Land stewardship
A custody agreement is a voluntary mechanism —formally written and legally binding—
between a landowner or manager and custodian to agree on how to conserve and manage a site
CWR management on public and private land may take place in the form of land stewardship. Land stewardship is a set of strategies and tools that aim at involving owners and land users in conservation and makes good use of natural, cultural and landscape resources. Agreements and mechanisms for ongoing collaboration between owners, custodians and other public and private actors are therefore made.
An example of such an agreement used for wild celery genetic reserves in Germany is available.
Who are the custodians?
Custodians are public or private non-profit organizations or individuals actively involved in conservation. In the case of in situ CWR conservation, the custodians may be technical staff of the public administration that operate at the local level, such as forest or wildlife rangers or a conservation organization. In cases where the owner is very actively involved with the management of the land, such as with farmers, the management can directly be performed by the owner / farmer. Involvement of private landowners in conservation activities and development of land stewardships is also supported by international initiatives such as the International Land Conservation Network and the Eurosite–European Land Conservation Network.