Humans depend on earth’s ecosystems and in the Anthropocene, ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities. Sustainability—the long-term integrity of social–ecological systems—depends on effective environmental stewardship, yet current conceptual frameworks often lack empirical validation and are limited in their ability to show progress towards sustainability goals. In this study we examine institutional and local stewardship actions and their ecological and social outcomes along 7000 km of Australia’s coastline. We use empirical mixed methods and grounded theory to show that the combination of local and institutional stewardship leads to improved ecological outcomes, which in turn enhance social values and motivate further stewardship to form a virtuous cycle. Virtuous cycles may proceed over multiple iterations, which we represent in a new spiral model enabling visualisation of progress towards sustainability goals over time. Our study has important implications for collaborative earth stewardship and the role of policy in enabling virtuous cycles to ultimately realise sustainable futures.

人类依赖地球的生态系统，在人类世，生态系统越来越受到人类活动的影响。可持续性——社会生态系统的长期完整性——取决于有效的环境管理，但当前的概念框架往往缺乏实证验证，并且在展示可持续目标进展方面的能力有限。在这项研究中，我们研究了澳大利亚 7000 公里海岸线上的机构和地方管理行动及其生态和社会成果。我们使用经验混合方法和扎根理论表明，地方和机构管理的结合会导致生态结果的改善，进而提升社会价值并激励进一步的管理以形成良性循环。良性循环可能会经过多次迭代，我们在一个新的螺旋模型中表示，随着时间的推移，实现可持续发展目标的进展可视化。我们的研究对协作地球管理以及政策在促进良性循环最终实现可持续未来方面的作用具有重要意义。