ABSTRACT
This chapter examines stewardship as a foundation for resource management arrangements that connect natural resource use with landscape ecological limits and the social wellbeing of communities. It evaluates catchment or watershed management approaches in four case studies: Canterbury Region, New Zealand, Lucerne Midland Lakes Region, Switzerland, Anglian Region, England, and The Abrinord Watershed, Québec, Canada, that define stewardship expectations regarding resource user rights and interests. The concept of stewardship accountability has been developed in earlier research on the liability of natural resource users for environmental harm; particularly in relation to farming as a sector responsible for natural resource use decision-making across substantial areas of catchments or watersheds. Sustainable catchment or watershed management is a strategic process applied to help achieve behavioural change in the exercise of access and use rights over natural resources. Stewardship accountability as a conceptual model provides a basis for transforming strategic planning arrangements into effective change in resource use.
