paper focuses on the economic capacity of volunteers to 'do the right thing'. It initially uses a "coupled systems" framework to examine the ecological, social and institutional system that must be managed to achieve soils sustainability. The paper then considers the role of money, including in voluntary stewardship. Finally, the paper considers how to address the financial impediments to voluntarism, and possible policies to make land stewardship more feasible, efficient and equitable.</p><p> We discuss "soil" as a unit, "soil systems" when considering soil's components, and "terrestrial systems" when considering the surrounding landscape or biological system. We canvass some unique aspects of soils that are challenging for governance and management. We also consider 'socio-ecological' and 'social-ecological-economic' systems to help us understand human interactions with the biophysical world. These system perspectives show that soils governance also interacts with the governance of agriculture, biodiversity and other relevant topics.</p><p> The discussion draws on theory, international examples, and Australian evidence. Systems thinking involves observation to identify patterns to explain the dynamic relationships between the components of what is being studied (e.g. machines, nature, soils or society). We apologise to readers who may find this approach daunting, but some complexity is inevitable.</p>