This chapter claims that we are living in a time of opportunity, as conservation stewardship evolves from a historical emphasis on objectives dealing with efficiency, development of material resources, and preservation of selected wildlands, to an emphasis on objectives more closely tied to public amenity, quality of life, social equity, and civil society. There is also a concurrent devolution of centralized decision making, led by government, to a more pluralistic, community-based process, driven by private or multi-sector initiatives.
