image: The new Open Access journal Earth Stewardship publishes interdisciplinary scholarship addressing the major socio-environmental challenges of our time.
Credit: Ecological Society of America/Tone Bjordam
January 30, 2025
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison Mize, (202) 833-8773, alison@esa.org
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is proud to announce the launch of its newest journal, Earth Stewardship. This Open Access publication is dedicated to fostering a broad, intercultural and participatory foundation for Earth stewardship, integrating applied and theoretical research to address the complex socio-environmental challenges of the Anthropocene.
“Earth Stewardship represents a bold step forward for the scientific community,” says ESA Executive Director Catherine O’Riordan. “By bridging diverse knowledge systems — from natural and social sciences to Indigenous and practitioner perspectives — this journal embodies ESA’s commitment to promoting meaningful collaboration and actionable scholarship. We are proud to launch a journal that exemplifies our values and amplifies voices from all corners of the globe.”
The launch of Earth Stewardship builds on ESA’s longstanding leadership in sustainability and conservation initiatives. Rooted in efforts from the 1960s and 1970s, and strengthened by collaborations in the 2010s, the journal provides a transdisciplinary platform for addressing global challenges at multiple scales. It highlights innovative research, biocultural conservation approaches and community-based initiatives, cultivating partnerships across academia, policy-making, Indigenous communities and the arts.
Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Earth Stewardship’s first Editor-in-Chief, emphasizes the journal’s unique role: “This new journal’s mission is to promote action-oriented research from a theoretical, conceptual and empirical perspective, while co-generating solution-oriented, socially robust and policy-relevant knowledge. Earth Stewardship invites contributions that inform integrative pathways of sustainable development and transformation aimed at creating an environmentally, socially and ethically just Planet Earth.”
A singular feature of Earth Stewardship is its commitment to multiple forms of expression. The journal requests that authors provide one to three translations of their article abstracts in languages relevant to the research or the region where the study was conducted. In addition to traditional academic articles, the journal also accepts submissions of art and poetry, embracing creative formats to communicate the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.
In that vein, to celebrate the journal’s inauguration, a special virtual collection compiles articles and other content highlighting the “heart model of social change,” a concept beautifully illustrated on the journals’ cover. Key contributions to the virtual collection include an interview with the cover art’s creator, Norwegian visual artist Tone Bjordam, and a perspective article proposing a transformative “heart model” of Earth stewardship that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and academic culture change.
Earth Stewardship invites submissions from a diverse range of fields, including natural and social sciences, humanities, arts, conservation and Indigenous knowledge. The journal’s open access format ensures that its groundbreaking content is accessible to all.
By promoting action-oriented, inclusive research, Earth Stewardship seeks to inspire both individual and collective efforts to reshape our relationship with the environment and, ultimately, transform our planet. As Editor-in-Chief Huber-Sannwald explains, “this journal will serve as a global voice for diverse research and perspectives, linking and transforming our understanding of how we think and act.”
Journal contents, as of January 2025:
Editorial
By Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald (journal Editor-in-Chief)
OASIS: On art–science in symbiosis
By Tone Bjordam & Marten Scheffer
A heart model of Earth Stewardship
By Marten Scheffer, John M. Anderies, Tone Bjordam, Johan Bollen, Stephen R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin III, Carl Folke, Francisco Gazitua, Milena Holmgren, Jorge Marcone, Steve Polasky, Elke Weber & Frances Westley
Field notes from a sandbox: Learning wild patience with wild bees
By Eve Bratman
Monitoring of black oak (xánthiip) to center indigenous ecocultural revitalization
By Jessie Thoreson, Kathy McCovey, Colleen Rossier, Frank K. Lake, Reem Hajjar, Chook-Chook Hillman, Arielle Halpern, Bill Tripp & Meg Krawchuk
Ethical principles for ecology and environmental ethics: What ecology can learn about applied ethics from biomedical ethics
By Elizabeth Spike & Jeffrey P. Spike
Transformative Earth stewardship: Principles for shaping a sustainable future for nature and society
By F. Stuart Chapin III
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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org
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Journal
Earth Stewardship